CHAPTER TWO

STEAL, KILL, AND DESTROY

Part 1

I’ll begin this section with a poem I wrote as a tribute to my rotten school years, because I feel it reflects the sad experience of countless other victims of bullying.  Satan is going to be named and shamed aplenty in this chapter.

Wormwood High

At four I learned to love

At fourteen I was taught to hate

All trust was burned away from me

Like wax melts in a flame.

Why is it that when the hormones rage

And boxy bodies begin to change

That tiny tongues sharpen to rattlesnake fangs

And victims are dealt such deadly pain?

At four a girl asked, with a wondering smile,

Did your mom make this cake for you?

At fourteen a girl asked, with a catty smile,

Did your mom fix your hair for you?

At five a girl said, Come on, let's play

At fifteen a girl said, oooh! Stay away from me!

At five some boy said: Play tag with me!

At fifteen he said: Drop dead, you're ugly!

At six I got in a pillow fight

At sixteen I was threatened with a knife

By a mad dog bully on the bus

Who satan taught to swear and cuss.

At six I got lots of valentines

A bite of candy and playtime rhymes

At sixteen I got tacks on my chair

And racist remarks about my hair

At six we'd all join up to play

But sixteen was a different day

The School of Hard Knocks

Broke my heart on the rocks

As hurt hardened into hate

Wormwood High, you wished I’d die

And never rise again

But Christ has breathed new life in me

And remembered all your sins.

Bitter wormwood, gall to drink

Driving kids up to the brink

Of walking wounded suicide

Turning off their lights inside

Darkening dawn to endless night

Lean, leggy dolls with shimmery hair

Waltzed on by without a care

While I was trashed from the very first day

As a human being wanna-be

The bullies gathered for their feast

And made a sacrifice out of me

Offered to satan their overlord

Who taught them all his tricks of scorn

Wormwood High, satan's university

A place where the devil confers degrees

In meanness, snobbery and cruelty

They'd murdered the loving child in me.

When Jesus sent His Spirit in

He revived the happy child within

He kindled the hope of a happier day

When all God's kids learn His loving ways.

Satan’s Strategy

In many primitive societies, human sacrifice was practiced to appease the bloodlust of a wide assortment of “gods”.  Psalms 106:37 says of certain Jews who had fallen into idolatry:  They sacrificed their sons and daughters to devils.   These people had forsaken God, so  their fear of crossing the false gods of Canaan was greater than their fear of the God Who had delivered them from bondage in Egypt.  They also knew the fickleness of the weather, and how quickly famine could strike if their crops failed.  Having cast away their trust in the Lord, they also feared their soldiers would fall in battle if they were attacked.  Besides, they reasoned, if they had a god they could see with their own two eyes and did sacrifice to him, maybe they’d find it easier to believe he could be of assistance.  If satan  can’t be worshipped as himself, he’ll gladly accept worship through an intermediary.

Today, most people in Western societies are too sophisticated to worship idols of wood or stone.  But they  have been conditioned by the mass media to adulate rock stars, movie heroes or even themselves. Money is king.  By their example, parents teach their kids to pay homage to the gospel of materialism.  “If it feels good, do it”  is the gospel of the entertainment industry.  Above all, you must look out for Number One.  These current standards seem innocuous, compared to immolating an infant on the altar of Molech. But satan still demands human sacrifices.  He’s determined to exact his pound of flesh.

Most of satan’s followers are too discreet to grab a gun and blow someone away.  So much of the time,  the devil settles for  inflicting emotional or physical torture on his victims.

If you have been redeemed by Christ, you are no longer under the jurisdiction of the prince of this present evil world, as he is called in Scripture.  Bullies are controlled by this evil entity.  Ephesians 2:1-3 says:  He has raised you to newness of life, you who were dead in trespasses and sins; In which you walked after the manner of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air (satan), the spirit who even now works in the children of disobedience:  Among whom we also all lived according to the lusts of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, just like others.

Satan is the cruelest of oppressors. A believer in Christ has the right NOT to be the designated victim of the devil’s flunkies who are lost and going to hell.

