Don's Disgust

My husband Don came up the steps with his Iowa license plate in his hand last night. He had removed it from the front of his car. He had an Iowa sticker on his car that he removed too.

I never thought I would see the day come, but he is deeply ashamed right now to call Iowa home. He said he won’t put the license plate back on until the people of Iowa vote on an amendment to ban gay marriage.

Apparently a gay rights group from New York lobbied in Iowa to reverse the ban on gay marriage, and they succeeded in persuading the Iowa Supreme Court to do so. Don says it’s unconstitutional for judges to make that decision; he thinks the people should vote on it. Most states that have voted on this issue, even California, have voted to ban gay marriage.

I agree with him. I have already expressed my views on gay marriage in this blog, but I will add that marriage is God’s institution that He created (Genesis 2:24). Who are we to commit an act that God considers detestable (Leviticus 18:22) and call it "marriage"?

This is not the fault of the people of Iowa, but the government. Iowa is the third state to make gay marriage legal. I hope the opposition will be strong enough to reverse this decision, or at least to bring the vote to the people, where it will most likely be banned.

Who Chose Who?

It is an age-old question among Christians. Did we choose God, or did God choose us?

I confess to being a Presbyterian, one of the "frozen chosen," known for their die-hard beliefs in predestination. But I don’t blindly agree with everything they teach (and in fact disagree with them on the issue of infant baptism, but that’s a separate matter).

I have been struggling with the issue of predestination for a while, and it came up again this week in my (non-denominational) Bible study when we were studying Jacob and Esau. God clearly says he chose Jacob before he was even born or did anything, and poor Esau never had a chance:

"Not only that, but Rebekah's children had one and the same father, our father Isaac. Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad—in order that God's purpose in election might stand: not by works but by him who calls—she was told, "The older will serve the younger." Just as it is written: "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated." Romans 9:12-13 (The original story is in Genesis 25.)

It’s not so much whether we are actually predestined that I struggle with. That’s pretty clear in the Bible:

"In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will." Ephesians 1:11

What I’m really struggling with is, what does predestination look like? Some would say that God didn’t actually plan for us to be saved; He just knew who would be. I disagree with this.

"For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified." Romans 8:29-30

It seems pretty clear to me from this passage that God goes way further than just knowing what we will choose. He Himself predestined us.

So if God predestined us for salvation, this brings up a whole new set of questions:

1) Why would He choose some people and not others?

2) How much control does He actually have over us, and how much free will do we have?

The first question is not for me to answer. All I can say is that God is sovereign, and it’s up to Him to decide. I would also say that He doesn’t doom anyone to hell. We doom ourselves to hell by our sin. But God in His great mercy saves some of us.

The second question can blow your mind if you think too long and hard about it. Does He only control our salvation but give us free will in everything else? Or, at the other extreme, does He control every single thing we do, so we only think we are making our own choices? And if He does this, why does He allow sin in the world?

I can’t really answer this either, and I don’t think the Bible gives us a cut and dry answer. It seems like we are making our own choices. But if God controls our salvation, He would have to control the events leading up to it. I, for one, can look back to the time before I was saved and see how God was working in my life to point me to that event: going to church every Sunday and learning Bible stories and developing a hunger for Him, feeling like there was something missing, then later moving to a neighborhood where I attended a Good News Club and found the answer I had been looking for. He has put certain people in my life both before and after my salvation who have influenced me in major ways. He has brought circumstances that are undeniably for a greater purpose.

My best explanation at this point in my life is that we are sort of like a dog on a leash. God has ultimate control of us. He is leading us in a certain direction and keeping us out of harm’s way, but we are free to make some decisions on our own. Of course, my mind is finite. I can only think so deeply.

I can agree to disagree with people on this issue. The most important thing is definitely THAT you are saved, not how you think you got there. I know that the Bible is subject to different interpretations, and true Christians may have completely different points of view on this issue. I would be curious to hear what others of you out there are thinking about all this.

Drugs

I just looked through my latest issue of Better Homes and Gardens and counted 12 ads for drugs, taking up a total of approximately 24¼ pages, plus 2 tear-out cards. That didn’t include vitamins or some kind of weird treatment to make your face look younger in only an hour. This magazine is certainly not alone in this; it’s just one I happened to have and am fairly sorry I subscribed to because I think it has more advertisements than substance.

In the old days if we were sick, we went to the doctor, who prescribed us with a drug if he thought we needed it. Now we see an ad for a drug in a magazine that treats symptoms that we didn’t even realize we had until we came across the ad, and then we go to the doctor and tell him what drug we need, and he writes us a prescription. I’ve heard (and don’t know if it’s true, but it makes sense) that doctors get kickbacks on drugs they prescribe, so it’s to their advantage to prescribe as many drugs as possible, whether we need them or not.

I broke my toe a couple of years ago. I tried to avoid going to the doctor, but it wasn’t getting well so I finally gave in. They X-rayed it to determine it was broken and gave me a shoe to wear to hold it in place until it healed. The doctor told me she was going to write me a prescription for a painkiller. I told her I didn’t need one. I had been living with the pain for 3 weeks, and if I needed to I would take aspirin. She said in that case she would write me a prescription for a drug that may help my toe heal a little faster. I let her write it but never got it filled. My toe healed in the amount of time she had predicted it would. I doubt the drug would have made much difference, but I guess she felt like she had to prescribe me with something.

God gave our bodies natural immunities and the ability to heal themselves. When we take drugs, we interfere with that ability and begin to break down our immunities. I’m not saying drugs are always bad. I realize there are times when they are beneficial or necessary; I just believe that they are WAY overused in our country, and the epidemic of cancer and other diseases may well be at least partially related to our destroying our immune systems this way.

When I am sick, I try to give my body every opportunity to heal itself. I think a day off from work, a glass of orange juice and a bowl of chicken soup is a far better remedy for most minor illnesses than antihistamines or antibiotics (which by the way, do not help viruses, though many doctors prescribe them).

But that’s just my opinion. You can take it or leave it.