The older we get, the more advice we hear on how we ought to conduct our lives. Friends and family often tell us things which we never read in Scripture. Three common ones are:

1. Take it easy - don't exert yourself.
2. Be very careful - don't risk.
3. Hold on to what you've got - things are going to get worse. That's the pessimism that dogs our steps as we get older. It causes us to be greedy and tight with what we have."

'We always need a boogey-man, we always need the end of the world,' said Terry Gilliam, whose films include 1995's 'Twelve Monkeys,' about a world where plague has wiped out most of humanity. 'I think it's the problem of being in a Christian society. It's based on it. If you don't have the end of the world, you don't get heaven and eternity.'"

Crime is explained, not in terms of individual responsibility, but genetic or environmental causes. So sin is not my fault. Nobody can ever be said to be guilty, because nobody has a free choice to do anything. Ultimately I am the victim of my own genetic make-up.

All creation and the people of God fall down before the Crucified and Risen Savior, the Lamb who was slain and sing a new song, "You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.