Continuing Commitment

TITLE: Continuing Commitment
DATE: June 15, 2019
TEXT: Galatians 2:16 (ESV) - 16 yet we know that a person is not justified[a] by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ,
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Christ is risen! Is risen indeed! In 1961, President Kennedy quoted Edmund Burke as having said, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” It was a great quote, but Burke didn’t say it.

The fellow who really came up with the idea was a fellow named John Stuart Mill. Way back in 1867 Mill had said :“Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.”

It appears to me that h the schools in Dayton, Ohio must be teaching that concept of commitment to the youngsters entrusted to them.  Let me share a story which is making Dayton feel pretty good about themselves. The story began when the Ku Klux Klan announced they were going to have a Rally in Dayton. Now there may have been a time when that might have succeeded, but not anymore.

The Dayton police got things organized and controlled in a big way. The KKK would be fenced off from everybody else. The triple—K would be confined to the Courthouse square and 350 officers were assigned to help protect anyone who might happen to need protection.

Well the day of the rally came and  a grand total of 9 KKK and their supporters showed up

On the other hand three were somewhere between 500 and 600 people there to protest the KKK and their message.

Not necessarily known as an organization of peace the local Black Panthers were present telling the KKK that they weren’t welcome.

I’m pleased to share there were no battles; nobody was beaten; nobody was accosted. About the only group which lost significantly was the city of Dayton itself. Plans and preparations for the event cost the city about $$650,000.
City Commissioner Darryl Fairchild said, “There is a great crowd of people down here on Main Street.  This is probably Dayton at its best.”

Mr. Fairchild might be right. I do know that this day good turned out in numbers to take a stand against bad. But what will happen next time? How many of those anti-KKK’ers will stay hone because they believe no hoods are going to show up? And what will happen the next time and the time after that, and after that?

In the future you can be sure the numbers of the good guys will dwindle and the number of folks who are displeased with good will grow. There is only one way to win this kind of contest: Good needs to make a greater commitment than bad.
That’s a scenario which doesn’t happen often.

Most certainly it came to pass when our Savior walked this earth. There was never a moment when He relaxed; never a time when He cut corners. If we were going to be saved He simply had to have a greater commitment to our redemption than did those who were striving for our damnation. He won, and because He did all who believe in Him as Savior will not perish.

THE PRAYER: Lord may I always do my best and give my all in standing up for the right and proclaiming my Savior Who gave His life to save mine In His Name Amen.

The devotion for today was inspired by various recent news articles. For further reading you may wish to go to this site: http://time.com/5596103/kkk-rally-dayton-ohio/and the article written by Tara Law for Time ,:
The music which introduces and concludes our devotions was written by Guy Baumann. He along with three of his brothers perform on the album: The Baumann Brothers which may be ordered here: http://thebaumannbrothers.com/index.html