Florida 'abortion waiting period / ultrasound' bill

The Florida House of Representatives passed HB1497 which would require women to wait 24 hours before having an abortion and for them to have the option to see an ultrasound of their baby. While the ultrasound would be required, the women could sign a waiver indicating they were offered the opportunity but declined.

In lieu of a law overturning the legality of abortion, this is a great law that unfortunately is said to not have a chance with the Florida Senate. Critics of this bill will surely say that women who desire an abortion have thought about it enough and don't require an additional waiting period. Furthermore, they will surely point out the added cost of the ultrasound as being prohibitive. Let me address both of those points.

First, while surely many women have pondered the decision to have an abortion for some time, many have not and tragically, many have not been educated enough. Get your hands on some interviews with women who have had an abortion and found out later what really happened. Listen to women, through tears, recount how they thought they were having a 'blob of tissue' removed only to find out later that they were having a baby with identifiable features killed.

You will often hear this issue couched in terms of 'pro-life' and 'pro-choice.' I don't think that is quite right. It should be 'pro-life' and 'pro-abortion' because many abortion advocates don't want women to have the real information on abortion for them to truly make an educated choice. It cannot hurt for this bill to pass and become law. However, the opposition to this bill proves there isn't a pro-choice camp but a pro-abortion one.

That takes us to the second point - of the cost. Sure there will be additional cost, however, once again, this reveals the true heart of the pro-abortion side. Their main concern is expediency. The value of life has plummeted to an all-time low. If a life is not worth the inconvenience, just have it removed. If a life is not worth the financial cost of an ultrasound, just don't worry about it. Convenience trumps life at every turn.

Here's praying that God intervenes in the Florida Senate and this bill passes. Here's also praying that God intervenes in our nation and Roe V. Wade is overturned.

Fleeting Floating Joy

At least for a few minutes, Stephen Hawking, the renowned astrophysicist was free from the wheel chair. The scientist was taken aboard a zero-gravity jet where he got to enjoy the feeling of weightlessness for a time. I can only imagine the joy that provided him.

Hawking has long been accused of being an atheist, and even a hostile one at that. However, it is probably more fair to see him as an agnostic or perhaps even a deist. An atheist argues that there is no God. Hawking doesn't do this. An agnostic contends that we cannot know if God exists (and the usual assumption is that He does not). A deist holds that God wound up the universe and has since stepped away from it. Hawking seems to be in the latter two areas.

Whatever his classification according to the preceding paragraph, one thing is clear - Hawking does not know Jesus Christ. And here is where we come in. Let us join together in seeing Hawking, atheists, agnostics, deists, Muslims, Mormons, Buddhists, etc. etc. not as our enemies - but as men, women and children who need to hear about Jesus Christ. Let us bathe our view of people with love and compassion.

I pray that one day soon, Hawking is liberated from the clutch of sin in an even more splendid way than he was loosed from that wheelchair. Escaping the wheelchair was temporary and had little lasting impact. Escaping sin through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ is eternal and of utmost impact. Here's praying that Hawking experiences that rush real soon.

Shielding ourselves from responsibility

Predictably, much of the post-Virginia Tech attention has shifted from who should have done what that morning and now is focusing on gun control. I hate to say it, but I have to because I believe it to be true, but this issue will be used as political leverage for some time. Gun control tied with such an emotional event sells well in the polls.

However you feel about gun control is a side point. What we cannot miss is that this is yet another attempt to shield ourselves from personal responsibility. Did you see it in this tragedy? What did we hear first - shouldn't VT have done something that morning? Then after that the attention shifted to the shooter's mental state and warning signs that we should have seen. And now it turns to the argument that he should not have had guns.

Don't misunderstand me - there is room to critique each of these areas. If VT could have handled the situation better, then that needs to be shared to help other institutions in the future. We do need to try to get clued in to the warning signs that are so often demonstrated. And it is problematic that someone with a mental health history could purchase firearms. But none of these are the main thing.

The main thing is that this happened because of one man's gross sin. Perhaps we search for all of these other contributing factors in an attempt to minimize the factor of human sin. You see, we can all relate to human sin, but not all of us share mental health issues and so forth. The more we can find blame in systems, the easier it is to keep from facing the plain truth - people are wretched. And that includes me - apart from Jesus Christ.

As we have opportunities to talk about this tragedy and these side issues, capitalize on them. Talk through them. But don't miss the greater opportunity to talk about the basic truth of man's sin.

The Blessing of Persecution

Five people in Turkey have been arrested for murdering three Christians at a publishing house. The reason - the Christians were distributing Bibles.

Sometimes I wonder if Christians in America are too sheltered. For us, our greatest threat of 'persecution' is being labeled as intolerant. Or perhaps not being allowed to share our faith in the public arena. Don't get me wrong, we ought to resist even this form of 'persecution.' However, I do wonder if we should call it something else. Because that just doesn't seem to fit when Christians are dying for their faith around the world.

The interesting thing about persecution is that it can often be used by God to strengthen the faith and resolve of His people. If you examine church history, especially the time of the early church and the reformation period, you see that intense persecution was accompanied by intense victory in Christ. This helps explain why we read of the benefit of persecution and affliction in Scripture (2 Corinthians, 1 Peter, Revelation). As odd as it sounds, persecution can be a blessing from God.

