We as the Church of Christ need to face an ever present reality. The family as we once knew it is almost gone. Satan’s attack on the family is increasing and why should he quit? He has already been successful in deleting prayer and the reading of the Holy Word from America’s schools. He has fostered the saying, "Separation of Church and State". We as God’s ambassadors on earth have allowed Satan to separate it so much that our schools and state reflect little or no Christian values. Oh, there are small pockets of resistance, but for the most part the Christian community has waved the white flag.

To find the culprit all we need to do is look in a mirror. Then we will see ourselves for who we really are. Christians have sat on the sidelines long enough, it is time for gorilla warfare. This is the time and the place to fight back. Are you ready to retake our homes? Then gird yourself with the Lord Jesus Christ and start fighting for the lives of your family and friends.

We can look at the American home and say, without a doubt, that the Cleavers don’t live here anymore, and that the Nelsons have left town. It is also a fact in American society that Father doesn’t Know Best, because that is not politically correct!! Remember the Cleavers? The Beaver and Wally used to arrive home from school just in time to be met by their mother, June. She used to greet them at the door with freshly baked cookies and a glass of refreshing milk. When suppertime came, Ward Cleaver would gather the entire family around the dining room table to discuss the days events. He was an expert at dispensing morsels of wisdom to the children. You could almost anticipate the time when Eddie Haskel would arrive to "butter up" Mrs. Cleaver so he could get in on some of her famous home cooking and take part in the conversation of the day.

Today, as we look at the family, we can cry and shout that the Beaver, Wally, Ward, and June are almost extinct. The Beaver now comes home to an empty house and a refrigerator full of Hot Dogs and TV Dinners. Microwave madness has attacked our very beings. We eat right away because we don’t have time to wait on the rest of the family. After all, in today’s society we are too

"BUSY" to wait on anybody else. June is not home yet, she has a job now and she might not arrive until 7:30 or 8. So, the Beaver "cranks" up the microwave and sits in front of the "boob tube" watching such spiritually rewarding shows as Jenny Jones and Jerry Springer.

Wally finally "waltzes" in and doesn’t even speak to the Beaver. He immediately heads to his den where he pulls out his trusty remote control and fills his head with MTV. He catches all his favorite singers, such as Guns and Roses, 2-Live Crew, Dog E Dog, with a little dash of Mega Death thrown in just to complete his day.

Mrs. Cleaver eventually drags in at 8, dead tired with a headache from working all day. All June wants to do is to be left alone and go to bed. She asks Beaver where his dad is and he just grunts. June then turns and goes to her bedroom, where she will crash until she begins the same routine in the morning. Ward finally arrives home at 9 P.M. He has been at the local pub with his buddies from work. It just happens to be Monday night and you know what that means: Monday Night Football. Ward tells the Beaver to vacate the living room and watch TV in his bedroom. He also yells, "Grab me a Bud on your way past the fridge." The Beaver then heads to his bedroom just in time to catch the latest episode of Bevis and Butt Head.

This is not a fantasy!! This is a reality in millions of homes in America today. It is also real in many "Christian homes". Kids are coming home to empty houses. These houses are physically, as well as spiritually empty!! How then can we sit back and wonder why America is headed to hell in a hand basket? All we need to do is look at the shows that appear on our TV screens, examine our schools, and view our government in action to see why we are headed down the path of destruction.

America’s homes are poverty-stricken when it comes to parental guidance, how can it be any other way when we have thrown the Word of God away? Like last weeks garbage, we have discarded the ONLY help for America and the family. After we have thrown away the answer book we begin to ask questions.

Why is crime on the rise? Why are our elderly treated with disdain by the younger generation? Why are divorces as common as marriages? Why do we need to employ policemen in our schools? Both, America and the Church needs to wake up. The answers are in the written Word of God. We have not learned the lessons of history. The book of Judges 21:25 says, "In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did what was right in his own eyes." America has forsaken her king, that King is JESUS. We have left what is right and true and are headed down the path of sure destruction unless we listen to the one exhortation that is a constant in the Bible. The one word, that rings like the Liberty Bell is Remember.

Today husbands and wives are divorcing each other for any reason and then are showing up at the Lord’s Table on Sunday morning, with no remorse, no guilt, acting as if they had just went around the corner and bought a new pair of shoes. God will not allow this to continue. If He doesn’t settle it

in your lifetime He will on the Judgment Day. Marriage has become cheap because divorce is as easy as picking up a cup of coffee. We are in moral decay because Ephesians 5:25 is no longer relevant to the Church or the world. It is no longer the Word of God, instead it has become a set of guide lines that we can reject at a moments notice.

