The Book of Matthew in our Bibles tells us that there are two gates, one is very narrow and one is broad. Which one are you traveling on? It feels like the whole country of America Is going full speed heading for the broad gate. Yet there are some people walking steadily toward the narrow one. But we must not even mention Jesus in our conversations. We are told to say “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas. We surely can’t pray in school, or read the Bible in  public.

Yet, we follow those who tell us those things. Are we afraid? Our Bibles contain rules too, don’t forget. Instead of those silly sayings there are other rules people in Congress have made which we should fight against. We should fight against killing our babies. I’m sure God doesn’t like that! We should fight against homosexual marriage, in fact, our Bibles states God says he is against homosexuality in the first place. We should use his name in praise, not the  way you hear it on the streets!

If we keep our mouths shut about these things we are walking to the broad gate and God says many will go in through that gate. If we stand up against these things we are walking towards the narrow gate and God says few are them that find it. It’s hard to find the people who will stand up but they are around. It’s only that they are silent. It is time to make ourselves known. And that goes for me too. Let’s fight, shall we?

It’s a tough old world, isn’t it? We always hear people on our television say, “You must stand up,” so we stand up and we wonder what does it mean? We can’t do it all, and when we try to bring some food to the homeless folk, we are told the food has bacteria in it or some other scary thing! And when we bring some tracts telling them about Jesus we are trying to push them into our religion, so we give up. We try to help, but everything we do is wrong.

An auctioneer once stood up to ask for bids on an old, battered violin. “One dollar, three dollars, who will give me four?” No one answered him. An old man,sitting in the back of the room, got up and walked down to where the auctioneer was holding the old violin.

”’I plan to show you that music does not come from the shape of the instrument but from the soul.’ He picked up the violin and began to play. Beautiful music began to flow from that old violin. When he finished playing, the auctioneer said again, “What will you give for this violin?’  A man said.” One thousand!” A woman quickly called out,”two thousand.” and the fight for the old violin, which turned out to be a Stradivarius violin was on.

Maybe we should turn everything over to God. He made everything you see, so he will see that everything turns out just the way he wanted it to be. If he tells you to do something, just do it.

Acts 16, in our Bibles, tells us that one day Paul and Silas were thrown into prison after being beaten with rods. About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God. The other prisoners were listening too. Yes, they were singing praises to God even though they were beaten and were now in prison just for preaching about Jesus. Did God hear them? Oh yes, he tore down the prison bars so everyone could get out! Only  Paul and  Silas didn’t move, nor did the other prisoners! They waited until someone came to see what had happened. These were just two men, but if everyone gave praise to God, he will take care of all the work that needs to be done in our country today.

Why don’t we try that? If there is just a few of us he will fix all of our troubles and all we have to do is praise and sing to him.