From the writings of the Rev. Billy Graham

No one lives in the world “alone.” The human race was put on earth to enjoy the benefits given by God. The world needs moral leadership that respects the rights of all men and women—rights that God designed for our benefit and to give us the greatest potential for leading productive lives. We need a morality that guarantees respect for mothers who mother, for fathers who father, and for all those who live and work together to fulfill God’s commandments to pursue our individual destinies. We do not need a new moral order; the world desperately needs the tried and tested moral order that God handed down centuries ago. Unless we turn to the morality that Jesus Christ exemplified, society is doomed!

Many years ago the Secretary of Health and Human Services called for a renewed sense of personal responsibility, stating that Americans were experiencing consequences of unwise choices of behavior and lifestyle. Linked to this is an erosion of those institutions that have generated, shaped and sustained our ethical and cultural standards—family, neighborhood, school and church.

We have changed our moral code to fit our behavior instead of changing our behavior to harmonize with God’s moral code. We have glamorized vice and minimized virtue. The fact that immorality is rampant throughout the nation doesn’t make it right. The Ten Commandments are just as valid today as they were when God gave them. They provide the foundation of right living in the sight of God and with others. “We should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age” (Titus 2:12).

(This column is based on the words and writings of the late Rev. Billy Graham.)

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