Interview with “Unplanned” Movie Abby Johnson

Interview with “Unplanned” movie’s Abby Johnson

On September 26, 2009, Abby Johnson held an ultrasound probe as she watched a baby in the womb recoil from a suction cannula while a doctor performed an abortion. That horrific scene caused Abby to leave Planned Parenthood. Her eye-opening journey is recounted in the newly released movie, ‘Unplanned’. We had the privilege of interviewing Abby for Think magazine in 2010.

Planned Parenthood is not an innocent friend.

Planned Parenthood is not an innocent friend.

Brad Harrub: Please share with our readers some of your background and how you became involved in the abortion controversy.

Abby Johnson: I was a student at Texas A&M and went to a volunteer opportunity fair that they had every semester on campus. There was a woman there who was talking about planned parenthood. I really didn’t know anything about Planned Parenthood. I didn’t grow up in a community with Planned Parenthood. She began talking about Planned Parenthood and the services they provided. She did talk about abortion a little bit, but she told us that the primary volunteer duties were to escort women into the clinic whenever they were there for their abortion procedures.

I told her that I grew up in a pro-life household. She told me she understood that, but the reason it was so important for women to have this choice was because if it wasn’t available then women would be having all of these illegal abortions and dying at this incredible rate.

And I just thought this was terrible, so I thought to myself, “This is something I could get behind and it makes sense to me.” So I started volunteering. I was a volunteer for about two years. I then became their campus intern—still a volunteer position—but I became the liaison between Planned Parenthood and Texas A&M. I did that for a year, and right before I graduated with my undergraduate degree from A&M, they asked me if I wanted to become an employee—a paid employee—of Planned Parenthood.

I didn’t have any other job prospects coming up, so I said sure. I knew I wanted to get my master’s degree and they said they would work with me on that. So I went ahead and started working there. I worked there through the time when I got my graduate degree and just kept getting promoted and eventually ended up running that particular health center.

BH: So, you actually grew up in a “pro-life” family environment?

AJ: Yes, absolutely!

BH: Wow. So what do you think it was that helped you make that break and say: “I’m going to volunteer for Planned Parenthood?” Was there a certain phrase or hook she used, or something that she was offering that made it appealing?

AJ: Well, I think it was just the idea that if legalized abortion is not available and if these clinics are not available, then we are basically sending women to these slaughter-houses. And therefore women would be dying at this incredible rate. And for me—I’m a very compassionate person—to hear that was too much. To hear somebody say, “Women are going to be dying if this is not a legal option for women” was new. I’d never really thought about it in that way.

BH: Even though the statistics don’t bear out their scare tactic. So, in a weird, twisted kind of way you viewed yourself as “pro-life” but for older life, so to speak?

AJ: Right. Really that is the way they want to frame the argument. They don’t ever think about the unborn life, and that is intentional. They don’t want to think about the baby. They don’t want the clinic workers to think about the baby. They don’t want the women coming in for the abortions to think about the baby. They only want the women to think about themselves. And they only want the clinic workers to think about the woman sitting in front of them. And that’s very intentional.

BH: Obviously there is a single event that changed your perspective on life. Can you share what took place and how it changed you?

AJ: There were a couple of things. One was how the business model had been changing within the facility. They had really gone from a family planning and prevention model to abortion model. They went to, “Abortion is the most lucrative. It’s how we make the most money. We’re not making any money with the economy, so we see abortion as an opportunity to really up our income and up our revenue. So we need to get in as many women as possible to have these abortions.” So that was very troubling.

BH: Wow, that’s incredible to hear.

AJ: And so that was kind of the first thing. When I questioned that, it was really my fall from grace. That was when my supervisor told me abortion needed to be my number one priority. That I really didn’t need to worry about family planning and that I needed to get my head in the game for abortion. That’s when I told her abortion would never be my priority, and that family planning would always be my priority. That’s when things started to snowball for me.

