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We know that in John 15:13 it says "Greater love has no man than this,that he lays down his life for his friends". We know that we do not have to specifically "die"… to die to our own self interest. That is a good place to be.To be where we love people as ourself, & actually put others first, as Jesus did. This is a worthy goal in life. I have been musing lately about how far is too far to go with this, or if in fact we can go "to the wall" with this, as so many have done over the centuries. We know that as believers we have the freedom to lay down our lives… for Jesus & for others. That word freedom…. did I really use that word? Is it truly freedom that we have in this matter? I really think that this is the operative word, because we in the west do have a modicum of freedom to do as we please, within legal limits. Why in the "civilization" that we have in the west would I bring this subject up that seems so far away?

On April 20th 1999 two teenage boys went on a shooting spree,killing 12 students & injuring 21 others. It was reported in the Rocky Mountain News that Cassie Bernall, a seventeen year old student, when asked by one of the perpetrators if she believed in God she said yes…. and that was the last thing she ever said. That same year, Seven people were killed & seven were wounded at Wedgwood Baptist church in Fort Worth Texas by a man… who just for whatever reason chose to do this. It can happen here, & as foreign as it seems now,persecution can come to this country.I guess though my real question is who would I give my life for? People in our armed services risk life & limb every day for us. Sadly,many die yearly protecting the country we live in.They lay their lives down…. for us. It is troubling to me on a personal level to think about this. I remember the line Tom Hanks used in the movie Saving Private Ryan. While Hank’s Character lay dying in a French town shortly after the Normandy invasion, He said to the namesake of the movie who they had come to rescue "earn this". I wonder, do we earn this? For the sacrifice of those who willingly risked life for us & payed the ultimate sacrifice… do we earn this? We know of one who 2,000 years ago died for us… so we could live with Him for eternity. I know we can never even begin to earn that, but I wonder if we even think about trying. Do we give honest & rational thought about how far we would go to lay down our personal life for our neighbor. For the stranger… for the homeless guy… for the person who is far from God & maybe not even looking for Him. We never really know what we would do until we get in those situations, & when that happens, so often all that is left are the grieving & newspaper headlines. I cannot really tell you why this is on my heart today, but it seemed important enough to address in writing. Maybe tonight… or maybe right now… we can take a moment to consider the question,"Who would I lay my life down for?" Jesus told us that "Whosoever would gain his life shall lose it,but whosoever would lose his life for my sake & the sake of the gospel shall find it". Maybe laying life down… is not loss after all.Maybe it is actually gain,as the apostle Paul said. I leave you with a link to a song titled willingly, sung by Damaris Carbaugh. Be patient,as this is not a youtube link, & sometimes takes a while to load. God bless you, & know that we are not promised tomorrow.We are however promised forever if that forever is found in our Lord & Savior Jesus Christ.:)

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Yesterday some very practical,as well as easy and inexpensive to implement laws were passed in the State of Oklahoma which should significantly reduce the murder rate by requiring doctors to give mothers some very basic information about the member of their family who is about to be murdered.Here is a simple English description of the two new laws that have already been put into effect in the state:"They require women to undergo an ultrasound procedure and listen to a detailed description of the fetus before getting an abortion. The person who performs the ultrasound must describe the dimensions of the fetus, whether arms, legs and internal organs are visible and whether the physician can detect cardiac activity. He or she must also turn a screen depicting the images toward the woman so she can see them."

Now if we could just implement similar familiarity laws for the military just think how much we could cut down war casualties especially among the civilian population !

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