Bullying begins with the deliberate, often capricious selection of a  target. Beware of violating the Law of Conformity. Besides being bony, a girl must conform to an acceptable height range.  Pity her if she’s under five-foot-two or over five-foot-ten. Like odd-sized apples in supermarkets, unique  individuals are destined for disposal. Cosmetic dissent is an unforgivable sin, punishable by bullying.

Even if satan stops short of putting his victim in the grave, he’ll at least incite his devotees to cripple  the spirit of that person with  a campaign of verbal or physical abuse.  A cat gets a bigger buzz out of slowly  torturing a  mouse to death  than it does by killing it outright.  The little furball feels like a powerful lion when he does that.

I’ve lost count of the news stories I’ve read of kids who ended up dead because of bullies. They’re casualties of  war.  A war  waged  by aggressors who know they can’t lose; criminal lowlifes who fear no retribution.  Why? You can’t pull up the tares without hurting  the wheat.  If a kid tells the teacher, like I did, he only makes more enemies.

Part of the hell of being bullied is you are all alone in it.  A small child can usually go unashamedly to his parents for comfort when he suffers the slightest discomfort. They wish only the best for him or her. Whenever he draws  a pretty picture for them they heap praise on him and just enjoy their child.  But as the child  grows older he is expected to lean on “me, myself, and I” in preparation for that grim day he is assigned his place in a cruel pecking order of some high school barnyard.  Instead of praise and affirmation a vulnerable child encounters  a world which desires only his humiliation and harm. If he trips into a mud puddle on the way to school and must present a ruined science project to the teacher, he meets with scorn instead of sympathy.  His “wonder years” are his blunder years.  A teenager is at that awkward stage of life where he isn’t old enough to vote, yet he is too much of a kid to have a say in what kind of environment he must be marinated in day in and day out. He is too young to drink, “because it’s bad for him”.  But day after day after endless day he is expected to swallow abuse which can hound him to the grave in the form of flashbacks and a ruined self-image which might cripple his future career prospects  out in that “real world” which bullying has prepared him so well for. 

Many parents expect their kids to “stand on their own two feet” because high school is basic training for real life, and mom and dad can’t always be there to drive the big bad wolf away.    Problem is, while you’re struggling to stay on your own two feet, your enemies have many more feet to stand on and they can knock you off yours anytime they feel like it.  If “me, myself and I” are not enough of a bulwark against their hostility, tough luck, kid.

Bullying thrives in this part of the world because it’s politically incorrect to discipline trouble-makers. One girl was found dead of a drug overdose in bed.  Why?  Because she conformed too well.  She had the willowy figure and the long shiny hair every girl wants...and she was hated for it at school. Ya just gotta keep the rules of this sick society, but ya gotta walk on eggs while you’re doin’ it!  For those who haven’t already lost their soul by the ninth grade high school is a gateway to hell.

These days the torture can start even earlier. One child began to be bullied in school at the tender age of five.  The abuse continued for five eternal years.  The boy ended up in the hospital because of passive parents who had faith that underneath it all, human nature is basically good and their child could rise above the abuse and emerge triumphant through endless patience.  Soft school administrators took no action to expel the guilty pupils.  The  parents refused to take their child out of school, reasoning that if they did, it would mean the bullies had won!    I don’t know if such tolerance  springs from the Britons’ national  tradition of genteel manners, but blood-thirsty bullies aren’t due such courtesies!

Parents of bullies often sow the seeds of satan’s character in their own children.  One  news story reported a case of arson committed by a school bully’s parents against the family of her victim.  Not content to abuse another girl at school, the bully persecuted her at home. The bully’s evil mother egged her husband on to pour gasoline through the mail slot of the home of their daughter’s victim. Then he set it on fire.  The bullied girl was badly burned in the attack, but her parents perished in the fire.  Film footage had been taken of the bully’s dad filling up his gas can at the local service station.  A jury tried the bully and her parents.  The parents were found guilty of murder and the girl of manslaughter.  They’ll probably get out of jail n just a few years, though. Maybe they’ll even laugh it off. After all, every kind of entertainment has its price! But their real punishment will begin either during the worldwide Tribulation of the outpouring of the wrath of God, or when death takes each of them.  It is then they will face the Great Judge of all the Earth and be sentenced to a far more horrible fire than they used to destroy an innocent family.  Bullying is no kiddie game.  THE SPIRIT OF BULLYING IS THE SPIRIT OF MURDER, and all murderers shall have their part in the Lake of Fire (Rev.21:8)!!!

What’s more important, protecting your child from a dangerous school environment, or forcing him to  rise above every abuse  cruel bullies hit him with?  Parent, how would you feel if you were the one who had to suffer in a war  zone for five long years, day in and day out, vastly outnumbered by your foes and unable to defend yourself?  How can any sane adult rationalize doing that to a mere child?  I wouldn’t treat a dog like that!  THAT’S CHILD ABUSE!!

Why does the same sick scenario of victim suicide take place over and over again? Because politically correct school authorities fantasize that if they close their eyes to a particular ongoing case, it’ll “come out in the wash”.  It makes me heartsick and mad as a hornet!  Over and over again I see heartbroken parents appear on the TV News weeping that their child has been driven to suicide after years of mental and physical torture.

Seek the Path of Peace with humans,  but remember, some people don’t WANT peace!  Do more than get sad about bullying. GET MAD!!! DON’T BURY THE HATCHET ANYMORE! JESUS DID NOT COME TO BRING PEACE ON EARTH, BUT A SWORD! (Matt. 10:34; Luke 12:49). RIGHTEOUSNESS CAN NEVER MAKE PEACE WITH WICKEDNESS! GO ON THE WARPATH WITH SATAN! HE  IS KILLING DEFENSELESS KIDS! YE THAT LOVE THE LORD, HATE EVIL! (Psalms 97: 10). CHRISTIANS, BE SOLDIERS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS! FIGHT BACK!!! TEAR DOWN SATAN’S KINGDOM! WALK IN DIGNITY AS A CHILD OF GOD! CRY OUT UNTO GOD TO BE YOUR DEFENSE!  DON’T  TAKE THE DEVIL’S  DIARRHEA ANYMORE!   GOD IS NOT A MARSHMALLOW!!!  HE’S A LAMB, BUT HE’S A LION WHEN HE HAS TO BE!!!  GOD WILL BREAK THE OPPRESSOR IN PIECES (Psalms 50:22; 72:4)! HIS MERCY IS GREAT TOWARD SORRY SINNERS, BUT HIS PATIENCE WITH IMPENITENT PUNKS  IS NOT INFINITE!!!  DON’T BEG THE AUTHORITIES TO DEAL WITH THE BULLIES ANYMORE! TELL THEM!!!! IT’S NOT OPEN TO DEBATE!  I DON’T KNOW THE MEANING OF NO!!!  WE CAN SETTLE THIS THE EASY WAY, OR WE CAN GO ROUND AND ROUND THE HARD WAY! IT’S NOT AN OPTION! IF YOU GIVE ME ANY MORE MEALY-MOUTHED EXCUSES I’LL CONTACT MY LOCAL REPRESENTATIVE! I’LL MARCH ALL THE WAY TO THE GOVERNOR’S OFFICE IF I HAVE TO! I’LL WHIP UP THE BIGGEST FIRESTORM OF PROTEST THIS NATION HAS EVER SEEN!  I’LL GO TO THE PRESS!  I’LL HOLD A SIT-IN!  I’LL CAMPAIGN ON THE AIR!  I’ll STAY ON YOUR CASE AND IN YOUR FACE AS LONG AS IT TAKES!  I’LL FIGHT A NON-VIOLENT, AGGRESSIVE WAR FOR MY CHILD TILL I DROP DEAD IN MY TRACKS!  I’LL NOT ONLY MAKE WAVES, I’LL CREATE A TSUNAMI TILL YOU GET OFF YOUR LAZY DUFF AND DECLARE THIS SCHOOL A BULLY-FREE ZONE!  I’M TAKING MY KID OUT OF YOUR SCHOOL TILL YOU GET YOUR ACT TOGETHER !  BUT IN THE MEANTIME HE (OR SHE) WILL GET A DECENT EDUCATION AT HOME (OR OTHER ALTERNATIVE OPTION) IN A SECURE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT!  TO HELL WITH YOUR  LAME EXCUSES! DON’T TELL ME THERE’S NOTHING YOU CAN DO!!! THAT’S MY CHILD WE’RE DISCUSSING, NOT YOURS!  DON’T YOU DARE MESS WITH ME!!!

Praise the Lord, I’m just getting warmed up now.

I can just hear it now: “Tone it down, Pat.  The first rule of being a Christian is ‘always smile and bear with   problems sweetly and, above all, be nice.’  Some will remind me that Jesus said:  ‘Father, forgive them,  for they know not what they do.’ But He also gave the wicked Pharasees a good verbal kicking because they were destroying other souls! Hardened punks and thugs KNOW they’re doing wrong and do it because they don’t think they’re gonna get their comeuppance. Don’t punch anybody’s lights out, but get violent with the devil!  Until our  enemies reject their final opportunity for repentance and are finally consigned to hell  we have   to love them in this Age of Grace.  But we don’t have to love the devil who drives them! Take advantage of any legal rights you have in waging an orderly,   non-violent, non-stop campaign against bullying in your community.  Get mad enough to lobby for anti-bullying laws and for expulsion of bullies from schools, and for tougher laws to be passed against young offenders.  Above all, get mad enough to plead with God to protect His own and punish the wicked so they’ll wake up before they  roast in hell with satan and his demons for all eternity.  God is merciful, but He isn’t a mouse! Our God is a consuming Fire (Heb. 10:30-31; 12:29).    Necessary retribution is God’s domain (Nahum 1:2-3; Romans 12:19; II Thes. 1:7-9).

Day and night, the war against bullying needs to be waged on the spiritual front and the secular front.  People of God, we’ve got to win this war against the oppression of satan!  Day after day after endless day frightened children put their neck in the noose by going back to a den of lions while their elders tell them to “grow up” and “rise above it”.   Godly gentleness can easily degenerate into moral timidity and passivity. Even a wild animal will fight fiercely to protect its own offspring. It’s high time Christians came out of their closets and took their gloves off to deal with  the devil and his evil works!

Throughout history people who couldn’t live by the rules of civilized society have been banished from communities and nations when they refused to change their ways. The incorrigible bully, like a festering cancer, needs to be excised out of society for the sake of all the other kids whose education is being ruined and whose life is being made a living hell by his nastiness.   Doubtful cases call for caution, but:

WHEN THERE’S NO ROOM FOR DOUBT

THROW THE BULLY OUT!!!

Kids who go to school to cause others pain should be at the receiving end of pain...a  constructive kind.  Hardened bullies have forfeited the right to free public education by abusing the privilege of going to school with civilized people. I know it’s against the law to swing the Board of Education anymore, but bullies should suffer the pain of expulsion.  One sad case of expulsion happened in the Bible. The patriarch Abraham had two sons, one by his legal wife and the other by his concubine, or servant wife. Sarah, unable to have children, had a surrogate son by Hagar, her slave girl. When Ishmael was about thirteen, Isaac was born to aged Sarah.   Ishmael persecuted his tiny little brother at his weaning party  (Gen.21:9; Gal.4:29). Scripture is scant on details, but Ishmael’s hostility probably resulted from jealousy.  Before Isaac’s birth, Ishmael had been Abraham’s heir.  But now he had been supplanted by some new kid on the block! Sarah nipped the situation in the bud before Hagar’s son could pose a serious threat to her son’s safety.  Abraham had to banish his older son and concubine from the camp to keep peace in his family (there’s been war going on between the descendants of these two sons for 4,000 years ever since!).

Bullies who refuse to mend their ways must be denied access to fresh victims. The government should set up special delinquent schools for expelled bullies who still want to get educated. Put ‘em to work to earn the education they might have had for free.  Our streets are fouled by their garbage. Set ‘em to work cleaning the streets, scrubbing off grafitti, doing landscaping.  Then those unholy terrors will be too worn out to get into so much trouble!

I know this will never happen, but there ought to be Christian  youth reformatories whose sole mission is to correct wayward youth.  Such reform schools would feature mandatory instruction in the Bible and a disciplined lifestyle (lights out by two a.m.,  up by ten and no Nintendo).  Punishment of punksters would be swift and certain.  It would adhere to a set of firm, but humane guidelines. Even if corporal punishment were prohibited, other punishments could be meted out. How ‘bout making trouble-makers shift a big sand pile from one end of the field to the other, shovelful by shovelful? Or being assigned to six months’ latrine duty, scrubbing showers and toilets?

Teenage terrors have no compunctions against mugging a ninety-year-old granny to grab her handbag, but would they be so brave if a 240-pound, 6-foot-six Marine drill sergeant took them on? It would be ideal if reform schools  were staffed with such sergeants (in between other wars)  They would     straighten out punkster boys (girls would be trained by female staff). The kids would be taken on scenic nature hikes in the wilds (not in L.A.). They would be taught survival skills so they don’t have to survive on some old lady’s bus fare anymore. And if they gave any lip, the drill sergeant  would make them haul a pile of rocks up the mountain slope. The kids would learn teamwork.  They would learn to work with other people without fighting.  And if moving rockpiles didn’t tame the wild beasts, they would do time out in the brig (without Playboy Magazines to read while they’re sitting in the corner).

All kidding aside, I expect a lot of kid-glove softies will call me a meanie for saying tough problems call for tough measures.  But banishing dangerous incorrigibles  from law-abiding society is Biblical, even New Testament.  In I Corinthians Chapter 5 Paul instructs church members to disfellowship wicked members who refuse to repent. Why?  To prevent reprobates from infecting the rest of the church with sexual sins, dishonesty,  drunkenness, etc.  Violent behavior is every bit as bad as these sins.  One bad bully can easily escalate to a gang of criminals who make school sheer hell for others and keep them from learning.

Putting a kid through public school didn’t used to be so bad, but it’s getting to be the next worst thing to hell.  From the age of five the indoctrination starts.  You’ve gotta have this, you’ve gotta act this way, respond to people that way.  And if you don’t, the bullies are watching you, and you’ll be next.  Well before a child reaches puberty he’s had a warped sex education on TV and on the playground, and he’s pressured to be among the first to lose his virginity (which he’s brainwashed into thinking is a dread disease) and it doesn’t matter who takes his or her virtue, just so long as they can say they’ve done it. My heart truly goes out to Christian parents who are trying to raise their children to live decently in this filthy hellhole of a world, one that could make Sodom blush. Good, decent Christians don’t want the world to rob their little children of their innocence.   I hope and pray the Rapture of the Church occurs before another generation of newborn babies has time to be born and grow into adolescence!

Or worse yet, old age. Pity the elderly too.  I was  saddened to read  of the tragic death of an 86-year old Englishman.  For two long years he had been subjected to  fiendish psychological torment by a gang of teenage vermin.  His crime?  He was blind, as well as elderly. Satan incites bullies to despise and abuse the defenseless.

Demon-driven kids threw rocks  at the old man’s house and called him names.  They  put obstacles in his yard to make him trip whenever he went outside for a stroll. Even if they had done nothing worse, they would still have deserved God’s punishment. Leviticus 19:14 warns against cursing the deaf, or placing stumbling-blocks before the blind.  Deuteronomy 27:18 says: Cursed is he who makes the blind to wander out of the way.

Those foul devils are under a curse! Not only did their victim have to bear the heartache of blindness, but his tormentors made his life hell.  In due course they will reap what they have sown. And no, God won’t let them off just ‘cause they’re under 18!  God is not a politically correct, limp-wristed powderpuff politician!

