Prolife Kitchen Table
Join us as we share information and answer your questions about life issues from fertilization to natural death.
All of the materials used in this podcast are the product of four decades of work and research by Presbyterians Protecting Life – www.ppl.org. This isn’t just a podcast for Presbyterians – all of our materials are useful for anyone with an interest in protecting human life at every stage from fertilization to natural death.
We’ll use both scientific and philosophical sources, and for our Christian listener, there will be plenty of grounding in Scripture and a Biblical worldview. The show notes in each episode contain links to articles and scripture references. With the average 15 minute podcast length, and the addition of the list of scriptures and articles, each episode can be used for older student and adult Sunday Schools, group studies and personal study.
Most of the weekly topics will be available in hard copy from the PPL.ORG website and will cover a variety of subjects. We’ll talk about what it means to be human and how everyone is human from the moment of fertilization, and that our time in the womb is only a stage of development like being an infant, a toddler, a child, an adolescent, a mature adult and, if we are blessed with a long life, becoming elderly and how all those categories are categories of personhood and deserving of life and human rights.
Prolife Kitchen Table
Episode 23 - Hold On - Baby Chris Week 22
Sex is the church's sweet spot for its destruction and the corruption of the world. It's one-and-done for the Enemy, no matter which avenue Satan advances to attack: promiscuity, divorce, pornography, sexual fetishes, same-sex-attraction, gender dysphoria and abortion. All the other sins are just "coping mechanisms."
Scripture references used in this Episode include:
Genesis 5:2 Jeremiah 13:26 Ezekiel 23:1-49
Nahum 3:5 Hosea 1:2 ff Revelation 19
Isaiah 27:5 Genesis 25-27 Genesis 32:22-32
Exodus 30:10 Leviticus 16:16-18 Ecclesiastes 6:9
Genesis 22:8 Isaiah 41:10 Isaiah 41:13
The Grasp that Brings Peace, Sermon by the Rev. Andrew Maclaren
https://www.ppl.org/baby-chris
Abortion is never medically necessary
Abortion Pill Reversal https://abortionpillreversal.com 24/7 Helpline at 877.558.0333 Email: help@apr.life or Chat at the weblink above
Post abortion recovery for both women and men at https://www.rachelsvineyard.org
Life Training Institute https://www.prolifetraining.com
Charlotte Lozier Institute https://lozierinstitute.org
Guttmacher Institute https://guttmacher.org
Compelled by the gospel, PPL equips Presbyterians to champion human life at every stage. PPL.org
I'm going to take a minute to do a little bit of housekeeping before we get started. Today's episode is about biblical sexuality. So if you have children that you do not want to have to explain certain words to, or certain activities to, after this podcast is over, then I suggest you find them something to do in another room, or you listen to this podcast later when they're not with you. Welcome back to the ProLife Kitchen Table. My name is Deborah Holyfield, and as always, I'm going to share some of the PPL archives with you to help you become better equipped to champion life at every stage. Now, if you've been listening for 23 weeks, hopefully you have heard me improve my podcast skills since episode one. I'm getting a little better at the technology and I'm trying not to rush. And I hope you have found each week to be a worthwhile part of your day. It's tough to get the word out on a new podcast, so if you are at all enthusiastic about what we've been doing here, please take a minute to go to Apple Podcasts and give us a five-star review so that we can move up and reach more people. And if you haven't yet shared it with a friend or with your church congregation, that would really help out too. So thanks in advance. Now today, in recognition that it's not possible to talk about abortion without talking about sexuality as well, I want to share an article I wrote titled Sexuality is one and done for the enemy. Hear the word of the Lord. So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate. Matthew chapter nineteen verses four through six Thanks be to God. In twenty twenty two, after decades of PPL working to equip Presbyterians to talk frankly about abortion, the Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson has at last overturned Roe V. Wade and Planned Parenthood V. Casey. By that single act, the church has now been given permission to speak about abortion within the walls of the church and other polite company. As much as that is good news, it is just the first step in being able to speak with confidence about biblical sexuality. And just as a wrong understanding of God's view of all human life from fertilization to natural death leads us to wrong conclusions about the image of God, a wrong understanding of God's plan for human sexuality opens the door for wrong conclusions about the divine purpose for sexual expression within marriage between one man and one woman