Before I formed you in the womb I knew you... -Jeremiah 1:5
We live in a strange new world filled with mind-boggling contradictions that we willingly buy as truth as long as it fits with our ever-evolving lifestyle changes. Tired of your marriage? Try a new partner and claim God's blessing on your choice, because everyone knows God wants us to be happy. Drawn into the denigrating spiral of homosexual attraction? Pronounce yourself free from 2,000 years of homophobic Biblical propaganda and embrace your new lifestyle. Don't like paying taxes to a corrupt government? Keep the money for yourself and talk about the "radical" Jesus who spoke out against the evils of government intervention. Have an unwanted pregnancy? Stop off at your local Planned Parenthood office and speak with an understanding, loving, and patient woman who will tell you that the growing fetus inside of you, that shares your DNA - that always, since time began, becomes a human being - is no different than your appendix. Pay the $500 and be free to live your life the way you deserve, with reproductive freedom and a new lease on life.
We love the word "freedom" in America. So much so that God himself must check his agenda at the door to our liberty. Surely God would not impinge upon our most basic human rights, and the old fashioned and archaic Bible must bow to our intellectual superiority and libertine mindset. Yet the contradictions remain, whether we want them to or not. If a pregnant woman is on the way to her scheduled abortion and is struck by a distracted driver and loses the baby at the same time the life would have been terminated by choice, she can comfort herself knowing that the driver will in all likelihood be charged with manslaughter for causing the death of her baby. The child dies in both scenarios, but now the mother dreams of riches derived from the impending lawsuit. This is the world we live in.
I always hesitate before I write an article like this, because some of you reading it have committed adultery. Some struggle with same-sex attraction. Many cheat on your taxes, and more than a few have gone through the painful (mentally, physically, spiritually) process of one or more abortions. Everyone, whether reader or writer, has skeletons in their closet that they want no one to know about. What hypocrites we are at heart! What strangers we are to the holiness of God! Sexually pure or pornographically addicted; opposite-sex or same-sex attracted; monogamous or multi-partnered, married or divorced, male or female; oh, how we all need a Savior!
Sunday, January 22, marks "Sanctity of Human Life Sunday." It also marks the 43rd anniversary of the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion in America. Spouting off statistics does not do justice to the wanton, legal, and government sanctioned death toll since that date. Human minds cannot grasp the numbers, so we are more outraged at the deaths of 3,000 plus adults during the horrific events of 911 than we are at the over 50 million who have gone to their graves, directly from their mothers’ wombs.
God is a loving and forgiving God. There is forgiveness and mercy for repentant adulterers, perjurers, murderers, cheats, homosexuals, heterosexuals, abortion seekers and providers. Jesus' death on the cross saves sinners, not merely by example, but in cold, hard, brutally real ways. If you have fled to Jesus as your only hope and called on him for mercy, laying your life before him, you may live at peace. "But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil..." (Romans 2:8-9). Those are surely not idle words. We must all consider them. While we do so, those who have found hope in Jesus, regardless of their sins, past and present, must seek to love and counsel others who have yet to find that hope, and to view them through the eyes of one who knows what it means to be a sinner. Those are the only eyes we have.
May God have mercy on your souls and my soul, friends. And may we learn, in turn, to have mercy on those who do not know where to turn and find hope.
Grace and peace,
Pastor Jym