Bigger Than The Grand Canyon

In America, we’re digging a hole bigger than the Grand Canyon.  In Arizona last week the Bible’s teaching about marriage was vetoed.  I understand the reasoning.  I don’t agree with it but I certainly understand it.  The reasoning was to prevent the backlash of protests, financial hurdles, and greatest of all… the Super Bowl might go somewhere else.  I wish there had been a better reason…

I’m not angry.  Not even surprised.  But I can’t believe it’s good for America when the Bible loses and popular opinion wins.  This brief article is not really about the issue of same-sex marriage.  This article is about a slow, down-hill slide away from the absolutes that God established as right and wrong.  My writing is simply an attempt to call anyone who’s interested back to God…back to the Bible…back to morals and values.

I don’t have to be right.  I got over that a long time ago.  I don’t have all the answers…I don’t even understand all the questions.  But what I see is a downward spiral away from God’s design.  I don’t support discrimination against people for reasons of race and sexual preference.  All people are valuable and deserve to be treated fairly.  My problem is when the Bible’s teaching is considered irrelevant in favor of whatever sin is up for a vote.

Some of us used to ask, “What would Jesus do?”  Now we ask, “Does it even matter anymore?”  When presidents, governors, mayors, and other elected leaders are pressured from what appears to be a majority who have forgotten God and a larger majority who really don’t seem to care…what are they to do?  Arizona’s governor did what most any governor would have done.  She is not the problem.  

The problem is bigger than one person.  Here’s the problem(s):  The Bible has become just another book on the shelf.  The church is just another building on the street.  God has become inconvenient and unnecessary. 

Listen to the Psalmist, “But as for me, my feet almost slipped; My steps nearly went astray. For I envied the arrogant; I saw the prosperity of the wicked.” (Psalm 73:2-3)  This is an easy thing to do as we become envious of those who prosper in a lifestyle void of any trust or belief in God.

This a hole bigger than the Grand Canyon…bigger than the state of Arizona…bigger than the issue of same-sex marriage.  Like the Psalmist admitted, and we have gone even further…we have slipped away- fallen away- gotten away from God.  In his day, the prophet Isaiah said it like this, “We all went astray like sheep; We all have turned to our own way…” Isa. 53:6

Jesus said in John 3:17 He was not sent to condemn the world… “but that the world through Him might be saved.”  Jesus is the hope for the world.  May God have mercy on us.  MM