Questions About Abortion

Why is abortion so divisive?
Why are people on both sides so vociferous in their arguments?
What is the emotional component of this debate?
Is a human fetus a person?
Does a woman have to carry a fetus just because she conceives it?
Is it the state's business what happens to a fetus?
Is it the state's business what happens to a child?
Why does the state protect any life?
Does the stage of development of a fetus change the value of that being?
Is it immoral to require a woman to bear a child conceived through rape or incest?
Should abortion ever be celebrated?
Does the federal government have jurisdiction that supersedes that of states?
Why has abortion only become an issue since the 1960s?
What actually happens during an abortion?
Are there any legitimate moral concerns with abortion?
Is there any situation in which abortion is always immoral?
Can abortion ever be moral?
Can the opposing sides of the abortion debate ever listen to each other?
Is one side completely right and the other completely wrong?
Can God redeem the abortion debate?
Are the lives lost in abortions worth mourning?
Are the lives of pregnant women contemplating abortion less valuable than their fetuses' lives?
What would the ideal resolution be for each side of the debate?
Is there any middle ground on the abortion debate?
Does humanity get to decide what is ultimately right and wrong?
What does God think about abortion? Can we know? Does it matter?
What does God think about women who have abortions? Can we know? Does it matter?
What does God think about fetuses that are aborted? Can we know? Does it matter?
Does harsh judgment and condemnation help or hurt anybody or anything?
What does love have to do with abortion?
How can love be expressed in the abortion debate?

Good at Being a Person

Life is not easy. There are all kinds of ways we can mess up life. And we all do. Personhood is harder than it looks.

Who is really good at being a person? And is that the same thing as being a good person?

Personhood entails a wide range of skills: walking, talking, listening, loving, eating, serving, creating, working, sharing, confessing, confronting, exploring, explaining... The list is endless. So personhood is about doing life. Some people are better at personhood than others.

I'm still learning how to be a person: how to navigate through life, how to keep (gain?) my sanity, how to develop my strengths, how to love others, how to worship.

It's not easy, but it is rewarding.

Why We Need a Breakthrough

We all need a breakthrough. Life is more than survival and accumulating things. God can break through to us so that we see what really matters, what life is really all about.

This is why you need a breakthrough:

1. This broken world is a closed system, except for the revelation and intervention of God.
2. Unless something jars us into new ways of thinking and doing, we will march on mindlessly in our daily drudgery.
3. Drudgery leads to an unfulfilled life of regret.
4. Life's interruptions are times when God can break through to us.
5. These interruptions can wake us up to a better life, if we are tuned in to Jesus.

We need breakthroughs regularly in life. Life gets better when we get better (says motivational speaker Brian Tracy), and we can't really get any better without taking life to the next level. Those life leaps take place when God breaks through to us.

In our Breakthrough series, beginning this Sunday, we will learn to find and harness those Breakthrough moments of life!

Video Games and Life

I never thought I would say this, but life is like a video game.  In my very limited experience with video games, I see some profound similarities to real life.  (If my ignorance about video games becomes too apparent, please forgive me.)

When you play a game, you can start at the elementary level.  When you have mastered that beginning level--by finding the prize or killing the enemy--you advance to level 2.  This level might be much like the initial level, with more difficult obstacles or trickier enemies.  It's like level 1 on steroids.  Several levels might show the same kinds of increasing difficulties.

But then there are some levels at which the rules are completely different.  Rather than walking, you are flying.  Rather than working alone, you work with a team.  You are no longer looking for a hidden treasure or a sneaky foe; you are achieving a goal or building something.

At these advanced levels everything changes.  The terrain is like nothing seen before.  Colors and textures feel like another world.  The music evokes different desires.  It's the same game, but not.

This is how video games are like life.  As we mature, we go through stages of life.  The world looks different to a 2-year-old and a 32-year-old.  It's the same world, but the rules are different.  The goals are different, the feel is different.  The other players are different.

