Commissioned by Texaws Ten Commandments Rally

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          In researching American history as it pertained to the founding fathers, I found a picture of the First Supreme Court. I had no idea how I would use it, but was moved to save the image. When commissioned to create the piece for Justice Moore, I immediately began to visit the Original Chamber in my mind’s eye. It was as though I had stepped into the past. 2 Chron 7:15 came to my heart. I could feel that God’s presence was welcome in that place. The piece came together from there. God’s face pressed against the window illustrates the key scripture for the piece.
          The key scripture here was spoken to Solomon. As I thought of Solomon, the leader of Israel, I began to see a parallel to the leaders of this great nation. In the beginning, Solomon walked in covenant with the God of his father. In 2 Chronicles 1:3, (paraphrased) Solomon and a united nation worshiped God in the meeting place. Having been worshipped and honored the one true God, verse 7 says that God came to the leader of the Nation and said, “Ask what I shall give you?” Solomon responded in verse 10, Give me now wisdom and knowledge to go out and come in before this people, for who can rule this Your people who are so great?
          Because Solomon’s concern was “FOR THE PEOPLE”, God gave him the wisdom to rule the nation as well as riches, possessions, honor and glory …the blessing the Lord. (Ps 103:2)
          Solomon did indeed build the place for God and said, “In it have I put the ark [the symbol of His presence], in which is the covenant of the Lord [THE TEN COMMANDMENTS] which He made with the people of Israel.”  Afterward, Solomon offered his prayer, speaking to God, he said. “That Your eyes may be open upon this house day and night, toward the place in which You have said You would put Your Name [and the symbol of your presence], to listen to and heed the prayer which Your servant prays facing this place”.
          The words God spoke in 2 Chronicles 7:15 were an incredible endorsement to the place that had been built and dedicated to the Lord. Notice however, a serious warning followed in verses19 and 20.  “But if you (WE THE PEOPLE) turn away and forsake My statutes and My commandments which I have set before you and go and serve other gods and worship them, then will I pluck [them] up by the roots out of My land which I have given [them]; and this house which I have hallowed for My Name will I cast out of My sight, and will make it to be a proverb and a byword among all nations.
          After a while, the nation’s leader, Solomon began to seek after other gods, his zeal and dedication diminished; indeed, he turned away from the Lord and forgot God’s warning. The united nation became a nation divided; while some of the people continued to seek the Lord’s wisdom, the leader began to consult his own knowledge and wisdom to lead the people. We can observe the moral decline, which resulted.
          Regardless who wrote the book, Eccl 1:15-18 sums it up …What is crooked cannot be made straight, and what is defective and lacking cannot be counted. I ENTERED INTO COUNSEL WITH MY OWN MIND, saying, Behold, I have acquired great [human] wisdom, yes, more than all who have been over Jerusalem before me; and MY MIND HAS HAD GREAT EXPERIENCE OF [MORAL] WISDOM AND [SCIENTIFIC] KNOWLEDGE. And I gave my MIND TO KNOW [PRACTICAL] WISDOM and to discern [the character of] madness and folly [in which men seem to find satisfaction]; I perceived that this also is a searching after wind and a feeding on it. FOR IN MUCH [HUMAN] WISDOM is much vexation, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.
          Ecclesiastes gives us a staggering example of what ensues when even the wisest of leaders substitute natural wisdom for God’s wisdom. As wonderful and glorious was the beginnings of Solomon’s reign, it ended with a bewildered acceptance of man as being no better than beasts. Eccl 3:19 …so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity. He is speaking of the same man that God had said was made in His image. Today, in 2004 we see mass murder legislated through a government that has turned from God to consult their own wisdom in order to justify abortion and call it’ “pro-choice”. We see same sex relationships fighting for the “right to be married”. We see a government that was founded as a Godly nation forcing a State Supreme Court Justice to deny the God that they included when he took his oath of office. The condition of America’s leaders reminds me of 2 Tim 3:8 8 Now just as Jannes and Jambres were hostile to and resisted Moses, so these men also are hostile to and oppose the Truth. They have depraved and distorted minds, and are reprobate and counterfeit and to be rejected as far as the faith is concerned. [Ex 7:11.] AMP
          Paul further explains in Rom 1:28-32 exactly what we see in society and why

28-32 And so, since they did not see fit to acknowledge God or approve of Him or consider Him worth the knowing, God gave them over to a base and condemned mind to do things not proper or decent but loathsome, Until they were filled (permeated and saturated) with every kind of unrighteousness, iniquity, grasping and covetous greed, and malice. [They were] full of envy and jealousy, murder, strife, deceit and treachery, ill will and cruel ways. [They were] secret backbiters and gossipers, Slanderers, hateful to and hating God, full of insolence, arrogance, [and] boasting; inventors of new forms of evil, disobedient and undutiful to parents. [They were] without understanding, conscienceless and faithless, heartless and loveless [and] merciless. Though they are fully aware of God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve to die, they not only do them themselves but approve and applaud others who practice them. AMP

          At the end of the book of Ecclesiastes, chapter 12, verse 12 the writer concluded, “All has been heard; the end of the matter is: Fear God [revere and worship Him, knowing that He is] and keep His commandments, for this is the whole of man [the full, original purpose of his creation, the object of God's providence, the root of character, the foundation of all happiness, the adjustment to all inharmonious circumstances and conditions under the sun] and the whole [duty] for every man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it is good or evil”.
          We see that this nation began in much the same way as Solomon’s reign. The majority of the leaders of this nation have turned away to other gods. They have set their carnal knowledge on the throne –no longer do they look to the One True God for wisdom. This is a dangerous place in which to be …for this or any nation.
          However, God has provided remedy for a Nation that had disregarded Him. 2 Chron 7:14 If My people, who are called by My name, shall humble themselves, pray, seek, crave, and require of necessity My face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land. AMP