An Oft-Forgotten Story

I wonder how many of you have ever read the story in the book of Numbers about Balak and Balaam. I know that I had never heard of it till last night. It is interesting what you can find when you read the Bible all the way through. Here is a summary of the story:

The Israelites were about to fight the Moabites. The King of Moab, Balak, was afraid that the Israelites would be hard to defeat, so he called on his seer Balaam to curse the Israelites. However, he could not because God prevented him; Balaam replied to Balak by way of Moabite princes that he could not do anything other than what God wanted him to do. "Even if Balak gave me his palace filled with silver and gold, I could not do anything great or small to go beyond the command of the Lord my God" (Numbers 22:18).

The next morning, however, Balaam changed his mind and decided to return to Balak with the Moabite princes. God placed obstacles in Balaam's way so that his donkey refused to stay on path. No matter how many times Balaam whipped his donkey, it refused to listen to him. Finally, the donkey spoke and said, "Am I not your own donkey, which you have always ridden, to this day? Have I been in the habit of doing this to you?" (Numbers 22:30). Balaam realized that it was God who was trying to get his attention. When the angel of the Lord finally spoke, Balaam fell to the floor and prostrated himself to the Lord. The angel of the Lord rebuked him for not interpreting his donkey's reactions as a sign from the Lord.

"Balaam said to the angel of the Lord, 'I have sinned. I did not realize you were standing in the road to oppose me. Now if you are displeased, I will go back.' The angel of the Lord said to Balaam, 'Go with the men, but speak only what I tell you.' So Balaam went with the princes of Balak" (Numbers 22:32-35). When Balaam returned to Balak he prophesied that the Israelites would crush the Moabites.

Does the story sound familiar? Compare Balaam's conversion to Paul's conversion:

"As [Paul] neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, 'Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?'
'Who are you Lord?' Saul asked.
'I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,' he replied. 'Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.' " (Acts 9:3-6).

Revelation sung by Jennie Lee Riddle

When I first heard this song, I fell in love with it right away. I hope you enjoy it too. I promise you that it will be stuck in your head for a while. Which is the point of course. Anything that can remind us of Jesus...right?

Early Valentine's Day Message

Last Sunday's epistle reading was from 1 Corinthians 13:1-13. I could not help but think of Valentine's Day because Paul's message was love.

"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no records of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails. But where there are prophesies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love."

There is nothing more to be said. This, in my opinion, is one of the most beautiful passages in all of the Bible. God Bless you all!!! And let us show His blessing and love to the world.

The Unborn Need Our Prayers!!

"...we will stand up every time that human life is threatened. When the sacredness of life before birth is attacked, we will stand up and proclaim that no one ever has the authority to destroy unborn life. When a child is described as a burden or is looked upon only as a means to satisfy an emotional need, we will stand up and insist that every child is a unique and unrepeatable gift of God, with the right to a loving and united family..."~ Pope John Paul II, Homily at the Holy Mass at the Capital Mall, October 7, 1979 ~

 

Prayer For Life:

Heavenly Father, in Your love for us, protect us against the wickedness of the devil, those helpless little ones to whom You have given the gift of life. Touch with pity the hearts of those women pregnant in our world today who are not thinking of motherhood. Help them to see that the child they carry is made in Your image--- as well as theirs--- made for eternal life. Dispel their fear and selfishness and give them true womanly hearts to love their babies and give them birth and all the needed care that a mother can give. We ask this through Jesus Christ, Your Son, Our Lord, Who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, One God, forever and ever. Amen

 

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE PRAY FOR THE UNBORN

Christians Must Be Pro-Life

If I randomly murdered a man on the street I would rightly be considered a murderer and be imprisoned. I do not have the right to kill that man. What right does a woman have to kill her baby? A woman's, like a man's, rights stop with her life. As a feminist I find the pro-choice movement so hypocritical. In China and India, the majority of aborted children are women. The pro-choice feminist movement supports the killing of women. Interesting.

But what if the child is not "normal?" During WWII, the Nazis in Germany tried to create the perfect race, and to this day there are scientists in South Korea that are trying to create the perfect beings through cloning. Now I hope that you believe as I do that that is wrong. So, why are we doing the same thing with the unborn? When a woman is pregnant with a child with down's syndrome we council her to abort it. When a woman is pregnant with a baby who is physically or mentally challenged we want her to kill her child because of course that child could never be a part of our "perfect" society. I heard this awesome speech from this twelve year old girl, in which she mentioned the fact that we have handicapped parking and the Special Olympics and we talk about how inspiring these people are to us, but when a woman has conceived one of these same people we want her to abort it. Notice the hypocrisy.

Women do have choices. They have the choice to not have sex, or to protect themselves, and even if they are raped there should be support groups out there to prevent them from killing a person. We must of course love these women, and we will be showing them our love when we support them in keeping their babies.

My pastor said that women traditionally killed themselves in horrible ways to abort their children and that legalized abortion is better. But when we legalize something this means that we support it. Suicide is one of the leading causes of teen death in this country, and we would certainly never support that. We would want to help them not kill themselves. Just because people do something it does not mean that action is right. This is what Jesus teaches us. As a church we must stand up for what is right even if others around us don't. We must be a group of loving people who give women another option. The pro-choice movement says that women have a choice but they really don't. They are often pressured into abortion and are often not even really given another option. When a woman is in this state of mind, she can't think clearly. Churches are to prevent bad things from happening in the world. Of course, we must support orphans and mothers, and this is exactly what I desire most. Churches must be support groups for prostitutes and addicts and sucidal people and murderers and women considering an abortion. The majority of women who have an abortion regret it. The emotional and physical pains that these women feel are hardly ever mentioned, but they are real. Some women, after having an abortion, can't have children ever again.

After all, when does a person really start becoming a person? Right now, pro-choice men and women say: at birth. But there are partial birth abortions done every day and six month old fetuses could live outside of the womb. Pre-mature babies are born everyday. Is a person someone who walks and talks? So are the mentally and physically handicapped not people? Are elderly with Alzheimer's disease not people? When is a person a person then?

"From birth I have relied on you; you brought me forth from my mother's womb. I will ever praise you" (Psalm 71:6 NIV).

"For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be" (Psalm 139: 13-16).

"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations" (Jeremiah 1:5).

Life starts at conception. Period.

Genesis 23-25

I find Isaac's story so interesting. Firstly, Abraham trusts God in everything, and must choose a woman for his son who is from his own family. He cannot choose a Canaanite. Secondly, once Rebekah is chosen to be Isaac's wife, she is the last person who knows that she is to be his wife. It was very customary for marriages to be arranged in secret without the knowledge of the man and woman in question. Though Isaac probably knew what Abraham's servant was off to do, Rebekah did not know that she was to be his wife until after everyone else in her family knew.

(Tomorrow's reading is Genesis 26-28)