On September 26 (2009), that’s when I actually saw an ultrasound-guided abortion procedure. Ultrasound-guided abortions are very uncommon. They are particularly uncommon in large abortion facilities like Planned Parenthood. If we are talking about abortion in terms of safe procedures for the woman, ultrasound-guided procedures are the safest procedure. It is the best type of procedure for the woman. There’s less risk of uterine perforation. These big places don’t want to do it because it takes more time.

This particular physician who was coming down that day is a private practice abortion physician. He has his own practice out of town and he was coming in to do abortions as a visiting physician that day. In his practice he only does ultrasound-guided abortions. The patient was a little further along in her pregnancy—about 13 weeks—so the doctor decided that on this patient he was going to do an ultrasound guided procedure. For that procedure he needed an extra person in the room to hold the ultrasound probe, and that was me.

So they called me into the room and told me they would need me to hold the ultrasound probe on her abdomen so that he could see the uterus during the procedure. That was to be my job during the procedure. So we had everything in place, and I saw on the screen a thirteen-week baby. You know at thirteen weeks—even at ten weeks—what you see on the ultrasound is a fully formed baby with arms and legs.

Everything is fully formed. If you can get a good profile view, you can see all of this. Well, this was a good profile view. I could see everything from head to foot. And then I saw the probe—called a cannula, that is hooked up to the suction machine—I saw that go into the woman’s uterus. And then I saw it jab into the side of the baby. Then, in just a few seconds, I saw the baby begin to react to that jabbing. I saw the baby’s arms and legs begin to move. The baby was trying to get away from the probe.

BH: Wow. I have to ask this because I’m sitting here trying to imagine it for myself: What were you going through internally at that point?

AJ: Well, I couldn’t believe what I was looking at. I felt sick to my stomach. I realized what I was about to look at and I realized what I was about to see. And that’s when they turned on the suction. A baby at that age has a perfectly formed backbone. The last thing I saw was the backbone going through the cannula on the ultrasound screen. I’ll never forget what it looked like on the screen. You know how they say with a train wreck you don’t want to watch but you can’t stop looking at it? That’s what it was like for me. I didn’t want to look at it, but I couldn’t stop looking at the screen.

When I saw that baby moving, it was like he was waking up and then trying to get away from the cannula. I immediately thought of all the women I had lied to. You get a lot of questions in the room. As a counselor in the room with women, they ask you questions before they go back for their abortion procedure. One of the things they ask you frequently is, “Is my baby going to feel this?” Every time I had told them no. Because I really didn’t think the baby would feel it. Planned Parenthood had told me they wouldn’t feel it, so I told them no.

I immediately thought about all the women I had lied to. I was thinking to myself, “What if I had told them the truth? What if I had known the truth—would I still be here at this job? Would those women have chosen an abortion?” What kind of difference would it have made if we had all known the truth? Why are they trying to hide this?

BH: So obviously your beliefs have changed. What would you say today, here at the end of 2009, are your beliefs on this controversial topic?

AJ: I’m firmly pro-life. The other day I went out in front of an abortion clinic for the first time on an abortion day. It was a good feeling to be on the other side of the fence. But I have a very unique sense of what is going on inside that clinic and what those women are feeling, because I have sat there and looked in their faces.

BH: So what would you say? Let’s say you have a 15-year-old or a 20-year-old or even a 30-year-old that is currently pregnant and not sure what to do? What would be your words of wisdom at this stage?

AJ: I’ve been asked that a lot. A lot of times women choose abortion out of convenience. In fact, most of the time they think that abortion is going to be a quick fix. They think an abortion is going to make their lives easier, and I know that is not the case. It is not a quick fix. It is not something you just do and it goes away. It will be with you for the rest of your life. If they are a young person or a person of any age and they don’t have children—many women who choose abortion are in their younger years—that memory of the child they aborted comes back to them when they are holding their wanted children.

