Missouri Amendment 2 and The Stem Cell Debate – A Biblical Perspective

World / By /

Missouri Amendment 2, the Stem Cell Initiative, will be on the ballot this coming November 7. The Missouri Coalition For Lifesaving Cures is supporting Amendment 2 with a record breaking contribution of $28 million from a billionaire Kansas City couple, Jim and Virginia Stowers. The motive of the Stowerses, according to their lawyer, is that “They want that science to progress without restriction to cure disease.” Supporters of the amendment claim that passage will ensure your family’s access to federally-approved cures available to other Americans and will ban human cloning. The ballot language on Amendment 2, as well as the propaganda put out by Missouri Coalition For Lifesaving Cures, is full of lies intended to mislead Missouri voters. Many pro-life Christians have been misled as well, as the whole story is difficult to sort out.

As a pastor of a Missouri church with a Ph.D. in the field of science, it is my responsibility to expose the error in this Stem Cell Initiative and show you why it is the duty of every Bible-believing believer to vote “NO” on Amendment 2. NIV Ephesians 5:11 Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. The fact that various ministers from non-Bible believing churches support the initiative, shows only that these people cannot be trusted to either understand or explain the truth.

Missourians by an overwhelming margin (8 out of 9) oppose human cloning, as do most Christian religious denominations. The language of the Stem Cell Amendment on your November ballot will read that the amendment will “ban human cloning or attempted cloning.” This is a lie and it is inexcusable that this language has been allowed on the ballot. The fine print of the amendment, which will not appear on your ballot, states in Section 6.2 ““Clone or attempt to clone a human being” means to implant in a uterus or attempt to implant in a uterus …” Therefore, Amendment 2 redefines human cloning as implanting a cloned human embryo in the womb and creates an unlimited right to clone and destroy non-implanted human embryos for the purpose of harvesting embryonic stem cells.

A flyer sent out to Missouri homes from the Missouri Coalition for Lifesaving Cures states “And, making stem cells in a lab dish is not the same thing as cloning a human being.” This statement is very misleading and suggests that those who are opposed to human cloning should not be opposed to producing embryonic stem cells. The truth is that it is necessary to clone a human being in order to create the embryonic stem cells. So, those who are rightly opposed to human cloning, should also be opposed to created embryonic stem cells and should vote “NO” on Amendment 2.

Not only, does Amendment 2 protect, rather than ban human cloning, it also protects the destruction of human embryos by amending the Missouri constitution. The Bible teaches that life begins at conception and that human life must be protected at all stages of development. NIV Psalm 139:13 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. Thus, the destruction of cloned human embryos to produce embryonic stem cells is immoral and must be opposed.

You might ask, but what about the lifesaving cures? Whether lifesaving cures can be made from embryonic stem cells is unknown, as none currently exist. There are many therapies being researched from adult stem cells, which have no ethical concerns. However, lifesaving cures, even if possible, must not be created by destroying other human life.

For more information about the issues of stem cell research, read an interview or watch a video interview with Dr. Christina Powell. Read a column by Chicago Sun-Times columnist Bob Novak on how misleading Amendment 2 is. More information about the issues surrounding Missouri Amendment 2 can be found at the website of Missourians Against Human Cloning. Email this blog post to your friends and encourage them to vote “NO” on Amendment 2.

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Mission Possible

Life, Message / By /

Today, I’m going to talk about what is the most exciting part of life. It’s actually not very well known. A recent poll showed that less than 1 in 4 church goers practiced it in the last year in the US. I’m talking about one of the 5 purposes that God has for your life, the purpose of outreach. the purpose of telling someone else about your faith in Jesus Christ.

Today, we’re beginning a new message series called “Reaching Out To Make A Difference.” God wants to use you to be a bridge to Himself for people who don’t know Him. In our last message series, I talked about the purpose of Ministry – serving believers in the church. Now, I’m going to talk about the purpose of outreach or mission – serving unbelievers by telling them about Jesus.

A lot of believers apparently think that telling people about Jesus is mission impossible. Yet, it’s not impossible to reach out to others, so I’ve entitled today’s message “Mission Possible.” God has given every believer a mission. As a believer you don’t have a choice whether to accept your mission or not. If Jesus is your Lord, you accept every mission He gives you. Your mission is to tell the people in your circle of influence about your faith in God. Your and my mission is mission possible.

