Do you receive credit card offers in the mail? Every week, financial institutions do all they can to insure that I use their cards to spend money I don’t have. They offer bonuses, cash back, gifts, low interest rates, free airline tickets and a myriad of other incentives to entice me into debt. Their sales hype focuses on how much I need things and how much I need them now.What’s missing is any reminder that if I do what they suggest, I will be a slave of compound interest and owe my soul to the company store for the rest of my life.

In the same way, sin offers fun on credit. Sin is living in opposition to what God wants for our lives. We can charge today’s pleasures on sin’s credit card. What we need to know is this; one day the bill will come due. Sin may be fun, but sin is never free. Eventually, we will pay. It costs us very dearly. It may cost us our health, our family, our relationships, our jobs, and ultimately our eternal destiny.

The exciting reality is this; we can choose to have our bill paid for us. Wouldn’t that be great? To have someone else completely bail us out of debt?

At a private dinner party, a very important leader of the community invited a great teacher to his home for a dinner party. As all the dignitaries and other important people sat around the table, she walked in. Everyone knew about her. She had quite a reputation. Her credit card was charged to its limit.

The group was mortified as they watched this debtor approach the guest of honor. They were even more embarrassed as she knelt at his feet and began to cry. If that weren’t enough, she kissed his feet, and used her beautiful long hair to wash his feet with the tears, which streamed down her cheeks and fell there. Then she took a very expensive rare perfume and massaged it into his feet.

The host and his guests were absolutely indignant. Imagine a debtor like her walking in without an invitation and beginning to wash the teacher’s feet. Quickly they judged her and condemned her to the status of perpetual debtor without possibility of parole. They showed no compassion for this poor woman. To them, she made her own bed and she had to lay there. She deserved the consequences of her choices. Under their breath, they also condemned the teacher for allowing such a thing to happen.

The teacher responded to her differently. He refused to condemn her. He knew about her life of debt, but he disagreed with the host and leaders who sat around the table. Their ugly comments were spoken out loud as if she were not even there. The teacher gently spoke directly to her, as if she were a real person who was of as much worth as these puffed up conceited men who looked down on her.

Yes she was a debtor. Yes, she chose the lifestyle in which she participated. Yes, she deserved the consequences for her choices. However, this great teacher, Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God, gave her what she did not deserve. “Go in peace, your sin debt is forgiven, it is cancelled.” He gave her grace. He forgave all her debt by agreeing to pay it for her. He gave her a new status in life. That of being totally and completely debt free.

There is not a person here who would not accept all his or her financial debts being paid in full by someone else. In fact, we would stand in line if we knew such a opportunity existed. How about your sin debt? Are you willing to allow that debt to be paid in full by Jesus Christ? He is waiting for you to give him your sin debt so that he can erase it just like he did for the woman in the story. Payment will eventually come due. If you let Jesus pay, you will never have to.

(Luke 7:36-50)

Are we sliding down the slippery slope? Have we plunged over the precipice? Since the 1960’s hedonism, narcissism, and pure selfishness have gained momentum in the cultural morass that defines contemporary America. Those who refuse judgment of personal choices have subtly interjected themselves into every aspect of media, government, and even the religious community. Ideology including, “No harm, no foul,” … “If nobody saw it, it didn’t happen,” and other forms of moral relativism are the predominant mode of cultural thought today.

It’s been said that “you can’t legislate morality.” However, special interest groups are imposing their agendas as they bribe lawmakers and implant those of their own immoral ilk in the legislative and judicial processes of the United States. No matter how blatant the offense or how potentially dangerous to the welfare of regular folks, there is no outcry. I guess if the people of this country are told enough times that character does not matter, indoctrinated with the thought that “It’s the economy, stupid,” shown enough overtly sexually themed sitcoms, movies and commercials, and told to trust the judgment of political and judiciary leaders without question, then we can be brainwashed into accepting all behaviors regardless of the dangers they present.

What happened to good old fashioned traditional values? Have we become so numb to outrageous pursuits that diverting our attention is standard practice? Is there right and wrong? Do individuals have the right to do whatever they want regardless of outcome? If so, then we have lost the battle already. If not, then we who believe that some traditional values are worth fighting for need to pull our heads out of the sand and take a stand for the sake of our children and grandchildren. Let’s take a look at the recent events that have been taking place in the land of “In God We Trust.”

Over 30 million babies have been murdered since 1973. Alternative sexual behaviors have not just been put in the open for all to see, San Francisco, Massachusetts, and now Connecticut have rewritten the definition of marriage. San Francisco has already legalized marijuana (supposedly for medical purposes), and is now also seeking to regulate a legalized form of prostitution. Recently, school in San Francisco sponsored a field trip during which young elementary students were bussed to a location so that they could witness their lesbian teacher wed her lesbian lover. Is this a valid use of educational funds? If those same children had been transported a teacher’s church for a lesson about abstinence, would the field trip have been accepted as educational? Which states will follow their lead on this?

Now we are faced with a major move towards easing regulations on gambling in Maryland as we are sold a bill of goods concerning the glorious benefits of slot machines for the purpose of alleviating our budget shortfalls. According to the governmental leadership of this state, the benefits far outweigh the potential detriment that might occur. Who will pick up the pieces of the families that are broken? Who will counsel the addicts who spend their savings, lunch money, rent and utility money, and bring untold damage to the children of this community? Why can’t government live on a budget like responsible people do? Throwing money at a problem often does not cure the problem. The proceeds of slots are supposed to benefit education. We as Americans spend more money per student than any other country in the industrialized world, yet our students continue to lag behind other nations. Maybe the problem is not money, but a combination of the destruction of the traditional nuclear family, bad curriculum or less than proficient educators.

The only group of people in our modern culture who must not be treated with respect or political correctness are those of us with traditional American moral values, and especially those who are conservative Christians. We promote the importance of traditional moral values, parental involvement in the lives of children, common sense in regards to fiscal responsibility, restraint and responsibility in regards to personal behaviors, and the belief that others matter as much as we matter to God. Sadly, though, some groups that claim to be “Christian” are marching in lock step with those who perpetuate some of the behaviors mentioned previously. They preach the same doctrine of tolerance, and are in fact, as boisterously intolerant of their detractors as their secular cronies seem to be. Behaviors that directly oppose the plain teaching of scripture are embraced so that no accusation of moral judgment can be leveled.

Where will it end? Will we sit by silently as all of our traditional values and rights are bartered away or legislated out of existence? Will we sit still as the one armed bandits rob our community of what little dignity it still has? Will we hold those in office to a standard similar to the one on which our great nation was founded? Will we provide a free- for- all where the needs, wants, and desires of the few override the health and prosperity of the many? It has been said that “the philosophy of the classroom in one generation will be the philosophy of the government in the next.” If we don’t do something now, what will the future hold for upcoming generations?

Ron Yost

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