Image Bearers
We need to look for opportunities to intervene in other people's lives to help them in their times of greatest need. We need to be a conduit of God's love and compassion to the people God brings us into contact with. We need to offer love and support and let God be the judge. And we need to celebrate the sanctity of life.
Mankind alone was made in the image of God. God has given us a moral and spiritual compass that the rest of creation does not possess. Genesis 1:26-28 says "then God said, 'Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.' So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and every creature that crawls[j] on the earth.” Genesis 5:3 says, "Adam was 130 years old when he father a son in his likeness, according to his image, and named him Seth."
When men and women have children, they are given birth to little image bearers. My daughter may not like it, but she acts like me sometimes. Thank God she looks like her mother. Our children are made in our likeness.
The Bible tells us our moral compass has a presence in the womb. Psalm 58:3 says, "The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray form birth, speaking lies." Then again in Psalm 51:5 says, "Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me." The soul enters a human being at conception. The Bible also says, "He knit me together in my mother's womb" and "we are fearfully and wonderfully made." We should marvel at God's work in us, we should place a high value on all human life, and this has massive implications on how we should view social issues.
One of my students came up to me very excited because his sister is having a baby. He was able to go with her and see the sonogram, and he marveled that the baby inside her waved at him. When Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973, there were no 3D sonograms or any ability to watch our babies smile before they are born. By 8 weeks, babies will suck their thumbs and respond to sound. Evidence is building that babies dream in the womb and they recoil from pain. At 21 weeks, a baby with just a little help can live outside the womb. Nearly all of the one million abortions performed in the Western world last year were performed after 21 weeks. Statistically, the majority of abortions take place not because the woman's life is in danger or because of rape; it is purely because of convenience. And so we condone murder for the sake of convenience. That baby has a right to live. That baby has a right to be marveled. Even my 7th grade students see that.
Statistically, one in four women has an abortion; and no one ever mentions the men that push them that way. However, as Matt Chandler says, "one thing I love about God, he pulls from the fringes of darkness his brightest lights." Saul of Tarsus was on his way to imprison and murder Christians. David, a man after God's own heart, committed adultery with a woman and had her husband murdered. Moses killed a man with his bare hands. There is no sin with more power than the cross of Jesus Christ. Not even abortion.
Ephesians 5:11 says "Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them." With science so much on our side about this, I think that at some point Roe v. Wade has to be overturned. Chandler says, "God has almost always accomplished social change through the outcry of his people who are against the world for the sake of the world." There are defining moments in history: where will you stand?
In Him,
Pastor Boyd
Mankind alone was made in the image of God. God has given us a moral and spiritual compass that the rest of creation does not possess. Genesis 1:26-28 says "then God said, 'Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.' So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and every creature that crawls[j] on the earth.” Genesis 5:3 says, "Adam was 130 years old when he father a son in his likeness, according to his image, and named him Seth."
When men and women have children, they are given birth to little image bearers. My daughter may not like it, but she acts like me sometimes. Thank God she looks like her mother. Our children are made in our likeness.
The Bible tells us our moral compass has a presence in the womb. Psalm 58:3 says, "The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray form birth, speaking lies." Then again in Psalm 51:5 says, "Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me." The soul enters a human being at conception. The Bible also says, "He knit me together in my mother's womb" and "we are fearfully and wonderfully made." We should marvel at God's work in us, we should place a high value on all human life, and this has massive implications on how we should view social issues.
One of my students came up to me very excited because his sister is having a baby. He was able to go with her and see the sonogram, and he marveled that the baby inside her waved at him. When Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973, there were no 3D sonograms or any ability to watch our babies smile before they are born. By 8 weeks, babies will suck their thumbs and respond to sound. Evidence is building that babies dream in the womb and they recoil from pain. At 21 weeks, a baby with just a little help can live outside the womb. Nearly all of the one million abortions performed in the Western world last year were performed after 21 weeks. Statistically, the majority of abortions take place not because the woman's life is in danger or because of rape; it is purely because of convenience. And so we condone murder for the sake of convenience. That baby has a right to live. That baby has a right to be marveled. Even my 7th grade students see that.
Statistically, one in four women has an abortion; and no one ever mentions the men that push them that way. However, as Matt Chandler says, "one thing I love about God, he pulls from the fringes of darkness his brightest lights." Saul of Tarsus was on his way to imprison and murder Christians. David, a man after God's own heart, committed adultery with a woman and had her husband murdered. Moses killed a man with his bare hands. There is no sin with more power than the cross of Jesus Christ. Not even abortion.
Ephesians 5:11 says "Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them." With science so much on our side about this, I think that at some point Roe v. Wade has to be overturned. Chandler says, "God has almost always accomplished social change through the outcry of his people who are against the world for the sake of the world." There are defining moments in history: where will you stand?
In Him,
Pastor Boyd
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