Sleepwalking into Oblivion

One of my favorite Bible teachers, Bob Mumford, once said "The gods of this age are personal peace and prosperity."

The god of prosperity is relatively easy to identify. We find this idol in our larger than needed homes, our late model SUVs, Lexus's, and Mercedes Benz's, our iPods, our new HDTV setups, and (insert your favorite materialistic toy here).

But what is meant by the "god" of personal peace? Recently, Mumford began to recast this idol as the god of "undisturbed." In other words, "I don't want to be bothered."

In simple terms, we Americans are often guilty of saying, "Give me my stuff and leave me alone."

As comforting as material blessing and living our lives without conviction or responsibility may appear to be, the collective end will be national and cultural oblivion.

To step into oblivion is to forget, to practice indifference, to neglect history, to make void the legacy of our forefathers, to disappear from the scene.

I mourn that the generations coming up behind us have very minimal connection with our nation's great story. I ache for my children and grandchildren to know the America I knew as a child, the America I read about and learned about and sang about in school.

It wan't perfect, but it was far better than anything else going on in this world. And it still is.

I anguish over lost civility.

Our culture has lost much of its salt. There is little remaining to keep it from spoiling, from perishing.

"Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he." Proverbs 29:18

"My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children." Hosea 4:6

What a horrific thought: that God would forget our children!

Let us remember and obey the law of the Lord, His Word, His lifegiving, sustaining Word.