Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross

Jesus’ cross has been for over 1800 years the best-known symbol of Christianity, and we should ask the Lord to keep us, in the words of Fanny Crosby, “near the cross.”

“As an instrument of death, the cross was detested by the Jews, so it became a stumbling block for them when considering Jesus. How could the Messiah be executed on a cross? After all, the Greek and Roman Empire executed thousands of criminals and captives in just this manner (Alexander the Great executed two thousand Tyrian captives in this way, after the fall of the city)” (“PleaseConvinceMe.com”).

Crucifixion was usually reserved for people convicted of treason, desertion, robbery, murder and such crimes. The Romans used it until Constantine’s rule, when it was abolished as an insult to Christianity, sources say.

“During the first two centuries of Christianity, the cross may have been rare in Christian iconography (symbolic representation), as it depicts a purposely painful and gruesome method of public execution. The Ichthys, or fish symbol, was used by early Christians” (“Wikipedia”).

Many people wear small religious-jewelry crosses, but if they want a “modern translation” of the cross, they might wear a tiny model of an electric chair. Electrocution was used first in 1890 to replace hanging. Between August 1890 and March 2010, a total of 4,442 people suffered death by electrocution in the U.S. “The chair” is being replaced by lethal injection.

Can you picture Jesus shackled and walking between two guards on his way to an electric chair? Can you imagine him lying on a prison bed, ready to take a lethal injection? If the Romans had been more “modern,” Jesus might have been executed in one of those ways. But he was dispatched on a cross, the Romans’ first-century way of dealing with the worst criminals.

Perhaps “the empty tomb” is a more pleasant symbol of Christianity, but the cross became the symbol the world connects with the Church. The cross reminds Christians of God’s act of love exhibited in Jesus Christ’s sacrifice at Calvary.

“And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he (Jesus) made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross” (Colossians 2:15).

The Bible informs us that man’s sin must be paid for.

“[In fact] under the Law almost everything is purified by means of blood, and without the shedding of blood there is neither release from sin and its guilt nor the remission of the due and merited punishment for sins” (Hebrews 9:22, Amplified Bible).

Old Testament sacrifices “covered” sins but did not eradicate them, as I understand. Animal sacrifice pointed to the Lamb prepared before the foundation of our world.

John the Baptist, seeing Jesus coming to be baptized, said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29).

Jesus predicted his own death.

He said, “And I, if and when I am lifted up from the earth [on the cross], will draw and attract all men [Gentiles as well as Jews] to Myself” (John 12:32, Amplified Bible).

Let us not forget the cross of Christ. The Apostle Paul said, “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Galatians 6:14, NIV).

Fanny Crosby (1820-1915), a blind-from-birth hymn-writer, wrote “Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross.” That song reminds us of the importance of Jesus’ cross. Here are the lyrics to that beloved song:

“Jesus, keep me near the cross / There a precious fountain / Free to all, a healing stream / Flows from Calvary’s mountain.

“(The Refrain) In the cross, in the cross / Be my glory ever / Till my raptured soul shall find / Rest beyond the river.

“Near the cross, a trembling soul / Love and mercy found me / There the bright and morning star / Sheds its beams around me.

“Near the cross! O Lamb of God / Bring its scenes before me / Help me walk from day to day / With its shadows o’er me.

“Near the cross I’ll watch and wait / Hoping, trusting ever / Till I reach the golden strand / Just beyond the river.

“(The Refrain) In the cross, in the cross / Be my glory ever / Till my raptured soul shall find / Rest beyond the river.”

Ram in a Bush

I‘ve always enjoyed hearing the story about Abraham and Isaac and a ram caught in a bush. That story, found in Genesis 22:1-18 (condensed from the NIV), goes like this:

God decided to test Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!”

“Here I am,” Abraham replied.

God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love – Isaac – and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.”

(Abraham had an older son conceived by his wife’s handmaid, Hagar, but Isaac, born of Abraham’s wife, Sarah, was the “promised son.”)

