Speeding

imageI’ve been pulled over before. The occasions are rare but they have happened. I’m blessed to have a family member who is a police officer. He has given me a PBA card that I hand to the officer that pulls me over along with the required documents. The card has a statement that asks the officer to extend all courtesies. The officer can extend courtesies on the authority of the officer who issued me this card. He basically can treat me as if I was the issuing officer and show mercy on his authority.

Watch this video and see how this is a small picture of the Gospel.

On His authority we can receive mercy and grace.

Turn to Christ and live today. You ticket has been paid!

Come Into the Light

cross light

I would like to believe the majority of people in the USA would agree that taking the life of an innocent person is wrong.  We would all call that murder.  It would not matter the reason either. While there may be reasons a murder is committed that we may say we understand, the majority would still not condone the action.  I believe the majority of people in the USA would say that murder in any case is wrong.

You shall not murder.  Exodus 20:13

An example would be murder for hire.  I have seen some shows over the years about cops doing undercover stings to catch people who hire hit men to murder their spouse.  They may want to murder them because they are abused by them, they may inherit a sum of money, they are having an affair, or any other reason that will be more convenient rather than letting that spouse live.  Again, I believe the vast majority of people in the USA would agree that this is wrong and should be illegal.  Thankfully it is illegal and no one seems to be pushing to make it otherwise.

But there is a murder for hire that is not illegal.  This murder is done for convenience.  This murder is committed on people who have no chance at defending themselves what so ever.  This murder though has a different name.  It is called abortion.  Sadly, I believe most people in the USA find nothing wrong with this murder.  My evidence is 55 million murdered, or more, since 1973.  No police undercover sting was done to stop these murders.  No national outrage over these murders.  Just 55 million plus dead babies who never had a chance.

Posterity shall serve him;
    it shall be told of the Lord to the coming generation; they shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn, that he has done it. Psalm 22:31

I know you may be saying this isn’t a fair comparison.  You may be saying I’m taking it to an extreme to prove my point. If I offended I am sorry, but this isn’t extreme.  While it seems harsh this is truth.  This is consistent.  I see people on social media complain when a child is murdered at 5 years old.  I see people complain with outrage when a child is left in a car on a hot summer day.  I see people weep for animals who are abused or hunted and killed in the wild. Many of these people are for a woman’s choice.  But let’s please call that choice what it is, a choice to murder.  Where is the consistency?  Where is the love for the unborn baby?  Where is the compassion for that little girl or boy who was murdered?

I know all situations are different and I may sound like I do not have compassion for the women and men who have made this terrible decision to take life of their baby.  I am sorry if this is how it looks.  The truth is I have tremendous compassion for you and all who come to this decision.  I myself am not innocent of this.  I bought the lie.  No!  I lied to myself.  I knew it wasn’t just tissue.  I knew it was a life.  Yet, in my young days, I did not stop the girl.  I, like Adam in the garden, stood by in silence because it was more convenient for me for a baby to die then to be a dad. Yes, if that didn’t happen my life would be different, but that doesn’t excuse the fact that I had a part in the murder.  But others do not have to make that choice.  All babies should be given a chance to live.

baby roo home

For You formed my inward parts;
You wove me in my mother’s womb.
I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Wonderful are Your works,
And my soul knows it very well.
My frame was not hidden from You,
When I was made in secret,
And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth;
Your eyes have seen my unformed substance;
And in Your book were all written
The days that were ordained for me,
When as yet there was not one of them. Psalm 139:13-16

I have to live with that choice I made all those years ago.  I am guilty.  If you made that choice, so are you.  But you can be forgiven.  You can be shown that life matters.  Your eyes can be opened to the light and then proclaim the truth and save lives. You can be consistent in your thoughts and actions.  This is made possible only through the saving power of God through Jesus Christ.  Not because it is deserved, but because God is full of mercy, grace, and love.

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. Ephesians 2:8-10

While I am guilty I am forgiven by Jesus.  God granted me repentance and I put my faith in Jesus Christ.  Without Him I stand condemned of murder and every other sin.  With Him I am clothed in His righteousness.  At the cross He took my murderous hands and gave me His righteous hands.  It is the great exchange.  It doesn’t sound fair.  I deserve to be on that cross, but I get God’s grace, mercy, and love.  Now my eyes are open.  I see sin for what it is.  It needs to stop.

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Romans 6:23

This can be for you too.  If you have had an abortion, or you were an accomplice, you can be forgiven.  Just come to the cross of Christ.  This sin isn’t greater than the cross.  I pray you can get on your knees before the cross and that your heart will be made able to receive Jesus.  Please turn from your sin and turn to Jesus.  Then you will begin to see.  The light will shine.  You will support life because you will have life.  Abundant life. Eternal life.  Consistent life.  A life giving life.

baby roo kissy

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.” John 3:16-21

Please, come to the Light.

Father

I am writing this to give thanks to my father.  He is my hero.  Anytime I need something he comes through.  He has always been there for my sister and I.

I haven’t been a perfect son. I remember things I have done and worries I have caused and he has stood by me through it all.

When I was a baby I had pyloric stenosis.  I don’t remember having it, but apparently, it is when your intestines are in a knot.  Having a little girl of my own, I can imagine how he and my mom must have felt when I was sick.  I know that I made it through that with him never giving up.There were other times growing up when I would fall down and he’d pick me up.  There were stupid kid things I did and he would love me through them, even when I caused damage to the house.  I remember this one time I was watching him fix something on the house.  He had his hammer and he was hitting nails into the wall.  So I grabbed my toy hammer and began to hit our plaster wall inside our house as I watched it crumble saying “look dad, I’m like you.”  How he or mom didn’t beat me I have no clue.

He granted me grace even when I damaged the house.  To this day I still mess up and I know he will always be there.

I know that God placed me in a house where I was loved.  I know my dad loves me.  Too many people don’t.  They have horror stories of their fathers. My heart breaks for them.  Coming from my situation is a big reason why I trust God.  You see, when we think of God as Father, Abba, most of us tend to think of our dads.  God as Father is a merciful, loving Father who gives us His grace through His Son Jesus.  Some people don’t know how to comprehend that if their image of God as Father is of their abusive father.  But Jesus is love, mercy, and grace.  He wants us to come to him as we are.

Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? John 14:9

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14

That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 2 Corinthians 5:19

My relationship with my father has made it easy to see my Heavenly Father as He truly is.  He is a loving God who loved us so much that He gave us His only begotten Son to die the most brutal death in th history of mankind.  He gave us Jesus not because we deserve Him to take our sins, but because He gives us grace because what we deserve is death.

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23

When I put that hole in our wall some might say I deserved a beating.  Instead what I got was grace.  Thanks dad for showing me how to be a father and showing me the Grace of God.  I love you!

Happy Father’s Day!