To begin this blog, let us set up an example. Suppose you would like to play baseball on a team or with some friends. They would expect you to play by the rules. The other people playing baseball would not agree if you decided to run the bases backwards. That is, if you ran to third base and then second and then first instead of the proper way as stated in the rules. You would be breaking the rules. The other people would not agree for you to decide to stay at the batter’s box after the umpire said that you had three strikes and were out.
God created the game of life. He is both the umpire and the coach. He tells us what we should do. God also tells us if we have done something wrong. He gave us the Ten Commandments. He gave us other commandments and guidelines. Three thousand years ago Jews were told that they should not eat swine. Now we know the reason for that instruction. There were worms that infected the muscles of the swine creating a condition called trichinosis which could bring great harm to a human. The Bible is the game book for how we should live. If we violate the rules of the game as indicated by the Bible, we will suffer the consequences naturally and, in some cases specifically by God’s wrath.
Our society has created its own game book. Most of society says that promiscuity is acceptable when the Bible says sex outside of marriage is a sin. Another example of the Bible as a playbook is in Romans chapter 1 which plainly says homosexuality is a sin. Our world has gotten so far off the beaten path that this is not true according to many people’s opinion. They change the rules by saying Scriptures like those in Romans were for those days and not now. Then we have the nonsense of a transgender lifestyle. Some people go so far as to have parts of their body surgically altered and have hormones injected into them. What they cannot change is the DNA of their body that says their birth gender is the real gender and no matter what is done that remains the same. We could continue on with examples of how far mankind has gotten away from the Bible and we could talk about crime such as robbery or idolatry or paganism or witchcraft.
Go back to my example of playing baseball by the rules. No one would agree for the batter to run the wrong direction on the diamond. No one would agree for a person to remain at the batter’s box beyond three strikes. How sad it is that many consider the Bible as suggestions and not God’s expectations. We have rationalized society’s standards that are hardly recognizable compared to just a few years ago.
God has been exceptionally and remarkably patient with us! It is almost astounding that he has not brought upon us the same as he did to Sodom and Gomorrah. The solution is quite simple. Renew our relationship with him on an honest basis using the Bible as our playbook and not society’s norm. The only way for us to get God’s blessing for our nation and our world is for us to rededicate ourselves to his service and ask forgiveness of our sin and being wayward from him. If it says something in the Bible, that’s what we should do. What it says in the Bible for right and wrong, that’s by what we should obey.
Christian Writer 