Getting Used To The Dark

   Vance Havner told of visiting a dimly lit restaurant with a friend.  Vance commented to him, "It is so dark in here I can't read the menu."  The friend replied, "You will get use to the dark."
     Something like that has happened all across our country, we have got used to the dark.  We have become accustomed to the ever changing society that we live in.  We watch things on television that thirty years ago we would have blushed if we had seen the same thing while in mixed company.  The decency standard has been lowered to the point that it often is embarrassing.  You now can see more cleavage in church than you once could see on television.  And that is just one thing we have grown accustomed to seeing.  Divorce at one time was an embarrassment to a family, it is the accepted norm now.
     Do you remember the emotion that was aroused over the Roe vs Wade decision.  It was unthinkable that a woman could end a baby's life.  Now it is done thousands of time each year.  So becoming accustomed to that thought, we precede to having the baby be partially born and then we kill it.  That is acceptable with many.  Read the reports of the votes of Obama when he was first in politics and you will readily see that not only is he in favor of partial-birth abortions but in favor of killing one that accidentally survives the botched abortion.
     Under no circumstance am I in favor of abortion except when the mother's life is in danger, but I almost wish we could back up things just a little and have the mother of all of these abortionists have the same believe as they have and then they would have been aborted and the world would be a much better place.
     Something like that happens in our churches on a regular basis.  A person gets saved during the revival with large crowds present, sees the same good attendance on Sunday Morning and then looks around on Wednesday night and asks where are the people who have been Christian a long, long time.  What would you tell him, "Don't worry you will get over it, too?"
     God, have mercy on us.

Alibi, Lullaby, By-and-by

   Often preachers do their best to persuade people to follow a prescribed series of things to do to assure them to succeed and not fail, often to no avail.  Allow me the opportunity to take a different approach, which I guarantee to have results.  My prescription that will guarantee you to fail follows three options: alibi, lullaby, and by-and-by.
     I would suggest that the first thing you do is be ready to provide yourself with an alibi  Someone has suggested that the definition of an alibi is an antiseptic a coward administers to himself in the face of duty.  The use of the alibi has been around since the beginning of time.  Adam said, "The woman you gave to be gave me and I ate.  Eve said, "The serpent gave to me and I ate."  Moses said in so many words that he could not speak.
     Today one says, I don't go to church because there are too many hypocrites in the church.  Another says he does not like the preacher.  Another says they always ask for money.  I wonder why they continue to go to the stores to shop because there are always many hypocrites there and they always ask for money.  Some do not take an active roll because they are too young yet, Samuel was only eight years old when he became a prophet.  Others are too old yet Moses was eighty when he began the task of leading the children of Israel into the promised land.  If you want a recipe to fail begin by providing yourself an excuse.
     Next, surround yourself with a lullaby.  A lullaby is usually considered to be a tune that will lull babies to sleep.  I think that is what has happened to millions in America today.  We have allowed the modernistic movement that destroys morals and the initiative to succeed to lull us to sleep.  If you had told me when I graduated from high school that I would live to hear the cry across America to "Kill the babies and save the owl", I would have told you that you were crazy.  If you want to be a failure allow the world to lull you to sleep.
     Finally, develop a by-and-by attitude.  Don't do anything today that can be put off until tomorrow.  Always plan to do what is needed tomorrow, next week or sometime by-and-by.  Tomorrow is only found on the fools calendar.  Tomorrow the addict will reform.  Tomorrow the shiftless and lazy will get a job.  But they fail to understand that the today is the tomorrow they looked for yesterday.
     It is a guaranteed prescription--follow these and you are sure to be a failure.