Are you kidding me? If anyone thinks that taxes paid, tithes, or offerings given to charitable purposes, and yes, even their location of birth, has somehow purchased the right to anything, they are on the path of perpetual pouting.
I seriously doubt that anyone of us, including myself, have paid enough taxes, or tithed into a church's treasury for the support of the ministry, or given to worthy causes in sufficient amounts to "buy" us anything. Those things and other non-monetary contributions are mostly paid or given because we are debtors to those who risk their lives daily to save ours, or educate our children, or for those who have given the ultimate sacrifice so that we can breath free air, in a free country. Oh, we are debtors alright.
Those who scream so loudly about their "rights," know nothing about their responsibilities, and even less about the boundless PRIVILEGES of just living in the USA. They are drowning in the sea of their own selfishness. They will live out their lives with the feeling they are owed everything, and owe nothing. Thus, they will forever feel cheated, while all the time they are the cheats and thieves.
Who do they cheat? How about the robbery of those surrounding their lives, and the innocent little ones they brought into the world of the wonderful, exuberant, feeling of gratitude? They are cheating and robbing those same little ones of the powerful, satisfying feeling of knowing the meaning of sacrifice, being a giver.
They cheat and rob God. How can that happen? When one ignores, or perverts the living Word of God, it cheats our Heavenly Father from reaping the benefit of the love He invested in sending His Son to live, and die to give the gift of eternal life to them.
Should we really ask for what we deserve? If we get what we RIGHTLY deserve, according to the Word of God, the results are extremely sad. The Apostle Paul said, "all have sinned..." and later goes on to say, "...the wages of sin is death." That's what we "rightly deserve." Of course, those who cry for their rights, feel no one, including God, and His Bible has the right to tell them anything, most certainly not demand anything of them. After all, they say, I am the owner of my body.
When death beckons, and they are still spewing the foul breath of demanding their rights, and declaring ownership their bodies, I wonder how that's going to work for them? Sadly, I think I know the answer to that question.
“Give to others, and God will give to you. Indeed, you will receive a full measure, a generous helping, poured into your hands — all that you can hold. The measure you use for others is the one that God will use for you.”
Luke 6:38 GNB
