Did I help enough?

This question is one we all ask of ourselves sometimes. Today I was Going to the store with my better half, Melissa. As we turned into the parking lot of Walmart there was a woman with two boys standing at the curb of the parking lot holding up a sign that said “help I have 2 kids need money for food and rent”. I had Melissa turn the car around so that I could give her some money from what little we had. After I gave her the money I asked myself should I have given her more? We did our shopping and left. On our way our we passed the same woman. She waved at us and Said “ Thank you and God bless you” and her two boys were eating food from McDonald's. Its nice when you can see the impact that your kindness has had on someone's life. Sometimes we get to help people and see the direct effect of our help, other times we don't. With the recent devastation caused by #Hurricane Sandy the only help some of us may be able to provide is our prayers and that is enough. But if you can help more I would contact your church and see what they are doing and if they don't have a plan help get one started.

Laws

The other day “Well its not our problem” was said as we passed several police officers with a car pulled over and they were searching the car. We said how it looked like a drug bust and that’s when it was said. It was after that when the thought came to me that yes it is our problem. As we are all one society it becomes a problem with Society when people begin to think that breaking the law is ok. Everyday we pick and choose which laws we will obey and which we will ignore. I think there are two things that lead to this behavior. The first is that we get the attitude that if we don’t get caught we are not breaking the law. As adults our children often pickup on that attitude. With the access to movies, music and other copyrighted material easily downloaded illegally the temptation is greater.

The second thing that often has us breaking the law is not knowing the law. There are so many laws that you have to abide by. You start with Local City and County laws, then State and Federal laws. Some of the laws are crazy for instance in Cape Coral, Fl it is against City ordnance to hang cloths outside on a Clothesline. So what does the bible tell us to do? Well in Romans 13:1-2 ESV it says “ Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. (2) Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.” In 1Peter 2:12-15 ESV it goes further and Says “Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. (13) Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, (14) or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. (15) For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people.” Only when man's laws conflict with God's as when early Christians were ordered by Jewish and Roman courts to stop preaching about Christ did they refuse. (Acts 5:41). Finally we turn a blind eye when we see other breaking the law. We see our friend downloading a movie off the internet that is still in the theater and we don’t say anything about it. I’m not saying that you should call the police about it. But We should say something to our friend about it.