The condition of many men's and women's souls today is sadly reflected by a song popular some years ago titled "What's love got to do with it?"
"Oh what's love got to do, got to do with it
What's love but a second hand emotion
What's love got to do, got to do with it
Who needs a heart
When a heart can be broken."
This is perhaps the most devalued, deformed and perverse notion of love that I have seen. God's love has everything to do with life, with HUMAN life. Love is the motivation and intent of God before all other motives and intentions. Love is the reality of God and we read:
John 4:7-8
7 Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.
8 He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.
That is a 100% right, righteous and correct assessment of true LOVE.
What if God wanted to have a child (to love) born to a particular couple on Sept 27th 2013 and that night the man put on a condom? No child was conceived. Is this a question that merits consideration?
What if on July 14th, 2012 a man and women not his wife had sex and a child was conceived? Could God have prevented it? Why didn’t He? Does God want (to love) the child now in the woman's womb and have it to be born? Does the child who is powerless have any value at all? To whom? Why?
If there is no God, all things are permissible. Without a God who establishes an absolute standard of right and wrong, men are found to be entirely unable to establish any lasting and/or absolute standards by which to govern their affairs. Without God who (saves or) condemns and makes hell for the condemned (though He is not willing any go there) men will not be deterred from evil in any way.
As time goes on men will become more and more lawless, more and more criminal UNLESS they seek repentance (to change and be changed) by the grace of Christ.
Exodus 20:2-17 (NKJV)
1
“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me.
2
“You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My Commandments.
3
“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.
4
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.
5
“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.
6
“You shall not murder.
7
“You shall not commit adultery.
8
“You shall not steal.
9
“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
10
“You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's.”
No one voted to "pass" the laws of God. They are given by God with authority; they do not need man's vote (approval). The laws and ways of God are summed up by Jesus as "hanging on" His great commandments.
Matthew 22:38-40
38 This is the first and great commandment.
39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
For this teaching, this truth Paul could write:
Romans 13:10 Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.
God is Love. If we will obey God we will love Him and love our neighbor as ourselves. We may even imitate His Son who said the there is no greater love then to lay down one's life for his/her friends!
Instead of learning how to prevent conception, mankind needs to learn how to "manage" conception. The idea of planning for parenthood is very different that planning against conception and aborting the "failures" of those plans.
If we love God, our neighbor and our self we will prepare for parenthood by marrying and staying faithful to the spouse with whom we produce offspring.
If we love God, our neighbor and our self we will prepare for parenthood by marrying and staying faithful to the spouse with whom we produce offspring.
Without God we will do any number of other things with each others bodies and have results from bad to worse. Abortion seems the worst of the worst. It is the diametric antithesis of laying down ones life for a friend.
The earth is not overpopulated. It is overcrowded in many cities. It may be underfed in many places and not well served by it's local leaders, but if not for wars the whole world could be well fed and clothed, and more. It is war: the strife among men and nations that prevents many from receiving the good that is being offered by the church and secular NGO's.
God has told us that He is an important person! He is not bragging, it is just TRUE. When God shows up, men often fall on their faces. yet Jesus came and said to us:
God has told us that He is an important person! He is not bragging, it is just TRUE. When God shows up, men often fall on their faces. yet Jesus came and said to us:
Matthew 11
28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
For reasons of His own God has revealed Himself and given us a partial record of this in the Bible. We are now in possession of more information about God than many past generations. We have the entire Bible in our own languages in most places.
Hebrews 1
1 God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,
2 Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;
3 Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high:
4 Being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.
Hebrews 2
1 Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip.
2 For if the word spoken by angels was stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward;
3 How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him;
4 God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will?
2 Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;
3 Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high:
4 Being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.
Hebrews 2
1 Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip.
2 For if the word spoken by angels was stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward;
3 How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him;
4 God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will?
Oh God, Father, I pray that You chase down many who are warring in their hearts and against You and against their neighbors and arrest them, arrest their hearts with Your presence, persuade their souls of Your Love for them and all mankind. Show them that to refuse to love You and love their neighbor is to disobey every facet of Your law and way. In Jesus Name for His Name sake, Amen!
