from Lindie Gibson

In his book, The Wounded Spirit, Frank Perretti describes sin like this:

" It was the daddy of all playgrounds, stretching out acre upon acre and filled with laughing, ebullient, playing children. Boys and girls were running, chasing, and screaming playfully. Jump ropes were spinning as little girls chanted rhythmical rhymes; baseballs arced through the air, glove to hand, hand to glove, ball to glove, glove to ground. From the paved basketball and Four Squares area came the constant boing boing boing of the big red inflated playground balls bouncing from one child to another. This was a happy place. The kids played well together and followed playground rules - most of the time. Sometimes a quarrel broke out; occasionally even an actual fight, but these skirmishes were quickly resolved, and all in all - the playground was a wonderful, fun-filled, safe environment for kids to enjoy. The playground rules, clearly posted on a big wooden sign beside the entrance helped to provide every recess with the desired peace, order, and domestic tranquility. The rules were clear enough for any eight year old or nine year old to understand: NO HITTING NO PUSHING OR SHOVING NO FIGHTING SHARE THE EQUIPMENT TAKE TURNS NO SPITTING ON THE GIRLS NO CHASING THE BOYS The playground rules were sacred, omnipresent, and inscribed on every heart and mind; there was hardly a child there who hadn't had cause to appeal to those standards at one time or another. For instance, when Jordan Smith first arrived on the playground, he brought with him the assumption that once the baseball was in his hand, he had sovereign control over it in perpetuity. His would-be teammates tried to explain to him that unless he relinquished possession of the baseball from time to time, there would be no baseball game. Reason alone would not change his mind. Appealing to the playground rules finally did. Clyde Saunders always seems to have extra saliva in his mouth and apparently felt compelled to put it somewhere else. Rachel Parks was the nearest available depository, and he was happy to share it with her out of his abundance, until she appealed to the playground rules, and he was required to swallow. Ah; the playground rules.... steadfast and sure, a shelter for the oppressed, the defender of the weak, the guarantor of social stability..... Of course, we cannot overlook the importance of Mrs. Kravitz, the teacher on playground duty. Mrs. Kravitz represented the authority that put up those rules in the first place. Without her presence, the playground rules would have been nothing more than words painted on a board. She was sharp-eyed and elephant-eared, always ready to help in time of trouble, but also ready to deal with troublemakers. She had a stern expression for that purpose, as well as a whistle, a clipboard, and a stack of pink slips that could mean a visit to the principal's office. Some of the kids appreciated her presence, and naturally, some of the kids preferred she not be there. The former felt secure; the latter felt imposed upon. But like it or not, the playground was reasonably safe because Mrs. Kravitz and the playground rules kept it that way. Then one day, something was different on the playground. It took the kids awhile to notice, but eventually they realized Mrs. Kravitz was nowhere to be found.

