Once upon a time Ireland was know as the land of saints and scholars. Education standards here are pretty good today so perhaps we are still a land of scholars...but sadly we have become a land on "Aints and Scholars" as God is largely ignored among most people. With a general election campaign underway and much national debate about Economics happening I decide to quietly prepare a list of questions for candidates before they came to the door. The questions were quite simple and direct and covered the following issues: Abortion, The Constitution, Environment (obsession), Europe, Government size, Homosexuality, Israel and Seanead (proposed senate abolition). I should get an idea of how God fearing they are by their answers.
I am also aware that we should pray for our leaders and perhaps when they call and I shake their hand I'll hold on and ask them if they'd like me to pray a prayer of blessing for them...that might be a first in their experience. My good friend Tomas Kennedy told me that he was in the past helping a Christian upholsterer hang curtains in the Dail chamber and at the back of the curtains were written in Irish "Righteousness exalts a nation"(ref. Proverbs 14:34).
I heard today that a prominent journalist who had acted as a foreign correspondent for BBC and had seen horrible things said that he "lost his faith in humanity". The sad news is that he had to see such horror but the good news is that he is on the first rung of salvation which is: Understanding that man is not good. The second step is: Understanding I am not good! Aha...now it all make sense why Jesus willingly died, namely, the only good man dying for us baddies to satisfy Holy God's justice. Food for thought.
