Howdy! It's good to see you! Come on in and pull up a chair. Coffee'll be ready in five minutes.

While we're waiting on it, do you mind if we talk about something that's been on my mind lately? I've been looking around this old world, watching the seasons come and go. I'm a little bothered by what I see.

At the risk of sounding like my father, or my grandfather, it seems that the times are getting worse and worse. Not just the economy, but basic moral values. Nowadays, what used to be right is wrong, and what used to be wrong is considered okay. People are getting meaner, the climate's getting wilder, Government's getting bigger, and folks in general are just getting further and further away from home. Everything seems to be turning upside-down; it's like a Sociological Pole-Shift.

I can't help but feeling that somewhere, someone is having a good old knee-slapping guffaw at our expense.

You could say it's progress or whatnot, but what if it's more than that? The Bible talks about days like these. It says that people will start acting like they did back before the flood...Noah's Ark, and all. It says when that happens, why, we should look out, 'cause it would be about then that God would step in and settle accounts.

Personally, I look forward to God doing that. Don't get me wrong -- I'm not one of those doomsday crazies -- but I think God can run things a whole lot better than people have done.

Sure, it might be scary and all, but if you're right with God it'll be okay. I know that, because God said if you trust his son Jesus he'd take you under his wings and protect you. He says if you believe on Jesus, quit doing wrong and start doing right, he'll make you one of his own...forever. He said it, not me. Far as I'm concerned that settles it.

But like I said, something's been on my mind lately. It's really not the world and everything going wrong with it. Heck, I expect that to happen just like the Bible says it will. No, what's been bothering me, friend, is what will happen to you. I'm wondering if you're right with God.

If something happened to you right now -- if the proverbial bus comes crashing through that wall right there and smushes you flat as a pancake -- would you go Home to be with God, or would you end up in that other place?

I'm gonna go get us a cup of coffee. Think about it while I'm gone, would you?