Tag Archive for sanctity of life

The Gift of Life

2019-05-24 Devotional with Hymn, Magnificent God No comments

With You is the fountain of life. (Psalm 36:9, NASB)

Do you believe the whole universe simply came to be, with no cause or creator? Do you believe that all the matter in all the stars in all the vastness of space had no source? Do you believe that the well-ordered laws of nature somehow just happened on their own?

What about life? Your body is a miracle. It is made up of billions of microscopic cells, each alive, each intricately constructed, each carrying on complex functions that no factory or laboratory can match. And somehow they all perform together in a magnificent dance that keeps your body working around the clock, without you even being conscious of it.

You didn’t ask to be born. You didn’t create yourself. You do little to keep yourself alive. Most of your essential physical functions operate automatically, requiring no conscious effort on your part. Virtually all you have to do is feed and water yourself, and for that you’ve been given powerful, built-in drives.

Quite literally, life is a gift. Your life is a gift. Each human life is a precious gift.

How should we respond to this gift of life? We should receive it with awe…with reverence…with joyful gratitude…with sober thought for how we treat this life in ourselves and in others.

We should receive this gift with love. Life was given with love, and we should receive it with love – love for our Creator and love for His life in each human creation around us. Love preserves life, enriches life, and treats it with the care and respect that it deserves.

Father, help me to see other people,
not as physical creatures,
not as crumbling shells, shallow and temporary,
but as You see them,
as living, eternal beings.

Listen and sing:
Hymn: Praise to You, Giver of Life!
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Silent Witnesses

2017-01-04 Devotional with Hymn No comments

Too often we look at the helplessness of infancy and of old age and feel that such lives are useless. We seem to think that if they can’t DO anything, what is the use of them living.

But we forget that God glorifies Himself most magnificently, not through our strength, not through our sufficiency, but through our weakness.

“My power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 2:9, NIV)

Look at the way sovereign God chose to feed the five thousand, or slay a giant, or demolish the impregnable walls of Jericho. He chose to use weakness because it proved that He Himself was acting, not some human agent.

We have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves. (2 Corinthians 4:7, NASB)

Look at the example of Jesus. While He was still a helpless infant, only doing what infants do, God used Him powerfully. His arrival proved God’s faithfulness to His promises. His humble circumstances said more about God’s tenderness and mercy than words could ever express. News of His birth drew worshipers from a country and a religion far away.

God can powerfully use helpless infants.

When Jesus was in His final moments, able only to gasp and groan, God painted a picture of love that none of us can ever forget.

Even when we can no longer do God’s work, God can work through us.

I am not proposing a simplistic solution to the complex issues of life and death. But when He allows those in the grip of death to linger a bit, don’t doubt His wisdom or goodness. Even when we can no longer speak a testimony, our silent witness can eloquently glorify the God who is always faithful and who never leaves us alone.

Listen and sing:
Hymn: God Is Working All Around You
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The God of Life

2015-01-29 Devotional, Pictures of God No comments

from the devotional book, PICTURES OF GOD

Genesis 1

God gave both plants (vv.11-12) and animals (vv.21, 24-25) the ability to reproduce themselves. He made life self-perpetuating. What an amazing gift! He shared a portion of His life-giving ability with each of His creatures.

My wife will often ask me what is the purpose of some particular animal. I don’t really have an answer, except that life is the purpose. God is a God of life! Overflowing, abundant, infinitely varied life! Life fills earth’s macro-systems (some look at this entire earth as a single, living organism). And life fills our micro-systems, with tiny drops of water containing varied communities of their own.

When God created non-human life forms on this earth, He said, “Let the waters teem with swarms of creatures” (v.20, NASB) or “Let the earth bring forth living creatures” (v.24, NASB), but with human beings, He said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness” (v.26a, NASB). All living things derive their life from God, but we in a special sense. 

God…breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being” (Genesis 2:7, NASB).

He patterned us after Himself – not physically, but spiritually, intellectually, morally. He shared Himself with us. He even shared a bit of His sovereignty, allowing us to rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth” (v.26b, NASB).

Life is a gift. We human beings didn’t originate ourselves, nor did we ask to be created. What’s more, our physical lives are in many ways self-perpetuating. Most of our physical functions are automatic and self-administering. Our heart beats without our input. We breathe without deciding to do so. Our cells do their work without our conscious involvement. About all we need to do is feed and water ourselves, and for that we’ve been given powerful drives as reminders. Life is truly a gift!

Even our physical bodies point to God as a magnificent, powerful, all-wise, and deeply-loving Creator. How should we respond? By thanking Him sincerely and often, and by treasuring His image in all human life, both in ourselves and in others.

Listen and sing:
Hymn: Praise to You, Giver of Life!
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