Unbelievably, a pregnant teen once walked into my church office
hoping to get someone to take her to the abortion clinic. The youth pastor’s wife and I sat with her
for two hours trying to encourage her not to go through with the abortion. Here’s a snippet of dialogue that happened
near the end of the conversation.
Pregnant Teen: I just don’t
want anyone to know.
YP Wife: But Honey, God will
know.
PT: I don’t care if God
knows. I just don’t want anyone else to
know. I don’t want them to think I’m a
slut.
ME: Oh, that’s not the way I
would go with it. If you could possibly
keep a secret from anyone, it would be God – He really matters. The other people don’t matter compared to the
value of what God thinks about you.
The teen left the office and finally got her dad to take her for an
abortion. One of the saddest days of my
life. And yet, the idea of caring what
people think and not caring what God thinks is, perhaps, the most common error
committed by humans.
Yesterday at It’sGoodToBeTheDad.com,
I wrote about a current American Idol
Top 12 contestant who apparently didn’t think his past would catch up with him. Please
read that post. Today, I want to
address the spiritual component of this problem. To get there, check out this verse that my
own rock star son sent me:
Life is not a spark in space
An episode of Will and Grace
Controversial yet mundane
Deborahs messing with your brain
Even Scientologists know theres more to all of this
Search the ruins for trap doors
Wonder what you're put here for
"Do Better" by Max Bemis / Say Anything
I think the song is about a guy who’s trying to “do better”. The first two lines caught my attention. “Life is not a spark in space / An episode of
Will and Grace”. I think he means life
is more reruns of silly old TV shows. But hold on
there, life is all about WILL and GRACE - our will and God’s grace. Our Will gets us into trouble. God’s Grace provides an escape from our
trouble. The only “catch” is, you can’t
pretend you’re not in trouble. Speaking
of catching, let’s catch this word from our Sponsor:
For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. (Hebrews 4:12-13)
That bears repeating: There
is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to
the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. Get it?
You don’t hide anything from God. It is one thing for a child to close their
eyes and pretend something is not there.
The author of “Do Better” was once an atheist – a childish person
closing their eyes pretending there is no God.
Here’s the deal, friend, you can close your eyes all day long and
pretend all you want, but God does not close His eyes, He does not blink, He
does not sleep. He knows who’s “been good
or bad”, but unlike Santa Claus, God does something about what He sees.
Sound ominous? Sound
threatening? Sound like yet another
preacher trying to scare you into being good – into “doing better”. Don’t go down that road. My name is Clark Smith. I am a sinner saved by Grace. My own will gets me in dutch with God. God’s own grace gets me out of trouble. Let’s go down that road… together.
Follower of Jesus, I hope you’ll do better. I pray you’ll do better. You should. You owe God your very best every day. But God’s grace comes without a price tag,
without a gotcha. John 3:16 (a great
word from our Sponsor) says, in essence, you deserve to perish for exercising
your Will wrongly, but God loves you and He can’t bear to watch you destroy
yourself – His creation. His free gift
of Grace is all you need to enjoy everlasting life with Him in Heaven. The gracious gift is freely given, but it is not
free. Jesus, who had no warrants out for
His arrest was executed so you could go free.
Believe it. Take the deal. His Grace trumps your Will.
Clark H Smith
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