The last time we saw
an age of "no morality" and "no religion" we witnessed the
bloody French revolution. Rationalism
brought with it the loss of religious faith and the era of amorality but there
was no freedom in it. There never is
such a species of man who lives outside law; the morals of the whorehouse are
just as binding as those of the monastery and the debased sorority is far more
dictatorial than any fundamentalist.
Jesus said that out of the heart come
evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony,
slander.(Matthew 15:19 NIV) This is not modern; it is ancient morality
that began in Adam. We all have this
mush of values roiling about below the surface of our consciousness and it is
our moral baseline. The myth of our time
is that we can live above ourselves somehow, beyond the values of our grandparents but it is a
lie. The morality of this age is just as
rigid as that of the Canaanites and Philistines. The drug dealer's moral code is more
fundamental than a Baptist's and of much greater risk to cross. Stalin had the morality of Cain etched upon
his soul; millions would have wished it were instead the morality of
Christ. One's conscience is nothing more
than the biggest values he holds and a conscience is of no use if the morals it
knows are of no higher standard than those of Picasso or Jack London. We do not need a conscience, we need a Savior
and it is the Cross of Christ that dips down below our consciousness and raises
us up to a new morality, one of love and patience and faith. The blood of Christ does not make us more
aware of right and wrong; it buys us back and transforms us that we can begin
to be holy, not out of fear of a rampaging angel but out of a redeemed heart
that has been changed with the heart of God implanted within it. Your thoughts, if you are honest have never
been as warm and cool as a teddy bear; you are more like a snake in your deepest points. Only Jesus Christ can make your thoughts pure
and clean and vibrant with love as you let Him have His way with you. The Lord is not your polish to bring out your
shine, He is the furnace out of which all things are made new. Never put faith in yourself; but always trust
God to make you right.
Trust in God.
Trust also in me. John 14: 1b
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