Is everybody going to like you sharing your faith with them? Absolutely not. NIV Matthew 5:11-12 Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven. When you take a little heat for sharing your faith, you should rejoice because you’re on the right track. In fact, if you’re not taking any flack for being a Christian, there is something wrong with your life. If you’re not having any opposition, then people don’t know what you stand for. Jesus put it this way NIV Luke 6:26 Woe to you when all men speak well of you.

Even though most people claim to be Christians, most people are not Christians. They need to hear how they can have a relationship with God. Even when people seem to reject the message of God at first, don’t give up. Lives changed for Jesus Christ are what makes life exciting. Outreach is your purpose in life, it’s not just the purpose of pastors or evangelists. You can reach people that no one else can reach. So today, let’s look at the question “Why should you reach out to those around you with the good news about Jesus?”

To hear more about this topic, listen to my October 15, 2006 message entitled Mission Possible

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Can God Use Me?

Church, Message / By /

Today, we’re going to talk about the question “Can God Use Me?” Some of you may be wondering “Why would I want God to use me anyway?” Let’s take a look at the picture for this message, it’s a picture of interlocking gears. Those gears represent you. God created you and fitted you together in a far more intricate pattern than any complex machine that man has ever made. When people make a machine with gears, they always make it with a purpose in mind. When God fitted you together, He made you with a purpose in mind. God wants to use you to accomplish something wonderful with your life.

Many people use their lives to do things that God never intended. The Bible calls that sin and the results are always tragic. However, when you let God use you for His purpose, the results are wonderful. They will make you the most happy and fulfilled in life that you possibly could be. The problem for many people is that they don’t think they’re of much use to God. They believe that they have too many weaknesses and imperfections for God to use them. However, the fact of the matter is that everyone has weaknesses and God chooses to use weak and imperfect people to accomplish great things. NLT 1 Corinthians 1:27 God deliberately chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose those who are powerless to shame those who are powerful. So, if you consider yourself foolish, if you consider yourself powerless, there’s good news. You are the kind of person that God deliberately chooses to do great things.

If you look closely at a golf ball, you can see that the surface is covered with pock-marks or dimples. Those dimples make the ball look less than perfect, it is not perfectly smooth. However, experts tell us that a perfectly smooth golf ball would only travel about half the distance as the ball “flawed” with dimples. Those apparent imperfections minimize the ball’s air resistance and allow it to travel further than a perfect ball would. In a similar way, God has designed you with imperfections and weaknesses. You have limitations of various kinds in your life. However, it is those very limitations, those very weaknesses, that make you a prime candidate for God to use and work through. So, don’t count yourself out. God wants to use you to do great things for Him. Let’s look at how you can cooperate with God to change your world.

To hear more about this topic, listen to my October 8, 2006 message entitled Can God Use Me?

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Adjusting Your Thinking

Church, Message / By /

After Hurricane Katrina last year, an English atheist named Roy Hattersley wrote an interesting article. In his article he observed that almost all of the disaster relief was being done by religious groups of one kind or another. There were no teams of atheists or free thinkers or rationalists. He concluded that he wished it was possible to live a Christian life without being a Christian, yet it didn’t seem to work that way. The faith of believers gives rise to serving others.

Hattersley was right that serving others is a mark of a believer. NIV 1 John 3:17 If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Love for God expresses itself in love for others. Love for God expresses itself in acts of service to those within and without the church. One of the marks of a believer is that he is a servant.

God is interested in your actions of service and He is also interested in your attitudes behind your actions, both are incredibly important. An action done with a bad attitude doesn’t accomplish anything in God’s eyes. However, when our attitudes are right, we will be motivated to serve others, as if we were serving God Himself. NIV 1 Corinthians 13:3 If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. Serving others needs to come from a heart of love, from thoughts motivated by God’s Spirit.

Today I want to talk about the topic “Adjusting Your Thinking.” Everything you do in life begins in your thought life. The things you do wrong, begin with wrong thinking. The difficulty you have in serving God, stems from wrong thinking. If you and I can get our thinking in line with God’s Word, then we will learn to please God. When you please God, your life will be the best life it could be.