People have asked me, “What would you have said differently to those women you were counseling with?” I would have said, “Your baby does have a heartbeat. No matter what you’ve been told, your baby does have a heartbeat, and your baby is going to feel what is happening to it during the abortion. Your baby is going to feel that pain.

And, when the abortion is finished, somebody is going to have to go back and reassemble the baby that was in your uterus. And they are going to know if it was a boy or girl. This is very real. This is not just a mass of tissue. This is not just a glob of cells. This is a real baby in your uterus.”

BH: What are the secrets in the abortion industry that many never hear about? Obviously you’ve touched on one that most people know that maybe we don’t admit—and that is a lot of this is about money.

AJ: Oh yeah.

BH: But what are some other things, having “been there and done that,” that you can share?

AJ: It is so much about money. But also, anytime there are any complications they will do anything to keep that woman quiet, including paying her money to keep her quiet.

BH: Now when you say complications, you mean medical injury.

AJ: Yeah. They will pay her off to keep her quiet. Which is sad, because then we never know about those tragedies of abortion. There are so many times that women are injured from an abortion—they’ve had botched abortions—and instead of going to the media so that other women can hear their stories, they are paid off. They are required to sign a statement saying that they will not go public with that information.

In some states, like Texas, there are laws where they will come and ask the woman if she wants to view the ultrasound. If she does choose to view her ultrasound, and let’s say she’s 10, 12 14, weeks pregnant, they will not show her the full profile of her baby. They may only show her…

BH: A leg.

AJ: The leg. If you are a layperson looking at the ultrasound, you don’t know what that is. And they’ll say, “That’s it. See you can’t see anything.” Because they don’t want to give her the truth. They call themselves pro-choice. But it’s not really about giving women honest choices. There are just so many things they are not honest about. For instance, they never go over all of the risks about abortion when a woman comes in. They never talk about all of the options. They don’t normally ask, “Have you considered your other options?”

BH: Have you ever seen someone coming back after an abortion procedure who is emotionally torn up?

AJ: Absolutely. Absolutely. The abortion industry’s answer to that is that the person is weak or that they were emotionally unstable to begin with. They don’t believe in post-abortion syndrome. They believe that for a normal person, you’re going to do fine after the abortion. They really just dismiss women that have regrets after an abortion, and they just think something is wrong with them.

BH: We appreciate more than you know your willingness to talk. And we are so thankful you are speaking out for pro-life. I’ll say this, I think there is a truth out there that is not getting out. I think if more women armed themselves with what you are revealing here, we would have less abortions going on than we have today.

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The Great Easter Verse Hunt

The Great Easter Verse Hunt

Most Bible-professing Protestants are probably quite shocked to eventually discover that “Easter” isn’t even in the Bible. The word is never found in any of the more modern, dependable, strictly literal translations. It actually only occurs once in the King James Version (Acts 12:4), wherein it is a 1611 substitution – not translation – for the original Greek word, “pascha;” a word which that very same version correctly translates as “Passover,” in every other one of the 28 places wherein it occurs in the N.T.

Pascha... "Easter" or "Passover"?

Pascha… “Easter” or “Passover”?

Additionally, that same text (Acts 12:1-4) states that this was during the “days of unleavened bread” (vs. 3), a Jewish celebration intimately linked with the Passover. King Herod, in an effort to please the Jews (vs. 3), was waiting until after “pascha” to kill the apostle Peter. In his attempts to persecute the Lord’s church and please the antagonistic Jewish leadership, Herod was certainly not delaying Peter’s execution in support of a Christian celebration, but was instead honoring the Jewish celebration of “pascha” (Passover), by waiting until it was over to present Peter to the otherwise-occupied Jewish celebrants of “pascha,” “Passover” – not “Easter.”

Even the New King James translators corrected the older, 1611 version’s “Easter” error, by correctly placing the word “Passover” back in Acts 12:4. Hence, “Easter” is not legitimately ever found in God’s word anywhere, and hence, cannot be religiously celebrated “by faith,” according to those very same scriptures: “So then, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God…for whatever is not from faith is sin” (Romans 10:17 & 14:23b).

