Is That a Hammer in Your Hand?

"Pounding nails in your coffin!"

It's an expression sometimes used that indicates one is doing something by way of a destructive lifestyle and hastening one's departure from this earthly life. Possibilities are virtually unlimited when it comes to social habits, unholy desires, and fatal involvements in this life -- you know, the kinds of things that lead to an early grave! Sometimes cigarettes have been referred to as "coffin nails" which is a rather accurate comparison!

Worse yet -- the "coffin" of a republic known as the United States of America is being prepared and a majority of us citizens with hammer in hand are pounding the nails!

Equally tragic is the fact that a majority of elected officials from the president all the way down to locally elect to school board members along with church leaders are oblivious to the fact that this is happening. And if you look closely, you will see that they too have hammers in their hands and are making a contribution in pounding a nail or two into our nation's "coffin!"

Here are the "nails" that are being driven, with a brief note about each:

• A confounded love -- "love" that is abused, misused, perverted, and destructive!
  
  
• A conceding church -- due to compromise over decades and persistent denials of core doctrines of the Christian faith, large number of churches find themselves foundering and unable to make a significant impact in a world swamped with over 6 billion people!
  
  
• a contradictory government -- main goals of elected officials, especially at state and federal levels, involve retaining their positions plus the lavish perks and salary increases that they "award" to themselves!
  
  
• a contagion of idolatry -- we have not fashioned a host of idols out of precious metals, stone, or wood, but we have managed to establish a bunch that exhibit defiance of Almighty God in ways that are far worse than the heathen of ancient history!
  
  
• consigned children -- what other nation which makes the audacious claim to being civilized and a "nation under God" has ever brutally mutilated and murdered over 48 million unborn children since January 1973? Name one if you can!
  
  
• a conflagration of immorality -- and what nation making that claim of being one "under God" is sanctioning every type of immoral and abominable sexual activity with examples set by high profile celebrities? And some of this abominable stuff is being increasingly accepted and approved within the ranks of the church which claims to be "Christian" in its faith!
  
  
• contaminated Sabbaths -- Sunday should be renamed "Funday" because that would much more accurately reveal what we have become in the "land of the free and the home of the brave!" Less than half of our population is able to make it to a place and experience of worship on Sunday mornings, and of those who do make it, far too many can't wait to get out of church and on to fun, partying, and keeping up with the latest in professional or college sports happenings!
  
  
• contrived origins -- growing concern has been shown regarding increased violence among our children and youth -- but then, what can we expect? We are teaching the vast majority that they are simply products of an evolutionary process with their roots somewhere in a pool of slime millions of years ago! So if animals figure prominently in our ancestry, why should we not act like animals? One who thinks through this a bit with a view of origins as established by Almighty God will have a whole different perspective about life and its purpose!
  

More details are given about this disaster of the first magnitude which now resembles a cancer in its terminal stages at Driving the Final Nails! A link at the bottom of that area will bring you back to this place.

By the way, is that a hammer I see you holding in your hand? You're not going to use that thing the way most people are doing right now, are you?

The One Withdrawal Nobody Wants to Seriously Consider!

“Withdraw the troops from Iraq soon!” – varied quotes of this kind come from some politicians as well as other persons holding some type of position somewhere within the United States.

Yes, indeed – it is a very hot topic these days throughout the United States with politicians speaking out boldly – persons holding different positions in the mass media – celebrities, ever the self appointed authorities on human behavior, do not hesitate to tell us how it should be – a high pitched chorus that shouts out endlessly that we should withdraw our military people from Iraq!

But there is a far more serious issue on the subject of withdrawal and it doesn’t involve the U. S. military. And that is when God withdraws from a people due to massive rejection of His standards and laws by which a culture must live if it is to remain sane, serene, sensible, stable, and secure for the future.

The deadly assumption by the majority of persons in the United States is that we are under the blessing and special favor of Almighty God. Do you not hear the phrase, "God bless America!", repeated time after time, especially by politicians? Some persons go so far as to say, “We are a Christian nation!”

The Israelites of ancient history demonstrate the fallacy of assuming the nation is in good standing with God when in reality it is far, far from such favor and blessing. The adoption of false idols, child sacrifice, sexual immorality, profaning the day of worship and allowing a spirit of greed and selfishness to dominate their lives paved the way to national suicide!

God stated explicitly that He had withdrawn from them and would not hear their prayers when He brought judgment upon them as a consequence of their determined rebellion against Him in many forms of expression!

We are treading the same path and are guilty of our own brand of idolatry, the destruction of children, a potpourri of sexual immorality, the profaning of the day of worship (less than half our population is in a place of worship each Sunday morning) – and it is plain to see that greed and selfishness often play a major role in the way life is lived on both the personal and corporate levels in the “land of the free and the home of the brave!”

If you haven’t done so, take a look at how we are driving the nails into the coffin of a republic known as the United States of America – go to Driving the Final Nails! -- a link at the bottom of that area will bring you back here.

And if you have seen it before, maybe it would be well to review it again and then go out and sound the warning trumpet! (Isaiah 58:1).

What’s that -- a hammer in your hand?

With their flocks and herds they shall go to seek the LORD, but they will not find Him; He has withdrawn Himself from them. --- Hosea 5:6

Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; nor His ear heavy, that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue has muttered perversity. No one calls for justice, nor does any plead for truth. they trust in empty words and speak lies; they conceive evil and bring forth iniquity. They hatch vipers' eggs and weave the spider's web; he who eats of their eggs dies, and from that which is crushed a viper breaks out. Their webs will not become garments, nor will they cover themselves with their works; their works are works of iniquity, and the act of violence is in their hands. Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood; their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their paths. --- Isaiah 59:1-7

"Therefore I also will act in fury. My eye will not spare nor will I have pity; and though they cry in My ears with a loud voice, I will not hear them." --- Ezekiel 8:18

Then they will cry to the LORD, but He will not hear them; He will even hide His face from them at that time, because they have been evil in their deeds. --- Micah 3:4