Thanks, Vets.

Part of my task on this Veteran's Day is to finish up a message based on the end of the Book of Judges. The book ends with these ominous words, ". . . there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes." From a social, religious, and domestic perspective, life was a mess in Israel. A letter by an Egyptian official who traveled through Israel at the time records that the roads were overgrown with cypresses, oaks, and cedars, that lions were numerous, and he twice encountered thieves.
Our nation's fathers adopted our constitution in order to guard against those kinds of conditions--to "establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defence, and promote the general welfare." As surely, though, as wood rots, steel rusts, and all things deteriorate, in this fallen world the good intentions of those who found governments must be upheld by those who protect them.
On a weekly basis I meet people who, and the families of people who are serving our nation in the armed forces. I know some who lived underwater or manned missle-silos, and maintained our readiness during the years of the "cold" (but very tense) war. Many of my contemporaries served their nation in Vietnam, my neighbor in Korea, my dad and his two brothers in Europe in WW2, my great-uncle in WW1. I have stood at Gettysburg, and read about Valley Forge and Yorktown. In large part the reason I live in a place of peace, prosperity, freedom, and security is because of those men and millions of men and women like them.

Thanks!

It's STTA.