What Must Be Aborted

Bombs created holes in parents’ hearts this week.

A plane fell from the sky. Amid the wreckage, cell phones flashed with unrequited calls.

In a room with flowered curtains in a sleepy summer town, one young woman eased a drug into her vein and closed her eyes forever. A boy clicked on a pop-up and fell through an open manhole into hell. One couple pooled their hard-earned tip money to end a life before it forced them to change their vacation plans and in the UK, police rounded up six-hundred suspected pedophiles and THAT number was not a topic of discussion on news shows.

This is where I repeat my astonishment that anyone doesn’t believe the Bible is powerful and true because it says things like this:

“But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power.” 2 Timothy 3:1-5a (ESV)

Now, this is where I could mention some good that occurred on the planet this week. There is good because there is light at work in the world pushing back against the darkness so I could say that the good outweighs the bad or at least balances the scales.

But here’s what’s true:

Millions of children made it home safely to their parents this week but humanity is diminished by the loss of the ones who died in bomb strikes.

Hundreds of planes flew unchallenged from their origins to their destinations but we drown in the blood that flows from the loss of the one.

Just as there is no appropriate dose of heroin (because no one dies of a heroin overdose, they just die from heroin); so there is no appropriate dose of sin. One sin destroys us completely, condemns us, conceives death within us just as one egg converging with one sperm makes us pregnant, changes our futures, leads to a new life if we allow it to grow.

If I fix you a creamy cold dessert to bring you relief from the summer swelter and then add one drop of motor oil as I serve it, you will deny yourself the relief because the good does not outweigh the bad.

One sin makes us sinners and if we do not take the step (the Jesus step, the full cleanse, the receiving of His sacrifice on our behalf, the choice to die to sin and live for Jesus), if we do not take the step that aborts the death growing inside us, then we are sinners enslaved to sin. One sin leads to another sin and to another until the existence of six hundred child molesters in one small country doesn’t even rate a follow-up headline or a conversation at the lunch table at work.

The presence of darkness makes the planet a dark realm. Where light shines, there exists an outpost of the Kingdom of Christ. And the darkness will not overcome the light, light has overcome it, light is overcoming it, light will overcome it forever;

But right now, it surely is hard to shine.

Once death is conceived it must be aborted or it will grow up into death and darkness will be its nature.

(“But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.” James 1:14-15 ESV)

The good does not outweigh the bad. The bad destroys everything in its path – almost.

Here is our hope (because you know, loved ones, that despite the darkness of the hour, there is hope): the bad has an expiration date. Evil will end. God has set the time and many of us already hear the hoofbeats of the horses riding.

The darkness will continue to rise. Soon, it will be hard to see. In some places, the smoke of evil has almost obliterated the light – almost.

“In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” John 1:4-5 ESV

Now is the time to choose to abort the evil conceived within our own souls by accepting the sacrifice for sin, the perfect Lamb of God, who died once, for all, so that sin within us would die and we would be free to give birth to eternal life, to walk in light, to shine in this darkness. Now is the time to come to Jesus.

Soon, it will be harder to see. (it bears repeating) It’s mighty hard to see now. Don’t expect the good of your life to outweigh the bad. Look around. One child exploded on a beach. One child falling from the sky. One child slain in the womb. One child molested for another’s pleasure – would they agree that all the safe children outweighs the evil done to them?

The world lies. God tells us the truth in His word. The only way out of this darkness is to kill evil at its conception by allowing Jesus to pay for the sin in our hearts and walking with Him in faith so that sin dies within us before it can give birth to death. One at a time, we must come.

Today, loved ones, today join the kingdom of light – it is the only way to fight against the darkness. It’s getting harder to shine but know this – light wins. Light wins.

We need each other and will need each other more in the coming months, years ahead. If you find encouragement from the truths I write, please share them, tell others what you know, this is a place to pool our courage. You can subscribe here to receive the blog through email. If you’d like to comment, click the replies below. This is our conversation. I need you, too.