Today’s Scripture Reading (February 15, 2026): 2 Chronicles 13
On January 24, 2026, Alex Pretti became yet another person killed by a
gun in the United States. He became the second person during the month of
January 2026 to be killed by the United States Immigration and Customs
Enforcement (ICE). The situation was a little different from the killing of
Renee Good earlier in the month, but it was still a tragedy. My plea hasn’t
changed from police instigated deaths in the past. I know it is your right to
carry a gun, but please, don’t give law enforcement a reason to kill you. Leave
your gun somewhere else. You might have the right to carry a gun, and as the
story of Renee Good proved, you might get shot anyway, but while you have the
right to carry, or the right to be snarky with law enforcement, in the end, you
might still be dead. You will be in the right, but you won’t be alive to
celebrate the correctness of your position. It shouldn’t be that way, but it is
our shared reality. The world needs you! Please, stay safe.
The day after Alex Pretti’s death, many important or semi-important
people came out on X with comments and condolences. One of those semi-important
people was former President Bill Clinton. Clinton wrote;
Over the course of
a lifetime, we face only a few moments where the decisions we make and the
actions we take will shape our history for years to come. This is one of them.
If we give our freedoms away after 250 years, we might never get them back
(President Bill Clinton, January 25, 2026).
I have
friends on both sides of this issue. And I have been blunt in the past; I do
not agree with many of the President's actions. Prior to his first term, I was
one of those “idiots” who believed that if Mr. Trump became President, after his
second term, there was a good chance that meaningful elections would end in the
United States. The big American experiment, democracy, would come to an end. I
am not as sure about that prediction now, partially because of Donald Trump’s
health. However, freedoms are being eroded, and I do worry about the liberties future
Presidents might take. The example has been set, and it might be impossible for
future leaders, Republican and Democratic alike, to resist the temptation to
remove more of those freedoms.
Not
everyone agrees with me, and I get that; I am not offended. One of my core
beliefs is that we need to get along with each other. My hope is that we will
seriously evaluate the freedoms we are losing and have the courage to stand up
at some point and say, "Enough is enough."
Abijah speaks
to his northern neighbors, the Israelites, about one of their decisions. He was
concerned that the role of the Levites had been wiped away. According to the
Law given to Moses, the Levites were supposed to oversee the nation's religious
life. In Judah, Abijah’s nation, that was still the law of the land. The Levites
still cared for the Temple, and the descendants of Aaron still served as the
nation’s priests, as God had intended for both Judah and Israel. However,
Jeroboam had changed that in Israel. Abijah wanted to remind Israel of the way
they had drifted away from the Law of Moses. They could make the change back, but they
would need to demand that change. Israel had become used to the new way of
doing things, and they would never return to the way it should have been.
Because sometimes, the journey back is just too hard. What we give away may
never be returned.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 2 Chronicles 14
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