Day 63: Losing Control

This little hunk of plastic and wires is probably a well sought over item in most homes today. Well, probably most U.S. homes, that is. Without going into a schpiel about the "good ol' days", I'll just say that I can remember when I was the remote control, when my dad would say, "get up and change the channel". I would then have to stand up, walk 4 or 5 feet to the 19" black and white TV set that was setting on top of a non-working console TV and using my hand, grab a channel selector and with a flick of the wrist turn that selector until a new channel came into view. Now, back in that ancient time we only had 4 channels - ABC, CBS, NBC and KET (educational).

Oh how times have changed. Now if a remote control is misplaced it seems like the whole house ceases to operate. Everyone stops what they are doing, picks up coaches, sticks their hands in between seat cushions, pick up items that haven't been moved in months looking for a convenience device that keeps you from having to get up from your resting spot. So goes the life cycle of the American population. Convenience first, then everything else.

I do not necessarily yearn for the "good ol' days", but I do want to see a return to the morality of that time period. As kids we could play outside from sunup until sundown without worry of some crazy person abducting us. Children would walk a quarter mile to their bus stop and stores would be open from 1:00 - 5:00 on Sundays )if at all) to allow their employees the opportunity to go to church. Now Sunday is just another day of the week and for a majority a lazy day off of work or a recuperation day from the previous nights festivities.

Gone are those days, but I think the values need to make a return. Not sure why they left in the first place. It is a conundrum for me to think about "did society's fall from values cause all of the current lack of concern and evilness to be rampant or did the evilness that is rampant cause society's fall?" It is a hard call, but just proves that the slippery slope of sin, once society starts slipping, will not stop. A frequent reminder of the depraved minds and spirit of men (and women). We are born with an innate desire to please ourselves through sinning and most of us do it quite well. We are in need of outside sources to change us, because we do not want to change. We want to sin, we love to sin and we will continue to do so til we die. Problem is we sin against a Holy God and we need Him to "fix" that sin nature. We need salvation, not only from hell, but from our sinfulness against God.

What can we do to save ourselves? Nothing. We are dead in our sins, dead men. Have you ever seen a dead man will himself back to life? It is not possible. We need life and the life is through Christ to save us from hell and more importantly from a life of sinning against the Creator, God of all. How? By repenting and trusting in Jesus as our Savior. The Spotless Lamb that was slain for our sins, not a single sin. He willingly bore our sins as the Perfect Sacrifice and appeased the Father of His rage against any who Trusts in Him.