April 18, 2021
"Making the Right Choice"
One of our granddaughters was once wearing a romper. It was adorable. So I said, "I love your romper." She corrected me. "It's a whomper, Papa!"
Children are funny:
After sneaking a sip of mom's Lacroix sparkling water, 5-year-old said, "Ugh…I don't know if I like this carba-naked water, mom."
When her 3-year-old asked for Santa milk, mom had no idea what she meant. So she had her show her. Took her to the fridge and pointed to the eggnog.
A mom's son kept asking her if she's ever had "cooked menoodles." She has no idea what he was talking about until it dawned on her. He thought ramen noodles were "Raw menoodles."
When my brother was about four, our dad had to go to Miami one summer for two weeks. Before he left, my brother asked our dad something about his trip to Yourami.
A woman's 3-year-old daughter asked her when she was going to
stop watching the "map show."
A dad says his little boy calls ice dancers finger skaters.
Here's my favorite - A dad took his daughter to take-your-daughter- to-work day. After spending half-a-day with him in his cubicle, she now calls it, Fartsville.
Finally, a mom reports that her 4-year-old has been carrying a small notebook around all day. She opens it, writes small scribbles and quickly closes it back up. She's calling it her secret diarrhea, and mom doesn't have the heart to tell her she's wrong.
Today, around 2300 babies will lose the opportunity to be that adorable. Their precious little lives will be ended through abortion.
If you remember during the Supreme Court confirmation hearings of Associate Justice Barrett, for many people, abortion was front and center. As one Senator questioned her, one man was struck by how, at every hearing, every debate, year after year, one thing is evident: Many in America don't blush, but glory in the carnage. He concludes, "Lord have mercy."
One of my favorite people on Twitter, Natalie Gaines, says this:
I really hate that children are seen as such a burden in society that it's actually celebrated when they can be legally slaughtered in the womb.
As she reminds us, the Bible says children are a blessing and a heritage while many see them as a burden and a curse.
So how are we guided by God's Word?
Let's return to Psalm 106.
There are at least four parallels with abortion in Psalm 106.
Psalm 106:37 says:
They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons.
What is a sacrifice? A sacrifice means you give up something ordinarily considered valuable in order to gain something better, usually from a deity. In the context of this Psalm, that would usually mean a sheep or a bull. In our context, people make sacrifices in order to improve their health or level of physical fitness. Diet and exercise can become almost a religion.
Now, don't misunderstand. I'm not suggesting that abortion is done in America in order to get a blessing from a deity. Not at all. What I am suggesting is that abortion is done to gain something that is perceived to be better than the baby. That's what the whole debate is about. Is the gain better than the loss? The point of sacrifice in verse 37 is the lens through which to see abortion. The life of the child is being sacrificed for something. Here's this observation from Samuel Sey:
Aborted babies are not just victims of Planned Parenthood; they are also victims of our priorities.
Then there's this from John Mason:
Abortion is child sacrifice. Its legal status is irrelevant. It's a practice that's been happening since the beginning of time. The name of the demonically influenced god they are sacrificed to may change, but it all ends up the same. A life in exchange for selfish gain.
- John Mason@LivingGodsTruth, April 11, 2021
That's the point, right? The child is being sacrificed for something. And those who justify the wickedness of abortion will give all kinds of "somethings" for which it is justified. And those "somethings" define the barbarity of our culture. And please understand. I am sensitive to how unimaginably difficult some, especially unplanned, pregnancies are. We should never make light of that. The issue is - How precious is the child?
And will we trust God to make a way? Those two questions are
foundational to Care Pregnancy Center of Lenawee County.
The second point to verse 37 is that they sacrificed their sons and
daughters. He said sons and daughters, not children. This draws attention to two things. First, those sacrificed were two specific genders. They were little boys and girls. And second, they were family. This baby that is being sacrificed is family. And so it is with abortion. It is always family.
The third point is, there was innocent blood. Verse 38 says, "They poured out innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters." This isn't a statement on original sin. In the big picture of our collective sin against God, the truth is we are all guilty. But the Psalmist here is using the notion of innocence as in a legal sense. Did these sons and daughters do anything to deserve the punishment about to be executed upon them? And the answer clearly is "No." Babies are innocent. They do not deserve to be mistreated by others, especially their own flesh-and-blood.
On a side note, what of the babies who are aborted, and any baby who
dies for any other reason? Listen to what Paul says in Romans 1:18-20:
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.
In other words, God deals with little ones according to what they could know. They are saved. In relation to us, they are innocent.
The fourth point is, they are sacrificed to demons. Specifically, verse 38 says, "Whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, and the land was polluted with blood." Here's how 1 Corinthians 1:19-20 amplifies this connection with demons:
What do I imply then? That food offered to idols is anything, or that an idol
is anything? No, I imply that what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons.
What is Paul saying? Behind all idols sit a world of demons that promote
idolatry. However idol worshipers rationalize it, these demons receive
tribute from their sacrifice.
Here's a joint statement from a group of Catholics and Protestants opposed
to abortion:
The blindness of so many to this moral atrocity has many sources but is finally to be traced to the seductive ways of evil advanced by Satan. Jesus says, "He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies" {John 8:44}.
"But wait," some might say. I know her record and position on abortion are reprehensible, but she would be the first female president. O, how hard it is for us to let go of our idols. We all do it, in one way or another.
In a very real sense, we sacrifice our sons and our daughters to demons. While our culture is growing more secular, all that means is the Devil has a more open playground. If that were not true, he would be laughed off the stage. What the Devil wants more than anything is for people opposed to
abortion to be mocked. So all the reasons and rationales for abortion feel
very secular, very rational, very humanistic, very educated sounding, when
in fact they are demonic.
Sometimes satire can hit really close to the truth. One of my favorite Christian websites is "The Babylon Bee." It is Christian satire. One of the stories they posted had the headline, "Planned Parenthood Launches 'Born Live Matter' Campaign." Here's the heart of the piece:
Citing confusion around their past support for "Black Lives Matter," Planned Parenthood has launched a new campaign, "Born Lives Matter," to make sure people understand black lives only matter after they've been born… "Planned Parenthood hopes this new campaign will lessen some of the confusion, and allow us to continue our glorious mission of population control and eugen--er, I mean, caring for women."
It bites because it springs from the truth.
Abortion is the sacrificing of our sons and daughters to demons. And someday, probably not with our current generations, but someday most people will see this. And people will be amazed that it could have endured
for as long as it did. Anytime culture gets caught up in evil, as happened with slavery hundreds of years ago, when looking back they wonder how so many people could have been so misguided. Many are as blind today as they were back then. The big difference between slavery and abortion is
babies have no voice. They can't escape the clutches of the abortionist.
One of the things we've avoided in these messages is actively engaging in, with words and pictures, a description of the raw horrors of abortion. You know them. And if you don't, you can easily find them on the internet. The images I saw and descriptions I read burned their rancidness into the depths of my soul. The strength to stand up to our abortion culture and make a difference comes from the amazing grace of verses 44-45:
Nevertheless, he looked upon their distress, when he heard their cry. For their sake he remembered his covenant, and relented according to the abundance of his steadfast love.
This is what Jesus Christ came to achieve for all who will receive it.
It is our prayer that more and more hearts will be won to the sanctity of
life. May we give ourselves, in practical and prayerful ways, to defending the lives of all our sons and daughters.
Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute. Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.
- Psalm 82:3-4