Larry Ray Hafley
Of the wicked, David said, "There is no fear of God before his eyes....he
abhorreth not evil" (Psa. 36:1, 4).
Our society, our schools, streets, and neighborhoods are filled with violence
and vandalism. Children are shooting one another in the class room and on the
play ground. It used to be that only organized crime, the Mafia, engaged in
"drive-by" shootings and killings. Now, however, teenagers, full of beer, dope,
and rage, cruise their communities to shoot at random groups. Why? How did it
come to this?
Answer: "There is no fear of God before their eyes" (Rom. 3:18). God has been
ostracized and exorcised from our hearts and homes. He is not allowed in the
class room, except as an object of scorn and contempt. Churches are political
pulpits. Social and civil issues are preached and immoralities (homosexuality,
abortion) are extolled as "rights." Virtue, morality, temperance, and judgment
are foreign concepts to the ears of most congregations.
Condoms are distributed. Commandments are despised. A television documentary
about the lives of apes is entitled, "The People of the Forest," while the baby
in the womb is described as a "fetal mass." The apes and their "habitat" must be
protected, but the baby must be "surgically removed." In this country, it is now
more dangerous to be an unborn child than it is to be a convicted killer.
"Chemical addiction" to drugs and alcohol is a "disease," and homosexual
relations are "an alternative lifestyle," while those who oppose such sins are
"mean spirited extremists." "Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil;
that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet,
and sweet for bitter" (Isa. 5:20)!
How do we escape this unraveling world of moral chaos? "The fear of the Lord
is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding"
(Prov. 9:10). Jails are not the answer. "Safe sex" is not the cure. Our souls
have AIDS. As such, our spirits are susceptible to every form of lust and
depravity. It debases our nature, character and conscience, drowning its victims
in cesspools of unrestrained debauchery.
Until God and His word are allowed back into our hearts, "evil men and
seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived" (2 Tim. 3:13).
"But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear Him, which after He hath
killed hath power to cast into hell; Yes, I say unto you, fear Him" (Lk.
12:5)!
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