The Cost of Killing Children

I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. 15 My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.16 Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.17 How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them! 18 If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand: when I awake, I am still with thee. 19 Surely thou wilt slay the wicked, O God: depart from me therefore, ye bloody men.

Psalms 139:14-19

Ann and I went to the OBGYN today to check on baby Zoë. Not really blog material but she was doing fine and has about eight more weeks before she gets to meet her Papa face to face. The point I want to make is, she is already a person, a living, breathing, sentient being who has free will (just ask her Mama after a good hard kick) and who is very much loved and cherished.

We don’t know who she looks like yet, we don’t know what color her eyes or hair will be, we don’t know if she has a birthmark or a second toe that curls over her big toe (like her Papa and big sister). What we DO know is that we love her and that God has always loved her and that He has some really great plans for her. She is worth the trouble of letting her live!

Every child is worth the trouble. That’s right, every child! The down-syndrome babies, the spinal-bifida babies, the MD babies, the mentally challenged babies, the deformed, defected, rape-conceived, and poverty-stricken babies alike. EVERY CHILD!!! If you had the opportunity to live with all your issues, why shouldn’t every child have the right to live?

I don’t believe in the right to life because we are happy parents and are about to have our second child. I don’t believe in the right to life because my wife was almost aborted when her mother was pregnant and God spared her life. I believe in the right to life because GOD BELIEVES IN THE RIGHT TO LIFE! To me, if it’s good enough for Him, it’s better than good for me.

Science has proven that we don’t need to kill children to get stem cells (see Alice Park’s CNN.com article A Breakthrough on Stem Cells November 20, 2007). Science has also suggested, since a 1981 study by M.C. Pike*, higher breast cancer rates in women who have abortions (perhaps a just reward). We know that there are thousands of families who would love to adopt a child who is unwanted and we know that every fiber of a decent human being’s conscience screams that killing the unborn is not only wrong it’s horrifying.

What we don’t know is what each child has been created by God to do in this world. Could it be that cancer might have been wiped out decades ago, but the person destined to make the fateful discovery was aborted? Could it be that the next Albert Einstein, George Washington or Jonas Salk might be awaiting their early demise in some abortion clinic even as you read this blog? We don’t know, and we never will if the wholesale slaughter of the unborn don’t cease.

Then, we must also consider God. Oh, you may not believe in Him but that doesn’t make Him any less real. You are far too insignificant and blindly arrogant to diminish God with unbelief. He is real and He cares about every one of those precious children. How will He judge us? What will be our cost as a nation, yea, as a civilization, if we don’t stop this barbarism of killing our most innocent? I know how I would judge someone who harmed my child!

So, Zoë, you sleep well in your Mama’s womb tonight and know that if someone tries to harm you they will have to go through your Papa first. I can only pray that your future husband’s parents feel the same way. We know that God feels the same way about every one of His children and the price tag for going through God just might be higher than we are willing to pay!

* Pike MC, Henderson BE, Casagrande JT, Rosario I, Gray CE (1981) Brit. J. Cancer, 43:726.

Awakening to God

And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the LORD is in this place; and I knew it not.

Genesis 28:16 (KJV)

The awakening we need is Jacob’s realization of the presence of the living God in our world. We have, for some generations, thought too little of God and His omnipresence (ever-present nature). In fact we think far too little of God in general! It is essential for us to understand the true nature of God in order to have a true relationship with Him.

God is big! So big in fact the universe cannot contain Him. He is everywhere in every time, in every place at once. He is not limited by time or space, He is not bound by volumes or measurements, and He is not restricted in power.

The energy of a billion suns is in His fingertip. He abides on every planet in every galaxy, in every home and every microscopic fissure at the same time. He is with Adam in the Garden, He is with all the prophets of the Scriptures, He is with King Henry the V at Agincourt, He is with every condemned Jew at Auschwitz and Buchenwald and He is with you and with me this very moment. He knows all, sees all, and understands all that is going on from the physics of a supernova to the emotions you have reading this blog.

Jacob came to a powerful awareness of this when he awoke and realized that he was in God’s presence. The issue with Jacob (and with you and me) is that he had always been in God’s presence and would always be in God’s presence. His awakening happened when he finally recognized it.

Our awakening will be the same. I have heard Christians, my entire life, pining for revival, awakening, a move of God in our generation. We will only see that awakening when those same believers become aware of God’s largeness and of His presence. If no one else will awaken to this fact, I alone will recognize God.

