​I remember when I was in elementary school and how frequently there were certain kids in our class who would become loud.  These students were often referred to as "the troublemakers".  Our teacher decided on a very predictable punishment – no recess for everyone.   

Instead of getting to go outside to run and play, our teacher kept us ALL in the classroom, sitting at our desks. Mind you, it wasn't just the "troublemakers" or those who were fighting - EVERYONE was punished!

The loud and quiet alike, the rowdy and the calm. the students who completed every homework assignment and those who never completed an assignment  - we were all punished together.   

Perhaps you had a mom and dad who asked you as a kid in the household to do something very important and as usual things got out of control and it was not done.   So everyone was punished.  No desserts.  Go to bed early.  No recreation activity, etc. No going to grandma’s house.  Everyone was punished.
 
At this point, I would like you to stop reading at this post… and take a moment to open your Bibles and read Number chapter 14.  Yes, the entire chapter!  In this portion of scripture, you will read about: rebellion, Joshua and Caleb, God’s anger, intercession, punishment, death of the ten spies, and how Israel was defeated.

Now that you have read Number 14....you may almost feel as though you  were  back in elementary school.  What do I mean by that?  As you read that chapter think about "all" the children of Israel going back to the wilderness for 40 years rather than moving forward into Canaan, the Promised Land. Just think about Caleb and Joshua and their wives and children- they had been on God's team. They had valiantly stood up for the
Creator of the universe. They had claimed God's promises and even encouraged all the desert wanderers to trust God when they said, "Let us go forward".  But as seen in this scripture EVERYONE was punished. 

You may ask: What did Caleb and Joshua get in return for their faithfulness? Forty more years in the
wilderness!! I don't know about you, but that doesn't seem fair to me that the good ones getting hit with the consequences of the evil, rebellious ones. It didn't seem right at that time and it doesn't seem right today.

Do you ever feel like that when you see the good people suffering because of the bad behavior of the evil ones? 

We see it happening all over the world right now.  It is right in our faces today: innocent blood is shed by vindictive, evil, mean people who believe they are god. The wicked seem to be living on easy street, abusing their power as they take advantage of those who are unable to defend themselves.  Liars, abusers, people manipulating the word of God for their own advancements thinking they know better than everyone else.
 
The other night, I was watching a television program where a gentleman was discussing "usury," which he defined as the wealthy preying upon the poor by lending money at an exorbitant rate of interest. And while
this was not a religious discussion, he took great lengths to point out that the Bible and the Torah specifically forbid this abusive behavior. However, you'd never know "usury" was illegal if you listened to the evening news reports!
 
Everyday, you and I witness the morning sun shining down on the good and the evil. And when the soft drops of rain, fall from the heavens, they water the ground owned by the evil and good.   If you're like me, you might say to yourself, "It isn't fair!" If this is your response, you aren't alone, for many years ago, the Psalmist David struggled with the fact that everything seemed to go so well for the wicked. If you think you're alone in feeling it isn't fair for the good to suffer with the evil, take a few minutes today to read Psalm 73 (yes, more bible reading...don't worry, it won't hurt!).
 
David had reached the end of his rope! In blunt honesty he told God he was envious of the wicked. Here are a few of the advantages David told God he had witnessed when he took a look around him and saw how life appeared to be humming along without a ripple for evil people: "Their strength is firm. They are not in trouble. They are not plagued like other men. Their eyes stand out with fatness. They have more than a heart could wish. They speak loftily." And then, as if to underscore the absolute absurdity of the situation, David said, "Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in riches" (Psalm 73: 12, KJV). It's as if David is saying to God, "After giving you the description of people who have strength and no trouble and no problems and nothing to worry about and everything their hearts desire, did you think I was describing Your
children – Your sons and daughters, the 'obedient' ones? Well, I wasn't!” I want You to know, I was telling You about all the lousy, rotten, wickedly corrupt people who oppress Your children. These are the ones who say, 'God isn't watching us. God let's us get by with our abusive behavior!'"
 
David was so frustrated with the situation he went so far as to tell God, "Verily, I have cleansed my heart in vain" (Psalm 73: 13 KJV.). David felt as though doing right had been worthless. What's the reason to be good if the good only suffer while the wicked prosper?

It's a depressing look at the way things happen on planet earth, that is until you and I do what David did at the end of the Psalm.   In Psalm 73:17, we find David in God's sanctuary or as the Hebrew says, "Standing in God's chapel on holy ground." It was on holy ground before His heavenly Father that David saw the "end" of evil. And what he recognized was that God – his God – our God – was watching all along. Not only that, David found out, "Thou hast holden me by my right hand. Thou shalt guide me with Thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory" (Psalm 73: 23-24). And then David adds one more critical point we should not overlook. "For, lo, they that are far from Thee shall perish" (Psalm 73: 27). Then David, who was trying to walk in God's path, could go to His Father in the Holy place, unlike the wicked who were "far from Thee."

As John Newton so eloquently wrote it "God's people have no assurances that the dark experiences of life will be held at bay (for them), much less that God will provide some sort of running commentary on the meaning of each day's allotment of confusion, boredom, pain, or achievement. It is not great matter where we are, provided we see that the Lord has placed us there, and that He is with us."

Matthew 5:45 says: that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.

