The Shepherd and the Sheep Dog

The Shepherd and the Sheep Dog

       

A day in the life

          Every good shepherd needs two things. Can anyone think of the first one? Every good shepherd needs some sheep. Otherwise he would just be some guy standing in a field. Secondly, every good shepherd needs a sheep dog. The shepherd has his crook, or staff, that he can use to prod and guide his sheep along with, but if he uses that staff to whack his sheep they are going to be afraid of him. A sheep dog comes along and does everything the shepherd tells it to do—it bites and barks at the sheep to get them going where it wants them to go. The sheep hate the sheep dog, but they love the shepherd. Today I’m going to play the role of the sheep dog and talk with you about something difficult, and try to direct and guide you in a direction. I’ll try not to bite, and hopefully, you won’t hate me when its over.

            Just a few weeks ago, January 22, was the 42 anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court decisions of Roe vs. Wade and Doe vs. Bolton. Hand in hand, those two cases opened the door for legal abortions in all 50 states, through all 9 months of pregnancy, for any or no reason whatsoever. When the Supreme Court made its decision on Roe vs Wade, they very arrogantly believed that they were settling the issue for good. When the decision was made, and legal access to abortion was the law of the land, Protestant churches viewed abortion as a birth control issue, stepped back from the fight, and let the Catholics handle it. Like Pontius Pilate, we washed our hands of it, while millions of innocents were led off to be slaughtered.  

Just doing my job.

            Josef Stalin said, “One death is a tragedy. A million deaths is a statistic.” I have some statistics for you. Since January 22, 1973, over 57 million babies have been legally aborted in the United States alone. At this time there is an average of between 3,500 and 4,000 surgical abortions every single day. One out of every three women in the US between the ages of 13 and 45 will have had an abortion. Since 1980, over 1.3 billion babies have been reported to have been aborted worldwide. That number does not include countries and states that do not report their abortion numbers, like California. 1.3 billion is also 6 times the earth’s population at the time of Jesus. And finally, between 1882 and 1968 3,446 African Americans were lynched in the United States. There will be more African Americans than that aborted in the United States in less than 3 days.

            Want to hear another reason why our churches remain silent? Church leaders either have had an abortion in their past, or are afraid of rehashing the pain of abortion in their congregants. This is because 65% of all abortions are performed on women who claim Christianity as their religious affiliation. It breaks down to 37% Protestant and 28% Catholic. Studies have shown that every abortion affects 24 people. I’m going to lowball that number down to 6—a mother, a father, and two sets of grandparents. That means for every 4,000 women who have had an abortion there are 20,000 other people affected by it, too. If 65% of that 24,000 are Christians, then there are 15,600 new men and women in our churches today that are affected by abortion. There were 15,600 new men and women yesterday, and there will be 15,600 more tomorrow. And the next day after that. If there were 6 people affected for every one of the 57 million babies already aborted, there are 222,300,000 Christians in our churches who have felt the pain of abortion. And yet, I don’t know of a single church that offers post-abortion support groups. It seems we’re content with speaking on the sanctity of life one Sunday a year and committing to pray for our leaders. I would argue that if the government came out with a law that made it legal for non-Christians to kill Christian children under the age of 5, we would be more aggressive about it. I would also argue that if someone ran into the sanctuary and said “There’s a crazy man in the nursery with a knife!” we all would run to the nursery to stop him, regardless of whether or not we had any children in that nursery. I am here to tell you that this week a man will fly into Pensacola, kill about 30-40 children, and then fly home Friday afternoon. If the Christian church does not stand guard outside of the abortion facility and say, “This is wrong!” we might as well put up a sign that says that we approve of what goes on there. Will you be willing to stand guard with us?

            If you’re like me, I was willing but I had no idea what I could do to help. I became involved with a group called 40 Days for Life. This organization was started in College Station, TX when a young church secretary wanted to do something to stop Planned Parenthood from coming into her town. She called a meeting of pro-lifers in the area and they started a 24 hours a day prayer vigil that covered 40 days. When they were finished, they were amazed at what God had done in that time, but thought it was over. Word had spread about what they did, and people started doing their own campaigns in their towns. Since 2007 there have been over 650,000 people who have participated in 3,336 total campaigns, in 27 different countries. 107 abortion workers have quit, 59 abortion facilities have closed, and the best news of all is that 9,699 babies have been saved by the direct actions of 40 Days for Life.