Men we need to take responsibility for our families. Part of the problem comes from the fact that many have fallen into the pit of political correctness. Humanism has also infiltrated the Church to the point that many do not want to bow their knee to the Lordship of Christ. Their minds have become so diluted that they have come to believe in their ultimate god, self. But the trouble with self-made men has always been that they begin to worship their creator. Those who are in Christ must worship the true creator, God. Christian men it is up to you to make a difference. If you want to be the head of the house then act like it. If you want to be "MACHO" then lead your family to Christ. Take responsibility for your wife and children and start acting like a man of God. Remember the TRUTH will not only set you free, but it will also set your family free. Do you want to see your family in heaven? Then get to work.

"The aged women likewise, that they be in behavior as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things; That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed." Notice that the Bible says KEEPERS AT HOME not STAYERS AT HOME. This doesn’t mean that you are not allowed to work, but what Titus is teaching is that your number one priority is your family. It is not your "outside job" or "career". Christian women don’t let anybody make you feel like you’re less than a woman if you are a housewife!!

According to God this is the greatest work in the world!! You don’t NEED another career God has already given you one, raising a family that brings honor to Him. Titus also reminds us that women are to be obedient to their own husbands. Notice it says your own. Not someone else’s. You are to be pure and holy, displaying Christ and Christian values wherever you are. Wherever you work Satan is there. He is trying to destroy your Christian witness and your family. There are men in every job market "fishing" for an adulterous affair. They are "casting" their "bait" just hoping to get a woman to "nibble". They are looking and listening to destroy your life and family. They are waiting to hear you tell someone that your husband doesn’t talk to you anymore or that he doesn’t show you as much affection as he did in the past. Then they move in with all the appropriate words to make you feel "wanted". It is all a ploy by Satan to destroy your family and it is happening in every business and factory in America today.

The only way to proclaim "Family Values" is to have families in America once again. That means a complete family; Father, Mother, and Children, whose lives are centered around Jesus Christ and not themselves; living, working, and growing together in one house. Then the Church will start to make a difference and America will begin to return to the "Old Paths" and the "Old Ways". Remember ladies your number one priority, after God, is your husband and children.

newspaper everyday. There is more proof within it’s pages than I can ever explain to you. Day after day, week after week you will read about young people who have been killed, raped, or maimed because they paid little attention to the Word of God and didn’t listen to their parents. They somehow thought they were smarter than God. The fact remains if you think you are smarter than your parents then you believe you are more intelligent then God. How can this be? Because God commanded you to honor and obey your parents. If you reject God’s consul you reject Him!! One such article was about a young man I knew. He was only 17, and yet, he thought he was smarter than his parents. He was home in bed at 3 o’clock in the morning when he received a telephone call from some of his friends. They made arrangements to pick him up so they could go "joy riding". He knew better, but he thought just this one time won’t hurt. He knew his parents wouldn’t approve and yet he disobeyed them anyway. It just so happens that the car he got into was stolen. He left in that automobile never to return alive again. You see, the car he was ridding in struck a tree and he bled to death. That night was the last night of his life. If only he had heeded the words of the Ephesian writer he would be alive today. The words, that it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth, echo in his parents minds even today. They are hoping you read this and learn from the mistake that their son made. Children, Remember; Honor your Father and Mother and it will go well with you.

No the Cleavers don’t live here anymore, but they could return. Yes they could, if the Church would once again present Biblical values. If we as God’s people would return to the book that set us free to begin with, America could once again hold Godly values if the Church, not the government set the agenda. One of the pitfalls Christian people fall into is thinking that it’s too late. But the simple fact is that it is rarely too late.

To prove this let me use a worldly example. Some years ago a man over sixty was offered nearly $200,000 for a restaurant-motel-service station business that he’d spent his life building up. He turned down the offer because he loved the business and wasn’t ready to retire yet. Two years later, at age sixty-five, he was flat broke with no income to look forward to but a small Social Security check each month. The state had built a new highway bypassing his business and he lost it. Most people would be crushed by such a blow, but he refused to give up. Instead, he took stock. There was one thing he knew how to do - fry chicken. Maybe he could sell that knowledge to others. He kissed his wife good-bye and in a battered old car, with a pressure cooker and a can of specially prepared flour, set out to sell his idea to other restaurants. It was tough going and he often slept in the car because there wasn’t enough money for a hotel room. But his persistence paid off, a few years later he had built a nationwide franchised restaurant chain. That man was Colonel Sanders.