Hosea 4:1-3. Hosea says that the Lord has a controversy with the people of Israel. There is no faithfulness or kindness and no knowledge of God in the land. "[T]here is swearing, lying, killing, stealing, and committing adultery; they break all bounds and murder follows murder." So the land mourns and all the people languish. Even the animals are suffering.

Sound familiar? This describes the effects of sin on a nation, and we are feeling those effects! When we turn not just individually but culturally to normalizing sin and bad behavior, we languish, we suffer. The whole nation suffers, because sin brings suffering. It does not matter how much we justify our sin to ourselves or force others to accept it and even applaud it - that just makes the suffering worse because we are sinning further by hurting others.

The murder rate in Philadelphia just topped 500 for the year. The people committing these murders are lost souls, acting out of their suffering and their lack of having been taught the truth. Their lives and their actions show the effects of our culture failing to promote any knowledge of God and instead normalizing bad behavior. This is where we are as a nation right now. I am hoping we turn things around before it is too late.