Dear Partner,

It seems undeniable to me that the United States of America is moving farther and farther away from God. All of my life I have considered it to be a Christian nation. Recently I woke from sleep hearing these words being spoken in my mind, "God gave them up." Recognizing the familiar voice of the Holy Spirit desiring to teach me something, I searched the New Testament and found only two passages that contain those precise words. They are:

Acts 7:42-43   Then God turned, and gave them up to worship the host of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets, O ye house of Israel, have ye offered to me slain beasts and sacrifices by the space of forty years in the wilderness? Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god Remphan, figures which ye made to worship them: and I will carry you away beyond Babylon.

Romans 1:24-28   Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: 25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. 26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: 27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. 28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient. (Even though Rom 1:28 is translated as "God gave them over" instead of "God gave them up" it is translated from precisely the same Greek words used in the previous verses shown above.)

God suspended the requirement for Israel to offer sacrifices to Him during their forty year journey in the wilderness because of their unsettled state as they followed the cloud from location to location. How did they repay Him for this kindness? Not long after they were in Canaan they began worshipping other gods and offering sacrifice to them. Notice in particular [Acts 7:43] that they took up the tabernacle of the false god Molech. This Molech was the god of the Ammonites, to whom they offered their own children as burnt offerings.

Lev 18:21   And thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Molech, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I am the LORD.

God had warned Israel not to worship false gods but the desire in their heart was so strong He eventually "gave them up" to do what they wanted. In due course judgment came and they were conquered by Babylon. How is that different than our nation today which has legalized the sacrifice of our own children though abortion on demand? The politicians are so skillful using deceitful words such as "a woman's right to choose" instead of saying "a woman's right to sacrifice her unborn child on the altar of pleasure." Current statistics state there are more than 1.21 million abortions in America each year and less than one percent is due to rape. Less than six percent is due to the mother's health being endangered. That means 93 percent of all abortions are for social reasons (meaning the child is unwanted or inconvenient).

The passage in Romans chapter one is unmistakably speaking of the sin of homosexuality and lesbianism. Those practices are completely opposite to how God created human sexuality. God defined marriage as one man and one woman. But people began loving the creature more than the creator. They changed the truth of God's word into a lie. That tactic is as old as the serpent's method in the Garden of Eden when he asked, "Hath God said?" God had said the day they eat of the forbidden fruit they would surely die. The serpent replied, "Ye shall not surely die."

Lev 18:22   Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.

God's Word says it is abomination for man to lie with man as with a woman, yet today the wisdom of the people is choosing the creature over the creator and saying such practices are not sin. The apostle Peter warned believers not to be seduced by such "modern thinking" that would change the truth of God's word into a lie when he wrote:

2 Peter 2:4-6   For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; 5 And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; 6 And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly.

If the nation continues on this path, judgment will one day come. For now we must realize that as Christians we are of a "kingdom" imbedded within a nation that is choosing to walk farther and farther away from God. Our attitude must now be like Daniel's and the Hebrew children as they faithfully served God while living in the heathen land of Babylon. We are to be light in the darkness, love in the midst of hate, no matter the amount of persecution we receive for holding to the truth of God's word.

Sue and I love you and appreciate you.   We thank God for your generous and giving heart.   God bless you!

Your friend and co-laborer,

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