The next morning, Abraham loaded his donkey and took with him two servants and Isaac. He cut wood for the burnt offering and set out. On the third day Abraham saw the place in the distance. He said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.”

Abraham placed the wood for the burnt offering on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them walked, Isaac said to his father Abraham, “Father?”

“Yes, my son?” Abraham replied.

“The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”

Abraham said, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.”

They reached the place God had told him about, and Abraham built an altar and arranged the wood on it. He bound Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then he took the knife to slay his son. But the angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”

“Here I am,” he replied.

“Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”

Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide.

Abraham thought Isaac would provide grandchildren for him – God told Abraham that he would become the “father of many nations” – but Isaac had no wife or children at that time. (Isaac was perhaps 25 years old when this story unfolded, according to ancient historian Josephus.) Did Abraham think he could kill Isaac and God would raise him “from the dead”?

God did not endorse human sacrifice, but he had set up a system of animal sacrifices to provide atonement for the sins of Old Testament believers. “Atonement” involves “satisfaction or reparation for a wrong or injury.”

“For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life” (Leviticus 17:11).

That principle is stated also in the New Testament: “…The law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” (Hebrews 9:22).

Adam Clarke in “The Holy Bible with A Commentary” says, “Abraham spoke prophetically, and referred to that Lamb of God which He (God) had provided for Himself, Who in the fullness of time would take away the sin of the world, and of Whom Isaac was a most expressive type.”

Jesus said Abraham hoped for “My day (Jesus’ incarnation); and he did see it and was delighted” (John 8:56).

Isaac also shared Abraham’s confidence in God’s provision, some say. “Was not his (Isaac’s) very existence the result of God keeping His word?” (a note from “The Amplified Bible”).

The Apostle Paul wrote to the Galatians: “Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: ‘All nations will be blessed through you’” (Galatians 3:8).

The story of Abraham, Isaac and a ram caught in a bush foreshadows Calvary, where the Lord Himself provided His Own Lamb…just as Abraham said He would.

Peter wrote, “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake” (1 Peter 1:18-20).

Ashes and Resurrection

Resurrection Sunday is only a few weeks away. Are we are thinking much about it?

I work for a carpet manufacturing company in Aberdeen, N.C., and a few weeks ago, around noon, was headed across the company parking lot when I saw a Hispanic employee park her car and walk toward our company’s main building. I was 15 feet behind her, and when she turned and smiled before she entered the mill, I saw a charcoal-colored mark on her forehead. Someone had dipped a finger into ashes and drawn a small cross about an inch above the lady’s eyes.

“She’s been to an Ash Wednesday service,” I thought, assuming she had taken a morning off from work to attend church and celebrate the beginning of “Lent.”

Many Christians practiced Lent – the word “Lent” comes from an early English word for “spring” – prior to the reformation that made Martin Luther famous almost 500 years ago. Many Protestants abandoned the formal practice of Lent at that time. It is still largely celebrated among Catholics, Episcopalians, Lutherans, Methodists, Presbyterians and Anglicans.

The Lenten Season began this year on Wednesday, March 9, and ends on Saturday, April 23, the day before Resurrection Sunday, or Easter Sunday. The six Sundays among the 46 days of Lent are not counted; each Sunday represents a “mini-Easter,” celebrating Jesus’ victory over sin and death. In Western Christianity’s calendar, Lent and Easter are movable; Ash Wednesday can occur as early as February 4 or as late as March 10.

According to Matthew, Mark and Luke, Jesus spent 40 days fasting and being tempted before he began his public ministry. Ash Wednesday marks the start of a 40-day period of prayer and fasting. It gets name from the practice of placing ashes on foreheads as a sign of mourning and repentance. This practice also signifies humans are “fallen” and will always deal with sin while living in mortal bodies.

Old Testament believers associated ashes with repentance. The prophet Daniel said, “And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes” (Daniel 9:3).

