Sunday, March 4, 2018

OH FATHER, WHERE ART THOU - "LIFE CHOICES"

15 “See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, and death and adversity; 16 in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, that you may live and multiply, and that the Lord your God may bless you in the land where you are entering to possess it. 
17 But if your heart turns away and you will not obey, but are drawn away and worship other gods and serve them, 18 I declare to you today that you shall surely perish. You will not prolong your days in the land where you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess it. 
19 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, 20 by loving the Lord your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding fast to Him; for this is your life and the length of your days, that you may live in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.” (Deuteronomy 30:15-20)
Basically, adults, liberals for creating it, and conservatives for staying silent too long, created the disrespect for Life we see in the youth of these last two generations. It is not just school shootings, but inner city gang warfare, drug abuse in the suburbs and immorality across all strata of society. The only difference between the wealthier suburbs of the west and the poor inner cities or rural areas is in the numbers. The precepts are the same.

The fall of western civilization into hedonism, paganism, and immorality began with:
- Socialism 
- Removal of Christianity from the Public Square
- The end of prayer in schools and Bible reading as an option
- Corruption of the facts of history, into political agendas

It then got worse. The courts of the west, led by the United States Supreme Court found the right to an abortion, in the "emanations of the penumbra" and the right to privacy. Since then we have seen the following slow decline into oblivion:  
- Over 60 million abortions in America, over the past 45 years.
- The rise in assisted suicide acceptance, led by the late pro-assisted suicide activist Dr. Jack Kevorkian
- The stunning increase in extremely violent video games where gamers spend countless hours daily killing on their games and destroying things, then resetting the games the next day as if nothing happened.
- The mindboggling sleaze factor of all television shows. There is no such thing as family entertainment on prime time anymore. Cable Reality TV is vile and disgusting, from the Kardashians to you name it. The exploits of those proponents of perversion have turned the hearts of impressionable young people away from wholesome living and dreaming of great things.

We can go on and on about the corrupt life choices we see young people making, enabled by their multi-billionaire peers in the social media high tech industry. But I think we see the point. Young boys and men do not just decide one day to go on rampages to destroy life. There was a slow burn which created the conditions for this malfunction of the mind. The establishment - from legal, political and academia to entertainment and media consistently devalued life, day after day, year after year, decade after decade. So, here is where we are today, and people act surprised.

Underlying all of this is sin. Except you cannot call sin, sin....even in some churches because people with money will leave. So the most famous current "preacher" in America has decided to do all feel good pop psychology. Sadly, he is not alone in this, for which he will be held to account one day.

So we push the discussion of missing the mark in life (sin) off to the side. Next, we can't talk about violent video games, the ease of obtaining pornography on smartphones, and the rise of legalized marijuana etc.....because "who are we to promote our morality on somebody else".

While all this mind-altering garbage is going on - reality TV, Snapchat, violent video games, pre-marital sex, drug abuse...the abortion industry continue to flourish. Tens of thousands of babies are lost each month. Meanwhile, the Hollywood and other tabloids promote a young person from the northwest who was planning her own assisted suicide. Like all who seek such stuff, she became a celebrity. Never mind she has since left this life, and faced the immediate Judgment of our Holy God! The point was the agenda. 

So now, take all of these societal environmental conditions, add them together and then tell the children of the last 40 years that there are no absolutes. Tell them there is no right or wrong and if feels good, do it. Tell them all that incorrect and deceitful stuff and combine it with all kinds of ungodly beliefs - and what do folks think is going to happen? If a person, who has no foundation in life, truth or even decency, regards life just like he/she sees on Television or the latest rap video, well, Katie bar the door.

God is clear ALL through the Bible. Look at what Moses presents, first to the Israelites and then to us, using them as the example. From Deuteronomy 30, we see nothing has changed from 3500 years ago to now. God is presenting the same choices to us today, as back then:
- Life and prosperity OR death and adversity (verse 15). We know what people are choosing here, all the while thinking they're doing great.
- Love God and walk in His ways, OR turn your heart from and refuse to obey Him (verse 16-17)
- Choose life that you and your family will live (verse 20) OR turn away from God, worship at the altars of everything the world says to and perish (verse 18). 

These are the three major choices in life, in terms of practical application of Faith (or lack thereof). In each of those three Life Choices from Deuteronomy 30, we already are in deep red ink on the Ledger of Life. We need the men of God, to be a father to the fatherless and a brother to the unloved to bring these timeless Godly truths into focus. It is the only way to begin to turn this Titanic of gloom and doom around

There is still a Remnant of Christ followers in the west. Whether it is London, England or Paris, France...or even Paris Indiana, there are substantial pockets of the men God called, who will grab that responsibility and run with it for God. We stand by to not just teach the Scriptures but to show from its pages how Jesus Christ is the ONLY hope for all people of all time. Then secondly, the Remnant stands by to show this same Jesus loves them and gave His life for them. Spending time, resources and doing community with directionless youth can change lives in a community after community, city after city. The only problem is there are not enough of us, or enough to take care of the sheer volume of youngsters who finally see an adult care about them, to teach them a better way. There are those called to help the hopeless, and love the unloved. All of us can do our part, and pray the Lord of the Harvest to lead to a place where His Life Choices, take priority of those of this perishing world.

Oh father, where are thou? Some earthly dads may be difficult to locate, even if they live in the same houses as their families. But our Heavenly Father has this, if we would only turn to and trust Him with everything. This is the Father, Whose Abode (heaven) we know, and Who can be reached at any time....by the shortest prayer.

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