Obey the Rules!

Obey the Rules!
My wife and I have been watching the World Series as the San Francisco Giants and Texas Rangers try to see who can win the most games. Have you ever thought about what makes watching a baseball game enjoyable? What is it that makes us want to watch football, basketball, soccer, even tennis or most any other sport? Why do we like to observe as one individual or team competes against another in an effort to win or gain some prize?

Let me ask the same question another way. What would happen if some of the players decided that they would make up the rules as they go along? They could say, “I’ll decide what’s right for me and you can decide what’s right for you, but don’t impose your morals or standards on me.” What kind of a game would we have then? There would be no game.

It is obeying the rules that make a sporting event sporting and fun to watch. If one team or individual were to decide that they didn’t have to play by the rules, the game would either end up in the two side fighting instead of playing or one side would simply refuse to play until the other side agreed to abide by the established rules.

One of the saddest comments I have heard of modern times is the quote I just shared: “I’ll decide what’s right for me and you can decide what’s right for you, but don’t impose your morals or standards on me.” Something is seriously wrong with the philosophy that each person can decide for themselves whether what they do is right or wrong and no one else can make them comply to some absolute standard.

We have all kinds of immorality, crime, corruption, greed, selfishness and consequences because individuals think they don’t have to abide by the rules. Our government is fraught with corruption in the current election cycle as individuals and groups try to push their power on others through stealing votes, intimidation of voters, trying to disqualify votes for the other candidate or sneak in extra votes for their candidate. Individuals lie, cheat, steal and commit crimes and then try to sneak in some excuse that they didn’t know it was wrong, the other person did something worse or it’s not that big a deal and should be just overlooked. There are times when it appears that we have no rules at all. How much longer can we survive if we don’t get back to following the rules?

A big question is growing in your mind. Who makes the rules? What set or rules do we go by? Even among governments, one country has one set of rules and another country is governed differently. Sometimes the one country laws justify them trying to take over and control another country. The resulting conflict ends up in war and many people die fighting for their rules.

There is a solution to this entire problem. There is a moral absolute, a one set of rules that applies to everyone regardless of their race or place or face. The United States became the greatest nation on earth because it was founded on the foundation of that one set of rules. As long as we have abided by that ultimate code of behavior, we have prospered.

But what has happened? In the last 50 plus years, forces have come in that sought to erode any allegiance to the one moral absolute on which our nation was founded. As a result, we now have corruption from my house to the white house. More and more citizens are deciding that they don’t have to obey the nation’s laws and many are even disregarding the existence and necessity of living by the moral absolute that is foundational to our Constitution and entire system of government.
Because of this, we have a breakdown in the family and institution of marriage. Because of this, we have more sexually transmitted diseases, unwanted pregnancies, divorce, broken homes, and insecure, lost and confused children. Because of this, we have little regard for the posted speed limit and many other laws that our government only enforces if they feel like it.

In addition, we have groups who are coming out more openly against the moral absolute. They are so open about their behavior that they try to silence anyone who dares to suggest that there is a moral absolute and what they are doing is wrong by that absolute standard.

To get back to a question I asked earlier, Who makes the rules that we are to go by? What is this moral absolute and who decided it to be so? To answer that, we must go back to the origin of everyone and everything that exists on this earth. We were created by an all powerful, ever present, all knowing and loving God who created us for the purpose of a relationship based on love. God loves us and wants us to love Him, but in His divine knowledge, He chose to give us the free will to chose to love Him or reject Him.

God, in His divine knowledge, set up a moral absolute that frees us from the consequences of sin when we live by it. This moral absolute is found in the Bible. To sum it up most briefly, we are to love God and love others.

See Matthew 22:36-40 – 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

It is this foundation on Christian principles that has made the United States such a great nation. Our founding fathers, even the ones who weren’t Christian, recognized the value and importance of God as the ultimate governor of our society. Several founding fathers have expressed that our form of government and Constitution will not work without an allegiance to a Higher Power – the God that created the heavens and the earth.

It is time to recall the citizens of the United States to return to that moral standard. It is time to repent of our sin, stop treating the law as something we obey if we feel like it, and start becoming citizens who play the game by the rule book (the Bible, especially the New Testament). It is time to start reading the Bible as if it were the moral absolute that all mankind on this earth is to live by and then practice it in our lives so we can be an example to others.

It is time for Christians to follow the life and teachings of Jesus Christ and act like Christians instead of acting like sinners who go to church on SONday and pretend that they are what they are not.

God bless America

Follow this blog