Christian Living

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Larry Lilly's Letter Tuesday February 19, 2008

Austin Bennett, long time friend and philosopher sent a statement from a Herbert George Wells to me that I have thought about for several days. You do recall H.G. Wells was somewhat less than a moralistic writer of years gone by. H.G. wrote:

"The lawgiver, of all beings, most owes the law allegiance. He of all men should behave as though the law compelled him. But it is the universal weakness of mankind that what we are given to administer we presently imagine we own."

On the political/judicial scene we see what is being deemed "Activist Judges." This term means the judges twist legitimate law in ways that conform to their own ideas about how things ought to be, and act accordingly. After they have spent years studying the law and know more about what the law really or should say, they conclude their opinions are of far more value than say the opinion of a truck driver who was elected by the populace to the federal or state congress. The truth is, the guiding light for the elected truck driver and for the honorable majesty on the bench is the Constitution of the United States. When this document is trashed, a nation is like Israel in the days of the judges and every man does that which is right in his own eyes. That too many judges act as if they own the law is part of our current national problems.

But, before you get on too much of tirade against judges stop and think for a moment of just how true H.G.'s statement is in other areas of civilization. Presidents, kings and South American generals tend to reach a point of laying claim to ownership of that which they are only trustees. Hitler did not think that he represented the people of Germany and their best interests, he claimed them and the largess they produced as his own. The rest is a black mark on civilization in that he was permitted to go so far.

And what about entrepreneurs? Most successful entrepreneurs do alright until they incorporate, offer stock and they fail to adjust their thinking from "This is my baby" to the legal truth, "I am only the figurehead leader, this enterprise belongs to the state via the legal document of incorporation." By definition a corporation is created by the state. It matters not whether it is a secular or religious entity, it is controlled the rules or whim of its creator, the state. Many a hardworking man sits in jail due to a failure to come to terms with the power of the terms in the creator's documents.

It would be rather hard to find any group of religious people who have not been exposed to the concept, which sounds good; a small group of people or a group that had been large falls on hard times. The right leader comes in and growth explodes exponentially. In time the leaders imagines, "This is mine." And as long as things go along alright the myth is perpetuated. And then. Well you know the rest of the story. The preponderance of evidence is strongly in favor, especially in religious groups of the "This is mine" mentality when most religious enterprises are the brain child of one man or woman leads the group to success and when he or she passes off scene it is not long until the work becomes only a shadow of its former glory. But, legally and perhaps divinely, the work is not the man's, it is the Lord's or the states, depending on the documents. Perpetuity is in most cases an idle myth.

H.G. Wells was right on with his summation, "What we are given to administer we presently imagine we own."

They same is true on the life of an individual Christian. We are given new life in Christ to live under the rule of the Spirit as revealed in the scripture and thus we are warned, "What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?" 1 Corinthians 6:19.

I do not belong to me, but to Christ who bought me with His own blood.

Larry Lilly Copyright © 2008 Use with credit.

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