We Have Arrived

The Wake-up Herald

And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof. Romans 13:11-14

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Robert McCurry, Editor & Publisher
September 13, 2013
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We have Arrived

By Coach Dave Daubenmire

This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.  For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. 2 Tim 3:1-5

I often tell folks that even if you don’t believe the Bible is God’s Word you would have to admit that it is dead-on in its foretelling of where man’s natural inclinations will lead.

A heart, unrestrained by the power of the Holy Spirit will tend towards darkness. As we are learning daily as we witness the rearing of our grand-daughter, teaching children to do what is right is a full-time job.

Sin seems to come naturally to children. All good parents understand that proper child-training requires constant monitoring in order to “train a child in the way he should go.” Disobedience doesn’t have to be taught. Obedience does. Without the moral guidelines established by parents, children will tend to their more animalistic nature.

I guess we shouldn’t be surprised. If we teach children that they came from monkeys we shouldn’t be surprised when they act like animals. Not every “natural behavior” is good. That is what parenting is all about…reinforcing acceptable, moral behaviors and discouraging unacceptable moral behaviors. Being “born that way” does not make behavior acceptable.

For instance, children must be potty trained. The urge to expel waste is natural, but not every means of eliminating waste is acceptable. The sexual desire is a natural urge, but parents train their children to control the behavior going as far as to teach them that monogamy is the proper borders of the sexual urge.

The natural urge of a young man is to copulate with as many young women as he possibly can. Our society once promoted a “moral code” that frowned on such rabbit-like sexual proclivities.

Today that moral code is under attack like no time in American history. Just ask any God-fearing parent about the difficulty of teaching purity to a teenager in a culture where they are led to believe that “everyone is doing it.”

But one of the more sinister affects of the loss of moral standards in America is the turning-on-its-head attack on Christian values to the point where healthy “born that way” behaviors are giving way to the lawlessness of lasciviousness. Because good has become evil, and abnormal has become normal, more and more young people are losing their spiritual moorings.

Look around and you will begin to see that a people who reject the teachings and protections of God’s moral laws will soon find themselves without “good” behaviors that we all once thought were normal.

Twenty-five years ago or so, when I first began to read the Word of God, I was struck by how clear and sensible the moral code was. In fact, when I first read the phrase “without natural affection” I immediately assumed that The Lord was talking about homosexual behaviors. Say what you will, the sex act between two men is certainly not natural. We are not talking sin here folks…we are talking nature and our natural urges.

But “natural affection” is not necessarily sexual in its most common application. Affection is a natural urge, but affection does not always involve sex. Affection is an emotion that in most instances has nothing to do with physical attraction.

It is quite normal to have affection for an animal, a football team, a song or singer, or even a particular place in time. Affection springs out of a natural emotional attachment towards a person, thing, or experience.

But our morally confused cultural has continually gravitated towards unnatural affections… emotional attachments…and away from attachments to things that was once considered wholesome.

This came home to me one day as I stood outside of an abortion clinic begging a young girl to not murder her unborn child. I turned to my wife and said:

“How did we get to the point where a woman no longer had a maternal love for her child? Shouldn’t loving a child be something that just comes naturally?”

That is when it hit me…without natural affection. Killing an unborn baby is not even natural. The same women who parade into those killing centers probably have greater love for the puppy that they have in their apartment than they do for the precious child swimming around in their womb.

They love their dog more than they love their child. That isn’t even natural.

And then I look around at the people who fall all over themselves caring for their own puppies while ignoring the plight of the unborn children. Americans spent more than $53 billion on pets last year while children in the community go hungry. I’m sorry, but that isn’t natural.

Pornography is big business and it is another outgrowth of Americans moving away from “natural affection.” Porn is 100% self centered. There is no gratification and no communication between the image on the screen and the image in one’s mind. There is nothing that has done more to defile the marriage bed than the stranger that many men invite into the bedroom when they “make love” to their wife.

Receiving sexual gratification from an image on a computer screen is unnatural. Isolated, self-pleasing sex is the rotten fruit of self-love

Yet the porn industry is more lucrative than all of the major sports combined. “Dirty movies” used to be the bailiwick of macho-men. Today, feminized women are dialing up Debbie Does Dallas at astounding rates. That’s unnatural.

Americans used to care about their fellow man. Today, many of us don’t even have a relationship with our neighbors. It is not natural affection.

We are oblivious to the effect that drones have on innocent people in foreign lands. We used to care about innocent victims. We turn a blind eye and call it “collateral damage.” Not Natural.

Our leaders get all bent out of shape about the killing of children in Syria with chemical weapons and ignore the millions killed by chemicals in abortions in America. Male-emasculation teaches us all that a woman’s career is more important than a baby’s life. That’s unnatural.

Over 90% of Christian parents send their kids to government schools where the values they teach in their homes are undermined daily. Government schools teach that there is no God, that there is no absolute truth, that homosexuality is normal and should be accepted, that man evolved from pond scum, that all beliefs are equal in stature, and that man is the ultimate decider of all things. Why would a parent put a child in a school where someone else’s values would be taught to them? Could it be because they love money and the toys it supplies more than they love their children’s soul? That’s not natural affection.

In Mathew 24 Jesus expounds on what is commonly known as “the end of the age.” One of the signs that Jesus listed was “because lawless will abound the love of many will grow cold.”

The lawlessness is abounding in this land. The political and the powerful live by a different set of rules. It is causing Americans to lose their heart.

Everyone is out for his own good. We have forgotten the admonition to love our neighbor as we do ourselves. We have lost the meaning of sacrificial love.

We love ourselves too much.

Don’t even get me started on tattoos and body piercings…

By Coach Dave Daubenmire, September 12, 2013, NewsWithViews.com

Wake-up, Pastors! Wake-up, Christians!

The Wake-Up Herald is published by Robert McCurry. The publication is designed to exalt the true God of the Bible, the Lord Jesus Christ, and inform, inspire, and challenge its readers regarding biblical truth and real-life issues. The contents are the sole responsibility of Robert McCurry and do not represent or speak for or on behalf of any other person or group. There is no subscription charge. The publication is a ministry of faith dependent on the contributions of its readers. Contributions are not tax-deductible. Send all correspondence to: Robert McCurry, 605 Moore Rd, Newnan, GA 30263 or herbap@aol.com Remove? Send reply with “remove” in Subject line