All too often we hear the "calming" drone of the scared, the pretenders, the politically correct, those who might call themselves Christians but are only casual, cultural believers… they want peace at all costs, no confrontation over evil, no statement of right and wrong, not even a hint of absolutes. Ironically, they are often incredibly vocal about how "absolutely wrong" we are in thinking that there are indeed absolutes in the world. Sometimes they are vocally outside the church but think that they have a right to tell us how to obey a Christ they know NOTHING about. Indeed, the church is assaulted on all sides with this drivel; harried, harassed and harangued with a steady stream of invective designed to get us to shut up and fade away into the night leaving the world to play its games and worship its idols. Idols such as "freedom of choice" which is doublespeak for freedom to murder for convenience; idols such as sexual deviance thinly veiled as "freedom to love", another doublespeak; and idols such as a false god who wears names in all religions and who is really one god that can be reached by any path someone dreams up - a lie from the pit of hell itself! … the problem is this: we do not make up the absolutes that define what is true and what is not, and because God Himself DOES make up the absolutes that we are commanded to obey, we are not ever free to ignore them without great risk and terrible cost to ourselves. Those who only want peace, who only want to avoid any conflict and who want the church to be silent on the issues that are destroying our nation tell us that God is only love, with no judgement and no wrath… but here is the truth. God does love! He loves enough to judge, loves enough to correct and loves enough to punish. He loved enough to send His Son to die for our sin, but made no other path; and further, neither will MAKE nor ALLOW ANY other path to restore sinners to Himself. And to ignore what He has given and pretend that there is another path is so far from love as to be hatred… to tell others that such things are ok in the sight of God is the single most hateful thing you could ever do to them. Paul was provoked at the sin he saw around him; he was provoked on behalf of God but he was also provoked at the danger he saw which threatened to destroy the men around him. So he spoke the truth of Christ to the men of Athens, many were offended and shouted angrily at him, but many others were saved. Paul acquitted himself of the blood of all of them by speaking the truth regardless of how they received HIM… Beloved, I fear that the blood of this nation will be on our hands and we will be found guilty of their ruin… Let us risk offending them and speak the truth without rancor and without fear! May Christ be honored in our words!!