The Man Christ Jesus (part 14)

Bethlehem Bible Church

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Our Father in heaven we come before you this morning just grateful Grateful that we have yet another day to worship you to Have fellowship with one another to look to your word

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Lord. I pray that you would bless our time as we We will begin examining what your word says about various social issues difficult issues and Lord, I pray that you would bless our time and cause us to think and really focus through a

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Biblical worldview to see the world as you see it and to see issues as you see them father

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I pray that you would bless each one here and bless our time in Christ's name. Amen Well, so many things have come up over the last few weeks

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Not so much in the church, but in the news and I just thought you know, this would be a good time to really discover the meaning of life

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Hmm. Yeah, I Don't know how many of you saw it, but this week the the

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Connecticut Supreme Court Ordered a young woman to get chemotherapy. Did you see this?

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17 years old. Let me just read a little bit of a news article here. The Connecticut Supreme Court sided with the state on Thursday in a case which pitted a 17 year old girl with cancer against the

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Department of Children and Families DCF The court ruled that Cassandra as she's known in court papers, by the way, that's not her real name

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Her real name is I have no idea They're just calling her Cassandra Will be forced to undergo chemotherapy for the treatment of Hodgkin's lymphoma

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Cassandra was diagnosed with the disease in August But the teen decided against chemotherapy treatment opting instead for a second opinion and a more natural remedy

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Her mother supported her decision But the DCF decided otherwise taking Cassandra from her home placing her in foster care and forcing her to receive treatment the teen and her mother appealed to the state's highest court, it was the first case of its kind to be heard at that level and Cassandra agreed with that and said that this

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Chemotherapy was not in her daughter's best interest. Now Cassandra wrote an op -ed that was published and this is just a paragraph from that This experience has been a continuous nightmare.

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I want the right to make my medical decisions It's disgusting that I'm fighting for a right that I and anyone in my situation should already have.

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This is my life and my body Not DCFs and not the states.

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I am a human I Should be able to decide if I do or don't want chemotherapy

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Whether I live 17 years or 100 years should not be anyone's choice, but mine

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How long she writes how long as a person actually supposed to live and why who determines that I?

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Care about the quality of my life. Not just the quantity reaction

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Redaction as we like to say no Any any responses to that? What would you say to her power of the people

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Cassandra? Right on nobody's gonna tell you what to do Isn't there a part of you though that wants to say

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This is the DCF and the state imposing their will on Cassandra, and that's not right

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I know there's a big part of me that wants to say that Bruce Okay, so Bruce said you know there was a doctor.

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He saw on TV. Who said you know she's Almost certainly going to die If she doesn't get some kind of treatment that there's an excellent chance that she'll live if she gets the treatment this doctor himself was sick, and he survived and You know

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Charlie brings up Whether or not the government has a right as a minister You know to protect life and in fact

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I I believe that is Romans 13 is what we're talking about But that mostly has to do with Avengers and being subject to the to the government, but in any event they're certainly protecting life in that sense, and I think that's right

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I'm gonna skip ahead because you never really know how these things are gonna Go I'm gonna skip ahead to page 4 of my outline which none of you have so you wouldn't know

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Because it goes right along with what Bruce was saying I saw somebody being interviewed on TV the other day

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And and I thought this was apropos the man's name is Peter Johnson jr. And he happens to be

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But You know according to his biography there on Fox News a prominent appellate and trial lawyer who has served under Well, I mean he's got a lot of he graduated from Columbia University's law school, and he's won all these awards and blah blah blah blah

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He served as a press officer an economic development executive for New York governor Mario Cuomo the late

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Mario Cuomo as well as senior Advisor pro bono that means he worked for nothing

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To New York City's first african -american mayor David Dinkins He also served

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New York governor George Pataki an array of posts Ranging from coffee taster no wait from the development of tourism and the

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United Nations to state election Modernization in addition he was a member of the

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New York City Board of Corrections overseeing the city correctional System blah blah blah blah blah

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And you say so what well? Peter Johnson jr. Is now in his 50s, and he had the same cancer when he was 17 and it was quite advanced and I watched this interview again last night

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He said you know the doctor said that there was a good chance if I underwent this chemotherapy that I would make it

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You know but it I might not I Didn't think I was gonna live my parents didn't think

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I was gonna live But he went through it obviously and he survived it and he goes you know what I? Felt like I wanted to die it was so painful.

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It was horrible He goes, but I'd like to talk to this young woman and tell her to do it

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Why because he's in his 50s now he has two kids. He's been married for decades He's had a very successful by worldly terms life and Cassandra wants to pull the plug on that you know like she said

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How long is a person actually supposed to live and why? Who determines that I?