Ashes utilized on Ash Wednesday are often made from palms used during the previous year’s Palm Sunday. Palms are burned and the ashes mixed with olive oil.

After the lady with ashes on her forehead turned and smiled at me, I thought, “Hum-m-m, Easter will soon be here. I haven’t thought a lot about it this year.” I wondered if I had become too preoccupied with worrying about how the world seems to be, as the old folks used to say, “going to hell in a handbasket” and worrying about wars and rumors of wars and about President Obama and Libya and about gas and food prices and about earthquakes and tidal waves and politicians and about how I should have saved more money before I got old and about blah, blah, blah, blah, blah….

The Hispanic lady and her smile put me “under conviction.” I hadn’t lately thought about Christ as much as I had about “Christianity” and its place in the world. I’d recently grown lax about praying and reading the Bible and had read much about “defending the Faith” against false religions and about how to debate people who try to tear down the Bible. Years ago, I was a young high school art teacher sitting at a faculty lunch table when an older teacher, a Christian, said, “I feel I know enough about my faith to debate anybody.” I then felt “turned off” by his words and thought, “That’s a bit arrogant.” Had I become like that man?

The lady with ashes on her forehead caused me to feel I’d recently missed something. I recalled these words written to the pastor and church in Ephesus: “These things says He who holds the seven stars in His right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands: ‘I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil…and you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name’s sake and have not become weary. Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love” (Revelation 2:1-4 New KJV).

Father, as Resurrection Sunday approaches, help us repent and turn our faces toward Jesus. Help us truly “know Him and the power of His resurrection” (Philippians 3:10).

A Late-in-Life Conversion

When “Sam” found out a few months ago that he had throat cancer, he called for “the preacher” and accepted Christ; his body was “laid to rest” last Tuesday; he was 59.

I often worked during recent years with “Sam,” which is not his real name, at a carpet dye house and sometimes sensed his struggle with “eternal matters.”

As far as I know, he grew up attending a Baptist church in central North Carolina and never accepted the Lord until he, so to speak, “stared Death in the face.”

He’d sometimes attend the church he grew up in and leave if he “got convicted too bad,” someone said. Sam had one daughter by his first marriage, and he once indicated to me that if he “got right,” he was confused about what to do about a woman – let’s call her “Sandy” – he’d been living with for a long time. He wondered if he “made things right with the Lord,” if he’d be expected to go back to his first wife.

I forget if his first wife was re-married or not, but I told him that someone said, “You can’t unscramble an egg.” I advised him to go from where he was in life and respond to Christ.

Sam put off deciding.

Somewhere along the way, Sandy “got saved,” and, as one person put it, told Sam they’d have to get married or quit living together.

They married.

Sam and Sandy come from the Lumbee Tribe. The Lumbees have existed in and around Robeson County, N.C., since the early part of the eighteenth century. In 1885, the State of North Carolina recognized the tribe as “Indian,” but the U.S. government has yet to grant full federal recognition. Some Lumbees attended “Indian schools” until desegregation began in the South. Many Lumbees grew up on small farms that raised tobacco. Some folk who “worked in ’baccer” learned to use it. Sam was one of those people. Perhaps no one can prove Sam’s tobacco chewing caused his throat cancer, but lots of his friends figure it did.

After his talk with “the preacher,” Sam told a friend that he felt he’d wasted a lot of time during his life by not serving Christ. Word got around about Sam accepting Jesus. He gave out a good “witness” as his life came to a close. Sam suffered, underwent chemotherapy and died last Saturday.

I drove 30 miles last Monday night to a “funeral home” in Red Springs, N.C. I entered the crowded building, saw many of Sam’s former co-workers, shook some hands and walked to the casket.

Sam appeared to be resting, taking a nap. “He looks the same,” I thought. “It’s almost as if he could open his eyes and speak.” But Sam was gone, and only his body remained. The “life of the flesh is in the blood,” according to the Bible, and Sam’s blood had stopped flowing. His “flesh” had ceased living, but I believed his spirit had not.

