How often I reach for comfort from the Lord; always finding him at my side!

It usually is when I find myself slipping away from the feeling of his mercy that the reality of my inheritance of original sin presents itself in ways I didn’t expect. Because of the weakness of our first parents, the tempter was able to convince us that God doesn’t care for us. It becomes the path of being in control of how we see ourselves, and slip quickly into sin.

The premise of how weak man is can be seen through the manner he believes that man was created to rule his own destiny; without the help of a divine presence. We like to use the old adage of, “the devil made me do it,”seems to fit without taking responsibility for our own actions. However, it is when man refuses to accept the forgiveness that his Creator willingly hands to each of us, through the Passion of his Son, Jesus Christ. This is a false premise when God is ````placed in an unbelievable quandary by those who will do anything to reduce the truth of what Christ presented to Pilate right before his Crucifixion. (Jn 18: 37 - 38).

Sin is always the one proponent that seeks our adherence by ignoring the reality of God’s never-ending mercy in forgiving our sins before we were born. As I mentioned before, God’s vision of man’s rejection was already in motion before he created us and the only way he could forgive us was to become the ransom to forgive the sin against the divine. It isn’t as though God could have created man without free will, but then man would be like a puppet and never really seek God in eternity on his own. There would then always be the question of man’s true praise for God since he would wait for the strings to control our actions. We would then become a motionless entity and not a willing child of God’s creation.

An answer to all of this is simply a real sign of Love that God IS and our free will stands as a result of our own quest to share forever the only term of accepting God by using the love he handed on to you and me.

What are we, as a Christian nation, to do as the tenets of evil seem to be taking over the morals and hope of the salvation of what is left of what we believe Could we become like Sodom and Gomorrah with God viewing those of us who preach God’s forgiveness as we ask for the righteousness if at least 50 people will you show us mercy? The Lord may answer us as he did to Abraham; if there are at least 50 righteous people I will grant them mercy.

May we become a nation of mercy by turning back to God and finding the Blood of Christ washing away the unrighteousness that appears to be surrounding us now.

I’d like to find the Lord standing by my side along with many other people seeking the righteousness of God through preaching the forgiveness of Christ and announcing the goodness of God so everyone will believe.

We stand as a nation like Nineveh and await the degree of sackcloth and ashes to repent and find the power of the Holy Spirit indwelling in us all to turn back to God’s mercy. Will this happen for all of us before the crisis of apostasy completely takes over us?

Ralph B. Hathaway