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Care about I think this last phrase is very interesting about the quality of my life and not just the quantity and I understand that I mean,

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I remember watching This this past year

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Mark Mark and Kim Westcott Mark Westcott Watching him die in the hospital and actually praying that the

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Lord would take him home if he wasn't going to recover rapidly and just thinking you know as Seeing Mark kind of deteriorate, and it was rather rapid But just watching him go from the point where he thought you know what

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I'm gonna get to go home to when he realized he was never going to go home and And ultimately he really

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I think he wanted to go to Because he recognized that he was never going to be on anything other than all these machines and all that stuff

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Who determines that who determines the quality of life versus the quantity of life, let's look at Genesis chapter 1

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And I really I wanted I want to deal with some pretty difficult issues again. I just want us to think like God thinks about things

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Genesis chapter 1 verses 27 to 31 and you know if you want to get the foundations you have to start in the beginning

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Genesis chapter 1 Verses 27 to 31 and what somebody read that please I?

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Need a hand yeah, go ahead Cory Okay, now there are a multitude of Big topics here, and I want to just kind of focus on a few of them

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First one is the image of God in the Latin. That's in Mago day Mago day, which just means

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God's image in the image of God and The Bible knowledge commentary says this this image was imparted to humans

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An image is used figuratively here for God does not have a human form. I think that's important And it's important for us to understand that What well why is it important for us to understand that that when it talks about the image is not talking about physical image?

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Why is that important all right? What's that?

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God is spirit John 424 and those who will worship him will worship him in spirit and in truth.

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You know are there people who teach that? God looks just like us Well there are people there are

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Mormons and One of my favorites Kenneth Copeland You know

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I can't give you the give you a quote at some other time if you want it where he talks about just by one

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It's almost funny one scripture. He extrapolates the size of God and everything else, but I won't bore you with that I It's important to understand.

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What is meant by the image of God? It goes on to say this he says being in God's image means that humans share though Imperfectly and finitely in other words.

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We're not exactly like God We share in God's nature that is in his communicable attributes, then they give some examples life personality truth

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Wisdom love holiness justice I notice could be the big one

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I You know the funny thing is Funny thing is earlier

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Our granddaughter was playing with her phone with Janet's phone. I said now that is on silent isn't it she says oh, yeah, okay?

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Let that be a lesson. Thank you for that See Anyway lit lists all these attributes that are communicable meaning you know not perfectly, but in some sense we

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Mirror we exhibit these attributes of God You know if we could say that God is just and he is then if there's something in us that wants justice we like Things that are fair.

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We like to see things turn out the way they ought to I mean I don't know too many people who were really disappointed that the terrorists in Paris wound up dead.

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I mean nobody's like oh man. I I wish they would have pulled through I at least

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I wasn't Oh Man, I was really pulling for those guys

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No, we want them to you know or like all these guys on these terrorist videos

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You know they're beheading people doing all these horrible things. We don't think hmm boy. I'd really like to see a fair trial for him

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I don't feel that way I Just want to see with them get what they deserve Another man writes this he says in our image after our likeness talking about God and the royal we sort of language er

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Father son and spirit in our image after our likeness. This was a peculiar distinction the value attached to which

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Appears the word being mentioned twice and in what did this image of God? Consists not in the erect form or features of man in other words not physically

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Not in his intellect. We like to think we're smart, but we're not as smart as God and I think it's interesting what he writes here

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And that's the main reason I wanted to cite this for the devil and his angels are in this respect far superior To us

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Just talking about how they're much more Intelligent and originally Righteous and and whatnot, but he says as the new creation is only a restoration of this image

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The history throws or the history of the one throws light on the other we are Informed that it is renewed after the image of God in knowledge

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Righteousness and true holiness Talking about the new person in Christ, but we have that image of God and that's an important thing to think about that We have this there's a difference and we'll hit this over and over again between human beings and every other created thing and That difference is this in the image of God.

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It's not said of any other animal of any other living creature on earth

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That they bear the image of God Second thing is we see in this passage in Genesis 1 that God has given us dominion over the earth and over all of creation and I think sometimes we kind of diminish what a responsibility that is and Again, it comes up in a number of ways.

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We have dominion. That is we have we are Caretakers Over the earth one man puts it this way

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God's or man's Divinely given commission to rule over all other living creatures is tempered or better Brought into sharper leaf by the fact that such dominion does not allow him to kill these creatures or to use their flesh

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As food it's interesting right in Genesis 1.

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They're not they're not allowed to do that only much later After the flood is domination extended to include consumption.