Although one cannot legitimately find “Easter” in the Bible, if one delves into secular history, they will soon find that many of today’s “Easter” celebrations are of pagan origin. As one internet resource reported: “Easter was originally the celebration of Ishtar, the Assyrian and Babylonian goddess of fertility and sex. …After Constantine decided to Christianize the Empire, Easter was changed to represent Jesus. But at its roots, Easter (which is how you pronounce Ishtar) is all about celebrating fertility and sex.” Hence, the very popular fertility symbols of eggs, bunnies, and yes, what would’ve been the absolute darling of Darwin’s deluded and God-denying evolutionary dreams: the genetically-confused and corrupted crossover critter: the egg-laying bunny. He, which millions of Biblically-unaware Protestants unknowingly purchase, perpetuate, and participate in distributing likenesses of each spring, in what is a lot more of a celebration of an idolatrous, non-existent, pagan fertility false goddess than it is of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Furthermore, as so very few Protestants are apparently additionally aware, as stated above, the early Constantinic Catholic Church was responsible for seeking to re-create this then-pagan celebration of the false fertility goddess into its own image, centuries after Christ and His apostles lived and delivered God’s divinely-inspired commands as to how we are to remember the Lord’s death, burial, and resurrection.

Such Easter/Ishtar facts are easily obtainable from countless encyclopedic resources, but obviously not from God’s Word, as “Easter” and its modern-day celebratory events simply do not exist therein. And if so, where are the “book, chapter, and verse” references wherein Jesus commanded His disciples to have Easter Sunrise services and Easter egg hunts “in remembrance” of Him? Where are the “book, chapter, and verse” references wherein the apostles commanded, or the first century church participated in, such remembrances of His death, burial, and resurrection? No, these modern-day “Easter” festivities are only, simply, truly, and every inch and iota, nothing more than the “doctrines and commandments of men,” which make any religious practice thereof, therefore totally and completely vain and useless before God (Mk. 7:5-13).

Jesus very clearly told His disciples (John 8:31-47), precisely how He wanted them to remember Him instead (Luke 22:14-20); which is exactly what His one New Testament church specifically comes together to do, “on the first day of the week” (Acts 20:7; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26) just as the Scriptures instruct. This, in accordance with Christ’s commandment, simply because they love Him alone, and above everyone, and everything else, on earth (John 14:15-24; Matthew 10:34-39, 22:37).

We must remember that God does not change (Mal. 3:6). We must remember the very first and foremost of His Ten Commandments: You shall have no other gods before Me. 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” (Exodus 20:3-6). Do we recall what God did to those such as Jeroboam, who sought to substitute worship he had devised in his own heart for that which the Lord had specifically commanded in His word (See I Kings 12:25-13:10, 33-34)? Do we remember what the Lord did to King Solomon for his idolatry (I Kings 11:4-11), and what He further did to His own people who dragged pagan deities’ worthless and man-made idols and worship into His Holy Temple (See II Chronicles 33:1-11)? Do we remember the Apostle Paul’s experience in Ephesus with the followers of Diana/Artemis, the first-century pagan false goddess of fertility in Acts 19? And so, these examples beg the question: “What is the difference between what people did in those biblical instances, and what those do today who seek to drag the idolatrous and unbiblical man-made traditions originating in the worship of the pagan false goddess ‘Ishtar/Easter/Eastre’ into their churches – even in ignorance (Acts 17:30)?” While there’s nothing any more wrong with giving a child a chocolate bunny to eat than a chocolate likeness of a cartoon character or fairy tale creation, the problem arises when religious organizations seek to attach religious significance to such unscriptural events as Easter, Easter Sunrise Services, and Easter Egg Hunts – a proverbial landslide of which will most likely be announced by the denominations all around us in the local papers this week.

