"Say to them, `This is the nation which does not listen to the voice of the Lord, its God, or take correction. Faithfulness has disappeared; the word itself is banished from their speech'" (Jeremiah 7:28); They have set their abominations extremely disgusting and shamefully vile in the house which is called by My name, to defile it (Jeremiah 7:30, The Amplified Old Testament).

For years prophets have told us that we no longer listen to the voice of our Lord; we do not appreciate the correction we would experience if we bothered to listen to God's word. Let us read and consider the rise and fall of former great civilizations:

1. From bondage to spiritual faith;
2. From spiritual faith to great courage;
3. From courage to liberty;
4. From liberty to abundance;
5. From abundance to selfishness;
6. From selfishness to complacency;
7. From complacency to apathy;
8. From apathy to dependency;
9. From dependency right back to the bondage where it all started.

We have taken the liberty of taking God's liberty and making light and license of it. We refuse to be reformed and reclaimed, for then we would have to admit that we are not our own, but God's, and our intellectual pride forbids that.

We have journeyed rather quickly from bondage to bondage. Somewhere in between we lost our bearings. The day must come that even God Himself will no longer be able to forbear us. One of our modern prophets, Billy Graham, is reported to have said, "If Jesus doesn't come back soon, He will have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah."

"For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him..." (Romans 1:21a NIV).