The Problem of Big Government

# 103 – Today's Du-votional comes from 1Sa 8:14-17, "And he will take the best of your fields, your vineyards, and your olive groves, and give them to his servants. 15 "He will take a tenth of your grain and your vintage, and give it to his officers and servants. 16 "And he will take your male servants, your female servants, your finest young men, and your donkeys, and put them to his work. 17 "He will take a tenth of your sheep. And you will be his servants.” (1 Sam 8:14-17) The phrase “he will take,” shows up six times in verses 11-18. This is what big government does. It takes and takes and takes, and the more it takes, the more it grows and consequently, the more it needs to take. Actually, these people had it pretty good, they were taxed at a rate of 10%. In America today we are taxed at a rate of 30% and that's just on our income. In 2012 the average American worked from January 1st to April 17th just to pay his income taxes! But we, like the Israelites have brought this on ourselves. Instead of limiting the God-given role of government to serve as His arm for keeping order in the land, we have given it responsibilities that belong to the church. Don't you know that the church is to be the vehicle of charity that God uses to bless the world, not the government? Read the Book of Acts and note how the New Testament church operated. Read the history books and see how the church carried out charitable acts among themselves and into the world. Ac 2:44 Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, 45 and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need. Somehow the church needs to recapture this spirit of charity. It starts with reviving our own love relationship with Jesus, which leads to proper stewardship of our own God-given resources and then our individual congregations as well.