A voice crying out in the wilderness, speaking truth, yet mostly unheard.

Unheard ...???

It is so sad when there are voices crying out ...not for equal pay, not for more union privileges, not for free benefits ...not crying, as in volume of your message.  I mean, crying out in pain ...like the starving Haitian child that hasn't been able to eat in days, except dirt cookies, which swell the stomach to give temporary relief before going to sleep.  Later that night, it causes intestinal obstruction, and the child is left screaming with no hope of rellief.

Which example is one that takes place in an uncivilized nation?

Consider the pain of a child left alone, having witnessed the death of her parents ...as a rebel group terrorizes her small village.


Just today I read of a 3-year-old girl and her younger sister who had wet the bed.  Their mom, who is an elementary school teacher, and her boyfriend had been drinking together ...so when they discovered the wet sheets, they left the two girls locked in the bedroom with the window open to the outside temperatures of 30 degrees below zero.  The 3-year-old died, and the other is in the hospital suffering from hypothermia.


That second example was in the United States of America.

And this is no fluke ...we should consider it no unlikely occurrence that a college student spends all evening in a hospital, with excruciating pain, the night before her exams, because she couldn't get proper medical treatment, merely because the government dictates they will not pay for it.  That should not be!!

Let's step aside from that issue for a moment ...

Suppose that the speed limit is 35mph in a certain neighborhood.  A bicyclist attempts to cross the road without looking.  The car going 35mph hits the bicycle.  Miraculously, the young bicyclist flies through the air, landing on his feet, uninjured, and in the next lane. A semi-truck strikes the young man, instantly killing him.  A police report is filled out, and it is determined that if the car had been going 70mph, the bicyclist would have been thrown onto the boulevard, and though he might have sustained some injuries, he would be alive.  Now, let me say, this is not justification for changing the speed limit to 70mph in that neighborhood.

And back to the contraceptives issue, the poor girl who was described to be in intense pain, should be able to get her medication, just like a Haitian should be able to get something other than a dirt cookie, and no written law or government should interfere with medical necessity.  But this by no means justifies paying $3,000 each year for contraceptives to be supplied to every student who feels they have freedom of choice.

We must all survive, but we must agree it should be together ...and not at the expense of hurting others.  But it should not be at the expense of allowing someone to recklessly hurt themselves either ...and causing generations of hurt upon society at the same time.

There is evil in this world ...because evil exists.  It exists largely because we allow it to exist.  And we allow it to exist because it is part of each and every one of us.  But it doesn't have to be the part within us that emerges as the victor.  There is also good ...and it is a part of each and every one of us.  We are all born with goodness, but from that moment on, we can also be taught not to be good.  It becomes really problematic when our idea of good consists of increasing tolerance for that which is not good.  We should all practice tolerance, but not to the extent of blind permissiveness of anything we deem as a freedom or right.

Jesus stood before a woman who was about to be stoned.  There was no availability of contraceptives then ...and it is not difficult to tell whether a woman is pregnant, her appearance usually bears out that fact.  But this was not one of those cases.  It didn't matter whether contraceptives could have prevented the revelation of the act ...the woman was brought before Jesus, having been caught in the very act.

How did Jesus react?

Jesus said, "He who is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone at her."  Being convicted by their own conscience, they left, one by one.  Then Jesus said to the woman, "Neither do I condemn you; go, and sin no more."

I am not taking this out of context ...I did shorten it, but I didn't take it out of context.  Jesus said He didn't condemn her, but He didn't say He condoned her actions ...He said to go, and sin no more. Jesus called it sin ...make no mistake that He considered relations, like that which the woman was caught in the act of, outside of marriage ...as sin.  But she was caught in the act with who?  When they brought the woman to Jesus, why did they not bring the man also?  Do you think they had to answer that within themselves, as one by one they tossed down their stones and left?  Yes, each time, in this situation ...the man sins too.

There are religions who feel justified in taking a life, in these circumstances, yet we vocally protest more when someone merely calls it sin, following Jesus' example by not condemning the person, but merely calling sin ...sin.  Why is that?

And when someone sincerely stands for the principals that Jesus has taught us, what do we see ...hate and filth thrown like never before.  Is this how far we've come ...that we viciously defend sin?

If there is so much hatred towards God, that truth no longer stands for anything (within that hate-filled mind) ...and every attack is so reckless, that openness and reason is not merely a reverse accusation, but ammunition to combat what we don't want to hear ...then we're already well on our way (or unwell) to not only corrupting ourselves, but to destroying our children.  

We shouldn't joy in someone else's loss or pain.  Do many of us do that?  If I do that, I'd not be able to sleep at night?  Don't you do that either, because when you do ...you only inhale the deceit that inclines you to exhale the hate, that you evidently don't see.  Those who've done it so long, consider it merely breathing?

When I saw the burning of the Twin Towers, in 2001, I saw a hate that is not a part of me.  When our nation pursued those who were responsible, I saw the necessity in it, but I did not celebrate in their capture and death.

I can perhaps feel some relief in situations where good has to triumph over evil ...but there is also sadness, because people are involved.  I've sat in on conferences, on psychiatric teams that delved into the reasons why people do what they do ...so I know many of the reasons; I do sincerely understand!  But what I also understand is that wrongdoing has to be stopped.