            Pensacola’s next 40 Days for Life campaign kicks off February 18^th, and is primarily made up of prayer, fasting, and community outreach. Our goal is to have a constant prayer vigil held outside of the facilities between the hours of 7AM and 7PM. Many times we are the last prayer for the baby going inside the facility, and the first prayer for the healing of the mothers and fathers coming out of the building. The prayer vigil is a large part of what we do, but it is not the only thing we do. There is also fasting. You can fast one meal a day, or fast from social media, or electronics. Whatever God is leading you to give up, give that up and use the time to pray to end abortion.  

            Finally I can’t finish without saying this: yes, abortion is a sin, but it is not the unforgivable sin. When our churches remain silent on the issue, even if it comes from the good motive of not wanting to rehash bad memories, all it does is solidify in the minds of post-abortive women and men that what they did was so wrong that no one will even talk about it. Pretending the wound isn’t there doesn’t make the wound go away. The only way the wound will ever heal is by taking the bandage off, and turning it over to the Great Physician. Abortion breaks the 6^th Commandment—You should not murder—but there are nine other Commandments that condemns us all to hell apart from a saving relationship with Jesus Christ.  

             

           

Is the Doctor Pro-Life? (Worst title ever)

        I understand that anytime anyone writes or speaks about abortion they are crossing over the niceties of casual conversations and have the potential of offending a large number of people. In this particular blog post I am consciously aware that I am running the risk of offending a myriad of people groups. They are as follows (in no particular order [Please do not be offended by the ordering of the people groups]): Pro-Choice advocates; Embryologist; Scientists who work in stem cell research; scientists in general; people who could benefit from therapy that could potentially come from embryonic stem cell research; and Dr. Who fans.

The good doctor

       I have recently become acquainted with the Doctor, and despite the first two episodes (in which I just trudged through), have become quite a fan of the show. I have never enjoyed watching any other Sci-Fi movies or TV shows, so it was quite a surprise for me to enjoy Dr. Who so much. That being said, I have only watched about 16 episodes so far, and run the risk of writing something about the show that could irritate the hardcore fans.
       I also am not an embryologist or a scientist, so all of my comments referencing embryonic stem cell research will be surface level and relevant to my belief that all human life has value, which I ground in the Biblical truth that we are made in the image of God.

Hame

       SPOILER ALERT: I recently watched the "New Earth" episode from the second season of Dr. Who featuring the tenth Doctor, David Tenant. Rose and the Doctor were in New New York investigating a hospital run by the "Sisters" (Ok, they were basically humans with cat faces and claws dressed like nuns). While they were there they discovered that the patients were healing at a suspiciously remarkable rate. Upon further investigation, the Doctor and Rose stumbled upon thousands upon thousands of pod like prison cells

The bad doctor

(not much different than Dr. Evil's escape pod) where human clones were isolated from each other and the rest of the world, and infected with every disease in the universe in order to experiment upon them in the hopes of finding a potential cure. Of course, the Doctor was livid with the whole idea. Here's a bit of the transcript:
Cat-Lady (AKA Hame): It's for the greater cause.
Dr.: Novice Hame. When you took your vows, did you agree to this?
Hame: The Sisterhood has sworn to help.
Dr.: What, by killing?

The clones

Hame: They're not real people. They're specially grown. They have no proper existence.
Dr.: What's the turnover, hmm? Thousand a day? Thousand the next? Thousand the next? How many thousands? For how many years? How Many?!
Hame: Mankind needed us. They came to this planet with so many illnesses. We couldn't cope. We did try. We tried everything. We tried using clone-meat and bio-cattle, but the results were too slow, so the Sisterhood grew its own flesh. That's all they are, flesh.
Dr.: These people are alive.

