Hinguar & Hubba ...not Hubba Bubba, and I don't mean to burst your bubble, but they were "mean". Certainly they were not hubba hubba; especially when out in the cold, or Coldingham. No! No!! No!!! To cut off your "No!"s, to spite your face ...or what you have to face. Or is it "knows", or who you know, on Face(book)? Horrifically and ...tragically, I think it is "nose". To stem the tide, or ebb and flow ...or is it Ebba? "Ebb" sounds like I have a cold, or been out in the cold ...which brings us back to Coldingham. We were out picking morels ...but can we also pick our morals? And how mushroom, I mean, much room is there for conviction?

When we look at the horrific nature of such barbaric acts ...it goes beyond self-indulgent disregard of humans, as humans.  The violence that attempts to work its way, has its origin in pure evil.  It's not just a Sodom Gomorrah; or a time of Noah, the likes of which Jesus said "end times" will be like.  It doesn't just begin with putting a King, a ruler, or some sort of leader ...in a higher standing than God.  A leader who tends to disregard God, or the things we cannot deny are God's principles.  It does not begin at the highest office in the land ...it begins with the general consensus among the people that their desire to be a people set apart, following God, is not as strong as their desire to be more the same and accepted by others.

In the Bible, it is clear the people wanted to be ruled like everyone else.  But it didn't just fall all apart with the conflict among Kings. It was evident after Moses was called to lead them out of Egypt.  In no time, they were mumbling and complaining ...about this and that. That they were in the wilderness certainly made it more difficult, but they had to trust God's provision ...and God did provide. 

Then when they reached the "land of milk and honey", you'd think they would abound with thanksgiving for the plenty.  But they fell away, time and again ...one time with disturbing similarity to one account we read about in Sodom.  Do we find ourselves also in a "land of plenty", becoming wise in our own eyes ...or conceits?  

If we try so hard to honor the "right to exist" of everything that is against God, then we build a nation without His principles and precepts.  Every person has the right to exist, and every idea does exist ...but if we try to replace our stated belief in the existence of God, with something other than God: and view that only, as the primary thing that should exist, then we are minimizing our own existence and the realization of where that may lead us.  

Where can God be found, without His principles ...and without following His Word.  We cannot have God without having who He is.  And if we leave God out, then what is left?  Is a nation without God, not soon to be nothing more than a nation thriving on evil?

To disregard God, is to disregard human beings ...to say we have regard for human beings without God, is either promoted by the naive, or by those who hope we are.