Protecting Life
I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep. John 10:9-11
Everyone you know was once a baby.
God gives life and causes the life he has given to flourish abundantly. The thief comes to kill and destroy. Throughout history, pagan religions and cultures incorporate killing babies as part of the way to appease the gods and get them to give them life. But the death of the sheep cannot produce life for the sheep. It is only when the good shepherd lays down his life to protect the life of the sheep that they are safe. Valuing human life is the only way to acquire more human life is to protect and defend the life you already have. John uses the word thief to rightly describe the enemy’s use of deception to kill and destroy. The thief craftily convinces us that killing life is the means to getting more life so that we do the killing for him. The most vulnerable human life is the life of a baby. Protecting a baby protects all the potential life giving possibilities that baby will have. Someone protected your life, will you protect someone else’s?
Even though he knows it will seal his doom, Satan can't wait to destroy and end the world.
Though the world is broken from Adam’s sin, God desires to redeem it and restore His goodness that is still embedded in the world. God is not waiting and wanting for the world to get bad enough for Him to destroy it. Satan wants to destroy the world and remove it as a place that God can fill with His goodness. Even though Satan is the ruler of this world (John 16:11) and the god of this age (2 Corinthians 4:4), he cannot take the world away from God. Since he is not able to dethrone God, he wants to destroy the world. At the world’s end, Satan will no longer be a god of this age nor will he have a world to rule, but he can’t wait to tear the broken world out of God’s loving arms and leave it desolate. Work to help restore God’s goodness in His creation. All life comes from God so whenever you protect life, you are protecting God’s goodness.
You create a new world for those around you.
People see the world differently from the unique perspective on life that you share. God has given you the creative ability to add your life to the experience others have of God’s goodness. Everyone’s life is connected. Your life wouldn’t be the same without the unique presence of other people’s lives. God has made a beautiful thing that we each play a role in creating each other's life. While you play a part in creating life, only God gives life. He gave life to dirt and it became a man; He gave life to a rib bone and it became a woman. He gives life to a baby and it becomes a man or a woman. Satan wants to destroy life, but you can play a part in creating and adding to life.