and leaves the church incapable of responding with love and truth to those experiencing gender dysphoria. All other means of sexual expression mar the image of God and lead to a myriad of other sinful behaviors, sinful coping mechanisms, and abuse of our neighbor. Finally, such misunderstanding encourages the fantasy that matters of sexuality affect only oneself and perhaps a partner, and completely misses the truth that the wronged party in all sexual sin is God. In the past, when the church spoke of sexuality at all, it tended to speak in materialistic terms of the physicality of the sexual act, the practical matters of what it takes to have a happy marriage, the general avoidance of divorce, well at least back in the day, and the importance of active parenting. When it came to the physical aspects of the sex act, the commentary tended to reinforce that marriage was a creation ordinance, and thus all marriage was established by God and not by civil governments, followed by admonitions against adultery, despite shameful public examples by clergy, followed predictably by similarly shameful but no less locally spectacular failures among the believing community. Occasionally someone would tackle Song of Solomon, a root guaranteed to confuse both pastor and flock and completely confound the youth. Not content to be left in the dust of the Old Testament, dedicated pastors and teachers remind God's people periodically what the definition of fornication is, what Bible submission looks like within a covenant marriage, and for good measure, that it wasn't just Moses who forbade homosexual sex. None of these exercises appear to have any lasting effect on the sexual behaviors of the wider culture, the believing community, or even the pastors and teachers themselves. Any atheist can rattle off a list of the sexual sins that the church is against, but a few, inside or outside the church, can give coherent voice to what sort of sex the church is for, or what God's intent for sex is beyond perhaps simple procreation. I often point out that the Bible is not a book that prohibits sex, rather it is from start to finish a sex manual setting God's people up to experience sex God's way. From Genesis to Revelation, all of the language of the vertical relationship between God and God's people is the language of male and female, romance, pursuit, longing, marriage, faithfulness, adultery, prostitution, as when God's people go after other gods, they are whores with their skirts flung over their head. Yet God will adopt their bastard children from their whoring with the goal of the witness to the world of a marriage that horizontally reflects our vertical relationship with the Creator that culminates in the marriage supper of the Lamb. The further goal is the creation of covenant children made in the image of God, to expand the kingdom, and whose very presence exhibits a purity that only serves to highlight our own depravity, and so therefore they must be destroyed. Sex is the church's sweet spot for its destruction and the corruption of the world. It's one and done for the enemy no matter which avenue Satan advances to attack. Promiscuity, divorce, pornography, sexual fetishes, same sex attraction and same sex marriage, gender dysphoria and abortion, all the other sins, alcoholism, drug addiction, spousal and child abuse, sex trafficking, and on and on, those are just coping skills for the way we deal with these sexual assaults on God's plan for sexuality, marriage, and family. And when Paul was commissioned by the Jerusalem Fathers to preach to the Gentiles, the only condition they put on him, the only condition they put on him, besides instructing converts to refrain from idolatrous meals and blood, sacrificed to idols, was to teach them to avoid immoral sex. Extra biblically, when the desert fathers withdrew to the wilderness, it wasn't, as some imagined, because they hated women. It was precisely because they loved and desired women to the point that they recognized that the communion with the Holy Spirit they sought could not happen if it was in competition with sexual desire. And that's how strong sexual attraction is. It can actually contend with the Holy Spirit when not contained within the context of a godly marriage. Well, now that I've shocked you by calling the Bible a sex manual and using more than a few scandalous words, I'm going to let you take a break so you can put a cool washcloth on your forehead before we come back together to hear about baby Chris's development during his 22nd week in the woe.
SPEAKER_01:Presbyterians Protecting Life has the resources you need to equip yourself and your congregation to champion life at every stage. We have answers to your questions, referrals to specialized care like abortion pill reversal and post-abortion recovery, current statistics and information, discussion starters, and devotionals to help you think about and share about pregnancy and abortion, adoption, foster care and even suicide, assisted suicide and end-of-life challenges. Visit PPL.org to learn more.
