Delta Dawn When the Light Comes On: Week 37

"Ask and you shall receive. Seek and you shall find. Knock and doors will be opened unto you." Matthew 7:7. This verse is full of 'double dog dares'. Dare we ask for truth in campaign issues? Dare we search out voting records and lifestyles of candidates? Dare we knock on doors inviting friends and neighbors to vote? Benjamin Franklin, aged 81, wept after signing the Constitution. "We have given you a [Constitutional] Republic, if you can (dare) keep it." Do we dare?

September 17 is Constitution Day in our schools. Do we know if teachers devote the day to a study of the Constitution? Are our children really being taught the five rights of the first amendment: 'No law against the Church or her teachings, freedom of speech, freedom of press, peaceable assembly, and the right to petition the Government with grievances?" Do the children get to act this out?

The Declaration of Independence states 23 complaints to the British Crown (not being unanimous, slavery is not mentioned). A seven year cold, tiring, daring and deadly Revolutionary War was fought to gain recognition of the Declaration. However, this document had no 'teeth'!

There was no definition of power, no punishment for breaking laws. What were the laws, anyway? Who decided and who judged? What about the money? Where did it come from and what was it to be used for? Who would decide or authorize all of this? Our Founders spent many hot, sweaty, testy hours at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, hammering these all into our 248-year old Constitution. The Bible was consulted, prayer was engaged and agreement arose.

John Adams wrote his wife Abigail, 'We were in prayer for three hours the day we reached [this preamble]: "We, the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and to our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America"'. A limited authority over 'We, The People'. Seven Articles, twenty-seven Amendments; minutes to read. Thirty-nine Statesmen affixed their signatures September 17, 1787.

Consulting John Locke's "Two Treatises of Government" along with the Bible, brought the Constitutional Republic to ratification by Massachusetts, 9th of 13 states, after a 'ratify now, amend later' campaign. Our Constitution calls for Executive, Congressional and Judicial branches to check and balance laws. James Madison, fourth President, leaned on 'General Welfare', creating agencies, to carry out laws passed by Representatives of the people, Senators of the States, signed by the President and judged Constitutional by a Supreme Court.

To 'secure the blessings of liberty' is on our hands, Friend, so let's do this: Register and vote!

"Hold fast the pattern of sound words in faith, love and Jesus Christ." 2 Timothy 1:13

Next Week: Seed, Time, Harvest