Good Doctor, Bad Theology

Hame: But think of those humans out there, healthy and happy, because of us.
Dr.: If they live because of this, then life is worthless.
Hame: But who are you to decide that?
       The Doctor then goes on in heroic fashion, albeit blasphemous, to claim himself as the highest authority, and he was shutting it down.
       There are so many relevant comparisons between the life of these humans created to be experimented on and then destroyed in order to enhance the life of others in the TV show and the humans created to be experimented on and then destroyed in order to enhance the life of others in real life.
 

The Tuskegee Experiment

Tuskegee, Alabama: Stardate 1932-1972--The United States

Syphilis induced blindness and insanity

Public Health Service desired to study the natural progress of untreated syphilis. Syphilis produces a wide range of symptoms and disorders in those who suffer from it, and the government wished to have a good test sample to experiment on and watch as the disease unfolded. Who better to experiment on than the negros? After all, they aren't really people, they're just flesh. And if they are technically human, they still aren't like us. (Hitler said the Jews were only human in the strictest sense of the word.) The study included a total of 600 poor, rural African American men who thought they were receiving free healthcare from the government. Of the 600 men, 399 had previously contracted the disease while 201 had not. They received free medical care, meals, and burial insurance. They were not, however, told they had syphilis, or treated for their condition. They were told they had "bad blood."
       When the experiment began there was no cure for syphilis. That all changed 15 years into the experiment with the discovery of penicillin and it became the standard treatment for syphilis. At that point the scientists could have treated all of the patients with penicillin and recorded their findings, but they chose to carry on with the experiment without treating any one of them, or even letting them know what they had. In 1972 someone leaked what was going on in the study, excuse me for a second, (ahem) 25 YEARS AFTER THEY DISCOVERED PENICILLIN AS THE STANDARD TREATMENT FOR SYPHILIS, and the program was shut down. Many of these men died, but not before they infected their wives, and passed the disease on to their children congenitally.

Much deserved, long overdue apology

       I'm sure the men conducting the experiment argued that what they were doing was for the good of society. I'm sure they felt like these 600 men were instrumental in only what they could give to society medically, and not intrinsically because they were made in the image of God.
       Now to the petri dish. There are currently thousands of frozen human embryos waiting. "Waiting for what?" is the question. Most of the embryos will die in the thawing process. Some are waiting to be implanted in their mother's uterus and with God's help will attach to the uterine wall and grow into a happy baby boy or girl. Others are leftover embryos from moms and dads who were successful in a previous attempt at pregnancy, and therefore are not needed anymore. These embryos are waiting to either be adopted or to be dissected for their parts. If they are adopted they will be just like the previous embryo, if they are dissected they will be allowed to grow for 14 days in a petri dish and then harvested for their parts.
 

A Snowflake Baby

I have to admit, I didn't used to be bothered by embryonic stem cell research that much until I seen pictures of babies who were adopted as embryos through organizations like Snowflake Adoptions. I realized that I was once exactly as they are now (minus the frozen part), and all they need to live a normal life is time and the proper environment. Harvesting these tiny embryos for what they can do for society is just as bad as the Tuskegee Experiment, and what happened on the New Earth episode of Dr. Who. We are valuable, not for what we can do for society, but for who we are--image bearers of God.
       SPOILER ALERT: Surprise surprise, the Doctor saved the day and all of the disease ridden humans were healed from their diseases. The Doctor excitedly proclaimed to Cassandra (who temporarily resided in Rose), "A brand new form of life. New humans. Look at them. Look. Grown by cats, kept in the dark, fed by tubes, but completely, completely alive. You can't deny them, because you helped create them."
       So okay, I'm willing to state categorically that ALL of the frozen embryos we have in laboratories across America were NOT raised by cats, but other than that there are some incredible similarities. They are brand new life (but not a new form of life), new humans, kept in the dark, fed somehow (maybe by a tube), and "completely, completely alive."
       We live in a time when human therapeutic cloning is not a crazy science fiction story line way off in the future. We are currently dissecting human embryos to harvest their parts like they were farm animals. The only thing stopping them from being allowed to live past 14 days is some kind of moral dilemma that after that day it miraculous becomes human life. The question is now and has always been, "If it's a living human being at 15 days, what was it at 14 days?" If it's growing it's alive. If it has human parents, it's human. And I think all humans are valuable.
       We are living in a culture that has devalued human life to what each person can do for society so much that I believe if we could clone people to farm out their organs (like the movie Never Let Me Go did with orphans) we would. And I think that is wrong.