SPEAKER_00:Today's week twenty two devotional about baby Chris is called Hold On. Hear the Word of the Lord. Let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me. Isaiah twenty seven verse five. Thanks be to God. At twenty two weeks, Baby Chris has the tiny fingernails that his parents will fear trimming. Mom feels when he gets the hiccups. His testes are descending and the ultrasound photos leave no doubt as to his sex. Will his parents want to know or will they want to wait and be surprised? He's also refining his baby skills thumb sucking and grasping. More and more babies are surviving if born at this age, with rates varying from zero but to over fifty percent, depending on where and what day he is born. Every delay this week matters. All babies are born able to grasp, but at first their fists are clenched. After all, wouldn't you be annoyed at your first exposure to bright lights and noise and drafts of life on the outside after being unexpectedly forced to leave your warm, dark, and comfy home? But touch your finger to his palm, and he will curl those little fingers right around yours. Soon he begins to examine his hands and flexes them on purpose, and his ability to grasp will improve exponentially in his first months. Soon his parents and grandparents will begin their years-long lookout for things he shouldn't be grabbing or sticking in his mouth. As his hand eye coordination improves, he'll move from swatting at the mobile over his playmat at three months to throwing things at nine months, and by the time he's a year old he'll be fascinated by crayons. In language, we use grasp in different ways. It can mean to reach out and take something. Sometimes it means to hold on to. It can also mean to understand, like to grasp a concept with your mind. Negatively, it can mean to reach out and snatch or steal, or as the characteristic of someone with a reputation for cheating or taking more than his share, we call that person a grasping person. There are a few famous uses of grasp in the Old Testament. Probably the best known is the story of the twins Jacob and Esau. The name Jacob means grasper, supplanter, or even cheater. Jacob was grasping Esau's heel as they were being born, which turned out to be a predictor of how their lives would unfold as over and over Jacob reached out to grasp the rights of his firstborn brother for himself. It can be hard to like Jacob portrayed in the stories of God's unfolding covenant with him. But the good news for Jacob and the good news for us is that God works with who Jacob is as he is. God meets Jacob's fight with his own fight. God wrestles with him strength for strength. God holds on to Jacob and doesn't let go. And before too long Jacob's name is changed to Israel. God contends. Then there is the desperate grasp that is the clutch of faith when we cling to God as our refuge. In the ancient sanctuary of God, the altar had four protrusions on its corners that were known as the horns of the altar. Each year on the Day of Atonement, the priest would anoint each horn with the blood of the sin offering in order to atone for the altar, for all the sins of the whole Israelite people. Anytime a fugitive was being pursued by a victim's avengers, the fugitive could run to the sanctuary and then grasp the horns of the altar, claiming its holy protection for his sinful act, in effect appropriating the sacrifice that had been made for his sin as a member of the people of God, and thus avoiding the death penalty. It is a picture that faith is something much more vital than intellectual assent or credence, an act of the whole person realizing his need and casting himself on God. Our infant's clenched fist is analogous to the way all humans are primed and ready for a fight with God and with our fellow humans right from the day we're born. It's a cute pink symbol of the ugly, dark selfishness and aggressive covetousness of which we all struggle, or at least we know we should struggle with it. But we aren't left alone in the fight. God makes room for rebellion, and he honors the struggle as we gradually learn that we are really just flailing futilely at the wind. We long for peace, peace within ourselves, peace with our neighbors, and most of all peace with God. We are not good at this peace thing. Those fists are always at the ready. So God provides the sacrifice, God provides the altar, and God provides the atoning work of our Savior, Christ Jesus, the one to whom we run for protection. We are not left to grasp the horns of the altar with our puny strength. Instead, God will firmly grasp and uphold us with his righteous right hand. Hear the word of the Lord. For I, the Lord thy God, will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not, I will help thee. Isaiah chapter forty-one, verse thirteen. Thanks be to God.
SPEAKER_01:We hope you enjoyed this week's reflection. We encourage you to share it and join us next time on Pro Life Kitchen Table. May God bless you.