Emboldened by the lack of consequences for their earlier harassment, those creeps converged on the old guy as he began his daily walk to the corner market.  According to two teenage witnesses, they encircled him with their mountain bikes, called him foul names and made obscene gestures.  After he waved his cane at them and told them to go away, a boy kicked him in the leg and made him fall. One girl told the boy to stop.  His reply? “I can’t.  This is too much fun!”  It’s cool to be cruel.

The inquest was “inconclusive”.  There was, they said, no substantial evidence to link the bullying with the man’s death. His many relatives were enraged that those devils had gone unpunished. I find it baffling that more wasn’t done to protect the poor man from the bullies during the two years they carried out their hate campaign against him.  Perhaps surveillance cameras could have been installed on his property to glean evidence to use against the delinquents. Had he been wealthy, he could have had  his own  personal bodyguard or lived in a gated community dotted with mansions nestled in a floral paradise.

What a shame satan’s servants have the upper hand. Society is at the mercy of  incorrigible youth nurtured on a diet of Hollywood sewage. Today’s dimwitted policy is to let kids trash the neighborhood   any old way  they please.  The killers are just  impressionable babies, after all, the poor little sweetie pies.  A bit of discipline  or a term at a youth “brat camp” would only damage their precious little psyches for life.  Heaven forbid that you should subject them to a day in court. And don’t surround yourself with guard dogs to  ward them off.  You could get sued for defending yourself against those cute little cuddlies who are only expressing their individuality!

Hogwash!  Those scumbags who drove that poor old man to his death are first-degree murderers, plain and simple.  They, like the cat torturing the mouse, killed him by inches.  Just because it was “fun”, and wouldn’t cost them much even if they got caught.  A few months behind bars is a bargain price for such a high.

But I’ve got news for those thugs. Almighty God has already condemned those sacks of sin to the Lake of Fire! And believe me, not even the slickest lawyer could shorten God’s sentence! Most people think that if there is a future judgment, that our guilt or innocence before God will be established then and there. But Scripture shows that the awful Judgment Day of sinners will only ratify what was already established in their lifetimes. John 3:18 warns that sinners are already condemned to perdition because of their rebellion against God and rejection of His Son.    Bullies try to pack as much deviltry into life as possible before they must finally stand before God for judgment. Basically people aren’t sinners because they sin, but they sin because they are born sinners.   I believe there must exist a  “mean gene” or “cruelty chromosome” which was passed on by Adam and Eve to taint the souls of all mankind.  God is Love, so to rebel against Him is to choose hatred.

Those kids are  probably gloating over getting away with it even now, but they’re more blind than their  victim  was.  Too blind to see  they are sitting on the death row where all unrepentant sinners are consigned.  Only the Blood of Jesus can reprieve a condemned sinner from his date with eternal death in hell. And I wouldn’t bet one nickel they’ll ever be saved unless they’re exposed to a little tough love.

Years ago, if a brat  raised hell in a supermarket, his parents would smack his bottom once or twice to subdue him.   Today,  kids must be given free rein to express their  feelings, even if they ransack the potato chip aisle and rip open every bag.  Sometimes a kid’s screams will reach a blood-curdling pitch before his passive parents pick him up to try to calm him.  They’re afraid to do anything to cross the little tyrant, even appear angry. They’re scared stiff they’ll be arrested for child abuse if they give him a quick swat on his Seat of Education.     What are the fruits of permissive child rearing?

In a word: anarchy. Where there is no restraint, chaos reigns, whether in society at large or in the home. In England, youth crime is endemic.  Gangs of kids as young as ten boldly  torment elderly people in quiet neighborhoods, shouting insults and hurling bricks through windows, fully expecting to get away with it.  One 62-year-old lady died from the prolonged stress she was subjected to by little thugs.  Surprisingly, they were rounded up and indicted for manslaughter.  Had they been younger than ten, they would have been “incapable of committing a crime”.

