Picking and choosing. It’s something we do every day. We pick through our wardrobe and choose what we want to wear. We pick through the foods in the cabinet or fridge and choose what we are going to eat. We pick through people and choose friends. All these choices are normal. However, there is picking and choosing that is abnormal. It’s the picking and choosing of what is right and wrong. We do this every day also, but the abnormal part is what we allow to be our guide in choosing. Most reading this would say the Bible would be their determining factor, yet I often see Christians making choices contrary to what God’s word says.
A few years ago in Alabama, where I live, it was election time. There were two amendments on the ballot that was important to me. The first was an amendment that would establish an Alabama policy to “recognize and support the sanctity of unborn life and the rights of unborn children” and state that the constitution does not provide a right to abortion or abortion funding. The second would authorize the display of the Ten Commandments on public property and provide certain restrictions and provisions regarding religious freedom.
I supported both amendments. I believe the Bible teaches very plainly that life begins at conception. Doctors believe this also, and anyone who understands basic science knows that growth and change cannot happen without life being within the cells.
When God was speaking to the great prophet Jeremiah, he told Jeremiah he knew him before he was even formed. He was not a glob of cells waiting to become a human being.
Jeremiah 1:5 “Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.”
In Psalms 139:13-16, the psalmist gives us a beautiful picture of the love and care the creator takes to form us and develop us in our mother’s womb. We are fearfully and wonderfully made. Recently a friend was able to bring a baby home that was delivered 94 days prematurely. This child was less than 6 months when he was born. He is a beautiful baby boy! I have a great-niece that was only a pound in weight when she was born. Today she is a beautiful young woman, with a child of her own. Many would say these two were not people with rights, yet they possessed everything that makes us human. Some would say they have no rights because they could not stay alive on their own, but neither can many who have surgeries or accidents, yet, no one would believe it was right to just allow them to die because they need help.
Psalm 139:13-16 “For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.”
The next amendment dealt with placing the Ten Commandments on public property. This amendment would uphold religious freedom.
Both amendments were upholding laws based on the Bible. Here comes the picking and choosing. The first amendment upholds the sanctity of life, and the second upholds the Ten Commandments. The first passed by 59% and the second passed by 71%. The irony is that the sixth commandment is “Thou shall not kill.” In the original language, the word kill means to murder. To murder is the premeditated killing of one human being by another. It is not killing in self-defense, war, or by an accident. Abortion is premeditated! How can you choose the Ten Commandments and not choose to preserve life?
We have picked and chosen based on our own determination of right and wrong. We have become our own god, and we decide what is life and what is not. We alter our conscience to fit our comfort zone and pick and choose the verses in the Bible we will follow or discard.
If you believe the Ten Commandments are God’s word, and you believe we should live by them, you cannot believe in abortion. Jesus gives the verdict of murder in Matthew 5:21. Stop picking and choosing from God’s word, just obey.
Matthew 5:21 “Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill, and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment:”
