Cold hard heart or cold hard steel
Today, as it has been in time memorial, murder or its glorification has permeated our society. TV newscasts, Newspapers, and social media are constantly filled with incidents in every city, town, suburb, or rural community. An ideology or movement attempts to justify murder or mayhem. In biblical times, Cain jealously slew his brother Able with a stone over Cain’s relationship with God. Able set forth a sacrifice acceptable before God, but Cain chose to present a Sacrifice of his design. Moral standards guide us through life. When we establish our Moral guides, we defy the more excellent norm. This veering from the model allows each person to set their standards. Living and the value of life are set aside for revenge, addiction, and greed. The heart of humankind is the center from which many decisions may have their bases. The center of this affliction is the heart. This affliction has overshadowed our society.

Genius 6:5
And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
Psalm 52:2-3
King James Version
2 The tongue deviseth mischiefs, like a sharp razor, working deceitfully.
3 Thou lovest evil more than good and lying rather than to speak righteousness. Selah.

Humanity has used every weapon on the face of the earth to kill fellow men or women in the guise of justification or inequality. Whole races have suffered tremendous profound destruction because of misguided and deranged superiority. Power-hungry leaders sacrifice their youth in cruel wars.
Street crime instills fear of the outside world, robbing us of mental security and fear of bodily harm or material loss. Evil flows about and rises like a flood permeating society. The value of life is failing. Losing respect for our fellow men/women gives way to this evil. It may be a simple tool, but the tongue is a mighty and cruel weapon that can be as deadly as any other edged weapon. Sometimes it starts there and escalates into a physical altercation and the taking of a life.

We hear much about gun control in this day and time. This subject is a hot button of discussion in our government and society. The question is whether it is the true answer. We can never achieve equality when we focus on envying what others have acquired. It can be a position, material goods, a relationship, or being made to feel inadequate in society. It starts as an ember and grows into a raging wildfire in the heart. A lust for power over another person, culture, or even whole country pervades—often under the covering of doing what is best in their judgment. Controlling a material weapon is not the cure-all it is the attitude of the heart that initiates action. Wickedness springs out of the spirit (heart) of men/women blurring what is right or wrong. Its justification and vengeance shore up this wickedness/evil.

I saw a sermon given by Billy Graham, a great evangelist and teacher. He stated, “Suffered in the heart are many ungodly attributes.”

The main issue is whether our society suffers from affectation with death. Or the absence of the value of life. Is it a question of a cold hard heart or an inanimate object made of cold hard steel?
Hollywood and many entertainment venue products greatly influence the attitudes and choices of many impressionable minds. Young formative minds or those easily swayed by popular enticements. Easily enticed by the grandeur of impressive computer creations, they live in a false reality. Some have never taught the structure of morality. Many movies, video games, and television series contain, in many cases, the underlying theme of payback, getting even, or the results justifying the means. Just as in politics, you hear it said, get it done by any means possible. As a result, society is becoming void of moral ground and the virtue of respect.

Gang violence is rooted in calming territory and holding it by whatever it takes. But unfortunately, these attitudes bleed over into society and become a mainstay and a weapon to justify one’s manhood or superiority. It may start as an argument over a compromised mate, an insult to one’s integrity, or material possessions. It is then that the heart becomes cold, and injury or murder enters as an option.
Portions of our society have fallen into an attitude of either victim or oppressor. We all are both victims and oppressors in one way or another, apart from moral guides. The world has always been subject to these two influences. We should be viewing life through the lens of respect and how we perceive its effect. Unfortunately, said respect suffers a dwindling existence.
An inanimate object cannot on itself bring harm. However, establishing an attitude or belief in one’s mind can shape the heart and culminate in the action or deed.

Cannot see the forest for all the trees
A wonderful friend and brother in Christ, and his Appalachian Trail experiences inspired me to make this comparison. I believe God established this quest. Brad met many trials and life-threatening situations. As he started his venture, his anticipation was high with a goal. The trail took many twists, uphill struggles, and forks that required many decisions. The travel was grueling for many days and seemed almost endless, taxing his strength and stamina. Brad passed through some of the most beautiful mountainous terrains in the eastern United States. Brad was often just a matter of yards from an open view of God’s handiwork. The trail was pre-prescribed by travelers’ previous plans to seek their goals. We often cannot see the forest for all the trees. Brad was able to share his witness many. God witnessed to him the Grace and mercy provided in any situation.
There are always two choices to achieve an answer to any question or circumstance. In comparison to the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve had a choice between two trees. The of life or the forbidden tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They had the option to rely on God or partake of the forbidden tree and become a god over their own lives. I define circumstances as things that incircle us and take a stance to block our access to God. So many challenges surround us, mental, physical, financial, or family can face us all. I was in the middle of an onslaught of circumstances. Feeling overcome, I prayed to God for help. God spoke to me through his Holy Spirit and said, “Stand upon these circumstances, take the right hand of my righteousness, and use them as a stepping stool to rise above their attack.”
When I was a youngster, my brother and I loved hiking in the woods, sometimes miles away from home. I remember getting lost and feeling afraid. I would climb uphill and look for a tall tree I could climb to see a ridge or valley that I knew gave me a better view of the way back home. It often has been said that the tallest trees grow in the valley. You can ask any farmer where the most fertile crop ground is, and they will tell you the river bottoms. Sometimes, we find ourselves in a deep valley with no way to see ourselves out. But, if we fall upon God and draw strength from him, we can grow by His Grace and see our way out of that valley. God is where our most significant strength resides, or power is not in our skill or craftiness but in simple faith in God and falling back on his provision. A song sung by Brian Free and Assurance titled “If it Takes a Valley” describes this very reliance.
We have plans we have quested after, but without God’s guidance. We often set out but never seek God before committing to any venture or choice in life. I have suffered because I jumped out there and never sought God first. God’s hand was always there, but it had to be my choice to accept his mercy or reject it and be devoured by my choice. Not at that time, being a Christian, I only had one option known to me. Praise God that his Holy Spirit touched my spirit and opened my eyes to God and his love, mercy, and Grace. I went to church, but it was just a function without substance. Until my life was hanging in the balance, I called upon God not in fear but with a soul choice that he would answer. I know God knew me and my heart even though I did not have a personal relationship with him. I plead to him, “Please, Lord Jesus, not now.” God not only saved my life but also saved my soul. I went to church every Sunday and heard some sermons in my youth, but I was too young to understand. God’s grace planted the words in my spirit.
Going to church for the sake of going to church was blocking my relationship with God with a false relationship with him. It was not relying on God but doing what was acceptable to society. It was what I grew up doing, but I never knew why. It was just what you were supposed to do. As a child, I learned the Ten Commandments and tried to live my life accordingly. As a result, I had no genuine relationship with God and his Holy Spirit. I could not see the forest, for all the trees lacked full knowledge of my savior and his sacrifice. The forest is the abundance of God, and the trees are what the world places in our path to block our view. We may be standing on a precept only offering destruction or one that opens our eyes to a picture of the vastness of the kingdom of God and his Grace.

Romans 10:13
12For there is no difference between Jew and Greek: The same Lord is Lord of all, and gives richly to all who call on Him, 13for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” 14How then can they call on the One in whom they have not believed? And how can they believe in the One of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone to preach?
Proverbs 16:25 There is a way that seemed right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.
1 Corinthians 10:13
There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.