It is right at this point American Christians have a difficult time. According to our Declaration of Independence we are entitled to the pursuit of happiness. Our right to be happy is dinned into us day and night by all the advertisers.

We want to play. We have a right to play, we suppose. Yet we are living under a Divine curse that refuses to permit us to play just yet.

We must carry our cross of self-denial. We have no choice. If we hope to ever gain the right to play we must do many things we do not want to do. If we try to take a shortcut, avoiding that which is unpleasant, we will not gain the right to play.

The believers, and in many instances their pastors and evangelists, will do all in their power to sidestep that which is unpleasant. The Evangelical churches teach us we do not have to keep the commandments of Christ and His Apostles. The commandments are difficult and unpleasant. Therefore we will invent a "state of grace" that removes the requirement that we keep the commandments.

We do not preach to the congregations that they must deny themselves and take up their cross. We do not tell them that if they do not remain in the prison where God has permitted Satan to place them they will not be given the crown of life.

We have invented a "pre-tribulation rapture," a totally unscriptural doctrine, to remove the thought that Christians might have to suffer.

What we are doing with these incorrect teachings is trying to make it possible for the believers to play before they have earned the right, before they have done the work God requires.

The American people are at the point now where they will not restrain themselves from what they desire even if it means getting AIDS, lung cancer, sugar diabetes, a heart attack, or being imprisoned for driving while drunk. Their response to the pain they have inflicted on themselves is to sue someone they believe to be responsible. It is a sad state of affairs. No doubt a sharp, heavy sword of Divine judgment is poised over America at the present time.

Our country has turned away from the former values and standards of conduct. Unless there is widespread repentance in the churches we Americans are in for serious trouble.

In order to gain the right to play we first have to do the work that God is requiring of us. There is no way around this.

Delighting ourselves in the Lord.

Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart. (Psalms 37:4—NIV)

One of the great problems facing the Christian in the days ahead is that of fretting because of the maturing of the tares of wickedness. The thirty-seventh Psalm commands us not to fret but to delight ourselves in the Lord. If we would gain the right to play we must delight ourselves in the Lord continually.

We who are older can see the destructive course our nation is taking in so many areas. It is difficult to keep from fretting about the political and judicial bodies, the things they do, the perversity of those who are serving themselves and holding up personal freedom above all other values—even to the aborting of the rights of the innocent.

To be continued.