The question for each of us today is: do you believe that God is watching over us daily?  Do you know that He cares for each of us?   Yes, the sun shines on the good and the evil just as the rain falls on the good and
the evil.  BUT…..Keep your focus on Jesus, He is the One who laid down His life for you.  He is the One who will judge us, not men

(The following piece is commonly listed as anonymous although a Google search will uncover several who have attached their names as presumed authors. Regardless, it is a treatise of wisdom which I feel has value, and my praise and thanks go out to whomever wrote its sage lines to which I pray all will take heed.)

Men, like nations, think they’re eternal. What man in his 20s or 30s doesn’t believe, at least subconsciously, that he’ll live forever? In the springtime of youth, an endless summer beckons. As you pass 70, it’s harder to hide from reality.

Nations also have seasons: Imagine a Roman of the 2nd century contemplating an empire that stretched from Britain to the Near East, thinking: This will endure forever. Forever was about 500 years, give or take. France was pivotal in the 17th and 18th centuries; now the land of Charles Martel is on its way to becoming part of the Muslim Immamh’s.

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the sun never set on the British empire; now Albion exists in a perpetual twilight. Its 95-year-old sovereign is a fitting symbol for a nation in terminal decline.

In the 1980s, Japan seemed poised to buy the world. Business schools taught Japanese management techniques. Today, its birth rate is so low and its population aging so rapidly that an industry has sprung up to remove the remains of elderly Japanese who die alone.

I was born in 1949, almost at the midpoint of the 20th century, the American century. America’s prestige and influence were never greater. Thanks to the Greatest Generation, we won a World War fought throughout most of Europe, Asia and the Pacific. We reduced Germany to rubble and put the rising sun to bed. It set the stage for almost half a century of unprecedented prosperity. We stopped the spread of communism in Europe and Asia and fought international terrorism. We rebuilt our enemies and lavished foreign aid on much of the world. We built skyscrapers and rockets to the moon. We conquered Polio and now COVID. We explored the mysteries of the Universe and the wonders of DNA, the blueprint of life. But where is the glory that once was Rome? America has moved from a relatively free economy to socialism, which has worked so well NOWHERE in the world. We’ve gone from a republican government guided by a constitution to a regime of revolving elites. We have less freedom with each passing year. Like a signpost to the coming reign of terror, the cancel culture is everywhere. We’ve traded the American Revolution for the Cultural Revolution.

The pathetic creature in the White House is an empty vessel filled by his handlers. At the G-7 Summit, “Dr. Jill” had to lead him like a child. In 1961, when we were young and vigorous, our leader was too. Now a feeble nation is technically led by the oldest man to ever serve in the presidency. We can’t defend our borders, our history (including monuments to past greatness) or our streets. Our cities have become anarchist playgrounds. We are a nation of dependents, mendicants, and misplaced charity. Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegal aliens are put up in hotels.

The president of the United States can’t even quote the beginning of the Declaration of Independence (“You know, The Thing”) correctly. Ivy League graduates routinely fail history tests that 5th graders could pass a generation ago. Crime rates soar and we blame the 2nd Amendment and slash police budgets. Our culture is certifiably insane. Men who think they’re women. People who fight racism by seeking to convince members of one race that they’re inherently evil, and others that they are perpetual victims. A psychiatrist lecturing at Yale said she fantasizes about “unloading a revolver into the head of any white person”. We slaughter the unborn in the name of freedom, while our birth rate dips lower year by year. Our national debt is so high that we can no longer even pretend that we will repay it one day. It’s a $30-trillion monument to our improvidence and refusal to confront reality. Our “entertainment” is sadistic, nihilistic and as enduring as a candy bar wrapper thrown in the trash. Our music is noise that spans the spectrum from annoying to repulsive.

Patriotism is called insurrection, treason celebrated, and perversion sanctified. A man in blue gets less respect than a man in a dress. We’re asking soldiers to fight for a nation our leaders no longer believe in. How meekly most of us submitted to Fauci-ism (the regime of face masks, lock downs and hand sanitizers) shows the impending death of the American spirit.

How do nations slip from greatness to obscurity? Fighting endless wars, they can’t or won’t win. Massive debt far beyond their ability to repay. Refusing to guard their borders, allowing the nation to be inundated by an alien horde. Surrendering control of their cities to mob rule. Allowing indoctrination of the young. Moving from a republican form of government to an oligarchy. Losing national identity. Indulging indolence. Abandoning faith and family, the bulwarks of social order.

In America, every one of these symptoms is pronounced, indicating an advanced stage of the disease. Even if the cause seems hopeless, do we not have an obligation to those who sacrificed so much to give us what we had?

I’m surrounded by ghosts urging me on: the Union soldiers who held Cemetery Ridge at Gettysburg, the battered bastards of Bastogne, those who served in the cold hell of Korea, the guys who went to the jungles of Southeast Asia and came home to be reviled or neglected. This is the nation that took in my immigrant grandparents, whose uniform my father and most of my uncles wore in the Second World War. I don’t want to imagine a world without America, even though it becomes increasingly likely. During Britain’s darkest hour, when its professional army was trapped at Dunkirk and a German invasion seemed imminent, Churchill reminded his countrymen,

“Nations that go down fighting rise again, and those that surrender tamely are finished.” The same might be said of causes. If we let America slip through our fingers, if we lose without a fight, what will posterity say of us? While the prognosis is far from good, only God knows if America’s day in the sun is over.

                                                                                                                                    - Author: Anonymous