Happy Mother’s Day…O Church of God
America is a double-minded disaster waiting to happen. In the culture wars between political parties, factions propagandize in diametrically opposite directions. Even days of remembrance, designed to celebrate special categories of positive contributors, are hijacked by competing voices.
Abortion has returned to the spotlight by way of the criminal action of a United States Supreme Court employee. The public release of a classified document, revealing a soon-to-be-released judgment of the nation’s highest court, has fueled the fire under abortion activists. Almost sixty years of legalized murder of children in the womb is under threat of being reversed.
Celebrating moms, especially those who have given birth many times, is apparently still worthy as a front-page newspaper story…on Mother’s Day. When that lovely sentiment is accompanied by bad theology, it does not strike a proper balance with the abortion article on the same page…on Mother’s Day.
What does abortion have to do with Mother’s Day? Not much because abortion is the antithesis of motherhood. Mother’s Day is a big deal because moms are beautiful for their endless sacrifices for their children’s benefit. Single moms, abandoned by the derelict men in their lives, should receive even more recognition. Barren women also need much love on days like these.
Every child, born of a woman, into this dark world of sin, bears the image of God. He or she is a living billboard of the Creator God. Billions of these billboards are set up around the world to the chagrin of the ruler of this world (Jn 12:30; 14:31; 16:11), who is Satan, the adversary of God and humanity (Gen 3:15).
Abortion is the destruction of God’s handiwork in a mother’s womb (Ps 127:3–5). Abortion is the carnage of the child of the devil, whose father was a liar and a murderer from the beginning (Jn 8:44). The devil’s children do his dirty deeds unaware of their master’s design to destroy them, too. Child murderers are deceived, and they are blinded by the god of this world from seeing the truth of their treachery against their own creature-kind (2 Cor 4:4).
Children are a gift of God and good mothers are a gift to the children of God. There is no higher calling in Christian ministry than the witness of a Christian mother. Filled with the Spirit of Christ, she sacrificially labors for the future of her family. The notorious nature of sinful children often hinders their hearing and obedience, but their mimicry of mom and dad is famous. Christian moms nurture their families in Christlikeness.
“Let go and let God” is terrible theology. First, no one lets God do anything. God is the sovereign Lord over all. He sits in the heavens and does as He pleases (Ps 115:3; 135:6). He rules and reigns over His creation. So how does abortion and prodigious child birthing work if God ordains everything that comes to pass?
If you “let god,” you, as a controller of God, will probably be a candidate for killing your child. The reason is that your bad theology informs you that God is not trustworthy (Gen 3). If God “lets go” then He did so in eternity and that manifests in time. The reprobate were released by God in eternity, in His predetermined plan and by His eternal decree that reveals His sovereign will for both the elect and the reprobate (Rom 9).
Both the elect and the reprobate bear the image of God, albeit marred by the fall into sin and death. The reprobate take on the nature and practice of their abusive father, the devil. The elect, redeemed take on the image of Jesus Christ, the incarnate God-man glorified. This occurs when they are born again of the Spirit of God at regeneration (Jn 3:1–8). There is no spiritual abortion related to the new birth.
God has graciously chosen His beloved by the Spirit of adoption (Rom 8:15, 23), which He predestined before the foundation of the world (Eph 1:4–5). In time, some of the unjust, ungodly sons of Adam are brought into the family of God, when the Holy Spirit baptizes them into Christ’s church (Acts 2:38; 1 Cor 12:13).
The Spirit-filled church is our mother. Because our Father never loses even one of His own children (Jn 10:28–29), kept in the care of Christ, the true and faithful husband-to-be, it is the church who nurtures and prepares the faithful saints for the day each one sees Christ face to face. The Holy Spirit, who implanted the seed of God’s Word in the soul of each elect (Jas 1:21), is the sanctifier within the local church (Rom 15:16; 1 Thess 5:23; 2 Thess 2:13; 1 Pet 1:2). Again, there is no abortion here as the Spirit impresses, “I will never leave you nor forsake you because my love for you is everlasting.”
My dear reader, the Spirit gives life to whom He wills (Jn 6:63). He causes God’s elect to be born again (1 Pet 1:3). He is the Lord, our provider and protector, who has promised life — new, abundant, and eternal via the covenant of grace. Not only does the Christian have a Father, a husband-to-be, but we have a mother (Spirit/church) who loves, comforts, teaches, and helps us on our way home to glory.
Happy Mother’s Day…O church of God! Your children love you very much for your labors to see us birthed into the family of God and for being our home away from home. Be strong, steadfast, and immoveable in the Spirit who indwells you, for not even the gates of hell can stand in the way of a woman like you!
David Norczyk
Spokane Valley, Washington
May 8, 2022 (Mother’s Day)