Now this is not to say that we should run out and look for persecution. It doesn't quite work that way. However, I am suggesting that we should seek to be able to accept persecution and to grow from it. After all, if we take Revelation at face value, things are going to get a whole lot worse before they get better for God's people.

When Faith and Life Intersect

Living out one's faith in Christ is relatively easy when things are going well. I say relatively because living for Christ should never be simple, instead it should be profoundly complex, difficult and joyful all at once. However, the true difficulty of life as a Christian comes amid tragedy. This week's shooting rampage at Virginia Tech has brought us into another one of these times.

It is clear that anyone directly related to what happened on campus is exponentially more impacted by this event. The families and friends of those who died. The families and friends of the wounded and injured. The Virginia Tech community, including alumni. Blacksburg. Virginia. But as we move out in concentric circles of impact, we ought not to mitigate the effect of this event. There is plenty of grief, anger and bewilderment to go around.

Most of us probably only have a marginal connection to Monday's event. I have a friend who is Campus Director of the Campus Crusade for Christ ministry at Virginia Tech. I have another good friend who graduated from Virginia Tech. But I didn't know any of the victims. I have not experienced personal loss. And yet I grieve. I question.

There are several factors that draw us into this grief. On one hand, we are horrified by the loss of life and the anguish of those who are directly connected. Our sympathy almost feels like empathy during this time. We are also forced into playing a torturous 'what if' series of scenarios in our mind and heart. What if this happened where my son goes to school... What if this happened in my town...

But then there is one more factor for the believer. And this is perhaps the most difficult. We are confronted with a fundamentally important question - why does a loving, good and all-powerful God permit such actions? How do we reconcile our sovereign God with such seemingly unsovereign sin?

The 'church answer' is to point out that man is mired in sin and this is the result of that sin. And this is true. But it is not deeply satisfying. So where do we go for comfort in these times of grief and questions?

The answer is we go straight back to the glory of God. Surely that is not what I meant to say, right? How is God glorified through such bloodshed? The answer to that is not in the event itself, but how we, as men and women who are in love with Christ, respond. As we mobilize to share compassion, love, sympathy and empathy for the families and VT community. As we lift heart-felt prayers to God seeking for His will to be done in this time. As we rest firmly and unwaveringly in our faith and trust in God. This is what brings God glory. Anyone can worship God when they are being blessed. It is he who truly worships God in tragedy which magnifies God's glory!

Virginia Tech needs to see men and women of faith in these days. They need to see how faith truly intersects with life outside of the holy bubble of church and 'Christianity'. Our faith has been honed and sharpened in the laboratory of life for such a time as this. To God be all the glory!

Taking some lumps

Breaking news over the weekend revealed that a study shows that abstinence only education does not lower the teenage sexual active rate. Critics are using this as fodder in their ongoing assault of abstinence education. So what should we make of this?

(1) According to the study, the activity rate is the same as other sex education programs. This means that at worst, abstinence only education doesn't hurt.

(2) When it comes down to it, sexual activity is still a choice that each teen makes. You can lead a horse to water...

(3) Many critics lambaste abstinence education because it is believed to be a 'religious' thing. While it is true that Christians believe in abstinence until marriage for Biblical reasons, this does not change the simple fact that abstinence is the best way to protect our teens from STDs, unwanted pregnancy, emotional struggles and other consequences of premarital sex. It is illogical for anyone to suggest that abstinence is not the best plan of attack in this area.

With all of that said, it is much better that we hail the truth in this issue, allowing each teen to make their own decision, than to water-down our message to make it more palatable and make it seem like our effort is more effective.

Try explaining to a teen with AIDS after the fact that condoms are not 100% effective, even when used correctly.

When Life Goes Thud-Twinkle-Twinkle

Here's the picture. Some movers in England are moving a piano worth $88,000 that was going to be used in a classical music festival. Then, according to reports, the movers dropped the piano and it fell to the ground, presumably ruined.

Now how would you like to be one of those movers? Can you imagine the feeling in the pit of your stomach when the piano was teetering and you knew it was gone? One minute, everything was fine. The next moment and an $88,000 piano was fire wood.

Have you ever had moments like that? One of those, "I sure wish life had do-overs" moments? While life doesn't quite work that way, I am sure glad that we all at least have one "do-over"!

The Bible says that without Christ we are a demolished piano with no hope of being able to be repaired. However, Christ has the ability to mend us completely and make us even better than before. God gives at least one do-over to those who are drawn to saving faith through Christ Jesus.

If you are in Christ, worship Him today for the amazing 'repair' job He completed on you! If you are not in Christ, why not use your one do-over today?

Learning from a little boy's illness

My wife and I got to enjoy our son's first prolonged illness last weekend. Was it only that long? It sure seemed to last a month. This was a classic "stuff-coming-out-of-all-places" ordeal that left us all physically and emotionally exhausted.

Before I was a father, I remotely understood parents saying that they would gladly suffer in the place of their child. I understood that on one level. Since being a dad, that truism has taken on a whole new life for me. I would have done anything to take my son's illness on myself. I would have done anything to stop his hurting. It was so hard to look into his dazed eyes and not do a thing to help him - just ride it out together.

In times like that, I can a little better appreciate God's love toward His people. Unlike my son, we were not just sick in our sin - we were completely dead. And unlike me and my lack of ability to do anything, God - according to His sovereign good will - chose to intercede on our behalf and provide redemption for us through the death, burial and resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ.

This Easter season, worship God anew for His gracious provision in providing life for the dead!