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So there's this sense early on Where when

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Mankind is not to kill things. Well, why would we in the garden? I'm saying we kind of again in the royal sense in the garden.

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There was no death So there's no killing of animals Animals didn't kill other animals.

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There was no death period Matthews Writes this he says the mandates to subjugate that is to To exert ourselves over a creation to subjugate the world

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Includes the major zoological groups fish bird and land animals this appointment by God gave the human family privilege

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But also responsibility as caretakers the Hebrew love for life and sacredness of all life assumed a linkage between human righteousness and The welfare of the earth in other words that if we're acting rightly we'll take care of things in The agrarian economy of ancient

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Israel. This was best expressed in his care for livestock, etc, etc Sin impacts the prosperity of the earth and its inhabitants

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Genesis shows how human sin Elicits God's curse upon the land and the later wickedness of human society

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Results in the destruction of the whole earth by flood. So sin has an impact not just on us

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We often talk about how Adams fall in Adams fall. We all fall or whatever with the word the phrase

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I was looking for the catchphrase Yeah, and Adams fall We sit all there you go.

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There it is the little throwaway phrase But that's true but it's not just us that fell into a curse, but also all of the earth all of creation did all of Life now experiences death

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The earth itself is decaying. Everything is coming toward or working towards an end

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So we have that Dominion aspect where we are responsible for things and we'll talk more about that But I also wanted to read and talk about the breath of life

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Genesis 2 Genesis 2 Verses 5 to 7 and I'll read that when no bush of the field was yet in the land

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And no small plant of the field had yet sprung up there's no vegetation for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land and there was no man to work the ground and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground and I think it was

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Berrick in the MacArthur study Bible actually says it's just the idea of water coming up from the earth seeping

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Up from the earth then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and the man became a living creature

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I Mean it almost gives you the sense or the picture of kind of like mouth -to -mouth

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Resuscitation right like here you have this formed man of just nothing but dirt clay

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And then God breathes into him kind of mouth -to -mouth and brings him to life you can almost see

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Adam you know like you see in the movies when somebody is revived how they just kind of Are gasping for life at least that's the picture

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I get One man writes this he says the work of the

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Lord and creating human life Involved both fashioning from the dust and in breathing the word formed in the

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Hebrew yes are Describes the work of an artist like a potter shaping an earthen vessel from clay

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So God formed man from clay man was was made by divine plan

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Also, he was made from the earth. He is earthy in spite of his subsequent dreams of being like God We will be like a

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God we will send on high right? We'll build the Tower of Babel the

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Hebrew for man The Hebrew word is Adam Went Adam you know from which came

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Adam, and it is related to the word for ground I Mean if you want to just call

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Adam dirt or clay that would be approximately correct Nice name right what's your child's name dirt?

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He's dirt Give him a bad self -image God's breathing of the breath of life into man transformed his form into a living being he went from just being a lump of clay

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Into having literally a living soul is what the Hebrew means This made man a spiritual being with a capacity for serving and fellowshipping with God With this special creation in mind the reader can see the significance of the fall

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Since the fall regeneration by the in breathing of the Holy Spirit is essential in order for people to enjoy fellowship with God first created

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Walking in the Garden of Eden walking and talking with God perfect fellowship and Then the fall lack of fellowship death

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Well, how do we come back to that? How do we get back into a right relationship? Well it had to be again through this work of God spiritual breath of life

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Another commentator says the breath of life literally of lives not only animal, but spiritual life

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If the body is so admirable how much more the soul with all its varied faculties

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MacArthur writes Made from dirt a man's value is not in the physical components that form his body, but in the quality of life

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Which forms his soul? Okay, so now again thinking about Cassandra thinking about Peter Johnson jr.

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Here's here's the question. I think we should look at from a Christian perspective Where's Cassandra going if she dies

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Where is Cassandra going if she dies and she will die if she gets no treatment her mom who loves her so much

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Where's Cassandra going if she dies we have no indication? Not one. I mean you know she would have written this essay

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And she would have said conclude it was something like you know what I trust in the Lord And I I really don't think

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I can make it through this chemo And you know I I know I'm heaven -bound anyway because Jesus Christ has paid for my sins.

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I would still disagree with her But at least I could say well It seems like maybe she saved her there's none of that So what you know would we want to we want to sit there

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We want to root for and just go you know what it's not right for the state to impose on her for the state to Take her from her family and and take custody of her and force her to take this chemotherapy

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But she's gonna die she's gonna go to hell is that what we really want

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Carol, okay?

