In the news today was an article about how a minority in the Texas House and Senate have kept nearly every anti-abortion bill from coming up for vote. That, dear people, is the epitome of the term "bloodthirsty" It reminded me of the following:

In the 1960's they protested for "free love"

In the 1970's they protested for "the right to choose"

Then they won their "right" and killed their babies.

Today they are protesting for their right for fully funded pensions and health care.

But who will pay for it?

Their children will pay for it.

But... they killed their children.

It's the unborn babies' fault we are in this mess!

How could they be so selfish?

Did you know that the word Jesus used for Hell, "Gehenna", is Greek for Ben Hinnom? But what was Ben Hinnom? It was a place of smoldering ruin just outside of Jerusalem. This Valley of the Sons of Hinnom was the place where the Israelites burned their babies to honor their idols. They called it sacrifice, but it was the same then as abortion is today: Just a bunch of selfish people who didn't want to be "punished with a baby". So they killed these unwanted babies and fancied themselves sophisticated and noble.

Shame on the Texas legislature! Shame on those whose lust for blood is such that they would block a bill to stop abortions! Shame on everyone who would knowingly vote for such a vile individual and still fancy themselves loving and decent! And shame, shame, shame on the majority for pretending there is nothing they can do about it!

They built high places for Baal in the Valley of Ben Hinnom, to sacrifice their sons and daughters to Molek, though I never commanded - nor did it ever enter my mind - that they should do such a detestable thing and so make Judah sin.

The words of God, as recorded in Jeremiah 32:35, NIV

He who accepts evil without protesting it is really cooperating with it. 

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Hobby Lobby, a Christian based store, filed a lawsuit against our government to allow them an exemption from providing abortion pills for their employees.

Let that sink in for a moment: A privately owned company in the United States of America having to beg its own government not to require them to take part in the killing of unborn children.

A federal judge denied the request, stating that "for profit corporations do not have a constitutional right to freedom of religion"... a judge ruled that in America!

Our federal courts, in cahoots with a wicked President, backed by a wicked do-nothing congress, have decided against freedom of religion in America.

Dr. King was right when he made the above statement in regards to the oppression of a people based on racial prejudices, and his statement is just as true when it comes to religious prejudice. Our three branches of government are now in open hostility towards those who attempt to exercise their constitutional right to freedom of religion. How could this happen in the United States of America?

I am becoming more and more convinced that if the men and women of my generation do not speak out and hold our leaders accountable now, that our children will one day have to take up arms just to regain the freedoms that we once enjoyed. Should that happen, the blood of our children - just like the blood of our unborn children - will be on our hands. 

We have been hijacked by wicked men and women and we need to take a stand! Will we be willing to speak now, or do we prefer to sentence our future generations to servitude and the civil war that will surely follow? We need to repent. We need to pray. And, we need to find the courage to take a righteous stand before it is too late.

Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people.

Proverbs 14:34, NIV

"I am sorry to have to inform you that I do not believe in the Bible as divine revelation, and therefore not in Jesus Christ as the Son of God."   Charles Darwin in a letter to a friend in 1880

A conversation:

First man: I believe that the world was created by God.

Second Man: How ignorant! How can Christians stake their lives on faith in an eternal God?

First Man: So what do you believe?

Second Man: I believe in an ancient universe, billions of years old. Gases were present in that environment , and these gases eventually caused an explosion. This explosion formed the planets and set off a chain of events that caused single cells, which also formed from the explosion of gases, to slowly evolve over billions of years into all of the animals, and eventually man.

First Man: Wow! You're right, I must be ignorant. I'm lucky to have your vast experience, study and intellect to explain all this to me. But, I have one question: Where did the gases come from?

Second Man: Oh, they have always been there.

First Man: So, let me get this straight: You believe that everything in the universe was created by gas that has just "always been there"? I believe in the eternal God, while you believe in eternal gas. Yet, you marvel at my faith?

The fool says in his heart, "There is no God" Psalms 14:1, NIV

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.    Genesis 1:1, NIV

A number of people close to me are seriously ill and some have recently passed. These reminders of our mortality have brought to mind a funeral I attended several years ago of a true Christian gentleman.  

The gentleman's name was John Dannelley. I had only talked to him on two occasions. The last time he was undergoing a breathing treatment, but he immediately took off his oxygen mask when he saw me come in, in order that we could visit. This might not seem all that impressive to you, but after visiting a number of people in similar situations, it made an impression on me. You see, John was beginning hospice treatment that day, and he knew that he didn't have much time left. But he took off his mask so that he could make a stranger feel at home.

What I really want to tell you about was his funeral - he had meticulously planned every part of it. He selected the men who would speak and the songs that would be sung. He did so, not because he was a controlling person, but because he had a message that he wanted to be given to his loved ones. In each verse of Scripture read and each word of the songs he selected, it was clear that he was trying to encourage his loved ones to be faithful. He did not want them to miss out on the inheritance of God.

That's impressive! In his last touch with those he loved, he wanted to commend them to God and to God's word of grace, so that they could be built up in such a way as to be in Heaven someday. This is not speculation, by the way. Those who were present in John's Bible school classes during the past 50 years said that he closed each of those classes with the sentiment above. It was a quote from the Apostle Paul. Paul was talking to those he loved at the church in Ephesus for the last time and he commended them to God and His word of grace so that THEY WOULD NOT BE LOST.

This was the sentiment that was on Paul's heart the last time he spoke to those he loved, and it was surely on the heart of John Dannelley as he reached out at his own funeral to those he loved the most. During his final days in that hospital bed, he did not lie there pitying himself, rather, he thought of how he could encourage his family and friends one last time to take their responsibility to God seriously so that they would not be lost. The message was primarily for those who were so very close to John in this life, but it made a deep impression on me.

How about you? Are you taking God's word of grace seriously... or for granted. Are you sanctified and awaiting His inheritance, or are you just floating along through life? We can do whatever we want, but we were called to something better. Now, if I might be so bold as to borrow from the words of two great men, I commend you to God!

And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.

Acts 20:32, KJV