Remember when life was a little easier?
I mean long before we were frightened by the turn of the century – you remember the time I like to call the duck tape/water scandal. It’s as if someone hit the fear switch and that became the new method of control.
Suddenly, we now had to be careful about what we said, what we saw and what we did.
Even our words have changed.
I’m old enough to remember the theme song to The Flintstones. When the lyrics said, “you’ll have a gay ole time,” no one had homosexual thoughts about it. The word gay had a different meaning then. It just meant happy. Now I guess it means happier.
I remember when I could say that the word “ain’t” wasn’t in the dictionary! Well, it is now.
Word usage is very important today.
I say all this to point out that as we continue to change – and change is good – we need to be careful of what we choose to fight against. Many Christians end up on the wrong side of politics – meaning that sometimes we have to choose whether we’re going to be political or spiritual.
I was having a conversation with a woman who felt that God hated abortion and that the people who participate in it will surely go to hell. I asked her if she was sure about that and she said definitely! She then proceeded to tell me that I shouldn’t be questioning her since I stand in a pulpit on Sunday mornings.
I asked her if she wanted to have this conversation as members of a political party or as members of the body of Christ.
She said, “Both.”
I said “That’s impossible.”
The reason is because of the definition of words.
Words like “pro choice” and “socialism” (I will discuss socialism in another post) take on different meanings depending on the context of the conversation.
This intrigued her.
She said, “Since we’re both Christians, let’s talk about it as members of the body of Christ.”
Great idea!
Biblically, God wants us to use our intellect. We were created differently from the other animals for this purpose. All Christians agree that we were created in the image of God – everyone doesn’t understand how – but we agree that we are definitely created in His image (Gen. 1:26, 27).
Being created in the very image of God gives us the right to choose – to make our own choices and to suffer the consequences for our mistakes – whether they’re good consequences or bad ones.
Some people think it would have been easier for God to just omit the trees that He told Adam and Eve not to eat from. Being in the image of God necessitates the need to use the intellect we’ve been created with. God gave Adam and Eve an opportunity to use their intellect.
That’s what choice is all about.
What do you think happens when someone (people, the government, the schools – or anybody) takes that right away?
How many people in the Bible were given choices by God?
A better question might be: how many people from the Bible must I name who God gave choices to for you to believe that God is pro-choice?
In fact, of the 66 books in the Bible, it would be quicker to name the people He didn’t give choices to.
Can you name anyone in either of these groups?
ClydeStyle 