The Middle Ground

Over the past year, I have struggled with certain aspects of my belief's and character.
Not struggle in a bad way but in a way to understand what it is I truly do believe.
Sometimes I have found myself challenged by things I have read and things I have heard others proclaim to be truth.
There are a lot of voices out there who have a lot of new ideas about who God is and what His purpose is here on good ol' planet earth.
The easy way would be to reject all the voices that make me look at God and His plans in a different light than I currently have. But would I miss something that God may be trying to show me?
The other way would be to openly accept everything that was being said and become led astray into new areas that He doesn't intend for me to occupy.
There has to be a middle ground here in all of this.
There is.
I spent time in prayer this morning asking God to show me what it is I need to know.
He led me to A passage in Galatians.

Galatians 4:4-7
But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who call out, "Abba, Father." SO you are no longer a slave but a son. And since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.

My first allegiance beyond anyone and anything is to God.....
God the Father....
God the Son.....
God the Holy Spirit.....
My life is to be lived under the mandates and directives of the Kingdom of God.
His call supersedes the call of any government, any ruler, any ruling group that speaks contrary to God's precepts.

God sent his Son to be born under the law.
Being under the law brought the penalty of death because of mankind's inability to keep even one portion of the law.
Jesus, being free from sin, even though born under the Law, became the substitutionary sacrifice for humanity that broke the power of 2nd death for the sin of the world.
My acceptance of Jesus as Lord and the confession and belief that my sins are forgiven and I am made in right standing with God, puts me in the place of living for his kingdom and not any kingdom found in this world.

I have chosen to live in Attalla, Alabama.
I am under the laws of the city of Attalla, the state of Alabama and the United States (collectively) of America.
I am grateful to be born in this country. It has afforded me freedoms and privileges that are not found in other nations. But these freedoms and rights do not supersede the decrees of God and His kingdom.
I am not to confuse the two ( God and America) nor think of them as one and the same.
America exists only because God raised it up as a nation to be light and salt to the rest of the world. Like Israel, we too have gone astray to chase after the gods of other nations.

Deuteronomy 32:28-29 sounds like it was written for such a nation as us and for such a time as this.
"They are a nation without sense. There is no discernment in them. If only they were wise and would understand this and discern what their end will be!"

I pray for my country and for the leaders that have been chosen to occupy the halls of our government.
There is a voice that is higher than a nations.
There is an understanding that is broader and more developed than the school's and universities.
There is a way that seems right to man, but its end is death.
May God shake us and awaken us to the truth.
We have rejected him.
We have rejected his truth
and have pursued after the gods of pleasure and want.
Save us O' God.

mb