Instrumental or Intrinsic? What makes people valuable?

         

The abandoned Apostle

This is just a piece I quickly wrote out for a 40 Days for Life meeting.

2 Timothy 4:9-18, 21

            I’d like to just read through this short passage of scripture and speak a few things parenthetically as we proceed through it. This passage comes from 2 Timothy, believed by most to be the last letter Paul wrote before he was martyred.

 Do your best to come to me soon. ¹⁰ For Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica.

            Ever think about how cool it would be to get your name in the Bible? “Hey Demas! Great news! You’re mentioned in the Bible. Bad news, it’s because you deserted Paul.” Demas loved the present things of this world better than the eternal things of God. I imagine there were more fun things to do than to hang out with a prisoner in a musty dungeon, just like there are more fun things to do than hanging outside of an abortion facility when seemingly nothing is happening, or if something is happening, it’s not what you have been praying for.

Crescens has gone to Galatia,

            We’re not told why Crescens had gone to Galatia but it doesn’t come with the jab about loving the world. Perhaps it was ministry related. Perhaps it wasn’t.

Titus to Dalmatia.

            We do know that Titus was a pastor. We have a letter Paul wrote to Titus in our Bible. Most likely, Titus left for pastoral work.

¹¹ Luke alone is with me.

            Luke is the author of both the gospel of Luke and The Acts of the Apostles. He was a faithful companion to Paul through a lot of his ministry.

            Paul is in prison, facing death, his ministry had suffered a great blow as we shall read about in a few verses, and the great missionary, evangelist, and apostle is for the most part, alone. Even when his friends have moved on because of the ministry, like Titus and perhaps Crescens, it still hurts when you’re alone.  

Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is very useful to me for ministry.

            This verse could produce a whole sermon. Mark accompanied Paul and Barnabas on their first missionary journey and somewhere along the way Mark abandoned them, for whatever reason. Paul must not have thought it was a good enough reason because when Paul and Barnabas made plans for their second trip, the two argued so intensely they had to go their separate ways. The issue was Barnabas wanted to take Mark and Paul didn’t trust him anymore. Now, Mark has redeemed himself in Paul’s eyes and was deemed very useful for the ministry.  

 ¹² Tychicus I have sent to Ephesus.

            Paul has a ministry partner named Tychicus that he is sending to replace Timothy, at least temporarily, so he would be free to visit him.

¹³ When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas,

            Paul was all alone, cold, and was concerned with the upcoming winter.

also the books, and above all the parchments. ¹⁴ Alexander the coppersmith did me great harm; the Lord will repay him according to his deeds. ¹⁵ Beware of him yourself, for he strongly opposed our message.

            There is some speculation as to who this Alexander the coppersmith was. We know he did Paul and his ministry great harm. Perhaps he turned him over to the Romans. Maybe he was a mole, and then testified against Paul in court. Perhaps he is the reason that Paul doesn’t have his books or parchments. It’s likely that “books” refers to his copies of the OT, and the “parchments” were either copies of NT writings or rough drafts of his letters he was writing. Either way he was very anxious to get them.

¹⁶ At my first defense no one came to stand by me, but all deserted me. May it not be charged against them! ¹⁷ But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion's mouth. ¹⁸ The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

            No one showed up at Paul’s trial. Paul, in 2 Timothy 4:6, refers to himself as being poured out like a drink offering, or in others words, he is giving his life and it has nearly run out. He has served thousands of people, walked thousands of miles, been beaten, shipwrecked, and imprisoned to help others know the love of the Father through His son Jesus Christ, and where were those people when Paul needed them the most? Demas completely abandoned him. A few others left for the ministry. Was there not a local body of believers that could keep him company, and supply some basic necessities, like a warm coat? Were all of these believers backsliders? Were they fearful that the Romans were going to get them next? I believe some were, but do you know what? I believe the majority just got busy with life. I believe some had the “someone else will take care of it” attitude. Sometimes when bad things happen to people, they never get any help because everybody expects someone else to do it.

