My elder son is lying in bed suffering from Gout. It’s a terrible disease that comes, then is gone for a while but always comes back, each time leaving a part of it permanently. He is a Lutheran pastor and  has had to retire except for preaching once in awhile.He and his wife live at Rio Rancho, New Mexico, quite a distance from my home in the Pacific Northwest so I can’t see him very often. However I can pray and the distance does not seem as far. Do you pray? It’s important to God, the person you are praying for and yourself.

Some don’t see that prayer is very important because God knows what we will say anyhow, so why pray? Some don’t pray because the person we should pray for knows we care. Some people don’t pray because they don’t have the time. God has given us 24 hours every day, don’t you think you could use a few minutes to pray for that loved one who could use the prayer?

However, some pray because they don’t believe in God. That’s sad. All they have to do is look out their window. They will see the blue or cloudy sky or the moon and stars at night. Don’t you ever wonder who made that? The trees now have little buds on them and soon the trees will be sporting green leaves. Why? last fall we saw all the  leaves falling dead on our lawns. Who makes sure that we have four seasons? Oh I know, some bad things happen but they happen for a reason, or God says, “It is time for this person to come home.”

You must have something to pray for. Why not take the time to pray? And if you can’t think of anyone there is always my son who is lying in bed suffering from Gout!

I’ve been studying in Jeremiah and Ezekiel of the Bible lately. Those two books carry much of the suffering the children of God will experience because of their sinful behavior. they broke all of the ten commandments God had given them. For instance, they didn’t pay any attention to the sabbath day but treated it like any other day, they killed their babies by throwing them into a fire, sacrificing them to a god made of wood  or stone, they sinned by carrying on terrible sex crimes and they had forgotten God.

I’m old enough to remember the way America used to be. Nothing was open on Sunday! It would be impossible to buy a loaf of bread as well as a can of beer on Sunday. I remember several farmers who wouldn’t go out in the fields to work even when rain was predicted for the following day! The churches were filled with people and everybody talked about God. Oh, I can’t say everyone was an angel! but we had more people that were trying to be good than those who weren’t!

What about today? Why our stores and other business places are wide open on Sunday. We have forgotten God. I believe Sundays cash registers are more filled than any other day of the week! We kill our babies, calling it a choice for women. How about the baby? doesn’t he have a choice? Every sex crime is happening in America. Even the sex crime God names in his Word as abominable. We even let them get married! No I don’t think America is any better than the Israelites were over 500 years before Jesus was born.

Do you think God gave us one more chance by putting President Trump in charge? He put the people of Israel in exile in a variety of countries where they were slaves. Where will he put us? No, I think he is giving us another chance to change. Are we going to change?