Dear Friends,
This past week we began our Foundations ministry on Wednesday nights. It was a wonderful time of fellowship and discipleship. If you have not been into the fellowship hall and experienced how much better the sound is in this space due to the installation of new ceiling tiles, please go check it out. It is a much more pleasant experience to fellowship in that room now that the sound has improved.On Wednesday nights our children are learning basic doctrines of the faith by studying the Westminster Shorter Catechism. This past week the older students memorized question #10 which asks, "How did God create man?" Answer: "God created man male and female, after his own image, in knowledge, righteousness and holiness, with dominion over the creatures."This question helps the children (and us!) to learn the basic, foundational, biblical principle that mankind has tremendous value by being created in God's image. What this means is there is much about the way we look, the way we act and the way we talk, that reflects who God is and what He is like.Think about it. We look and sound and exist exactly the way God imagined it in His mind. To be an image bearer of God is a tremendous privilege and responsibility. It is a responsibility because we are called, as image bearers, to have dominion, that is to take care of and steward the world that God created. Everything in the world is to be stewarded by God's vice-regents - that is us, the people He has created.But also, being made after the image of God means something for every person who has lived, is living and will live. It means that all of us, all people have inherent value because all mankind reflects the image of God. Therefore, all life has value. Every person ever created and every person that will come into existence in the future has value and worth. It is an amazing privilege to be an image bearer of God.This basic teaching is not just something for Sunday School classes to learn and discuss. It is an issue that needs to be explored, discussed and communicated to all people of all times in all the world. Life is valuable because that is how God ordained it.This biblical teaching has special significance this month as we mourn the anniversary of Roe v. Wade. What a black mark on history that decision has been. However, as believers in Christ and believers of the biblical doctrine that life has value, we must not get drawn solely into the political arena when it comes to talking points of the "pro-life" or "pro-choice" movements. Let us get caught up in more robust, biblical teaching about what God's Word has said and how God has called us to live as His image bearers in His world.That is the truth that we must pass to the next generation. That is the logical implication of the WSC Question #10. Since we, mankind, have been created after the image of God in knowledge, righteousness and holiness, then of course all life has value ... even the unborn. What an exciting yet simple truth we get to tell our kids!May God help us to love what He loves, value what He values and honor what He honors.For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. (Psalms 139:13–16 ESV)
See you Sunday!Your friend and pastor,Wilson
|
