The Christian offers to God every
thing about life, even his sicknesses and failures. God chooses the cross that
we must bear. There is no such thing as a maverick molecule... everything has a
purpose.
My first day on the staff of the
Army hospital at Fort McClellan ,
Alabama
Duty officers "hung out"
at the BOQ. This was just after the Korean War and television was a new thing.
If one of the officers were needed at one of the clinics or wards, NCO's on
duty knew where to find him.
The first night, David, an officer
exactly my age, the obstetrician at the hospital (We were born on the same day
September 17, 1930) asked me if I wanted to go to the operating room where he
was going to do a caesarian section. I have never seen a caesarian birth, so I
went along, gowned and gloved... just to observe. A beautiful baby was born.
The next night, same inquiry, only
another obstetrician, and I went along. This time, and I did not have an
inkling of what was happening beforehand, an abortion was performed. I stood
there in shock as I saw that small baby, those little hands-little feet,
removed from the inside of the mother. Sickened, I left the operating room.
Later, the surgeon, baby-killer, as he ate a sandwich, said to me, "what
happened to you?" I said to him, "never mention that scene to me
again". He said, "The woman's husband was killed in Korea , she is a mental mess with
several children she is already trying to raise, she did not need another child."
I said to him, "did you advise her to let a childless couple adopt this
baby who may have had great potential... a doctor, scientist, priest or pope.
Even a loving mother or father." But, you see, these words meant nothing
to him. BECAUSE, like so many who do not believe in the sovereignty of God, he,
though breathing, was already dead.
In associating with unbelievers,
from one side of the world to the other (Dr. Morris' passport has been stamped
in 157 countries. Has traveled every continent, eight around the world trips) I
have found that the unbeliever is soulless, already believes he is dead, as far
as the enigmatic potential of life is concerned. Simply because he can not
understand the omnipotence-omniscience-omnipresence of God. He sinks and
shrinks into his own wisdom. The potential of eternal life in heaven is a
travesty of rebellion to the unbeliever. He certainly does not fear the
consequences of hell.
This world traveler found that
among pagans and false religions, there is no basis of hope. Even America , with
all its promises, life is too often defined by lack of money. It is from the
poorest families, that the giants of accomplishment have come. It takes someone
much smarter than me to look at a schoolyard full of children and predict the
potentials of their lives. One man or woman plus god, and anything is possible.
This writer was a young man, fresh
from the army, asked by the local high school principal to assist in classes in
the scientific fields... physics, biology, chemistry. I was well acquainted
with most of the high school teachers. Fifty years ago, high school teachers
stayed in schools and became institutions themselves.
One day, I was taking the
mathematics teacher to the funeral of the father of our friend, the biology
teacher. She was telling me about one male student who was a constant problem
to her. "He is incorrigible, will spend most of his life in prison."
The challenge was mine, I got to know the young man, gave him some
encouragement from the rotten home into which he was born. He became a very
fine student, onto college, and finally postmaster of the city. Even some
teachers do not recognize the potentials of some students. It is the child,
student who challenges you. The pesky one who asks questions whose questions
and inquiries are directed correctly will excel not only in his further
education but in the challenges of the vocations of life.
Dead soldiers can only offer their
medals to a country, neighbors and even family who are in love with warfare. It
is the old, worn out compromising men and women in politics who send right
optimistic youth to the battle. They are too old to go to battle themselves, long
ago forgot the art of detente. Lost the appreciation of potentials, just
political men and women of destruction. We grieve the millions of innocent
babies killed by the abortionists, but we grieve even more for the sons and
daughters, fathers killed before their potentials of their life structure were
realized.
Whether among the Inuit-Eskimos of
the Canadian northwest territories , the
children in the so-called "palaces" of communist China , the bright faces of black children in Africa , God's chief creation is always just waiting for
development. It is so true that "the hand that rocks the cradle"
rules the world. God gives every mother, at least the Christian mother, who
would never destroy her own child before birth or after, a view down the road
of development. From the genome of genus Homo, because we are made in the image
of God, potentials from everything good can develop. Encouraging to every
parent, pastor, physician, the knowledge that what you have given to others...
helping to develop their potentials in every way is the only wealth we can
transfer to our life after death.
I remember so well the city of Jericho , just sixteen miles from Jerusalem . It was there, that another blind
man named Bartimaeus knew that Jesus was passing by, begged him to have mercy
on him. Only Bartimaeus could understand blindness. Only dead people can really
understand death. Only those who have experienced the new birth (born again,
righteousness of Christ filling you with his spirit) can know the potential
available, almost beyond comprehension from the creator of the Universe... the
one who spoke and the world was formed.
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