OH, GOD, FORGIVE US

Today, President Barack Obama signed an executive order reversing the federal restrictions on embryonic stem cell research, thus paving the way for the wholesale destruction of increasing numbers of human embryos.

Oh, God, forgive us.

Life is life, though it has different stages: embryo, fetus, newborn, infant, toddler, child, adolescent, adult, elderly. With this action, we now have the full weight of the federal government, especially the Executive Branch, behind the ongoing destruction of human life in its earliest stage.

Oh, God, forgive us.

We already are a nation that allows the taking of human life at the stage of fetus and newborn. How long will it be until we have sanctioned the taking of human life at any stage for "scientific" purposes?

Oh, God, forgive us.

Some have argued that sacrificing a life for the good of others is an honorable thing. That is certainly true if, and it’s a ginormous “if,” one is making the decision to lay down one’s own life for the sake of another. But making the decision to lay down someone else’s life for the sake of others is not honorable, it is murder. In making these decisions scientists are committing the first and most basic of sins, attempting to be god and determining when a person dies.

Oh, God, forgive us.

We have digressed to the level of the Nazis in their death camps who regularly practiced human experimentation resulting in death for the good of the “race” and for the benefit to military personnel. Dr. Joseph Mengele’s twin experiments which included as many as 1,500 sets of twins with only 200 individuals surviving from the original 3,000, stands as just one stark reminder of man’s descent into cruelty.

Oh, God, forgive us.

And so many who profess to be pro-life stand idly by and nod their heads in approval to a President and a nation with such blatant, sinful inhumanity and barbarity. Some even suggest that there are "more important" issues.

Oh, God, forgive us.

Let us join with the prophet Habakkuk and cry to God: "In your wrath remember mercy!" (3:2)

A Heart Check

My dear friend Byron Paulus, Executive Director of Life Action Ministries, shared some questions that have challenged his heart concerning the current climate of our nation and his personal response. I am borrowing some of his thoughts (with a few alterations), along with some of mine to offer a Heart Check for Christians across the political spectrum.

1. Do my thoughts, prayers, words and actions display as much concern about our nation’s spiritual condition as the economic ones?

2. Am I as concerned with what the Scripture says about our situation as what the media offer?

3. Do my words and actions display anxiety or peace about God’s promised care for me through difficult times?

3. Do I spend as much time in God’s Word as I do on Twitter, Facebook, et al?

4. Do I spend as much time talking to God about President Obama as I do to others, whether positively or negatively?

Here are others from Byron’s list:

• Am I as disturbed over the lack of God's presence as I am the lack of godly people in places of influence?
• Am I spending as much time trying to understand the ways of God through the Good News, as I am the ways of man through the media?
• Am I as motivated to figure out how to meet the needs of others as I am in trying to figure out how to meet my own needs?
• Am I content to live the rest of my life materially poor in order to make others spiritually rich?
• Do I spend as much time sharing what I learned from the Scriptures each day as I do sharing what I learned about current events that day?

May God grant us the grace to be true salt and light in the midst of deep darkness.