Birth of a child

It's been six months, but I can still remember the overwhelming emotion when our fourth child was born. One would think that with the fourth the process of labor and birth would be old hat. But with the first three my wife had an epidural and all the babies were born in a few hours (our first was born in 36 hours!). Our fourth was born in 28 minutes.

I was recently watching "The Nativity Story." I really enjoy the movie and like it despite some of the obvious cliches. At the end of the movie, when Baby Jesus is born, Joseph is delivering the baby. The baby is born Joseph holds him up and is laughing and crying simultaneously. Every time I watch that scene I am instantly taken back to that moment in the hospital; that moment immediately after the birth. The relief that the birthing process was over, that the baby was born, that my wife had survived. That the baby had survived. I was laughing and crying simultaneously. The flood of emotions was just so intense. I can honestly say that I had never experienced that level of emotion before.

And unless we have another child, I doubt that I will experience again. I am grateful that I was granted that experience.

In Pain

My soul is in anguish. My spirit cries out.

The world is in pain. And yet it dances the night away.

And babies die.

Does anyone care? Does anyone notice.

There are mommies who cry tonight. And yet the world says dance.
And so they do.

Why?

Why dance?

There is other music playing. Another song is being sung.
Just listen harder and you can hear it.

It says "You are loved."
It says "You can be sad."
It says "I still love you. I loved you first."

And when you listen your spirit soars.

Listen to the song of ages. Listen to the song of songs. It is a quiet song. It is not a loud song. But it is the oldest song.

You don't like it because it isn't new. You want the latest. The latest will fade. The newest will age.

But this song will remain. This song is the oldest. But this song will always be the latest. As the world looks for the next best thing. After you have been used up and discarded, the song still sings.

It says "You are loved."
It says "You can be sad."
It says "I still love you. I loved you first."

Just listen.

A Just Judge

We serve a Just Judge.

What is the ultimate justice for sickness? Healing.
What is the ultimate justice for un-rightousness? Revival.
What is the ultimate justice for sin? An increase of His presence.

He judges in kindness. His kindness leads us to repentance.

Lord come and judge us. Judge sickness in the earth. Judge this unrighteous earth in your kindness. Judge our sin. Because we desire more of your presence.

True Justice

I have been thinking quite a bit about the death penalty. I find it interesting that protestants tend to be pro-life at conception and pro-death when it comes to criminals. The defense of this tends to fall along the lines of "an eye for an eye" or "meeting out justice."

I was reading the Sermon on the Mount today. In it I read "You have heard it said, 'An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.'" and I realized that the law Jesus was quoting there was the Mosaic law. I also realized that Jesus when quoting this was not saying "this is the way to live" but was actually saying, this is the law, but I am going to give you a deeper law. And He does. He says "turn the other cheek."

I was trying to put myself in the place of a person robbed of a loved one. I can't imagine the pain and anguish that would cause. I completely understand the desire for justice. We were born with it and we cannot escape it. We cannot repent of it. It is an imprint on our hearts from Heaven.

However, when we pursue human justice and correctly meet out the judgment rendered on the person condemned to die we have acquired that justice that our heart cries out for. But that pain and anguish are still there. Somehow the human justice can't meet the true justice that our heart desires.

So how do we get True Justice?

We turn the other cheek. True Justice can only come from above. True Justice can only come about because the unjust person has truly changed and reconciliation has happened. Can it happen? Yes. Does it happen? Not enough.

Imagine the True Justice of putting your arm around the neck of the person that robbed you of a loved one, laughing and being friends, and all the while thumbing your nose at the Destroyer.

If it can happen once, it can happen more than once.

Billy Graham at TED

Margaret Sanger on sin

From this transcript, an interview by Mike Wallace in 1957:

WALLACE: Do you believe in sin -- When I say believe I don't mean believe in committing sin do you believe there is such a thing as a sin?

SANGER: I think the greatest sin in the world is bringing children into the world--that have disease from their parents, that have no chance in the world to be a human being practically. Delinquents, prisoners, all sorts of things just marked when they're born. That to me is the greatest sin -- that people can -- can commit..

WALLACE: But sin in the ordinary sense that we regard it -- do you believe or do you not believe.

SANGER: What-what would they be?

WALLACE: Do you believe infidelity is a sin?

SANGER: Well, I'm not going to specify what I think is a sin. I stated what I think is the worst sin.

WALLACE: Yes, but then you asked me to say what--and I said what and ah--you refuse to answer me?

SANGER: I don't know about infidelity, that has many personalities to it--and what a person's own belief is--you can't, I couldn't generalize on any of those things as being sins.

WALLACE: Murder is a sin...

SANGER: Well, I naturally think murder, whether it's a sin or not, is a terrible act.

This woman declares that bringing a child into the world in less than ideal circumstances is the worst sin possible, but when it comes to murder, she's not convinced it's sin.

I encourage you to read the entire transcript. It's a little long, but well worth the read to get a little insight into why society has gone downhill so fast in the last 50 years.

The Meekness of Jesus

Jesus is the meekest human to have ever lived. Here was the God of the Universe, the Creator, walking around in human flesh, yet he did not call attention to himself.

The God of Isaiah 6:1 "It was in the year King Uzziah died that I saw the Lord. He was sitting on a lofty throne, and the train of His robe filled the Temple. Attending Him were mighty seraphim, each having six wings. With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. They were calling out to each other, "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of Heaven's Armies! The whole earth is filled with His glory!" Their voices shook the Temple to its foundations, and the entire building was filled with smoke. "

This Lord sitting on the throne, was the same one, who when He looked down on creation, seeking the sinfulness, did not despise us, but instead became one of us.

John 1:10 He came into the world, and though the world was made through Him, the world did not recognize Him.

Here was God, in the flesh, those that He was walking around He had created, and He went completely undiscerned. And yet we get upset when we aren't given the recognition for some little thing that we have done. We get tweaked when we produce something at work and don't get credit, or even worse, don't get as much credit as we think is due to us. When we write a song and people play the song and don't give us credit. When we craft a sentence and someone plagarizes it. Yet He said "Let their be light", crafting the most profound sentence ever, and when walking the streets of Nazareth, no one saw anything other than a 12 year old Jewish boy.

Lord, change our perspectives. Change my perception of my true significance.