Some were glad of course, 'good riddance!' they said. But some were concerned and asked the other teachers where Mrs. Kravitz had gone. "Well," said the teachers, " we've decided there is no authority and you kids are inherently good and able to decide for yourselves the right thing to do; you have the capacity within yourselves to solve all your own problems and make this a better playground. You don't need Mrs. Kravitz...." " But what about the playground rules?!" " You can decide for yourselves if the playground rules are right for you. It's really not our place to say that any one set of rules is better than another...." And so the kids were left to their own wills and feelings and the whims of their own hearts. For a time, the playground rules still held their sway in their minds. The rules worked well enough in the past; and they continued to bring stability in the days that followed. But then one day Clyde Saunders stopped to consider the excess saliva in his mouth and whether or not he should swallow. 'It's my mouth and my spit', he reasoned to himself, 'and I don't see what business anyone else has telling me how to get rid of it'. Whereupon he fired off a huge, viscid, undulating glob that hit Rachel Parks right in the eye. Rachel was beside herself; she felt violated, betrayed, insulted, and infringed upon - not to mention wet and gross. "Clyde - you're not supposed to do that !" "Oh yeah....!?" he responded, "....who says?!" She promptly took him over to the old sign displaying the playground rules. "See here !?" she said, pointing, " the rules say NO SPITTING ON THE GIRLS. " " Well, I can choose to live by those rules or not." "But you hurt me .... and you know it...." " that depends on your definition of hurt and your definition of knowledge...." Not long after this, the baseball game came to a screeching halt when Jordan Smith caught a pop-up fly and abruptly walked off with the baseball. "Hey !!!" the others shouted, running after him, " ... that's our ball ! " "It's mine now..." he replied "But you have to share !" "Oh yeah...?! who says...?" They pointed to the rules - " it says " SHARE THE EQUIPMENT. " Jordan was unmoved. "You really believe that old sign?! Come on - we don't need those rules; we have reason to show us the way..." So they tried reasoning with him. After all, in the absence of authority, Mrs. Kravitz, and the playground rules, reason alone should suffice. "Well" he responded, " A - I want the ball. B - I don't want you to have it. And C - therefore you aren't going to get it..." The other boys were stymied; except for those who weren't afraid of a little roughness. The rules didn't apply anymore, and reason wasn't giving them justice, so they ganged up on Jordan, knocked him to the ground and got the baseball back. Following Jordan's line of reasoning, Sally and Jennifer promptly took possession of a jump rope. The girls from whom they'd taken it tried to be open-minded and tolerant, but they still couldn't help feeling cheated somehow. " We think you should share..." they said. Sally rolled her eyes as Jennifer responded " We think you should stop trying to impose your narrow-minded, middle class morality on us..." " But remember the rules.....?" Sally and Jennifer mockingly laughed in the other girls' faces. "We've evolved beyond those rules, and attained a higher perception: we think the jump rope is ours and therefore we are entitled to it. Therefore the jump rope is ours..." This new way of thinking caught on and the children had no need of authority or Mrs. Kravitz - for each child was his or her own authority. As for rules, although the standards on the old sign beside the playground never changed, the rules became increasingly offensive. The children finally tore down the sign, and threatened to kick and punch any kid who tried to put it back up. So the playground was all theirs, and all the kids lived and behaved according to what felt right to them. When the first real fight broke out and Tracy Sorenson beat the living tar out of Stevie Boland, the kids watched and debated what might have caused such a fight - but none of them could say it was anybody's fault. Nor did anyone say that it was wrong. And since nothing was wrong or anybody's fault, every kid soon felt entitled to have or do anything by any means. Since there were no rules, and reasoning was inconvenient, the kids resorted to hitting and shoving and fighting and spitting and chasing. The baseballs, bats, jump ropes, and other playground equipment became plunder to be captured; always going to the strongest kid or the biggest gang. Sharing came only with a price, and as for taking turns, the next turn always went to the toughest kid. The playground fell in to chaos and the big rubber balls didn't go boing boing boing anymore, and there were no more baseball games. No one wanted to play by the rules, and most denied there were any rules at all - so no one played. A few unwritten rules did crop up eventually, dictated by the toughest, meanest, and strongest kids, easily demonstrating that 'might makes right'..... 'survival of the fittest'.... 'natural selection'.... Jordan Smith liked those rules because he was tough. Unfortunately for Jordan, Tracy Sorenson was tougher and so he beat the living tar out of Jordan and established his reputation as the toughest, meanest, and strongest kid on the playground. Now it was forbidden to speak of the old authority the children had once know, and the memory of Mrs. Kravitz quickly faded. The playground rules were gone; not only from the old wooden sign, but also from the minds and hearts of the children. Tracy's will was 'law' now and he controlled all the bats and jump ropes and he decided who could play with them and when. He had a gang of tough boys who enforced his will upon all the others through sheer brutality. There were no rules except his, and the playground was no longer any fun....." The parable of the playground illustrates a familiar historical pattern through the history of our world that is really no more complicated than the downward spiral we just