| From
the Church on the Hill
by G. Eric Williams Pastor, Cottonwood Community Church On April eighteenth, 2007, the United States Supreme Court voted 5-4 to uphold a federal law prohibiting partial-birth abortion. This is the first time a specific abortion procedure has been successfully outlawed in the United States. As such it is a significant step toward reversing the 1973 decision that legalized abortion across the nation in one fell swoop. The Supreme Court ruling bans a procedure which involves a doctor delivering all but the head of a baby before forcing scissors into the base of the infant's skull. At that point the child's brains are suctioned out, the skull is crushed and the baby is fully delivered. Eye witnesses to this barbaric operation tell of babies kicking and thrashing while the doctor forced scissors or another sharp instrument into the child's head. Abortion of any kind is murderous, but this particular routine is completely off the scale. It is unbelievable that anyone would argue for a woman's "right" to kill her offspring in this heinous fashion. Even while the hue and cry over the erosion of a woman's constitutional right to her own body is rising, we thank the Lord God that the Supreme Court has taken this first step in quelling rampant self indulgence. At the same time other recent events remind us of how deeply entrenched is the worship of self in our nation. Just two days before the court ruling on partial birth abortion, Cho Seung-Hui murdered thirty-one innocent people at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia. It was the deadliest mass murder in United States history. Cho Seung-Hui is posthumously described as a dark and moody loner whose psychotic beliefs about his own self importance were not alleviated by the prescribed medications he was taking. Having been bullied as a junior high and highschool student, he fancied himself a member of society's downtrodden and nurtured an envious hatred toward those he considered more fortunate than himself. This while living the pampered life of a student riding on someone else's dollar. Those who resolve to kill their unborn babies and demoniacal megalomaniacs like the Virginia shooter share a common fault: they live with the misconception that there is nothing more important than themselves. No doubt, women who determine to kill their own children and outcasts like Cho Seung-Hui desperately need to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They need to be told that God's love moved Him to sacrifice His Son for their sakes. They also need to be told to drop the narcissism. The Church used to act as a brake on society's headlong rush toward self-centered godlessness. Now days it seems that the Church prefers to adopt the prevailing norms, baptize them, dress them up in Christian garb and build multimillion dollar ministries around them. Thus we have mega-churches founded on the idea that we're all okay just so long as we "find ourselves" in order to experience our "best life now." Odd isn't it? The Church used to preach about the need to lose yourself - the need to die to your own desires and take up the cross to follow Christ. The Church used to tell people that self centeredness is a sin. It used to be that the Church didn't have to rely on the courts to reign in the madness of unchecked hedonism. But then, in the old days, the Church told people that they were sinners destined for Hell with a need to repent and submit to the Lord Jesus Christ. We have been blessed with a significant victory in the war against evil on one battle front even while we see it's violent out break on another. We must not forget that the conflict is all around us. Fortunately the weapons of old given to us by our Savior are effective no matter where we turn; the Gospel of Jesus Christ and Him Crucified, the call to repent, die to self, live for Christ and tell others the good news. Brothers and Sisters, it's time to shoulder the cross again and march forward in the cause of Christ. |
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