I met Sam’s wife, expressed sympathy and told her of hearing about Sam’s salvation. We'll see him, again,” I said. She seemed appreciative of my words.

After talking with some co-workers, I left Red Springs and drove the long, flat road toward home, thinking about Sam’s late-in-life conversion.

It’s eternally dangerous to wait until “midnight” to “get right.” I recall hearing ministers mention this verse: “And the LORD said, ‘My spirit shall not always strive with man…’” (Genesis 6:3). Those preachers indicated a person could wait until he has no sense of God “drawing” him to accept Christ.

A friend told me about a man who repeatedly resisted the Gospel message. That man grew old and had a heart attack. A preacher visited the hospitalized man and pressed him about accepting Christ. The man said, “Why, if I was to get saved now, people would think I was just getting scared.” The man died a few years later, and my friend doesn’t know if that man ever accepted Jesus Christ or not.

I’m glad Sam wasn’t too proud to finally accept God’s gift of salvation. Sam came to the Lord late in life, but he came.

We have no promise of tomorrow. Come to Jesus while the voice of the Lord still speaks to your heart, while you still hear God calling you.

“…Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2).

The Japanese People Need Our Prayers

Japan was hit on March 11, 2011, by one of the largest earthquakes on record. A magnitude-9.0 quake caused a tsunami that slammed Japan’s east coast and left thousands dead.

Japan’s population in March 2009 was 127,076,183, making it the tenth most populated country. The Rev. Ron Hutchcraft, in a “Mission Network News” article, said Christians should pray for Japanese Christians. Less than one percent of Japan’s population identifies as “evangelical Christian,” and 70 percent reportedly claim no religion.

“They (Christians) are a remnant in that country,” Hutchcraft says. “(With) the millions of gods of Shintoism – the feeling that Christianity is a western religion – all these things have created great barriers, and my prayer now is for the people of God in Japan, that this could be their moment that they could (share their faith) because of their hope.”

The following information comes from Japan-guide.com, Wikipedia and “the Christian Post”:

Shinto and Buddhism are Japan’s two major religions. Religion does not play a big role in the everyday lives of most Japanese. The average person typically follows religious rituals at ceremonies like birth, weddings and funerals. They may visit a shrine or temple and participate in local festivals (“matsuri”), most of which have religious origins.

Shinto has no founder or sacred scriptures. It is deeply rooted in the Japanese people and traditions. “Shinto gods” are called “kami.” They are thought to be sacred spirits that take the form of things and concepts such as wind, rain, mountains, trees, rivers and fertility. Humans are thought to become kami after they die and are revered by their families as ancestral kami. The kami of extraordinary people are enshrined at some shrines. Some prominent rocks are worshiped as kami.

There are no absolutes in Shinto – no absolute right and wrong, and nobody is perfect. Shinto is an optimistic faith; humans are thought to be fundamentally good; evil spirits cause evil, many believe. The purpose of most Shinto rituals is to keep away evil spirits.

Buddhism began in India in the sixth century BC and consists of the teachings of the Buddha, Gautama Siddhartha. The Mahayana or “Greater Vehicle” Buddhism found its way to Japan. About 90 million Japanese have Buddhists roots. Many households keep a small altar in order to pay respect to their ancestors. Figures that state 84 to 96 percent of Japanese adhere to Shinto and Buddhism are not based on self-identification but come primarily from birth records, following an old practice of officially associating a family line with a local Buddhist temple or Shinto shrine.

Many Japanese Christians live in Western Japan, where Jesuit missionaries were active in the sixteenth century. In 1542, the first Europeans from Portugal landed on Kyushu in Western Japan. Kyushu’s barons welcomed foreign trade that brought new weapons and gunpowder. The main reason for the extinction of Christianity in Japan by 1638 was the government’s move to exert absolute control. This was thought impossible with the interference of an “aggressive and intolerant foreign religion” like Christianity. In 1873, after the “Meiji restoration,” freedom of religion was encouraged. Since World War II, the number of Japanese Christians has slowly increased.

