Cradle to Grave - Part 2

 

Wednesday, November 16, 2022

All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives.  It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right.  

2 Timothy 3:16

Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.  He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation, for through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth.  He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see—such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world.  Everything was created through him and for him.  He existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together.  Colossians 1:15-17

I’m aware, with the next few sentences, I will offend some people, as well as get a few ”amens”.  However, like Martin Luther, when asked to recant his condemnation of a church gone dark into selfishness and spiritual death:  I cannot and will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand, I can do no other, so help me God. Amen.  So, here goes:  Abortion is a wrong choice.  ---  Click!  ---  Half of those who heard that just tuned-out.  For those with an open mind still reading/listening, I did not make a sexist/mysogynistic statement.  I didn’t even mention sex or gender.  Abortion is a medical procedure assaulting a living being inside a woman’s body with the intent to cause death. 

My reason for writing this is to address the faulty reasoning for making the decision to abort a living being.  The primary case that has been made for abortion as an acceptable choice has always appealed to women’s rights.  Certainly that presupposes only the rights of the woman carrying the unborn child, and not the rights of the child within the womb.  My argument is not against women, or rights, however, rather a contention with unsound logic.

In yesterday’s devotion I held up two principles – Scripture is authoritive in matters of my life, and Jesus is the only arbiter of my actions, because He is the center of Scripture’s content and purpose of Almighty God.  With that as my marching orders, the only honest and objective conclusion about abortion is that it violates every tenet of Scripture’s profile of life.

The point is, if God thought enough to create us in the first place, and clearly stated that every life is valuable – even the sparrows – as much as even the hairs on your head, arbitrarily snuffing-out a life for the sake of convenience is wrong.

The hermeneutical principles of interpreting Scripture demand that no Scripture contradicts another Scripture.  There may be contrasts, such as describing one side of an elephant, then turning to the trunk or tail with a differing description, but the elephant is one cohesive being.  And the elephant of Scripture is God’s cohesive treatise on life.  All else, save protecting life, fails…eternally!  Note the contrast in Jesus’ own words, from the passage where He describes himself as the Good Shepherd, and what God’s purpose was for sending Him:

The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.  John 10:10

If life is the supreme good which God was engifting to all humanity, the enemy’s purpose…in this discussion, abortion, is a declaration of war.

For You Today  

I’ve stated the position I hold…or rather I see that God holds, and I cannot do less than affirm.  Tomorrow we will consider the sexist issue.  Stay tuned.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

Go to VIDEO (read by author)

There are about 2,000 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  To dig deeper on today’s topic, explore some of these: 

       Small Package - Big Message   and   Eyes that do Not See; Ears that do Not Hear

Images: Title image Pixabay.com Images without citation are either personal property of the author, or in public domain.

Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©   

Cradle to Grave - Part 1

Tuesday, November 15, 2022

All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives.  It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right.  

2 Timothy 3:16

Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.  He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation, for through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth.  He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see—such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world.  Everything was created through him and for him.  He existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together.  Colossians 1:15-17

These two passages are the ruler by which I measure all my thoughts and deeds.  Paul’s admonition to Timothy reminded the young Pastor that Scripture would keep a person on the right track, an informed, humble allegiance to God.  Paul’s letter to the Colossian believers outlines the primacy and supremacy of Jesus Christ, the One who created, sustains, and has prior claim, on everything.

Scripture is entirely focused on God’s Messiah, Jesus the Christ, from Genesis through Revelation.  That is His clearly-stated declaration in Revelation:

“I am the Alpha and the Omega—the beginning and the end,” says the Lord God. “I am the one who is, who always was, and who is still to come—the Almighty One.”  Revelation 1:8

It doesn’t get clearer than that.  And with that clarity, we are left with two choices, we can believe, or not.  Because we are given free will, Heaven hangs in the balance of the choice to serve Him; rejecting makes Hell the alternative.

At the risk of being redundant, I want to point out that God has given each of us free will to choose, and with that responsibility we are also blessed (or cursed) by the choices we make.  Isn’t that ever the way?  If you decide to put your hand in the fire, there are scorching consequences.  If you decide to feed a hungry child, nothing that ever happens can take away the inner peace that you did the right thing.  Choose poorly and you can’t forget it; choose wisely and you sleep well.

As a young person I chose to serve God by trusting in Christ’s sacrifice for my sin.  Although there have been some very difficult times in my life, I have never regretted that decision.  I have made some poor choices at times, and the consequences have been correctional in nature, with God getting my attention, showing me my errors, and how to get back on track.  (Sometimes, depending upon my stubbornness factored-in, it took a little longer than necessary).  However, the two principles I chose to follow, God’s Scripture is true, profitable, and without error, and…Jesus Christ is the embodiment of Scripture, and I will honor him with all my words and deeds...these principles have never failed to bless, comfort, strengthen, and enlighten me for more than the past 60 years. 

So, this is my introduction to what I would like to say about choosing life over death from cradle to grave.  My hope is that you’ll stay with me the next two or three days as we comb-out a few bed-head-hairs of misconception about choice.

For You Today  

If you are ready to choose to believe Scripture, and honor Christ in all you do, here is what God’s Word says about making that decision:

If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.  For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved.  Romans 10:9-10

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

Go to VIDEO (read by author)

There are about 2,000 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  To dig deeper on today’s topic, explore some of these: 

       Life Off-Track   and   Choosing; and being able to live with the Choices

Images: Title image Pixabay.com Images without citation are either personal property of the author, or in public domain.

Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©   

 

Stare Decisis

 

Tuesday, July 5, 2022

“Don’t imagine that I came to bring peace to the earth!  I came not to bring peace, but a sword.  ‘I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.  Your enemies will be right in your own household!’  Matthew 10:34-36

In a 213-page document,[1] handed down from the  Supreme Court of the U.S. on June 24^th, the 1973 decision of Roe vs. Wade (favoring a Constitutional right to abortion), was overturned, returning the issue, and the power to determine such rights, back to the individual states.  One of the main factors upon which the case was decided was stare decisis.  The Latin term is defined as a doctrine or policy of following rules or principles laid down in previous judicial decisions....  Stare Decisis appears 84 times in the court’s ruling syllabus.  Something which is that central to the thinking to the court’s 5-4 decision begs our attention 

It would seem, from even a casual observance of news reports, that the entire country (and by extension, the world) is as divided as it was in World War II.  In no way do I wish to add to that divide.  However, if I understand what was presented to the court, stare decisis, upon which rested the defense’s argument to sustain Roe vs. Wade as law of the land, was ruled as inappropriate, not having been sufficiently established. 

Setting aside the celebrations, or protestations of those who are overjoyed, or those outraged by the decision, the takeaway with which we must live, is the division we have created.

If there is anything I’ve learned about stare decisis, it is as old as eternity.  God, the Father revealed himself to Moses at the burning bush as, I AM…the statement of eternal existance, covering what was, what is, and what will be.  This is the same as the declaration of Jesus:

“I am the Alpha and the Omega—the beginning and the end,” says the Lord God.  “I am the one who is, who always was, and who is still to come—the Almighty One.”  Revelation 1:8

Jesus attested to the fact that He, and everything He brought from the Father in Heaven to teach us, would be the dividing line separating even the closest of families.  The issue of life still in the womb is a strong example of that.

The principle of stare decisis demands going back to the earliest precedent.  As such, 1973’s Roe vs. Wade ruling is a decidedly modern idea.  God, who is eternal, and therefore predates even the so-called primordial ooze, is the one who gave us Exodus 20:13…do no murder.

God is also the one upon whom we received what our forefathers wrote in the Constitution we so revere, the guarantee of liberty to individuals to choose their course.  The stare dicisis of that posit demands we understand we are free, but the precedent insists we must also not infringe upon the freedom of another at any stage of this life’s journey, including the womb. 

For You Today

The 9 justices of our country’s Supreme Court took 213 pages to explain why Roe vs. Wade was wrongly-decided 50 years ago.  In two pages I find it hard to find fault with admitting a mistake.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

Go to VIDEO (read by author)

There are about 2,000 devotional posts on Rocky Road Devotions. 

To dig deeper into this topic or Scripture text:  Subway Sermon and Shattered Beyond All Hope of Repair

[1] Images:  Pixabay.com  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©  

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[1] Read the full document here

Omniscient

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD.  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.  Isaiah 55:8-9 (NRSV)

…he knows everything.  1 John 3:20b (NRSV)

When someone calls you a “know-it-all” they’re usually not being very kind.  When God refers to Himself that way…well, His ways and thoughts ARE at a different pay grade.

Omniscience (in God’s case) is not just having all the information that can be gathered as facts.  As the Psalmist points out, the sum of God-knowledge is beyond all knowledge; un-understandable.

Great is our Lord, and abundant in power;

his understanding is beyond measure.  Psalms 147:5 (NRSV)

God’s knowledge not only sees our steps…

“For his eyes are upon the ways of mortals, 

and he sees all their steps.                   Job 34:21 (NRSV)

…His knowledge will be the central theme of judgment for where our steps have taken us.  We are accountable for our actions and God knows!  God knows, indeed!

And before him no creature is hidden, but all are naked and laid bare to the eyes of the one to whom we must render an account.  Hebrews 4:13 (NRSV)

The “predictive” element in God’s omniscience has always fascinated theologians, philosophers and simple people like me.  How can He know what hasn’t even happened?  

And yet, so says the Scriptures, He is Alpha and Omega ^{Rev 1:8}; beginning and END!

Think Farmer’s Almanac.  (You knew I’d get around to the farming metaphor).

Year after year since 1792 this amazing little publication has predicted the weather and probability for crop productivity with an amazing 80% success.

But God’s “success rate” is 100%!

There’s a new fad called “open” theology, which holds God really doesn’t know exactly what is going to happen; it all depends on man’s choices – and then God responds accordingly.

The overwhelming number of references (both Old and New Testament) to God’s ultimate omniscience, make anything less than His ways and thoughts being beyond our comprehension, well….incomprehensible.

 “Fail rate” on open theology?  100%. 

Today…for you

Remember that sin?

 

I’m not talking about the word you said when you hit your thumb with the hammer.  Or the thought you had when that crazy driver cut you off on I-85.  I mean that little secret, deep down that you try to never think about, but it’s there….and it eats you alive when you try to pray…but you’re afraid to bring it up to God, because you might have to give it up?  

Remember that one?

Psssst….He already knows.  He’s willing to forgive, and help you forsake it; and even forget it!  But, it won’t happen until you own it, confess it, and let it go.

Not sound right?  That’s because His ways really are much higher than yours.