            I’ll use this example until the day I die, or something changes. We were in Sunday school in mid-January at a Southern Baptist church when a wonderful, intelligent man of God said, “Do we really need another Sanctity of Life service? I mean, come on…we’re Baptist.” I about spit out my coffee. The Baptist talk a good talk but they do not walk the walk. In 1972 the Supreme Court took the case of Roe v. Wade to decide once and for all the legality of abortion. Their decision legalized abortion in all 50 states across the board, in all 9 months of the pregnancy, and for whatever reason. At that time the Protestant church in America viewed abortion on the same level as contraception, thus regarding it a Catholic issue, and leaving them to discuss it. We, as Protestants, have never really fully engaged in the battle since then. Thank God the Catholic Church has been faithful to defend life and have not dropped the ball on this issue. Imagine the ramifications if they had. (BTW: 65% of all abortive mothers identify themselves as Christians; Protestants 37% and Catholic 28%)

            So what does this passage have to do with 40 Days for Life? 40 Days for Life has helped a lot of people over the last 10 years. We, here on the Emerald Coast, have leaned on a lot of ministry partners to help accomplish a lot of our goals, some of them pastors, deacons, elders, and other fellow believers. Unfortunately, sometimes life just gets in the way and people start to drift. I don’t think anybody consciously drifts away, I think it just happens. Other people are very involved, but then get transferred away for the military. Sometimes people just fall in love with the world, and poof, they’re gone.

            My charge for you tonight is two-fold: 1) Spread the word. Start a pro-life group at your church. Be the pro-life point person. Let us call you instead of bothering the already busy pastor. If you are the pastor, start a pro-life group at your church and delegate some responsibilities. 2) Don’t abandon the cause. Get active and stay active. Educate yourselves through books, podcasts, and websites. And finally, encourage your leader with your willingness and presence. It’s kind of depressing when we have a leadership meeting and no one shows up.       

 Do your best to come before winter.

            Paul was cold, and was concerned no one would be there for him, so he had to mention his coat twice. Kind of sad.

Abortion by the Numbers: The Things That Keep Me Awake At Night

 

            According to Planned Parenthood, “Abortions are very common. In fact, 3 out of 10 women have had an abortion by the time they are 45 years old.”[1] Of course, this is not just a woman’s issue. While women most often carry the weight and burden of abortion (it goes against their God given maternal instinct to kill their children), there is always a man involved, too. So I lie in my bed and start doing math problems, which is an issue because I’m not really good at doing math in my head, and there’s something weird about a man getting out of bed to do calculations.

            For every abortion there is a mother and a father involved. Generally speaking, I know each family is different, but there is an average of four grandparents involved. Some will have less, but then there are others who will have both parents and step-parents pushing the numbers back up. Depending on the age of the mother there might also be 8 great grandparents involved. That’s fourteen people directly related to the abortion of one child. That’s not including brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, co-workers, or best friends. That is also not including the abortionists and clinic workers who have God given consciences and souls. I have heard that every abortion affects as many as 40 people, but for the sake of this blog, let’s lowball the number and go with 6.

            In the United States there are approximately 4,000 surgical abortions performed each day. Going with our low ball number of 6 people affected by abortion, that means 24,000 people are affected by abortion each and every day (FYI: the higher number is 160,000). According to the Guttmacher Institute, the research wing of Planned Parenthood and generally regarded as an accurate accounting of abortion statistics by both sides of the aisle, stated that 65% of the women who have had an abortion identified themselves as Christians, (37% Protestants, 28% Catholic).[2]

The Mayor

            This means that of the 4,000 women who have an abortion each day, 2,600 of them are coming from our churches. Now before you jump down my throat on that issue, I understand that not everyone claiming to be a Christian ever does anything remotely Christian like going to church once in a while. And even if they do go to church, it doesn’t make them a Christian any more than going to McDonald’s makes you a hamburger. But still, that is 2,600 women every single day, every single week, every single year who have had at least some knowledge and upbringing into the Christian faith. That is a lot.

