Proverbs 20 verse 8 says, a king that sitteth in the throne of judgment scattereth away all evil with his eyes. The bottom line to this proverb is simple. A wise man will have a healthy respect for the power of kings, and by application, anyone with power. In other words, when facing off with someone holding power, you'd better be real about the possible consequences. Don't play with fire and not expect to get burned. Sadly, I've seen this numerous times. A Christian or Christian leader or pastor will take a bold stand for something. And they're faced then with the reality that they could pay a heavy price if they do take that stand. And you have to applaud such courage. And in a few cases, I prayed for these men and women, and at times even the pastor's wives and others taking that kind of stand. But when the consequences fell, that man or woman crumbled. It was as though they had fooled themselves into believing there would be no consequences, or they hadn't really looked at the reality of those consequences. It's great to take a stand for what is right, but as the old saying goes, if you can't take the heat, stay out of the kitchen. Or another way of putting it is, don't do the crime if you can't do the time. One man I know of was jailed for standing against the government. When he went to prison, he seemed to have a meltdown. He even changed his theology because he now saw himself going through the Great Tribulation. He now preaches the post-trib rapture now that he's out of jail. Many Christians stood against attempts to force them to compromise their faith in the past, throughout history, really. But once they were in prison, they recanted, some even denying their faith. The fact is, kings and those in authority can make life miserable for them who go against them. In many cases, professing Christians would do well just to stay out of his line of sight, and even, as they say, under the radar. And that's what happens with criminals as well. A lot of crime is stopped when criminals know that the powers that be are not going to put up with it, and they're actually going to punish them. Again, as it says, a king that sitteth in the throne of judgment scattereth away all evil with his eyes. You go to places like New York, L.A., and Chicago, and even smaller cities that are run by Marxist mayors, almost always, as far as I know, always affiliated with the Democrat-Marxist party. And you'll find that because George Soros owns the district attorney and mayor in most cases, They're soft on criminals and soft on crime. For that reason, crime soars, even as those cities refuse to report their statistics to the FBI and CDC because it would expose the horrible results of their policies and agenda. But when people know that they live where the king or other authorities are tough on crime or will punish violent crime harshly, somehow the numbers of assault, rape, and murder plummet. And you know the same is true spiritually. Those who fear the Lord turn to him for salvation through the blood of Jesus Christ in death on the cross and the power of his victory over sin and death in his bodily resurrection from the dead when he came out of that tomb alive. If there were more fear of God in our world, there would be less evil and there would also be more people saved and getting saved and ready for heaven. But men have talked themselves out of fearing God. They bought into the lies of evolution and atheism, agnosticism and all the apostate religions and false cults. And that reminds me then of one of my favorite Psalms and one of the few passages in the Old Testament that blatantly refers to the prophesied Messiah of Israel that we now know to be Jesus of Nazareth with the identification as the Son with a capital S. It's found in Psalm 212. Kiss the Son, capital S, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. And blessed are all they that put their trust in him. I have, and I hope you have too.