He is here! God is in this place! He is in every church service, every business meeting, every traffic jam, every boardroom and barroom, every nursing home, every hospital and we know it not!

My friend, become aware of the God who is always with you. You might as well get used to Him because you cannot escape Him. Instead recognize Him, welcome Him, love Him. He loves you, and longs to be known by you.

Seeking and Knowing God

Oh to see a new generation of believers who would seek God in order to find Him. How might it change the world we live in if even a trace of Christendom would strive hard after God? Alas, the vast majority of modern believers will never experience God in the way He begs to be experienced.

God longs to be known by us. The very God who needs nothing desires something from us and that something is to be known by us. It is the deepest longing of His heart that we should know Him so that we may glorify Him so that others may know Him and glorify Him. Yet, by and large, Christians do not know Him nor do most desire to.

Oh that we would respond to His calling throughout the scriptures to seek Him out and find His glory. He cries to us O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him (Psalms 34:8). And again the psalmist says, All thy garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia, out of the ivory palaces, whereby they have made thee glad (Psalms 45:8). Jesus said, My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me (John 10:27) and said again, Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God (Matthew 5:8). Luke 6:19 tells us, And the whole multitude sought to touch him: for there went virtue out of him, and healed them all.

So why do so few believers ever experience God in the sensory realm? Why is God not felt and smelled and tasted and heard and seen? Why is it that the very creator of our senses is so far removed from being experienced by them?

No matter what nominal, practical preacher tells you otherwise, God means for us to know Him and experience Him. All of scripture points to this fact while no valid scriptural evidence can be found to the contrary. The only reason learned men believe that God can no longer be experienced is because they have not experienced Him, but certainly not because the scriptures ever indicate that He cannot be know of men.

Hebrews 11:6 tells us true, But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. So let us meditate upon the words of David from the 63^rd Psalm when He says…

1. God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is;

2. To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary.

3. Because thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee.

4. Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in thy name.

5. My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips:

6. When I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night watches.

7. Because thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice.

8. My soul followeth hard after thee: thy right hand upholdeth me.

May you know God as He truly is and glorify Him to make him known to others! Amen.

Suffering Well

I have spent some time considering suffering this week. When a true believer studies the issue of suffering from a purely Biblical approach, he will find great joy in suffering.

Now we know that suffering was not the original plan of God, and we know that God does not cause us to suffer, but He will allow suffering in order to bring about a greater work in our lives. Some people suffer as a direct result of sin while others suffer simply because we live in a fallen world. Bad things happen sometimes to good and Godly people.

I have come to believe that a Believer MUST show the world how to suffer. We must be the poster child of the overcoming life. We can’t shield ourselves from the pains of life, nor can we keep ourselves from the occasional bad day (or week, or season) but we can make a choice to overcome rather than wallow in our trials.

Unfortunately too many believers allow despair into their lives when suffering comes. Now in fairness, anyone experiencing life’s hard knocks needs a place and a time to vent and feel all the emotion that comes with suffering. But despair for a believer is sin.

To despair is to lose hope and confidence in the Creator of the universe. How dare we! Who are we, no matter our circumstance, to tell God he can no longer be trusted and that we have no hope in Him? To use a worn out metaphor, what right does the clay have to doubt the potter’s skills?

The believer should be the poster child of how to suffer well. A believer should never surrender to suffering, but a believer should surrender his suffering to his God. We should cause the world to hunger for the hope and joy that we have in our times of suffering.

Paul speaks of suffering in 2 Corinthians 6:4-10 saying,

…in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, 5 In stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labours, in watchings, in fastings; 6 By pureness, by knowledge, by longsuffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned, 7 By the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, 8 By honour and dishonour, by evil report and good report: as deceivers, and yet true; 9 As unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and, behold, we live; as chastened, and not killed; 10 As sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things. KJV

We believers are to be a strange or (as 1 Peter 2:9 puts it) peculiar people who are greatest when we are smallest, richest when we are poor, strongest when we are weak, most alive when we die, and most joyous when we are suffering. We should show forth the praises of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light, especially when hard times come!

So, beloved, let us live well, suffer with hope and grace, and die better than we lived, for to us, to live is Christ, and to die is gain (Phil 1:21).

Shalom!