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FROM THE MOUNTAIN TOP
Since the fall of man in the Garden of Eden, as portrayed in the book of Genesis, when we come squalling and kicking into this Old World, we bring with us an inherent baggage of both good and evil.
The hardest thing in the world for us to do is to look upon the innocent face of a newly born baby and recognize the potential for evil that exists within this new miracle of life. We simply refuse to see and comprehend the awesome responsibility that we, as parents, have when we bring a child into this world. We tend to resist the wisdom of the ages that has been past down to us, through eons of time, that our children must be disciplined and taught to nurture the good and reject the evil that is present within each of us.
We do not practice preventative maintenance with our children anymore. We fail to teach them the basic truth and wisdom that has been handed down to us by divinely inspired prophets of old. These same basic truths are found in the tenets of all major religions throughout the whole world. They are as necessary to life as bread and water. Mankind cannot exist as a civil entity if he continues to ignore the basic differences between good and evil and fail to pass them to the next generation.
An infant is like a ticking time bomb! From the cradle to adulthood each child needs, requires and deserves the divine guidance exemplified by the moral and ethical lives of our forefathers. Without this divine guidance any child has the capacity to commit the most heinous crimes. These ticking time bombs will explode!
Thirty odd years ago we started ‘doing our own thing.’ Individually and collectively we have drifted on a down hill spiral into amorality and secularism. We simply could care less about right or wrong as long as we are able to enjoy the luxuries and all the creature comforts available to a prosperous people through the miracle of technology.
The basic standard for moral conduct of civilized people has been the Ten Commandments which were etched in stone by the almighty hand of God himself! They were brought down from the mountain top by Moses and presented to the children of Israel.
Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image.
Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Honor thy Father and thy Mother.
Thou shalt not kill.
Thou shalt not commit adultery.
Thou shalt not steal.
Thou shalt not bear false witness.
Thou shalt not covet.
There are no substitutions for these rules in any civilized society. Our children are killing each other in record number and we wring our hands and ask why. We cannot understand that we have, in the past thirty or forty years, forsaken the basic rules of civilization. We, to put it very simply, failed in our responsibility to teach our children the difference between right and wrong. We are now reaping a whirlwind!
We must ask ourselves – how many gods have we placed before Him? How many idols have we made for ourselves? How many times do we misuse the name of the Lord our God? Do we keep the Sabbath holy? Do we truly honor our parents? How much murder do we carry around in our heart? How many of us commit adultery? What have we stolen today? How many lies have we told and who’s property do we covet?
How can we expect our children to obey the rules when we fail to set a good example?
The answer to our dilemma cannot be found with the psychologists, the psychiatrists or any other professional councilors. It lies where it always has, within our churches, our synagogues and our mosques.
We are in dire need of a religious revival. In fact, it is necessary for our survival as a nation!
I hiked up to the mountain top
And sat there on a stone.
When suddenly I realized;
This spot could be God’s throne!
I could see the natural beauty
And I could hear the angel’s sing.
If this was not His special place
Then this was the next best thing!
In the midst of all the beauty
On that stony mountain crest
Was a panoramic view in time
Of man’s eternal quest
To find a lenient god somewhere
That will cater to his needs,
Then treat him as an equal
And ignore his evil deeds!
I could see the super highway
In the valley down below;
All speeding signs had been removed
And the traffic seemed to flow
On a one-way trip to somewhere,
Toward a distant neon aura
Reflected in the scattered clouds
Above Sodom and Gomorrah!
I could see a red brick courthouse
In a town not far away,
Where the Ten Commandments, framed in gold
Were proudly on display!
When suddenly a judge appeared
And smiled as he decreed,
"Rip those words from yonder wall;
They’re not fit for us to read!"
I see the abortion clinic
On a dead-end street named Strife,
As young girls by the dozen
Discard an unborn baby’s life!
And sometimes I detect a tear
On a face, so young, so frail,
As Doctor Death cast the last remains
Into a cold white garbage pail!
In a little country school house
Beneath a spreading white oak tree,
Is a teacher from Gomorrah
Claiming he is not yet free!
He revels in his life of sin
And with actions and with voice,
He denies our God’s most precious gift
That we always have a choice!
I heard the teacher tell her class
To write about their own hero.
So, a young girl wrote of Jesus Christ
And a life lived long ago!
The teacher told her she was wrong
And threw a loud tirade;
She embarrassed her before her peers
And bestowed a failing grade!
In a large town meeting building
The people came to hear
The leader of our nation
Speak of things we all hold dear!
But he spoke of things he had not done
And things he had not tried.
Devoid of truth and honor,
He stood right there and lied!
I could see the yellow ribbons
Of a crime scene down below
And a young boy locked in handcuffs
As his tears began to flow.
But in the blood-stained bedroom
Seasoned policemen sat and cried
Midst the horror of his violence
As the young boy’s mother died!
On that sunny Sabbath morning
I heard no church bells chime;
But, from the stadium roar below,
I knew it was kickoff time!
I could see the filled-up parking lot
At the mall outside of town,
And the moneychangers smiled with glee
As they marked the discounts down!
I watched the sinful scenes below
From my nest high in the sky.
And with a sorrow old as time,
I could not help but cry.
Most all God’s children now had fled
Despite the promises He’s kept,
And in that moment there in time
I knew that Jesus wept!
Then I saw a narrow roadway
Off the highway there below,
Leading to a country church house,
And the small crowd seemed to grow.
They were shouting "Hallelujah!"
They sang "How Great Thou Art!"
I knew that He had heard them
And they would mend his broken heart!
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