We desperately need to let our Bible-professing Protestant friends and neighbors who claim to want to honor God’s Word, know that “Easter” as they may understand and celebrate it, simply isn’t in the word of God, because it was apparently never in the mind of God for anyone to celebrate as a Christian holiday (II Timothy 3:16-4:4). In fact, “Easter” has absolutely nothing in common with how the Savior Himself exclusively commanded His disciples to specifically remember Him (Luke 22:14-20; 6:46). Instead, “Easter” is ultimately, intimately, purely and exclusively the product of corruptly combined paganism, Catholicism, and commercialism; a vain event invented in minds of mere men (Matthew 15:7-9) instead of in the mind of almighty God.

But please don’t take my word for it – just try to legitimately find “Easter” in God’s Word instead. You’ll find that it’s harder to locate than a real-life, living, breathing, and legitimately egg-laying bunny – or than a sinner being saved, forgiven, and added to Christ’s one New Testament church, simply by saying a prayer and ‘welcoming Jesus into their heart’ in that same Bible. Simply put: Taint there anywhere!’

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USO MODERNO DEL TERMINO “MILAGRO”

USO MODERNO DEL TERMINO “MILAGRO”
Es bastante común  en nuestra generación escuchar a las personas hablar acerca de los milagros. Escuchamos este termino ser utilizado; en películas, las noticias, en conversaciones todos los días y por supuesto en las Iglesias. De tiempo en tiempo se escucha el término en la radio por ejemplo; cuando el corredor de una maratón se calló, pero se puso de pie siguió corriendo y ganó la carrera… ¡Fue un Milagro!.

 Es bastante común  en nuestra generación escuchar a las personas hablar acerca de los milagros.


Es bastante común en nuestra generación escuchar a las personas hablar acerca de los milagros.