I stick faithfully to the King James Version of the Bible, for its God-given answers have not been revised to conform to this politically correct age. I want to hear what God really has to say about unruly youth.  I’ll give you an example.  The Prophet Isaiah warned  God’s people of  the consequences of falling away from God as a society.  Isaiah 3:5 states: And the people shall be oppressed, every one by another, and every one by his neighbor.  The child shall behave himself proudly against the ancient, and the base (vile person) against the honorable (KJV). The Good News Bible reads: Everyone will take advantage of everyone else.  Young people will not respect their elders, and worthless people will not respect their superiors.

The two versions differ greatly in their rendering of verse 12: As for My people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them (KJV). Good News reads instead:  Moneylenders oppress My people, and their creditors cheat them.  I put more credence in the first translation.

That’s very significant to me, the wide discrepancy between the two renderings of the same verse.  The second translation smells strongly of mistranslation to appease the politically correct crowd. Deliberately altering Holy Writ to conform to the ethos of the times is a serious sin (Rev. 22:18-19). Today, teachers and parents  are oppressed by foul-mouthed, vicious brats they are forbidden to discipline, or even  sternly reprimand.  As for the second part of the verse, I do know that a man who rebels against God’s divinely ordained order for the home is more apt to be dominated by a strong-willed woman willing to fill the vacuum of authority.

It is politically incorrect to cite that Scripture which declares that “women shall rule over them” as one of the tragedies of modern society, but whenever a man  refuses to shoulder his responsibilities as a strong father-figure, he automatically  creates confusion in the minds of his sons, who ought to learn from him what true masculinity is.  Nothing is sadder to see than a wimpy, hen-pecked father who lets his wife (or his child’s buddies) bear the entire burden of teaching values to the kids.  Or worse yet, a man so unstable that he trades partners (it used to be wives!) in for newer models as regularly as he shops for new cars.  Most pathetic of all, I believe, is the young stud who begets babies like a popgun; children he has not intention of supporting, leaving their poor mothers  to cope however they can. This is doubly difficult for a woman who doesn’t know Christ.

How sad, to read about kids who don’t know how to interact in a civilized way with others  because they were raised with no spiritual guidance. Children’s souls must be cultivated with the principles of God’s Word if parents want them to grow up to be loving, decent, considerate adults. You can’t just wish for potatoes to sprout up in your patch.  You must seed it, weed it, and water it, and keep pests away before you’ll be rewarded with the desired crop. If you don’t cultivate the character of your child the devil surely will.

Deprived of decent role models, and alienated from older males, young boys learn all about “masculinity” out on the street. Firm  discipline in homes and schools is outdated.  It is  now considered a violation of the civil rights of children. In today’s wimpy world, “there are no absolutes.” Growing up I watched innocuous shows like Lassie and Leave it to Beaver.  Cheesy by today’s standards, but at least old-fashioned TV moms looked and acted  like mothers instead of wannabe 10-year olds stud-hunting in halter tops and hot pants. In the good ol’ days the most shocking thing a kid would see is Beaver  agonizing over whether to fess up to some lie he told his cookie-baking mom.  But today kids are treated to trash TV, with its endless images of immorality, perversion, family breakups, nudity and bloody violence. And if they get bored with TV, their computer games are on standby to gratify their appetite for sadism,  blood, lust and murder. Reality TV shows are dirtier than ever before.

God wants everyone to know that He is going to judge the greedy producers of film violence and His wrath will one day fall upon all who have made their fortune by corrupting entire generations of youth. Demonically-inspired entertainment teaches  kids that it is fun to torture and kill. The blood of dead victims of bullying is on the hands of peddlers and producers of pretend violence!

It is the job of the Holy Spirit to convince people of their sins, and their need for a Redeemer.  I’d say that more than ever before in all the sordid history of mankind, He faces a formidable challenge, and He really has His work cut out for Him. I certainly can’t deprogram hardened sinners brainwashed by Babylon!  Whenever a sinner discovers he’s a sinner in these darkened days, it is always a miraculous act of the Spirit of Grace.  After all, this is a world where right and wrong no longer exists, and if it feels good, it IS good! How can people be sorry for their sins when satan has convinced them  that sin is an outdated myth?