Michelle A. Vu, a “Christian Post Reporter,” notes that one mission leader says the problem of evangelizing Japanese is the Japanese mentality itself.

Japanese people value human relationships more than truth and principle, says Dr. Minoru Okuyama, director of the Missionary Training Center in Japan, during his presentation at the Tokyo 2010 Global Missions Consultations.

“…They are afraid of disturbing human relationships of their families or neighborhood, even though they know that Christianity is the best,” said Okuyama, who previously was Buddhist and a Shintoist. “Thus, Japanese make much of human relationships more than the truth…For Japanese, one of the most important things is harmony; in Japanese ‘Wa’…Those who harm the harmony are bad, whether they are right or not has been beside the question.”

Okuyama noted that Christianity is thriving in neighboring China and Korea because the mentality of the people is to “make more of truth or principle than human relationships.”

Pray for the Japanese people.

Joanne Thompson Tribute

Joanne and Pastor Jimmy Thompson (photo probably from the late 1950s)

“We’re here to celebrate a life that was well lived,” said Dr. Coy Barker, as he “preached the funeral” of Joanne Thompson on Sunday, March 6, 2011, at Faith Temple Church in Taylors, S.C.

Peggy Joanne Thompson (Nov. 19, 1933 – March 3, 2011) of Taylors was a wife, a mother and vice-president and co-founder of Dove Broadcasting, WGGS-TV 16, headquartered in Greenville, S.C.

Barker, founder of Metro World Outreach Center in Stone Mountain, Ga., and longtime friend of Dove Broadcasting, called Joanne “a woman of God.”

Greenvilleonline.com published this statement: “Joanne and her husband, Dr. James H. Thompson, are considered visionaries and pioneers in Christian broadcasting. Since October 1972, Joanne and Jimmy have been devoted to producing high quality, family-oriented Christian programming. Together they have made outstanding contributions to not only South Carolina but to the nation and the world.

“Joanne touched the lives of thousands of people in Appalachia, Romania and Moldova. She also had an ongoing prison ministry and assistance to families in need. She lived her life in service to children and families who were hurting and had no hope. She received many Angel Awards for excellence in media for documentaries featuring her mission outreach projects.”

Joanne is survived by her husband, their three sons (Dante, Duane and Gene Thompson), three grandchildren and a great-granddaughter.

My Uncle Fred Crain, 85, is a charter member of Faith Temple, which was founded in the mid-1950s and first led by Dr. James Thompson. Fred remembers when “Jimmy” pastored Gum Springs P.H. Church and met Joanne Upton who then lived in Greer, S.C., and had a brother, Fred Upton. Their father had alcohol problems, and their lives had not been easy, my uncle says.

“Doyle Zachery was preaching a tent revival and Joanne got saved there,” my Uncle Fred says. “Betty Atkins was playing the organ at that meeting.”

Betty may have invited Joanne to hear Jimmy preach.

“Joanne came up to Gum Springs one night,” Fred says. “Jimmy preached, and he told me he made sure he got to the church door after the service to meet Joanne.”

After Joanne and Jimmy dated a while, Jimmy mentioned marriage.

“They rode to Hendersonville, and he talked serious to her about marriage,” Fred says, “but she said she didn’t think she wanted to marry a preacher. Jimmy told her, ‘So, you’re asking me to choose between you and God?’ Joanne said that really ‘struck’ her.”

Joanne worked at that time at an insurance company and wanted to study nursing. She broke up with Jimmy, but 11 months later, he invited her to go with him “to hear a preacher.” She went, and they resumed dating.

Fred and his wife, Frances, met Joanne when Jimmy brought her to their home, located then in the Mountain View community near Taylors.

“Jimmy brought her to our house,” Fred says. “They were courting, and he wanted me to show her a few things about the guitar. She was a singer and had been wanting to learn to play the guitar. After a few minutes, Joanne said the strings hurt her fingers. She seemed like a real nice, intelligent young lady who was wanting to do something for the Lord.”

