Live And Help Live

When my brother got his driver's license he had saved up enough money to buy a 1954 Bel Air Chevy. Now this was not one of those cars that people considered to be a classic, this was an old clunker. It was a unusual shade of green. It had been restored and Mike bought it for $400.

One day before I was old enough to get my driver's license, it snowed and Mike and I went up to a church parking lot to see what the old green bomb would do.

We learned to drive on ice, in a church parking lot. That was not a problem and I became confident of my ability to be able to drive on icy roads.

The problem came when you got on the streets with other people and you had to watch the lines and the signs and the signals and most of all be aware of other people who never learned how to drive on icy conditions. When Houston had all of that ice on the roads last month, I told a friend of mine, I hope all of the Yankees who perpetually tell us we don't know how to drive are out on the streets of Houston and all of those Texans are out there running in to them.

My apologies to all of those who hail from north of the Mason/Dixon line.

The Ten Commandments is saying, "This is how you travel life's highway with other people. This is the way you make life work in living with other people and Me."

Now we have covered the first part of the commandments that Jesus said is involved in "You will love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength." Now as we begin this commandment, we're getting into the part that says, "You will love your neighbor as yourself. This is how you will live." From the mountain, there thundered through the smoke the words "You shall not murder."

Do you know what an "OOPS" abortion is? It's when there is a miscalculation about the fetus' due date, and the fetus survives the abortion. Something happens at that time, that I think must be quite disturbing. When the fetus survives the abortion, at that point in time, it is considered a baby and taken to a neo-natal emergency room, and they do all they can to help that baby live.

One pediatrician angrily said, "When they botch up the homicide, then they bring the baby to me and say, 'Fix it or get rid of it.'"

One day a doctor came into the neo-natal intensive care unit with a little baby that had survived the abortion. He told the nurse there, "Let's try the procedure." They tried to help the undeveloped lungs, and they could not. He said, "The baby's traumatized. He has no hope. Would you stay with him and try to make him as comfortable as you can while he dies?" The nurse said, "Lord, help." And she looked at that little tiny baby and realized every part of a functioning child was there and working. She reached her little finger in there, and the baby caught hold of her finger and squeezed it. She said, "You need to have a name," so she named him Tiny Tim. She saw Tiny Tim put his thumb in his mouth, and she prayed that would give him some comfort. She touched his toes and found out he was ticklish. As she was looking at him, she realized he was gasping for breath, gasping as though a truck was sitting on his chest. A nurse came and said, "He sure is putting up a struggle for such a tiny one, isn't he?"

After awhile as he gasped for breath, he squeezed her finger a little harder. She said, "I let him hold on because I wanted him to know somebody was there with him and who cared." After a little while, she began to stroke him very slowly as his breathing became less and less. She said, "Good-bye, Tiny Tim. Please know that somebody cared about you." And he breathed his last and passed away.

It is God's will that every living creature know they are cared for. When the thundering voice came from the mountain that said, "You shall not commit murder," it was saying life is sacred to God and should be sacred to us.

Everybody's life is sacred to God and should be sacred to us.

But would you read what the Author of those lines goes on to say in Matthew 5, beginning in verse 21? "You have heard that is was said to the people long ago, 'Do not murder,' and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment. But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, 'Raca,' is answerable to the Sanhedrin! But anyone who says, 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell."