Friday, August 23, 2013

Elephants Don't Believe in Abortion

Fact: Elephants don't believe in abortion.

The birth of a new baby elephant in Indonesia this month made me realize this fact. I'm not a gambler, but I'm willing to bet money that you've never met an elephant that is a proponent of abortion. One could argue that elephants can't reason. They live by instinct, not reason, so naturally they don't "believe" in abortion because they don't "believe" in anything.

Okay.

The new baby elephant born in Indonesia has been born into the "Flying Elephant Squad." This little girl will be raised to protect villages from wild elephants that come in from the forest and, looking for food, do harm to the village farms and the villagers. The Flying Elephant Squad keeps these wild elephants at bay because they are protecting their own.

We can learn a lot from the elephants. Even their human handlers know that they need more elephants in this elite squad so that not only can the villages be protected, but the wild elephants causing the issues can also be protected.

And everyone knows that you won't get more elephants unless more elephants are born.

So, even reasonable men do not perform abortions on elephants.

According to this article, written in January of 2012, the number of abortions in the USA since 1973 was estimated at 54,559,615.

Fifty four MILLION, five hundred fifty nine THOUSAND, six HUNDRED fifteen. I'm sure there's a more recent estimate.

We have shrunk our own military potential......the ability to protect our own with our own.
We have shrunk our own progressive potential......we might think we're doing ok, but that's only because we will never know what potential we destroyed and thus won't know how much better we could be doing.
We have shrunk our own hopes for the future.....because a great, great portion of our future was snuffed out, never to be known.

Fact: Elephants don't believe in abortion because they were created with an instinct to live.

So was man. Sin destroys that instinct, covering it so that it sounds unreasonable.

I'm very glad that elephants don't believe in abortion. I wish mankind would be as smart.
~Tricia

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

The Devil Quoted Scripture

So, the devil quoted Scripture
He did it very well.
He knew it all, had heard it all
Though his destination Hell.

He quoted it to God, Himself
Threw temptation wide.
He could not even bear the thought
Of Jesus crucified.

Not that he had sympathy,
Oh, my, no not he.
He had another plan, oh, yes
A plan for you and me.

If he could just prevent the thing
Which he hated most,
He would be the ruling one
He would hold that post.

The thing he wanted to prevent
He could not stand to see,
The Lamb of God be crucified?
For you and for me?

No way, thought the devil
I will stop Him on His way
He's hungry; He's thirsty,
Surely He'll see things my way.

And so, when Christ had fasted
Was hungry in need of bread,
That clever devil greeted Him
With Words He Himself had said.

If you are the Son of God
Like you so claim to be,
Make this rock a loaf of bread,
Eat! Be happy!

"Man shall not live by bread alone,
But by every Word...."
When the Son of God gave that response
The devil thought, "Absurd!"

He tried again, oh, yes he did
And, once again he failed.
He quoted Scripture perfectly,
Yet the Son of God prevailed.

One last try, I'll get Him now!
I'll have Him worship me!
The Son of God gave Scripture back..
The devil then did flee.

Based on Matthew 4:1-11

This little poem was written to remind us all that the deceivers ALL use the Scriptures in ALL of their deceitfulness. This makes them hard to spot, hard to argue with, hard to understand.

But, the Word of God is not hard to understand.

When people make you feel it's hard to understand God's Word, or that they have stumbled upon a Biblical principle that "no one else sees," you can be sure they are deceivers and you need to run as fast as you can out of their presence.

Or, better yet, tell them that's false teaching and I assure you, they will run from you. They will not tolerate being found out, whatever it takes.

~Tricia



Monday, August 12, 2013

First Response

My stove quit working one day many years ago. It quit at the most inopportune moment: when we had a house full of company and I needed to cook. Our company was a missionary family, participants of a missions conference at the church my husband was pastor of. The missionary wife's response to my stove dilemma was surprising to me. While I wrestled with the oven dials and tried to get the burners working, she said, "HA! You're just like a missionary, suffering for Jesus!" At the time, I laughed it off. Later, when I had time to think about her comment, I had to disagree. I was not suffering for Jesus.

Over the years, I have met a number of people with her same notion that certain things are to be considered suffering for Jesus. This presents a problem.

When we consider any hardship of others as "suffering for Jesus" we risk not seeing ourselves as part of the solution to their hardship. Even if someone really is suffering for Jesus, not one of us is in a position to know that for sure. Not one of us is in a position to judge whether or not someone's suffering is spiritually related or not. Our first response must be compassion. When we fail to have compassion for the suffering of others, we fail to be like Jesus. When we dismiss someone's suffering and turn our heads the other way, we are not reflecting Jesus.

Compassion leads us to action. Throughout the Scriptures we see that Jesus, time and time again, was "moved with compassion" for people at every turn. He was moved with compassion for crowds as well as individuals. His first response was always compassion for those who were hurting. He never dismissed their suffering as something to be accepted. He drew people in when his disciples were shooing them away. His compassion was remarkable.

We will have suffering. We will see our fellow Christians suffer. But, if our response is to dismiss their suffering and chalk it up to "suffering for Jesus," we will have failed to be like Jesus ourselves. Our goal can be to relieve the suffering of others. Many avoid this for fear of what it will cost them in time, effort and monetary resources.

Christianity is marked by compassion. The compassion of our living God sets us apart. Our ability to show compassion comes from Him. There is no price on compassion. We can't show compassion, then turn around and demand acknowledgement for that compassion and hold it over people. Compassion is a gift. No strings attached.

Compassion. So rare. So beautiful. So life changing. So desperately needed.
May we be driven by compassion for anyone we see suffering, no matter what it may take from us.
~Tricia