Gambling with Grace

WARNING: I AM ON A RANT TODAY!

Last night's service was really great! Our Pastor preached a message about "What's Wrong with living right?". After the shooting at the Amish school in Pennsylvania there was a man on the CBS evening news in their "free speech" segment whose son had been killed in the shooting at the high school in Columbine. That man used the small amount of time given to him to very efficiently state what the problem with our society is these days....God has been kicked out of our schools and every other public aspect of life in the USA and because of that we are living in a day of continuous moral decline, I believe he called it a moral vacuum. Of course on the CBS news website nearly all the comments posted called that man a "radical right winger" or some such nonsense name that serves only to label someone so the world can hurl stones their way.

What a shame that our society has turned into such a disgraceful mess that anyone who dare to speak the truth is labeled immediately....and why is it that in our politically correct gone awry society it's perfectly okay for all the world to cast stones at someone who chooses to live and speak up for a Holy God and a moral lifestyle yet it is "hateful" to teach our children that marriage is for ONE MAN and ONE WOMAN for the duration of those two lives on this earth?

That same "politically correct" crowd tries to argue that women should leave their children behind for daycare centers to raise so that they can "have it all" with some career.....the truth of that lie is that the "all" that they get is ALL worn out...ALL frustrated....ALL exhausted....ALL disillusioned....and when their husband isn't getting enough of her time or affection or any of the other things that he needs ALL alone with children to provide for and no choice anymore about whether or not to stay home or work. Then that poor woman who wanted it ALL finds out that since the former hubby has moved on to greener pastures she gets ALL of the responsibility for raising ALL of her children ALL by herself.

That some old "politically correct" crowd is telling our young people that premarital sex is "normal" and that as long as they take certain "precautions" it is without consequence. How that lie got sold is so far beyond me it isn't funny. Even without the risk of STDs and pregnancy there are huge consequences to entering into the kinds of relationships that God preserved for marriage. But that PC bunch has so duped our society that now some folks are trying to insist that every female beginning at the AGE OF ELEVEN YEARS OLD be vaccinated to prevent one of the sexually transmitted diseases that also causes cervical cancer.

The world around us just grows more and more wicked, there are multitudes of problems everywhere you turn. Kids can no longer go to school in safety, women dare not walk across a dark parking lot alone and unarmed, HIV infection rates are increasing at an alarming rate, children are being born to children at a rate that is simply astounding yet being a person who has the courage and conviction to speak out publicly for a HOLY GOD and a lifestyle that reflects that belief is worthy of name calling? How sickening.

A young girl in our church was upset last night because she had been told that she couldn't pass out gospel tracts at our local WalMart store. Yet that same store constantly allows some group or the other to stand in the doorways there begging for money nearly everytime I go shopping. The young girl never asked anyone for a dime, she didn't ask for a donation, she simply offered them a tract with the plan of salvation. The world we live in would rather pay for a lie than receive the truth for free.....how sick is that?!

How sad that we live in such a world as this that lacks such things as plain old common sense that would tell anyone who possessed it that sex outside of marriage is just flat out dangerous, that when you make a vow that says "til death do us part" you should really mean it, that your children aren't toys to be put away while you go your own way but the future and that you must train them up. What about the common sense that says God is big enough to create the earth and everything in and you really really really don't want to make Him mad? Do these people really think that God will just let them slide on by with a wink and nod or what? I don't get it, I really don't and I really don't want to try to "get it" anymore.

The saddest thing of all in this is that so many people will continue to refuse that precious gift of salvation that God gave us all so freely through His son Jesus. He gave us all the opportunity to be saved and forgiven for our sins by His grace. All we have to do is believe it and repent. It's so easy that little kids can do it and it's the most freeing thing you'll ever experience to just admit to God that you are a sinner and that you need His forgiveness yet so many people refuse Him. Like our pastor said last night.....time is running out and we all have to decide for ourselves if we will choose Hell or ask God to save us in the only way there is to be saved.

Anyway, I'm done ranting now. I'm back to praying for those I know of who are lost and for the opportunity to reach even more that I don't know yet.....let Wal-Mart kick me out, let folks call me a radical whatever they want to. I guess it's easy for people to keep on gambling with grace when they really don't know what they stand to lose.