And there are differences in the adult perceptions.  A 72-year-old doesn't see life like a 32-year-old does.  The rules are different, profoundly different.  Think about it:  If a young woman sees life like a grandmother, something is wrong.  If an old man sees life like a college athlete, he has never matured.

Some of these transitions of perspective can be sudden and immediate.  A child is born, and the new mother loses her selfishness as well as sleep.  A man has a heart attack, and suddenly he cares about relationships.

A person is freed from addiction, and the world no longer wreaks with temptation.  A couple stops competing and begins working as a team--and the home is filled with joy.  A man recognizes a life of accomplishment, and sees that life is about more than building wealth. 

Life looks different as we mature.  The important things change.  The more we mature, the more we "get" life.  We look back and see our unhelpful--and just plain wrong--assumptions about ourselves and the world.

As we work through life, we break through to new levels.  Everything changes.  We see our true selves.  We take ourselves less seriously.  We finally recognize what really matters.  We really begin to live.

I look for those new stages, and long to see the truth in life.

Core Values in a Sentence

We often need reminders.  The most important reminders bring us back to the most important matters.  Here are the core values of Crossroads, each condensed into one sentence.

Simplicity

We avoid clutter and complexity to remember that God has made us for relationship with himself and others.

Community

It is not good to be alone, so we embrace the joys and challenges of connecting our lives with others, reflecting the relationships within God himself—Father, Son, and Spirit.

 

Action

Life is more than theory, so we apply belief to life, living out the teachings of the good news in daily life and corporate ministry.

Joy

We choose gladness, as Jesus reminds us that he has overcome this world, releasing us to be fun and to have fun.

Pain in the Process

As time marches on, and good things happen, there is pain, good pain, in the process.  The pain is good because it takes me deeper in relationship all around.  I love my wife more, I love my children more, I love my Lord more.  I could never get there without the pain.  I am getting there, learning, growing, coping, stretching.

Shadow Cast

As I sat on my deck reading recently, one of those big Japanese hornets began buzzing around.  He was so loud that I could tell where he was, even when I could not see him.  And I also could see his huge shadow.

As much as he may have wanted to hide from me, I could still see his shadow.  It occurred to me that we often cast shadows when we are outdoors.  Sometimes we know where our shadows land.  Often, however, our shadows pass across objects we never even notice.

So it is with our lives.  Our lives cast shadows over people and places, some of which we notice, some of which we don't.  Most often we don't think about or even notice where our shadows land.  We don't even think about controlling our shadows.  Yet those silhouettes may affect people more than we know.

For good or not, our lives have more impact than we realize.

The Power of Confession

I have a confession to make.  I have been way too slack about confessing my sins to God.  I have taken for granted that Jesus died on the cross for me, that I have received his gift of forgiveness, and that my sins are all gone.  That is all true.  But I can't take it for granted.  I need to confess my sins.  In my daily time with Jesus, I need to make sure that I acknowledge specifically how I need to repent.

I have often noticed a distance from the Lord, like my relationship with him is just flat.  As I am reading through Tim Keller's book on prayer, I obviously came across the importance of confession.  Oh yeah.  I need to do that.  Not just because I am supposed to, but because I need the life that comes from openly, specifically agreeing with God about my sin.

I began listing my sin.  It's worse than I thought.  Realizing one sin helps me realize another.  I'm not wallowing in woe-is-me depression.  I'm just seeing that addressing these areas of "missing the mark" will help me live more like God wants me to.  Duh.

Confession brings life.  Wow!

Love and Suffering

I just finished Richard Rohr's book, The Naked Now.  Every time I read one of his books, I think, "This must be his magnum opus."  Again, I am blown away. 

I have discovered that my pattern of thinking, my perspective, the lenses through which I look at life are flawed.  Like everyone, I have inherited a mind tainted by the Fall in the Garden of Eden.  It takes, Rohr says, a lot to break through this flawed pattern thinking and feeling.  Normally we rock along in life, taking our cues from the world around us.

