April 6
Judges 19:1-21:25
Are we morally dead in our nation? Is there even a point that we will say, "Enough is enough"? There is no more moral outrage. LGBTQ is now being taught in elementary schools to our innocent and unsuspecting children. Anyone with even the most minute moral compass must be able to see this as a completely godless direction. But it moves forward. Not that teachers and parents agree, but for the sake of maintaining job security and for the purpose of not making things uncomfortable with their children's relationships it is allowed to move forward. Abortion has moved from the first trimester, to the second trimester, now in New Jersey and other states throughout the entire forty weeks, and now being voted on in a couple of states until 28 days after birth. But there are doctors who are willing to perform this, patients who are willing to have them done, and right before our eyes we are condoning infanticide. In the name of safety and for the greater good patients died alone, without loved ones. In the name of safety the vaccine is being pushed on those down to the age of 6 months. This despite the fact that children are largely not harmed by this disease, and it is adults that spread it to children and not the other way around (as opposed to diseases like the flu). Children are being sacrificed for the seemingly "greater good" of the parents, grandparents, and society as a whole. What are we to do? How about we try with something. If we fear what will happen to us, then we will continue to move in "tolerance" and "compromise" bringing us one rung more godless than the day before. Has our nation so effectively rendered us so self-centered that moving forward in courage for others become a thing of the past. Since this is now our nation, the godless cesspool that it is, how are we different than those godless societies in the past which were judged for their moral degradation.
The last story in Judges truly shocked me when I read this for the first time over 30 years ago. I couldn't believe that such things could happen in the times of the Bible. In short, a Levite, which is supposed to be the most set apart for God of the tribes, is with a concubine, not a wife. Then he finds himself in a town where the men of the town want to rape the man. The concubine is sent out instead. She is then raped all night long and eventually dies in front of the door of the Levite. He then coldly and unemotionally takes her body, brings it home and cuts it into twelve pieces and sends it to the twelve tribes of Israel. But in this morally depraved society we read the response in Judges 20:6-9, "So I took hold of my concubine, cut her in pieces, and sent her throughout all the territory of the inheritance of Israel, because they committed lewdness and outrage in Israel. Look! All of you are children of Israel; give your advice and counsel here and now!” So all the people arose as one man, saying, “None of us will go to his tent, nor will any turn back to his house; but now this is the thing which we will do to Gibeah: We will go up against it by lot." As bad and depraved as they were, at least there was moral outrage. There was a point when they said "enough is enough". It cost them many lives in the process of cleansing the nation of such evil, but they deemed the cost to be worth it.
Back to our nation. Is there anything that would drive us to this point? Compromise is everywhere. Most politicians have compromised. The courts have compromised. Even many churches have compromised. You might not feel called to lead the fight against, but you are called to make personal decisions for yourself and your family. If a parent, you must make the decision to allow your child to attend a school which teaches debased things. As a teacher you must decide if you will teach such things. If a healthcare practitioner you must decide if you will push certain things and go along with them. If each person, in Christ, makes those decisions which He leads you to make, despite the consequences, then we never know what might happen when God's people begin moving according to God's will. We must stop pointing at others, and start pointing at ourselves. Again, you can't do everything, but everyone can do something.
Messages from Pastor Lloyd Pulley: