The 2 Sides of Man

“What fools are they who, for a drop of pleasure, drink a sea of wrath.”

—Thomas Watson

 

     Within each man that God created He placed a wild spirit that desires to run loose and conquer the world. We each dream dreams of greatness and conquest. Even as little boys, we would run around mimicking our 'Heros'. Whether they were good or bad depended upon each child's desire for greatness...for example, as a child, I remember "wanting to be Billy the Kid or Jesse James!" Wow, those were outlaws. Yet, we were taught they were the Greatest at robbing banks and nobody was faster than Billy the Kid with a gun! We even fought over who got to play which of the bad boys. We were taught to idolize greatness no matter where it came from. Give me a stick and I was John Wayne on a beach in Normandy or any number of other Soldiers to include SGT York. Yet, mostly we were always playing the bad guys, why? We wanted that wild freedom that they exemplified to a child's imagination. To the child, we did not understand the truth of who these individuals were.

     As adults we understand the reality of Billy the Kid and Jesse James. Both lawless men who murdered innocent people or took things that did not belong to them. Billy was a stone cold killer. And living by the sword, he also died by the sword. He chose to get pleasure from causing others to fear him and if they did not; they died. Jesse chose to rob people of their hard earned monies in order to live better than others who were actually working and struggling for a living. This is a life of evil and a reckless pursuit of the wild spirit within each man. So where am I going with this?

     Well an old Indian proverb is that within each man there lives 2 wolves trying to get out, one evil and one good. The one who gets out, or is seen by others, is the one that we feed the most. Our society is filled with individuals feeding the dark wolf. As a representation of our society the political elite exemplify this to the extreme. They no longer listen to their constituents and the public. Instead they only look at how to line their pockets with stolen loot like Jesse James. They lie and steal and take what does not belong to them in the name of 'making things fair for all'. They feel no regret and remorse for their actions, because their conscious has already been seered to where they no longer hear the Good Wolf speaking. We complain about their attitudes and lack of control, but We The People do nothing to correct these outlaws who are taking that which does not belong to them in order to feed those hungry Dark Wolfs of greed, lust, desire, gluttony, and all manner of other evil. But why would we? They are a small sample of our own society which has been going down the same path for years.

     So what? Why change when no one really wants to change things anyway? Why should I change if no one else is going to join me? The truth is this, we are past the point of changing and avoiding retribution. We The People stood silently by and allowed these new values to become the norm and so have sown the seeds of retribution just as those who are actually guilty of these sins. We are guilty of supporting them as they lied and cheated and stole our nation, turning it into a nation of thieves and murders. Therefore we exemplify the message in Proverbs 11:16, "A kindhearted woman gains respect, but ruthless men gain only wealth." We are not respected by our neighbors within our own country and the other nations no longer respect nor fear us. We The People are considered weak and unable to stand up to the harshness of others, even a small group like terrorists can conquer us because we are a lazy and uncommitted people. We do not even have the stomach to see a conflict through to the end. If you doubt me, turn back and read about Vietnam again and now in Iraq and soon to be Afghanistan. We claim victory in word, but we are only fooling ourselves as the peoples of  the world watch us turn tail when the cost of victory is 'too high' to pay. Really? What price was originally paid for Victory? What price did our forefathers place upon Liberty and Freedom? Which among them would be proud today of the way we allow our great nation to tuck tail due to a lack of true understanding? God did not give us a Spirit of Fear. He gave to us a Spirit of Freedom. Yet, we hide behind the first part of that verse and say that we are 'kindhearted'...again I ask, Really? Living in fear is not what that verse refers to. It is talking about giving to the needy or standing up for others when they are not able to. We The People have turned that proverb into a statement that kills our Spirit of Freedom. We hide behind it because we are afraid to pay the price of that Freedom and so do not deserve it.

     I have witnessed my brothers laying down their swords and refusing to stand because of the Word. God says He is a God of love so we must love like He did. I have even seen brothers who use Matthew 5-46-48 as an excuse to not fight, "If you love only the people that love you, then you will get no reward. Even the tax collectors do that. And if you are nice only to your friends, then you are no better than other people. Even the people without God are nice to their friends. So you must be perfect, the same as your Father in heaven is perfect." (ERV) I cannot determine for them what is right and what is wrong but before you tell me that God is only a God of love then explain to me the God of the Israelites in the Old Testament who demanded that ALL the peoples be slaughtered. Not just the men, God told them to kill the women and children as well. So before you tell me that I am totally out of line with this, please justify to me the genocide that occurred when the Israelites were to take their land of inheritance. This verse tells us to love others no matter their race or nationality, but it does not tell us to lay down our arms and not fight them for the Freedoms we were given by our Father in heaven. Where does it tell me that I cannot fight to protect my family? It doesn't, and in fact further on even Christ talks of laying down your life for another. Is that just in a peaceful society type situation or was he talking to all our struggles? I say that it was an example of why we went into Vietnam and Iraq. We may not have gone into those nations to only protect and free those peoples from tyranny and oppression but that was at least one of the reasons. Yet, we allowed others within our society to dictate our own level of commitment and determination to fulfill the freeing of those peoples. We The People of this land no longer want to work or fight so we are sheep that have been turned out into the wilds where the wolves are already coming for the feast.

     God no longer calls us Sons and Daughters...and why should He when we do not fight to keep Him in our country? The bible says, "Blessed are they whose ways are blameless, who walk according to the law of the LORD.—Psalm 119:1 (NIV) Yet, we have stopped walking in those paths. How can we walk in those paths when every day more and more of those pathways are removed from us by our own neighbors? They tell us to shut up and we tuck our tail like good little cowards because we do not have the stomach to fight for our own Freedoms. When will We The People understand that all these things that are occurring are due to our own fears and unwillingness to Stand up for God? When will we say, "ENOUGH! I am done living in fear of offending you and am going to live in fear of God? When will we men 'Stand and Show Ourselves The Men' for our Father? When will we decide enough is enough and we are going to blaze the path ahead on the Straight and Narrow, no matter what satan and his followers want? Only then can we say that we are Men of God.

     If we would only feed the correct wolf, the good one, then we could make a real difference in our communities, our states and in OUR nation. Then perhaps our Father would say again to us as He did to Israel so long ago, "And I will never again turn my face from them, for I will pour out my Spirit upon the people of Israel. I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken!"—Ezekiel 39:29 

     Then we could once again be the shining light to all the peoples of the world. A nation that others truly respected and evil men feared. A nation that our Father in heaven could live within and bless as a nation of His Children.