LIVES MATTER!

Last summer after a shooting in Missouri, the phrase, “Black Lives Matter” became a protest and rallying cry.  Crowds gathered carrying signs and chanting the phrase, voicing their displeasure.  Soon other placards were made with variations touting “All Lives Matter” or “Blue Lives Matter” or whatever cause was being promoted.  There were many posts on social media regarding the protests and statements about American culture including the culture of the serial killing of pre-born babies.  Their LIVES MATTER too!

I am unashamedly PRO-LIFE.  To me ALL LIVES MATTER…yes, even criminal lives and terrorists lives…because they matter to God.  Legally, the government has a right, after a criminal is found guilty, to impose a penalty of death.  The government also has a right to go to war to defend our country and the innocent lives of our allies.  We each have a legal right to defend our families and properties and unfortunately, that has at times involved the loss of life.  The government has also passed laws that allow women to choose to kill their own babies in the womb and there are those states that have even gone as far as to say that a baby born alive from a botched abortion should be left alone to die.  Nurses in Illinois testified that they had witnessed some babies just tossed aside, given no life saving measures or even love as the life slowly drained from their bodies.  AND GOD WEEPS because ALL LIVES MATTER!!!

What about SPIRITUAL LIVES?  Do they matter?  I fear we have aborted too many “spiritual babies” before they have ever had a chance at the abundant life that is promised through Jesus Christ.  Some, we have never even given a chance to breathe in the Holy Spirit and experience its awesome power in their life.  We work so hard to prepare the soil and plant the seed and at times before the seed can even take root, someone comes along with their “Holy Plow” and starts tilling the tender shoots.  LEAVE THEM ALONE; LET THEM GROW!!!

But every now and then, despite our best efforts to discourage and destroy the tender plant, someone falls in love with Jesus Christ and they burst forth into “newness of life.”  Oh, we rejoice that a “new name is written down in Glory,” BUT THEN, they are on their own. If they are hungry, they can come to Wednesday Bible Study.  If they need a little extra love and care, they can just “encourage themselves in the Lord,” after all it was good enough for the Psalmist David.  We hang around just long enough to “cut the cord” that tied them to the world and then bind them with ropes of CHURCH TRADITION, PASTOR PREFERENCES and our list of RULES AND REGS, until the bondage of the world doesn’t look so bad.   LET THEM BREATHE!!!

Since the beginning of the year, God has allowed so many of these precious lives to come into my world.  I have sat at dinner and wept as they wept, listened for 2 hours on a plane as a dear woman poured out her heart, read and answered countless emails of people who wanted to live; they wanted to breathe but something inside had been destroyed.  Many had been born but before they reached the “Abundant Life” stage, the breath of God had been choked out of their spirit.  Through the tears, I felt their hunger, their longing to return; to be reborn, if there was only someone that would open their arms and welcome them into their world; show them that their LIFE MATTERS!!!

The Statue of Liberty stands in New York Harbor welcoming citizens and visitors to the greatest country on earth.  Inscribed on the base of the statue is a poem by Emma Lazarus.  Here is a portion of that poem:

“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she with silent lips.

“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me.

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

America is known as the “Land of Opportunity,” to millions of immigrants and those blessed to be born on her shores.  What about the CHURCH?  Our arms should be opened wide, welcoming those who are oppressed, bound and hopeless.  “Give us your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free” should be the cry of the Church.  We have the PRECIOUS SEED to plant, LIVING WATER to quench their thirsting soul and the LIGHT OF SPIRIT to sustain and guide these young lives.  Their LIVES MATTER!!!  LET THEM BE BORN!!! LET THEM BREATHE!!! LET THEM LIVE!!!

Revelation 22:17 And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!”  And let him who thirsts, come.  Whoever desires let him take the water of life freely.