traced on the playground. Without the laws of God written on the entrance to our hearts and minds, we can see clearly what happens on the playground of our lives, as well as any society, when man cuts away his moorings in God. When we think we are free to make our own choices - whatever they might be, we are actually boats adrift, without a moral compass, drifting in dangerous waters. You don't have to watch an hour of television without seeing the corruption of the minds of man. Even if it's a decent program worth allowing your children or grandchildren to watch, the commercials and advertisements are enough to defile our minds. And what's even more scary, is that we have be so lulled to sleep by the sin around us - that the shock value is even fading. America is seeped in pleasure, while 3rd world people are starving and homeless. Scripture states that God blessed Abraham so that through him all nations might be blessed, and we in America have forgotten the God of our Fathers and His heart, and we have forgotten how to share our blessings once our basic needs are met. A false gospel presents this life as a cruise liner, where we have been destined for good times and enjoyment, rather than the true gospel of God's Word; a battle ship - where we are continually fighting to do what's right in the sight of God - for indeed He is watching. Sacrificial living and sacrificial giving is almost an obsolete concept within the body of Christ, and one day we will give account for all we have while others did without the basics to sustain life. The Jews missed Jesus when He came, because they were expecting a man arriving on the scene making a royal entrance in a purple robe, and a luxurious lifestyle befitting an earthly King, while Jesus slipped in the back door and was born in to a lowly life and lived a lowly life - with no attachments to this world - one of sacrificial living and sacrificial giving - setting the pace for those who really chose to live for Him, a peculiar people with their eyes set on the eternal. Isaiah 53 described the coming Messiah - but the Jews missed Him, not understanding their very own Holy books. Jesus lived a life of giving, while America's Christians are caught up in a life of getting.... bigger and better and nicer and more.... Remember in the 60's when the first jet was high-jacked? We were mortified that anyone would ever do such a thing. Several years ago on a peaceful September morning - not only were jets highjacked, but they - along with the passengers - became missiles to attack American targets. Scripture tells us that it rains on the just and the unjust and we see this truth manifest everywhere. The good in our hearts gets better and the seeds of darkness inside men's hearts are growing as well; because everything is getting 'watered'. A local contractor here in Livingston has painted on his truck " OSAMA - KISS MY AMERICAN A** " and yet Osama Bin Laden and his followers have indeed spoken the truth - when they called America 'the Great Satan'. We call ourselves a Christian nation and yet embrace sin unlike any other country on our planet, and we don't even see it. And without even blinking our eyes, we boast of a town in Nevada called 'Sin City'. Only when we maintain a living and viable relationship with God - through His Son Jesus Christ, and continually renew our minds by the washing of the water of His Word, do we find that sin is still sin, and although Mrs. Kravitz' has left the playground, we are called to and still can maintain the rules that were once written on our hearts, if we so choose. You see, Mrs. Kravitz is still watching..... There is indeed coming a day in our lifetime in America when our loving God will judge the sin on the playground. One American evangelist has rightly stated that America will experience more terrorist attacks on our soil and millions will be killed. Our President is fighting terrorism on foreign soil in order to keep it at bay, and yet our own people are fighting our President, and the day will come when another attack on America will make 9/11 look like a bicycle wreck. Dimitru Duduman, a Romanian Pastor with a prophetic gifting, has had several angelic visits where these host from heaven have told him that in one day California, Florida, Las Vegas, and New York, will burn. Only God knows the timing of these warnings, but they will indeed happen. Scripture states that "Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but He revealeth His secret unto His servants, the prophets. AMOS 3:7. Is anyone listening....? I subscribe to 3 separate ministries that warned of 9/11 and one was accurate right down to two days before it happened, but very few churches believe in the prophetic giftings; and yet this giftings still exist. If you're in a church that does not believe the Bible is as true today as it ever was - you are probably in the wrong church. My car may be old, but the owner's manual still applys.... The same is true with the Holy Bible; the owner's manual for God's people. The Twin Towers were our modern day Towers of Babel - representing false religion and the love of money and pleasure, and God allowed them to come down. Churches filled up for a short time after the attacks of 9/11, and now are more empty than before, because God isn't really present in many of them.... It's simply 'churchianity as usual' without the living reality of God's presence allowed in many of them. In a dream I saw the Indonesian tsunami 3 weeks before it happened, but didn't know where it was.... I contacted one of these prophetic ministries and let them know what I saw in my dream, and all we could do was pray for the souls of the people involved. It was a definite judgment from God on the sin in that region. Many of God's people in America are out of touch when it comes to hearing from and serving the one True God and being in relationship with Him.

I think it's time to wake up and realize how far America has strayed from the playground rules.....

The greatest sin in America is not that we don't believe in God - but that we don't believe Him ....