Jesus calls the devil a thief.  The thief comes only  to steal, kill, and destroy. I  (Jesus) have come to give them abundant life (John 10:10).  The bully is hooked on the lie of satan, his god.  He’d rather be a hammer than a nail, a hard-fisted, aggressive Mr. Cool who always gets what he wants at everyone else’s expense.  All the school bully knows is that he’s young, hard-muscled, and popular with his circle of like-minded buddies.  The female bully glories in her own transitory “beauty”, deluding herself that her perverse fun will go on forever.  She thinks her skeletal  body studded with rings and tattoos will always be her passport to “love”, that  she’ll never be thrust into a  situation where she’ll begin to reap the cruelty and rejection she’s sown.

Undetected by the human eye, the devil patrols the school corridors, grinning broadly.  He knows that God intends to cast him into the Lake of Fire at the end of time, but will resist God to the end and try to thwart his fate.  But just in case he fails, why not have some company in hell for all eternity?  Multitudes of nasty bullies have already volunteered.  Truly, a heaven where love reigns supreme would be a far worse torture to them.

I know satan is real.  I encountered him daily on the school bus.  His spirit glared at me through the  malignant eyes of Butch, a vicious boy who snarled threats at me.  At that time in my life, I had no training  in Biblical truths whatsoever, no knowledge of demonic possession.  But when I looked into those green eyes which burned like coals, I sensed the presence of satan very strongly.  I thought, He can’t be human.  There’s no reason for him to hate me  like that.  I don’t even know him.  I’d had absolutely no teaching on the reality of demons, but it struck me how much his face seemed to be that of a demon from hell.   Butch’s  abuse was no lightweight, giggly teasing, but the bloodcurdling threats of a rabid dog.

I’d sit in the front of the bus, cowering, as volleys of soggy spitwads assailed me from the back.   They splattered the glass partition between the front side seat and the door.  The driver was a callous old man who couldn’t have cared less those bums were raising hell on his bus and trashing it.  It was my complaints that bugged him.  No matter that Butch threatened to put out my eyes  with a slingshot, and waved a big knife in my face.  My nerves were shredded, and I suffered such panic attacks that I felt immobilized and didn’t know how best to defend myself.  It was too far to walk home, several miles across town and no sidewalks.]

Finally that vicious monster hit me on the head with a club he’d made in woodworking class.  One snotty girl yelled, “Hit her again!”  Waves of impotent rage and hatred mingled with the shock of that blow.  Had he hit the wrong part of my skull, I could have been killed or disabled. If he had taken that nasty little fiend’s advice and hit me a second, lethal blow, both of them would very likely have gotten off scot-free in any earthly court of law.  BUT THEY  WOULD HAVE GONE  TO HELL AS  MURDERERS!

Even so, God looks on the intent of the heart.  That evil girl would have  loved for him to hit me with the club again and kill me.  If she never repented of this wickedness, SHE STILL HAS THE ROTTEN HEART OF A MURDERER! Time does not wash away guilt.  Only the Blood of Jesus can do that.

I saw that same vile spirit of satan in that horrible creature’s face. She was so mean-looking a Rottweiller would have run away from her. She got in a kicking match with Butch because he provoked her once on the bus, but they were true soul mates. Memories of her make my skin crawl.  She often shrieked, “Ooh!  C.....!  Get away!  You’ve got lice!”  If she has not repented since then, I know her sins are recorded in that book out of which all rebels against God will be judged according to their works when they stand before God’s Great White Throne of Judgment.  Sin cannot be forgiven by God without repentance and acceptance of His atonement for sin in Christ Jesus.  No meanness of any kind will be permitted to enter God’s City of Love.  If the sinner refuses to part with his/her sin, that one will be shut out, excluded from the Presence of a God Who cannot tolerate impurity of heart.