Cuando las personas en la actualidad hablan acerca de los milagros,  en sus círculos tienen en mente algunos eventos de carácter rutinario pero ellos se refieren a estos eventos como “milagros” aun cuando estos no tengan ningún tipo de conexión con eventos religiosos. De hecho algunos se refieren al nacimiento de un niño como un evento “milagroso”, sin embargo esto es un evento de todos los días y de cada momento al rededor del mundo. Es muy probable que las personas no comprendan realmente qué constituye un verdadero milagro y cuales son los términos en que esta palabra es empleada. 
¿QUE SIGNIFICA LA PALABRA MILAGRO EN LA BIBLIA?
  La Biblia enseña “Si alguno habla, hable conforme a las palabras de Dios…” (1Pedro 4:11). El diccionario Webster’s define el término milagro: (1) como un evento remarcable y (2) una maravilla.  Aunque este diccionario que es altamente respetado define “milagro” de esta manera, la definición bíblica va mucho mas allá de estas lineas. Si todo evento remarcable fuera un milagro, entonces la palabra como tal perdería su verdadero significado. No todo evento extraño y peculiar puede ser contenido en la categoría de  un milagro. 
La primera vez que podemos observar la palabra milagro es en Exodo 7:9 y es usada en referencia a Moises y Aarón de pie frente a faraón. Mientras avanzamos en el A.T usted y yo notamos que de muchas y diversas maneras el Señor obró a travez de milagros.  Al llegar al N.T hay tres palabras que necesitan nuestra atención: “Milagro”, “señales”, “maravillas”.
En algunos lugares en el N.T leemos de milagros tomando lugar. En algunas ocaciones dos de estas palabras aparecen en el mismo versículo, como cuando Felipe iba haciendo “milagros y Señales” en la ciudad de Samaria (Hechos 8:13). Anterior a eso muchas “señales y maravillas” eran hechas por mano de los apóstoles (Hechos 2:43). En adición a esto otros pasajes emplean los términos en el mismo contexto (Hechos 2:22, Hebreos 2:4). 
La palabra milagro procede de la palabra griega “dunamis” y que es definida como “poder”, indicando un origen super-natural. Un milagro entonces es un evento que trasciende por completo a lo que puede ser el orden natural de las cosas y por lo tanto es obrado con poder, no por casualidad pero con PODER.  Otra definición sostiene lo anterior. “Un milagro es un acto inusual, que trasciende el alcance natural de las cosas, y eventos que probaban la compañía de Dios para el hombre que obraba ese milagro” (Thayer’s word no.4595 en e-Sword).  Decir que algo era una señal era dar a entender qué Dios estaba demostrando su aprobación para con el individuo que obra el milagro. Las “Señales” lo que hacían eran apuntar a algo. La intención no estaba en la Señal misma fuera el centro de atención sino a lo que esta apuntaba. En el caso del siglo primero, las señales apuntaban a que el mensaje que estos hombres portaban era verdadero, debía ser escuchado y obedecido por causa de las señales que eran hechas por tal individuo (Hechos 8:6). 
¿Que acerca de la palabra “maravilla”?. En el N.T más de 50 veces la palabra Griega hace su aparición “Teras” que es traducida como “maravilla”. ¿Que significa esta palabra?. Una maravilla es algo raro, diferente que está causando la admiración absoluta de alguien.  Una señal apela al entendimiento de la persona, mientras que “maravilla” apela a la imaginación, apela precisamente a la respuesta del hombre frente la demostración del poder de Dios. 
La intención de estas lineas no es aún entrar en detalle sobre el tema de los milagros sino, solamente referirnos al uso moderno de esta palabra. El que una persona sane después de una gripe, ¡No es un acto sobrenatural!, o el que un carro no golpeo el mío por la mañana tampoco constituye una obra sobrenatural. Hay que comprender que los tres terminas usados (Milagro, Señales y Maravillas) es Dios obrando. En nuestros días escuchamos a hermanos decir: ¡Qué Dios se manifieste en la salud de mi esposo!  la pregunta siguiente es; ¿Como lo hará?…la conclusión obligatoria aquí, debe de ser de una forma milagrosa. Si es a través de la medicina entonces no es Dios manifestándose, es la medicina del hombre actuando, ¡No es un milagro!. Por supuesto todo lo debemos a Dios y nos debemos a él sin embargo el uso moderno de la palabra “milagro” ha sido tremendamente abusado, aún cuando no se mencione la palabra como tal,  el concepto ha sido mal utilizado y mal empleado. Deseamos que continue con nosotros en este estudio tan emocionante que ha de continuar. 
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Who is My Neighbor

“Who is My Neighbor?”

The question comes to us from Luke 10:29. A lawyer of the Jews had asked the Lord what he needed to do in order to inherit eternal life. It was a good question and one which we should all be interested in knowing the answer to. The Lord’s answer to this question was two-fold: “Love God with all your heart,” and “Love your neighbor as yourself.” (cf. Luke 10:25-28) These two commandments condensed all of the Old Testament Law down into two basic principles; everything else simply expounded on the how of the fulfilment. Thus, Jesus told the lawyer, even as He tells us, “Do this and live.” (Luke 10:28b)

If you want to make it into heaven, God requires that you put Him first in your life. Additionally, He also requires that you treat your neighbor well.

Do you have the mindset of how can I serve?

Do you have the mindset of how can I serve?

It is unfortunate that most people totally fail in these two necessary requirements for eternal life. This assessment is one taught by Jesus Himself, who said in a different place, “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.” (Matthew 7:13-14; NKJV)

The lawyer probably recognized that there were people in his life that he was not loving as he should. And so we read, “But he, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbor?’” (Luke 10:29)

The lawyer’s question was essentially his way of clarifying: Who do I have to love? Or, put another way, who am I allowed to not love? Are there people who are sufficiently different from me that I am allowed not to love them? Who will God allow me to dislike and mistreat, or at least just ignore indifferently?