            Let’s extrapolate. 4,000 women + 4,000 men + 16,000 grandparents = 24,000 people directly affected by abortion every single day. Sixty-five percent of 24,000 people is 15,600 people who “identify” themselves as Christians in some capacity are being affected by abortion today. 15,600 were affected by abortion yesterday. 15,600 will be affected by abortion tomorrow. And our churches remain silent.

            Why?

            I heard that question asked on one of Josh Brahm’s archived podcasts on www.prolifepodcast.net. I don’t remember who answered the question, but I remember the answer. The man being interviewed said “the reasons churches are silent on abortion is ignorance, fear, and apathy.

            Ignorance, because let’s face it, pastors are busy doing a lot of important things—very important things. It takes a lot of effort to research and study such a lighthearted topic like abortion. Unfortunately, I believe many pastors busy themselves with less important things. I think if I had to rank priorities I would say 1) Salvation; 2) the legal killing of human beings right under our noses; 3) human trafficking.    

My last pastor

            There’s also a natural fear when speaking about abortion. It is a very polarizing issue because it affects so many people. So many women and men regret having abortions, so they try to put their past away by the passing of time and distracting themselves with other activities—some of those activities are positive and some are negative like drugs, alcohol, and sexual promiscuity. When people speak about abortion, it brings up painful, dark memories and puts them back on square one. As you can imagine many of these men and women will be very angry, and possibly act out in some negative way when their past is brought back up to the surface. Pastors are afraid to speak on abortion because they don’t want to upset people and lose members, which directly affects the church’s, and their own personal bottom line. Ironically, abortion is the number one elective procedure performed in America, and its considered taboo to talk about it. If there is nothing wrong with abortion, as Planned Parenthood proposes, why is it so difficult to talk about? Why does it bring up so much pain and turmoil?

            And finally, there’s apathy. I don’t know how 53 million Americans can be killed in 41 years of legalized abortion and we still don’t care. If while the pastor was preaching Sunday morning a deacon ran in and said “There’s a crazy man in the nursery with a knife!” we would expect everyone to get up and run to the nursery. Unfortunately, we can say “There’s a man who will fly in from New Jersey this week and perform 30-40 abortions before flying home. We need everyone to stand outside of his clinic.” How many people will show up? I suspect very few.

            Our churches are the last places that need to be silent on this issue. For one thing, 65% of all abortive mothers are coming from our churches. Secondly, we’re the only ones who have a solution. Abortion is a sin, no doubt about it, but it is not unforgivable. Jesus died for all sins, from lying to murder, from stealing time to rape. If we come to Him begging for mercy He will forgive our sins and begin cleansing us of all of our unrighteousness.

            Right now there are 8,000 post-abortive mothers and fathers, 5,200 in our churches, who are groping around in the dark, while we, as Christians in general and pastors specifically, are afraid to bring it up for fear of re-hashing bad memories. In so doing we deny them any help whatsoever. Guilt that has been covered up and not dealt with, must continue to bubble up to the surface. This is God’s plan for us to live in a right relationship with Him. Sin separates us from God. He wants you to remember your sin, deal with it properly, and then move on. You can’t do step 3 without first attending to step 2.

            Let’s do some more math. Since 1973, there have been 53 million legal abortions in America (In the same time period there have been 1.5 billion legal abortions worldwide which is 6 times the population of earth when Jesus was a man). If 65% of all abortive mothers identified themselves as Christians, that means there are 34,450,000 post abortive women in our churches. Using our same lowball figure of 6 people affected by every abortion and we have 206,700,000 people who are in some way linked to our churches.

            Wanna be relevant to our culture? Wanna help society? Our churches should be and need to be riddled with post-abortive support groups like The IRMA Network, Rachel’s Vineyard, and Silent No More. Personally, I can’t think of a church that hosts any post-abortive support group.

            Its something to think about.         

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[1] http://www.plannedparenthood.org/health-topics/abortion-4260.asp Accessed on 2/25/14

[2] http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/fb_induced_abortion.html Accessd on 2/25/14