SPIRITUAL MATTERS
On The Journey, Judy Bowman
“Then God blessed them and said, ‘Be fruitful and multiply.’ “(Genesis 1:28). From the very beginning children, and their making, were a blessing from the Lord. His blessing was to our first parents, Adam and Eve, and by extension to all of us. Marriage and the children that are the gifts of this union are reflections of the divine love of the Holy Trinity. God’s plan for us always meant that marriage and the gift of children would be sanctifying for us. In this way, our shared love would make us holy. His plan for us was perfect. But our sin changed everything. We separated love from sex and sex from marriage and marriage from fruitfulness. In the process, we separated ourselves from God. This is how the blessing of a child has become a “clump of cells.” This is how we’ve come to kill 3700 babies every day in America.
The journey from blessing to burden, as many see children today, is the story of our culture. By deadening our hearts to God’s plan of blessing, we’ve deadened our hearts to sin as well. So much so that we no longer even see the connection between taking an innocent baby’s life (seen as a “right”) and the disintegration of our way of life. We glorify the actors and movie makers who depict violent murders by giving them millions of our dollars every weekend at the box office. We watch their movies, growing up with them as our regular entertainment. We buy our kids violent video games and they beg us for the newest, most graphic versions. They become saturated in the violence they watch. They see commercials about Viagra and birth control devices and pills that promise easy sex with no “consequences.” Many of their friends in school live in homes without a father. Or they live with parents who aren’t committed to one another in marriage. Nothing in their lives is permanent. And no one talks to them about God or models His love for them and His plan for their lives and their happiness. They absorb the culture of “me” and look to it for the answers to life’s great questions: Why am I here? What’s the purpose of my life? Is this all there is? And the culture answers them: You are nothing but an animal with a thumb. Your purpose is to experience as much physical pleasure as possible. And when you die, you’re dead. The end.
And they believe it. Because there’s nothing to contradict the culture’s answers. We’ve made sure of that. We’ve taken prayer out of schools and the public arena. Anyone who professes the Christian faith is marginalized (“clinging to their Bibles”) and ridiculed (think of Tim Tebow). We encourage diversity so long as that diversity doesn’t include Jesus Christ. We’ve taken down all the crosses and the Christmas trees. We live in fear of offending anyone with the values that once built this country.
And then one of us goes into a darkened theater and murders people he’s never met: just like he’s seen at the movies and on television and in his video games. Or he takes his mother’s guns and goes into an elementary school and kills children and their teachers. And we’re so horrified that we want to take up all the guns and lock them away: which will insure that only criminals and the insane will have guns now.
We’ve come so far from God’s truth that we no longer see the connection between murder in the womb and murder in the streets or theaters or elementary schools. We don’t realize that when we separate love from sex and sex from pregnancy and pregnancy from God’s gift of a child that it affects the whole world. Our actions matter. The intentions of our heart matter. What we value matters. We protect trees and polar bears but kill unborn children by the millions. Then we wonder why our society is so violent. Are we so blind that we can’t see this connection? So long as we support abortion we should expect to live in a violent, murderous land. We’ve chosen to turn our back on God’s blessing to Adam and Eve in the Garden. Now, we reap what we have sown.
“Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love, but to use any violence to get what it wants.” — St. Teresa of Calcutta
Glenda Smiley, Pleasant Valley Baptist Church
Pleasant Valley Baptist will suspend in person services until further notice due to Covid-19. Sunday morning and Wednesday worship times can be viewed on Facebook or Youtube. Come join with us each time as we hear from God’s Word.
PVBC had a wonderful, inspiring on-line message brought by Brother Cody Cranmore on Sunday. His subject was taken from 2 Corinthians 5, our earthly bodies and our heavenly home. During this pandemic, if you feel yourself drifting away from God, be sure to watch to be refreshed in the things of God.
Our world, leaders, families and friends need our prayers like never before. Please pray for these and the days in which we now live. Everyone must realize our greatest need and answer to our struggles is to turn back to God. Our nation must repent and acknowledge God, His Son, and our sin. Be expecting Christ’s return.
Remember to pray about the vastly increasing cases of Covid-19 and take precautions to protect yourself and others.
Pray for members Mike Cross, Denise, Ken and Jason Pitts, Betty Pitts and her brother and sister, Grayson Cranmore, Mike Smiley, Glenda Smiley, Larry Armstrong, Wendy Miller, Wyondia Hill, along with Brother Dwayne Hill as he serves in Georgia House of Representatives, and Paul all need our prayers. Our Pastor and his wife, Jill, earnestly need prayer for recovery from Covid while we praise God for their improvement. Pray for our shut-ins, Carolyn Denton and Lula Petty as well as others with high risk situations. Pray for our churches, missionaries, and evangelists.
Pleasant Valley Baptist continues to live-stream Facebook and Youtube Sunday mornings and midweek Bible study. Visit or view our services for encouragement from God’s Word.