The lawyer should have known better. The commandment concerning love for neighbors, found in Leviticus 19:18, is not the only place where God mentions properly treating one’s neighbors. If one turns back to the Ten Commandments, wherein God lays down some basic principles concerning the conduct He expected of His people, we read, “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor,” and “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.” (Exodus 20:16, 17; NKJV)

God hatred of lying lips is a foundational principle in understanding the morality God expects of His people (cf. Proverbs 12:22). When God says not to bear false witness against a neighbor, He is not giving permission to lie to strangers. Likewise, when God told His people not to covet their neighbor’s ox, He wasn’t saying that coveting became alright so long as you didn’t know the individual in question. Rather, we might more properly understand that God is teaching us that there is a brotherhood of man. All men are to be considered as neighbors, and all men are to be treated as neighbors.

We have those neighbors that live down the road from us, and then there are those neighbors that live across the globe. From God’s perspective, enthroned above the world, there’s not that much distance separating any of us. We should be treating all of them well, loving them as ourselves.

In point of fact, God wasn’t too vague about any of this. He told the Israelites, “You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether one of your brethren or one of the aliens who is in your land within your gates.” (Deuteronomy 24:14; NKJV) Whether a foreigner, or a kinsman, God expected the same treatment of both from His people, who were called by His name, and who were striving to live according to His standards.

When God says, Love your neighbors, Jesus explained, He meant you even need to love your enemies. (cf. Matthew 5:44) Because, we conclude, our enemies are neighbors also.

All men are to be treated as if they were your neighbors, because, from God’s perspective, they are. You may not have met them yet, but that doesn’t matter. Your neighbors are anyone you happen to run across in your foray through life.

You are not supposed to lie to your neighbor, which means you are not supposed to lie to anyone. You are not supposed to covet your neighbor’s property, which means you are not supposed to covet anyone’s property. You are to love your neighbor, which means you are to love everyone. Simply put, there is no one whom God gives us permission not to love and treat as well as possible.

 

 

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Lessons on Current Events

Lessons on Current Events

The news has been filled with alleged stories of the behavior of a proposed judicial appointment. This is not an article dealing with any political view about this matter. It is simply an attempt to call to our attention to impact that our behaviour has on those in our society. There are some valuable lessons to be learned by every Christian.

The lesson about associations. Judgments are readily made about people based on the company they keep. While the Bible often teaches the importance of fleeing from those who do evil, we fail to heed heaven’s advice. The first psalm describes the blessedness of those who do not walk or stand with the ungodly and sinners. One does not have to be engaged in evil actions for his influence to be destroyed simply because he was in the presence of evil.

The lesson about drinking and other sins. From the first drink there is a lessening of inhibitions which otherwise regulate our lives. Think about places where drinking prevails. Why do bars need “musclemen” who can remove trouble-makers? Has alcohol ever led sports’ fans into anger, cursing and destruction of property? Do not forget the account in Esther when a drunken king with his drinking friends demanded that Vashti become an object of their lascivious hearts.

Do not look on the wine...

Do not look on the wine…

The lesson about drinking not excusing bad behaviour. Our society tends to excuse wrong behaviour by “justifying” it—“Well, he was drunk when it happened.” Doing one evil cannot “justify” the doing of another evil.

The wise man Solomon wrote this in Proverbs 23.

The Bible question. “Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has contentions? Who has complaints? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes?”

The Bible answer. “Those who linger long at the wine. Those who go in search of mixed wine.”

The Bible directive. “Do not look on the wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it swirls around smoothly.”

The Bible description of the results of drinking. “At last it bites like a serpent, and stings like a viper. Your eyes will see strange things and your heart will utter perverse things.”

The Bible description of the addictive nature of drinking. You will not remember what happens and you will say, “When shall I awake, that I may seek another drink?”

There are choices we make which can destroy us and our influence. We need to be wise and use divine directives in the choices we make about behavior. Remember, “It is always right to do right, and it is always wrong to do wrong!”

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