I would prefer the evil-doer turn from their evil  ways, but if their pursuit of anger proves to be fatal for them ...I will be relieved for the end of that portion of evil, but I will not celebrate.

What I get particularly bothered by ...is when sincere people attempt to do what they feel is right, and get condemned for it.  And it is when this condition exists ...that confusion is often presented to mask our adversary's work, depicting sincere people as the enemy.

But I also can't help think about something else.  I would in no way make this judgment, but I do think about it. I think about it because I see how God has sometimes dealt with His people in the past.  In the Book of Judges, God often allowed other nations to rise up against His people because they had fallen away from Him.  The purpose I saw in this was not in favoring the nation that rose up ...but to show God's people where they went wrong, before restoring His people.  So, it was for the purpose of learning and restoring ...not changing to something new.  What are we to learn? 

Yes, as I said before, there is a religion that opposes Christianity, one that is not fond of our nation ...yet, whose faith has somehow gained increased respect and tolerance within our society. That religion has strict rules against things we've come to be very tolerant of ...inclusive of not only homosexuality, but also many acts outside of marriage. And again, as I said, a Christian is often labeled as intolerant, or a hater ...for merely calling those things sin, while the other religion has been known to kill in response to such promiscuous behavior. I ask again, why would calling something sin ...be more offensive than killing someone?? And what are we to learn from this religion rising up against our nation?

Call me what you may, we have a growing problem in our nation, one that does not get any better by expanding our acceptance of it. And there are many social ills that are a by-product of our failures to address those issues.

When I worked with teenagers at the State Hospital, one Mom arrived on a Friday to take her daughter on a pass.  She signed the paper for the weekend pass, and was about to leave when the nurse said, "Wait, you don't have her medication!"

The mom stopped short, and said:

"My daughter is not on any medication!"

The nurse handed her the birth control package, and stated:

"You know your daughter has been active!"

Mom firmly replied:

"Yes, but my daughter knows that I am against that ...and I will not agree to support it in any way!  If she chooses to go against my wishes, she knows of ways to get her own protection.  But I will not be a part of giving the message that it is okay!"

I silently applauded that Mom.  It is wrong, and we have not taken much of a stance against it ...and promiscuity involving high school age students has risen to staggering numbers.  Should we turn a blind eye to it, and all the social problems associated with it?

I cannot see covering a $3,000 annual cost for every college student's supposed cultural behavior ...as if their wayward expectations are mandated college requirements.  Do you think that with the continuing inequality of accepted responsibility, the male should perhaps pay for it?  But, actually we all are paying for it in so many ways we choose not to acknowledge. Personally, I think the activity should not even take place ...it is still wrong, it is sin!

I think having the government pay for it is as absurd as asking the government to give an equal amount of money to any person going through their supposed mid-life crisis, so they can take out a young woman to dinner a couple times per week ...to account for the cost of an affair.

Should the government exempt everyone from paying tuition while going to a college that promotes such bent ideologies?  Better yet, should the government exempt everyone from paying taxes, so they don't feel tempted to cheat on them?

Or perhaps the government should contribute to one's drug habit, not to slight that habit while favoring a sexual one.  Should the government subsidize drug addictions?

Okay, enough with the absurdities ...

Sorry, but though you may clearly see some of these scenarios as wrong ...they are all wrong, they are all sins.  This is my strong passionate belief, and I will say that it needs to be taken seriously ...but I offer it as a plea, not as condemnation.  Can't you see the difference?  The IRS wouldn't say, "Neither do I condemn you; go, and sin no more."

Human nature may say, whatever you can get away with ...pursue it.  But a Christian is, in many circles, not a popular person ...because they perhaps don't want to get away with it, as it would be getting away from God.  (And really, we don't get away with it ...it's not beyond His perception.)

For some, guilt by association when combined with comfort in numbers ...minimizes guilt by saying everyone is doing it.  But everyone is guilty ...yet, we are still told to go, and sin no more.

All this is not really a summary of this third book.  To tell you the plot would ruin any suspense I could possibly hope for.  Sorry, but I've used this space to talk about something that concerns me ...it doesn't concern me more than anything else in the whole world, and I'm not trying to isolate only the issues I use as examples, they are just the current ones as I am typing.  But now, I will attempt to finally give you a quick summary of the stories that are in these books.  This third book brings sort of a conclusion to the life of Maggie Major ...described in book # 2, entitled, The Curious Whether and How.  Ruth, whose life is most prevalent in book # 1, entitled, So Loved ..., makes a decision that sort of directs the path of her life from this point on ...into the fourth and final book, entitled, The Evolution of Confusion.  So this third book creates a sort of happy ending for one, and a workable path for another.

The point is, we should never give up.  We need to grow up, but part of that includes realizing that which we should pursue, and that which we shouldn't.

Regardless of whether we are heard ...we may indeed be a voice crying out in the wilderness, with seemingly no one hearing us, but we can learn something from the birds, and still sing our song.  God also created us ...and we are to sing our praises, glorifying Him.