Abortion Doctor Murdered

I just read an article about a doctor who performs late-term abortions, Dr. George Tiller, who was gunned down this morning in his church.

From the article was the following excerpt:
"If Tiller was slain because of his work, he would be the fourth U.S. physician killed by abortion opponents since 1993.
"In 1998, a sniper killed Dr. Barnett Slepian in his Amherst, New York, home. Anti-abortion activist James Kopp was later arrested in France and is serving life in prison.
"In 1994, Dr. John Bayard Britton and one of his volunteer escorts were shot and killed outside an abortion clinic in Pensacola, Florida. Paul Hill, a former minister, was convicted of the killings and executed in 2003.
"And in 1993, another doctor, David Gunn, was shot to death outside a different Pensacola clinic. His killer, Michael Griffin, is serving a life sentence.
"In addition, a nurse at a Birmingham, Alabama, clinic was maimed and an off-duty police officer was killed in a 1998 bombing by Eric Rudolph, who included abortion among his list of anti-government grievances."

Regardless of of your position on the subject of abortion, people can't go around killing people whom they disagree with. The primary opponents to abortion are Christians who claim the act of abortion is murder. Case in point, Paul Hill, one of the murderers mentioned above was a former preacher.

What ever happened to Love your enemy?! (Luke 6:27-36). It is rather difficult to win people over to Christ when you gun them down in front of their families and Christian friends. It won't do much for persuading the family either.

I have a professor, Dr. Terry Muck, who recently said,"The moment you use violence to achieve your religious ideals, you lose those who are attracted to those ideals."

What statement do Christians who recourse to murder think they are making? Where is the love of Christ in that?

The Waterfall

As many of you know, I really enjoy being outdoors. I like to go hiking and fishing and canoeing and well, just about anything that allows me to spend time enjoying God’s creation.
Thursday, I went on a little backpacking trip with some friends from the Seminary. We went backpacking in the Big South Fork National Park. On Friday, we came upon a waterfall. It was a really large water fall and just absolutely beautiful.

As the water fell, it created a breeze. So while my friends and I stood away from the falls, we could hear the rushing water and we could feel the wind blowing on us. The wind was strong; you could slightly lean into it and feel it pushing against you. Also, you could hear it blowing. Although the falling water was much louder, you could still distinguish the sound of wind. Also, the wind was thick with moisture from the falling water and, even from forty or fifty feet away, we were dampened by the cooling mist.

As I stood there, with arms outstretched, trying to absorb, not only the chilly wind and mist, but also, as much of this beautiful experience as I could. I remember thinking to myself; God is present with me now. I asked mark, one of my friends, “How can anyone experience this moment and not be convinced of God?”

Luke describes the Spirit as a sound coming from Heaven like a mighty rushing wind. It’s interesting that the Spirit is described as a rushing wind. Do you know that in Greek, that the word for Spirit is the same word as wind… pneuma. According to Luke, the Spirit came with the loud rushing movement of the wind.

As I stood facing that misting breeze I couldn’t help but wonder what is was like on that morning in Jerusalem when the Holy Spirit descended on those present. I must have been fantastic. So was that waterfall.