The difficulty is that most people around you are thinking the wrong way about life and that influences all of us. However, as we focus on what God’s Word, the Bible says, not what we heard on television or read in the newspaper or saw at a movie, then God can begin to adjust our thinking. Serving God begins in the mind. Having a successful life begins in the mind. Pleasing God begins in your thoughts. NCV Numbers 14:24 My servant Caleb thinks differently and follows me completely. If you want to serve and follow God completely, you’ve got to think differently than the people around you. So, today we’re going to ask some questions about how a servant of God thinks.

To hear more about this topic, listen to my October 1, 2006 message entitled Adjusting Your Thinking

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How Can I Serve God?

Church, Message / By /

Currently, we’re in a message series which I’ve entitled “Created To Do What?” The basic truth underlying this series is that you and I were created by God with a purpose in mind. God created you to do something special with your life, to do something unique that only you can do.

When you become a believer, God implants a desire in your heart to please God. God gives you a desire to fulfill the purpose you were created to fulfill. The desire of an unbeliever is to please himself first and foremost, but the desire of a believer is to please God first and foremost. If you’re living life with a me-first please myself mentality, you’re headed down a dead-end street, you’ll never fulfill the potential God created you with. But that can change this morning and you can become a God pleaser, you can become someone who serves God.

This morning I want to address and answer the question “How Can I Serve God”? The short answer to that question is to live as Jesus lived. Jesus is our example. When we pattern our lives after Him we will serve God as He did. Now I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to just get by in life.I want to be great in the Kingdom of God, I want to be great in God’s eyes. How about you? Here’s what Jesus said to His disciples who also wanted to be great. NIV Matthew 20:26,28 Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. So the key to become great in serving God is to be a servant of others, just as Jesus came to serve others and not to be served. Now this runs contrary to the me-first culture of our time. Jesus is saying that you become great by serving God and others rather than serving yourself.

Now for a lot of people this is a scary and frightening thought. I hear it nearly every week from people and it basically goes like this. “My life is in such trouble that I’ve got to look out for myself first. I don’t have any time or resources to help anybody else, in fact I’m so busy taking care of myself that I don’t have much time for God or the church either. Maybe when I pull myself together, I’ll have time for God and serving others.” People are basically afraid that if they give to God and others that they’ll come out on the short end of the stick and their stick is pretty short to begin with. If you’re one of those people this morning, here’s what God says to you “Just close your eyes and jump into serving me and others and see what happens. See if your life doesn’t change for the better, don’t be afraid just jump in.”

So today I challenge you to make a decision to just jump into all that God has for you in serving Him and others Just jump in.

To hear more about this topic, listen to my message entitled How Can I Serve God?

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Putting Your Abilities To Work

Church, Message / By /

God is by definition incredibly creative. He has created a universe with hundreds of billions of galaxies, each one containing up to a trillion stars. The current scientific estimate of the total number of stars in the universe keeps increasing and is now about 70 sextillion. That’s a number with 22 zeroes, 70,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.

NIV Psalm 147:4 He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name. God knows the number of stars and I guarantee you it’s a lot more than 70 sextillion. Not only does He know how many stars there are, but He has given each one a name. Each star that God created is different. Seventy sextillion and no two alike and so each one has a unique name. And on one planet, circling one average star, in one galaxy that we call the Milky Way, composed of 300 billion stars, God created human beings in His image.

God put you together in a unique pattern. Did you know that you are created with approximately 7 octillion atoms. That’s a number with 27 zeroes 7,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. God knows all about you and your atoms. NIV Matthew 10:30 And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. That number is somewhere between zero and one million, with most of us averaging about 150,000 hairs. God has created you with a unique SHAPE that is perfectly suited to carry out His plan for your life. One way to begin to understand the wonderful way that God has created you is with the acronym SHAPE. S – Spiritual gifts H – Heart A – Abilities P – Personality E – Experience. Each of those five aspects makes you who you are and makes you completely different than anyone else who has every lived or who will ever live.

Today I want to talk about “Putting Your Abilities To Work.” How can you use your unique SHAPE to make the impact in this world that God created you to make? You make the biggest impact with your life when who you are and what you do match, just as God intended. Today I want to further answer the question, How can you use your unique SHAPE to serve God? I’m going to focus on using your SHAPE in ministry, but the principles can be adapted to using your SHAPE in a career

To hear more about this topic, listen to my September 17, 2006 message entitled Putting Your Abilities To Work

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