A Uniqueness of God
>> 6.08.2012
I have been reading the book Let Us Highly Resolve by David and Shirley Quine over the past couple of weeks. The book's sub-title is "Families Living for Christ in the 21st Century" and it gives 7 "resolves" that they, as a family, undertook as they walked through their journey of raising children. I have read this book before and plan to reread it again every so often to return to truths that are foundational to what I value in raising my own children. (Though this book is written by homeschoolers, it is in no way a book just for homeschoolers as it only ever mentions it one time and at that just as a fact of a type of education.)
Resolve number one is "To build our families upon the Biblical world view" and it covers such topics as what is a world-view, how it is shaped, and how one might be "Biblical" and one might be something of another foundation. In this chapter they say that a Biblical-world view starts in creation and in terms of answering the foundational questions about man, it starts with looking at Genesis 1:26 -- that man is made in the image of God. Now, this is nothing new to me, and I'm sure it isn't to you either. We hear that phrase and we may even have some good answers as to what it means to be "made in the image of God." Now let me jump to another place in my mind and then I'll come back to this point.
For the past several months, I have had swirling thoughts around the issue of life and its value. What does our world say about life? What does our own country and culture say about life? What does the Church say about life? What does my very own church in rural Indiana say about life without ever even saying a word? What do I say about life-- in not only my words but in my actions and in what I hold to be of importance. Where should our believe/world-view of life even come from? If I say I believe life has value, exactly how far does that go? What about a person who may be in a vegetative state? Do they have "life"? What about a unstable woman who finds herself unexpectedly pregnant? Do I care what she does to that baby? Do I believe it's okay to just "take care" of her fetus and rid herself of the "extra problem"? What about those millions of woman and children that are destitute-- human trafficking isn't going away and our knowledge of it is only increasing...Do they have "life"? Are they valuable? And if so, how am I to respond to their plight?
Back to the book. I'm not a very deep thinker...or rather, I'm not very apologetic by nature...I'm just now beginning to learn how to find the root of a presuppositions. So, although I believe I have a very Biblical world-view, I have just begun to learn how to stand that view up to others & be able to truly defend it. In this book, however, a light of Truth began to flicker on inside my mind. There is something very deep in the nature of God Himself that reflects this part of His nature and Deity; He is the only "god" that values life! Perhaps that doesn't surprise you-- after all, it wasn't your own "ah-ha" moment and they are really only "ah-ha" when it happens to us personally. But I had to share. No other "god" worshiped by man values life. Isn't that interesting?
God is supreme. The ONE, TRUE, EVERLASTING, HOLY, GOD is truly the Alpha and Omega for many reasons...and in this VERY BASIC QUESTION of life, He also proves to reign supreme. Allah doesn't value life (he promotes the very desolation of a human life by promoting woman and
girls to be thought of as property and no more valuable than trash and
that has had far, far, devastating effects on MILLIONS), Buddha doesn't value life (with much striving maybe you'll come back as something better than a bug to be squashed) ...and that leaves many people hopeless. They are of no value because their very life has no innate value in their "world-view". If we as Believers are to think Biblically on the issue of life, we have no other option than to believe that ALL life is of value. And I'm afraid I'm seeing way too many of us, in various ways, devalue what is of God's very nature.
This deeply saddens me and leaves me with many restless nights of sleep. For so many there is absolutely no hope. No wonder Jesus is referred to as the "light and life" that only in Him we can even find true life-- because only He, in the very nature of Who He is, IS LIFE! This very simple fact brings to life (no pun intended by any means) to many Scriptures about Him.