Jimmy and Joanne married on April 22, 1955, and helped found Faith Temple Church in 1956-57.

My sister, Shirley Crain Thompson (no relation to Jimmy and Joanne) of Stone Mountain, Ga., says she fondly remembers Joanne as her Sunday school teacher during her childhood and teen years.

“She was always amusing and told us truths I frequently recalled all my life. We would have slumber parties on Friday nights with the girls in my Sunday school class, and Joanne would take her time to attend those functions with us. We considered her our friend as well as our teacher…I knew she would accomplish great things – and she did. I was just fortunate to have her placed in my path by God.”

At Joanne’s funeral, LaVerne Tripp commented on her determination, calling her “a bulldog for people who were hurt.”

Dr. Jerry Goff talked about “Jimmy’s wisdom and Joanne’s zeal.” He said about Joanne, “There was no problem she would not attack…She was on a mission every day…searching for a new way to serve Christ.”

Baby Dedications

Police arrested a 24-year-old woman from South Carolina on Tuesday, February 8, 2011, and charged her in connection with the discovery of her newborn son in the toilet of the BI-LO Center in Greenville, S.C., according to news sources.

The woman, who already has a 4-year-old child, told police she couldn’t recall what happened after she went into the arena bathroom when she attended a circus on Friday, Feb. 4.

A custodian discovered the infant around 11:30 p.m. The child was only a few hours old; he was suffering from hypothermia and weighed around six pounds. He was rushed to the hospital and was listed in critical condition on Tuesday, Feb. 8. The mother could face 30 years in prison if convicted on one count of felony child abuse and one count of unlawful neglect toward a child.

I heard the news about that baby only days after witnessing a Sunday morning “baby dedication service” at the church my wife and I attend in Southern Pines, N.C. I thought about the contrast in images: 10 held-and-cuddled children standing on a church stage on a Sunday morning versus one newborn shivering while lying in water held by a receptacle manufactured for the disposal of human waste.

Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1776 in the United States Declaration of Independence, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal….” Though we all may be in theory “created equal,” some people don’t seem to be born that way.

I remember moving years ago with my wife and our first daughter, a toddler at that time. A man, who appeared to be 20 years older than I and a bit nervous or hyperactive, knocked on the door of our newly purchased home.

“Hello, I’m your neighbor from up the street,” the man said. He told me his name and, after a few more words, said, “I was left in a basket on the doorstep of the Salvation Army when I was a baby.”

I thought it odd that he so quickly offered that information to a stranger. He concluded his welcome by saying, “This is a good neighborhood – don’t nobody bother nobody.”

I wondered how knowing he was left as an infant at the Salvation Army affected the man who stood on our doorstep. Did he spill out the circumstances of his beginnings to defuse any rejection he potentially might feel if his new neighbors heard about his start in life? Did he fear being a “bother” to anyone?

The Prophet Jeremiah said, “The word of the Lord came to me, saying, ‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations’” (Jeremiah 1:5 NIV).

You may have heard that verse used to comfort people feeling insecure about their self-worth. Have you wondered if “that word” was for Jeremiah but not for you? There seem to be many babies born “without a chance in the world.”

And yet, Jesus said, “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. And even the very hairs of your head are numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows” (Matthew 10:29 NIV).

When parents brought youngsters to Jesus so he could “place his hands on them,” his disciples rebuked the parents. “But Jesus called the children to him and said, ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these’” (Luke 18:15-16 NIV).

You don’t have to be “a Jeremiah” to be important to the Heavenly Father.

At the baby dedication service I mentioned, my wife and I saw our pastor pray for 10 children. An array of young parents stood side-by-side across our church platform. The way those parents held their children and the fact they brought them to be dedicated to the Lord seemed to indicate the value they placed on their little ones.

Every child is important to God, whether that child is red or yellow or black or white, whether he was born in a castle or a shack – or whether he was birthed and left lying in a toilet bowl.