“Never Again”?

"And when he sits on his royal throne, he shall write for himself a copy of this law in a book, out of what is before the Levitical priests.  And he shall keep it with him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes and doing them, that his heart may not be lifted up above his brethren and that he may not turn aside from the commandment....". (Dt. 19, Amplified Bible)

This little girl was probably unaware of what she was standing on, the site of that barbaric night in May of 1933 when students, after listening to a fiery speech by Joseph Goebbels, took over 20,000 books, mostly by Jewish authors, and put them to the flame.

Ever 

She was not alive when the German People elected the National Socialist Party Candidate for Chancellor.  She did not live through the horrible years of German reconstruction after the Second War.  She knows nothing of the Cold War, and wasn't alive when the "wall came down."  All is comfort and peace now for her generation——— but how long will it last?

I was reading today's text across from the seminary of Humboldt University in Berlin.  It is the university where Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Karl Marx taught.  It has gone the way of 99 percent of seminaries today.  What if our text had been the theme of the German People in 1933?  What if Germany had not sought shelter under, "the refuge of lies"?  People say, "Never Again."  But how can anyone say this with certainty?  The only, "never again," is that you and I refuse to stand by while barbarism rules.  And the only way to be sure that we can fulfill that decree is to, again, be servants of our text.

What happened in Germany is happening all over the world.  Oh, there may not be the Nazis and the Hitlers, but every nation has rejected our text for their political leaders and the populace themselves.  Our text is for you and me, "though every man a liar."  It is not just for rulers and leaders.  It is a theme for all who have surrendered their lives to Jesus Christ.  Our safety is only in Jesus and His Words, not in democratic governments, super power military, or apparent peace in our environment.  Jesus says, "Come to Me...."— to nothing and no one else for the security which humanity seeks.

Father, in Jesus' Name, keep me from the false security of everything apart from You.  Amen.