God is Faithful

Meditations on the attributes of God.

Psalm 89:1b, 2b …with my mouth I will make known your faithfulness to all generations. In the heavens You will establish Your faithfulness.

God is always reliable and fulfills His promises.

I can testify that God has never let me down even when I have let Him down. I have never been disappointed when I have taken Him at His Word. He has provided for me beyond what I could have ever expected. I am aware of his protection on my life. He is always faithful!

Philip

Cervical Cancer Vaccine

A big item in the Colorado news is the push to make a cervical cancer vaccine mandatory for middle school age girls.

A little background: Cervical cancer is primarily caused by the HPV virus, which is a sexually transmitted disease. Another name for HPV is genital warts.

A lot of the people pushing the mandatory vaccine are the same ones who push Planned Parenthood and oppose abstinence only education in the schools. Many view teenage, non-marital sexual involvement as normal.

Is the vaccine a good thing? A lot isn’t known about it. It won’t prevent all cervical cancer and the duration isn’t known. We don’t know if it will protect the female while allowing her to transmit the virus to males. We don’t know if there will be long-term negative consequences. One thing we do know is that abstinence until marriage is an absolute preventative with no consequences.

Many people oppose the vaccine because they think it will encourage sexual activity. It may give a false sense of security to some but as things are now, young people don’t seem to be scared by the threat of sexually transmitted diseases that can kill. I’m not sure having a little less to worry about would make a lot of difference. One thing that does encourage sexual activity among the young is the television, music and other media they are exposed to on a daily basis.

An interesting twist in the whole thing is that the Merck Company who developed the vaccine is bankrolling the push for the mandatory vaccine. This means that legislators have or will get nice contributions for their cooperation.

Merck stands to make a lot of money off this vaccine and even more if States start making it mandatory. That kind of thing always concerns me. What they really care about is the cash and sometimes that makes people secondary. The same with the legislators; campaign contributions may trump the best interest of children.

Well, what do you think? I would like to hear more input from deep thinking individuals on this. There is already enough knee-jerk and ideological comment around.

Philip

God is Slow to Anger

Meditations on the attributes of God.

Psalm 86:15 But You, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abundant in steadfast love and faithfulness.

This doesn’t mean that God never gets angry. He does, but He doesn’t fly off the handle as we tend to do.

Proverbs 14:29 He who is slow to anger has great understanding, but he who is quick-tempered exalts folly.

Proverbs 15:18 A hot-tempered man stirs up strife, but he who is slow to anger calms a dispute.

Proverbs 16:32 He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit, than he who captures a city.

Proverbs 19:11 Good sense makes one slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook an offense.

Nahum 1:3 The Lord is slow to anger and great in power, and the Lord will by no means leave the guilty unpunished.

Because God is slow to anger does not mean that He overlooks sin. There will be a time of furious judgment.

Something that can help keep anger in it’s proper place is James 1:19-20. It says: Let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger; for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness that God requires. Listen well, ponder your words and take prudent action.

Ephesians 4:26 Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger (wrath). The first anger is “righteous anger.” The second is when that anger gets out of balance and moves towards revenge. There is a right anger about sinful things. We must use that anger properly to motivate us beyond passivity and to proper rhetoric and action.

Philip

Another Dead Baby

This story was in Thursday’s paper. I’m sure as time goes on, we will know a lot more of what happened to the baby and what is wrong with it’s mother.This is a very sad story. It’s not the first time something like this has happened but what is strange in this case is that apparently the mother kept the dead baby in her dorm room for about two months.

I feel compassion for her. I wonder what horrible situation happened. What was going on that she kept the baby with her?

I don’t bring this story up to talk about the mother. At this time, I’m not condemning her or defending her. What struck me was that she has been charged with first-degree murder, child abuse resulting in death and concealing death.

Those are serious charges and may be entirely appropriate. But, what about this? What if on the same day this baby came into the world she had decided to get an abortion? She could have been nine months along and if she had an abortion, it would have been completely legal. Her defenders would have been many. She would have been exercising her “constitutional right.”

This story is a good example of how messed up things are. Even sadder is there are those who would say there is no difference and parents should be allowed the abortion option following birth.

I hope this story makes people think about where we are. Will life be defended at all times or will we move farther down the slippery slope of death?

Philip