Respect life

Here is the outline of the lesson for 2014-01-19, Sanctity of Human Life Sunday. It’s based on Psalm 139. As I told the class, even if you aren’t thinking about the topic of this lesson, it would be a blessing to your soul to memorize this Psalm. Even though I forgot the outline (I left it on the printer at home), I managed to remember most of it. I got a little preachy toward the end …

Read

• 139:1–6
• 139:7–12
• 139:13–18
• 139:19–24

The basic outline of the psalm

• God knows me. (1–6)
  • ASK Who does God know to this level of detail? (everyone)
• I can’t escape from him. (7–12)
  • ASK Who can find a place where God can’t reach him? (no one)
• He knows every detail of how I was made, down to the molecule. (13–18)
  • ASK How much does God know about everyone? (everything)
• I hate God’s enemies, but what if I am one of them? (19–24)
  • ASK Why should I be merciful to those who hate God?
    • because to some extent, I am one of them
    • God may lead them to repent and trust in Christ

Implications

• The focus is on the 3rd section (13–18).
• If God knows how I am made, and he made me that way on purpose, what should my attitude be toward how I am made? (respect for life as made by God)
  • What about characteristics that can be corrected by surgery? (cleft lip/palatte?)
• We should have the same attitude about everyone God has made.
• What about those who don’t share our attitude?
  • Pro-choice?
  • Pro-euthenasia
    • The Liverpool Care Pathway was developed by Royal Liverpool University Hospital and Liverpool’s Marie Curie Hospice in the late 1990s for the care of terminally ill cancer patients. Since then the scope of the LCP has been extended to include all patients deemed dying.
    • In 2012, it was revealed that just over half of the total of NHS trusts had received or were due to receive financial rewards to hit targets associated with the use of the care pathway.[1] These payments are made under a system known as “Commissioning for Quality and Innovation” (CQUIN), with local NHS commissioners paying trusts for meeting targets to “reward excellence” in care.
    • In 2012 … the government advised that NHS hospitals should phase out the use of the LCP over the next 6–12 months, and that “NHS England should work with [Clinical Commissioning Groups] to bring about an immediate end to local financial incentives for hospitals to promote a certain type of care for dying patients, including the LCP.

But it’s bigger than health care.

• George -> Elizabeth.
• It is probably coming to your neighborhood, workplace, restaurants.
• So far, urbanized areas are more affected than suburbs, but It is coming.

How should we respond?

• Humility before God (per the psalm: “search me, O God & know my heart” …
• Knowledge that for anyone who is breathing, repentance and faith are still possible.
• Prayer for our neighbors.
• ASK What would we do if a transgendered person or a flamboyantly homosexual person came to worship at Wildwood? What would you do?
  • 1 Cor 6:11 “… and such were some of you.”
• Knowing the Gospel and being ready to share it:
  • In a short sentence: “Christ came into the world to save sinners.” I Tim 1:15
  • In a longer sentence: “that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.” 1 Corinthians 15:3–4
  • In a familiar sentence: “For God so loved the world that he sent his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)