Generally only two kinds of life experiences can get people to step back and evaluate their lenses of life.  Those two experiences are deep love and great suffering.  Virtually anyone after a near-death experience gains a new, deeper appreciation for life.  Similarly, anyone deeply in love sees all of life differently.

If I want to see life more deeply, I need to suffer or love deeply.  Now it is foolish to court suffering.  Life naturally brings suffering anyway.  But I can choose to love.  I can love with abandon.  I can love with creativity.  I can love unconditionally.  I can love on purpose.

That's how I want to take my heart and mind to a new level.  The suffering will come too.  And that as well will take me deeper.

Spirit Suppression

I just picked up Henri Nouwen's book, In the Name of Jesus.  I have never read anything by Nouwen, but his name is very familiar to me.  My friends who seem to have a daily, intimate experience with Jesus often mention his writings.  Having heard this book mentioned in a sermon podcast, I found a free .pdf of the book and began to read.

Only a few paragraphs into the introduction, Nouwen wonders if he is suppressing the Holy Spirit.  I had to click off my iPad.  I already had enough to chew on.

Of course I am suppressing the Holy Spirit.  That is the source of nearly all my problems.  I suppress him, ignore him, forget him.  How many days do I endure, never really thinking about his presence in my life?  I suppress the Holy Spirit, and my life is the worse because of that.

An old iron mine in SW Virginia

Tears rolled down my face this morning as I wondered how much my life would be different, if only I would repent of suppressing him.  My life would be more exciting, fulfilling, rewarding, effective, real, genuine, joyful, dangerous, and free.

Lord, please forgive me for stifling your presence in my soul.  Help me change my heart.  I want to be real.  I want to live.

Life on a Mission

I was honored to hear a few Moravians address a small learning community on Friday. They shared with us some amazing history, which I had never heard. Count von Zinzendorf, living in the 1700s in Europe, founded a city named Herrnhut, a place of refuge for radical Christians who had lived in the eastern European mountains for generations.

After the refugees ironed out some conflicts, they became a great missionary village. Hundreds of Christ-followers left their homes to travel to foreign lands, earning a living with a simple trade. There they would live among society’s outcasts, serving them and loving them. They shared with them the call of Jesus to repentance and faith.

They were not seeking to begin Moravian churches, but to lead people to Jesus. They knew that they were likely never to return home, so they said their goodbyes, often at the western coast of Europe, and went to share Jesus with the world. One man even took his tombstone with him, ready to invest the rest of his life to share life with others.

Some of this may sound familiar to those of us in the Triad. Old Salem, which later became part of Winston-Salem, began as a Moravian outpost for evangelism. The various trades done in Salem raised money to support missionary efforts. They reached out to those without Christ in the new world.

There was no distinction between laity and clergy. They were all alike working to share the Savior’s love. The Count urged believers to “Win for the Lamb the reward of his suffering.” It’s all about Jesus.

Two things surprise me here. First, I’m surprised that I had never heard of this missionary enterprise. Of course I had heard of the Moravians, but they seemed like peripheral figures in church history. At the Baptist seminary I attended, I learned plenty about church history, and I even took a course on the Anabaptists. But I don’t recall ever hearing anything about the Moravians. And I know that I never heard about their radical missionary culture.

Second, I’m surprised that the effort did not endure. The missionary effort came to an end after Zinzendorf died. Although was of noble birth, he gave all he had materially to the cause. He also went deep into debt. After his death, the Moravians chose to stop the missions effort until they could repay the Count’s debt. They also chose to become a denomination. After the debt was paid, they never resumed the level of commitment to the great commission. And they were left with a denomination, an institution, a bureaucracy. And lots of church historians forgot them.

Maybe we could see a revival of this kind of radical obedience and sacrifice for the Lord. It will change the world.