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That's true. That's true, and and I certainly think that she would have had the

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The opportunity in court that you know the problem you get into when you get into court of course is I Want to present my side, okay?

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Bring forth your expert witnesses Well my expert has been you know giving laetrile

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Treatments in Mexico for 15 years Objection your honor you know no You know we can't test that we can't verify that you know they're only gonna allow doctors to testify right so you're gonna have a problem there

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So I mean that's certainly a medical opinion I think the question though is if we know that one thing works, and I know how well

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I don't Personally know how yet How bad chemotherapy is from an experiential standpoint?

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I've seen it I mean I talked to my dad while he was going through it I know that you know the whole philosophy is and Cassandra's mom is quite right about it.

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What is the philosophy behind chemotherapy? Yeah, hopefully it kills the cancer before it kills you because basically you are taking just like Cassandra's mom says you're taking poison

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Your body right the objective of chemotherapy is to get you so sick that the cancer dies and That you know they managed to bring you to ninety nine point nine nine nine percent death

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But not a hundred percent death, and then they bring you back So I mean it is a it's a painful.

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I mean Peter Johnson jr.. Talked about he goes I It was horrible He's you know he makes no bones about it.

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He says it was horrible I really felt like I was gonna die and there were times when I wanted to die, but they you know the and Believe me.

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I'm no big fan of the surety of medical science You know a few just a few examples.

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You know for one You know they when my dad got sick with cancer of the esophagus.

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They said Mr.. Cooley, this isn't gonna be a problem. We can we can get you through this you're gonna survive. You know

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I I'm sure that It didn't work out When my mom had her aneurysm near her brain five years ago five plus years ago and you know she was alone for 24 hours and You know they said this just would have killed just anybody and You know then she she gets to the hospital, and that's when she finally went into the coma

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When I went and saw her in the hospital she was in a coma in fact my sister came in from California the social worker at the hospital talked to us and said you know they bring us into this nice little quiet room and the social workers talking to us and My sister turns me, and she she says

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Steve. What what's she saying? I go Debbie She's trying to tell us that mom's gonna die well mom's not dead and so They don't know you know

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I I mean a lot of this is just guesswork We our sister -in -law's in the hospital in Iowa right now.

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She had a procedure a few weeks ago Somebody had the exact same surgery the day before Jay did

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Exact same procedure and went out the next day went home Jays almost died you know and I mean she is kind of teetering and You know now they're talking about Putting her in a rehab facility, but I mean she's still not aware of her surroundings and everything

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Especially when it comes to the brain. I think there's I think there really are just throwing darts at the dartboard

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I'm no big fan of it, but here's what I do know if 30 some odd years ago they were doing this you know chemotherapy bring somebody as close to death as possible and Then try to bring them back in at work then

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They haven't gotten worse in the last 30 years It seems to me that if this will work no matter how bad it is you know does she have the right to say well

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I don't want to do that. That's been proven to be very effective. I would rather Take some kind of experiential drug.

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Well. She's a minor and the state said no, and I'm like well It's a hard situation.

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You know for civil libertarians, and and this is not the other thing, but I think ultimately Like Charlie said is the state supposed to protect life.

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We like that right we'd like them to protect all life Including life in the womb so if they get a little overprotective in one area

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I'm I'm probably gonna be a little more of a fan of that I understand to you know when it comes to There was this other case where the state of Massachusetts stepped in but I don't want you want to get there

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Where they stepped in and they took? Custody of somebody who didn't live live in the state that was a big mess a

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Lot of what medicine does is guesswork. Well. Let's put it another way Like I like to say about evolution

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I Said this to one of my friends the other day. I said you know what? You like evolution you believe in evolution.

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Let me ask you a question. You know do you think 200 years from now? Scientists will look back at our time and say you know what they knew exactly

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How the how life originated and they had everything nailed with their theories of evolution well of course not well

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Why is that? Well because they'll know more okay, so science changes This is why

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I'm not a big fan of science science changes all the time I like I like science that you can prove, but not science its theory medicine changes a

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Couple hundred years from now. I'm sure that they're gonna look at what we do now in terms of especially

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I think how we treat the brain and They're gonna think man those people were witch doctors.

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They were horrible, and I think that's gonna be true of cancer, too Because they'll look at it and they'll go well

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Why don't you just put leeches on people what do you know a little bloodletting or something?

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Will you people with your chemotherapy I get that I hundred percent get that But if you have a treatable form of cancer, and you say well,

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I don't I don't want The way that they want to treat it. I want to do something else. I it's it's arguable

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I Understand what you're saying Carol, and I agree You know I think it's I think it's sketchy, but I think ultimately if they have a good track record

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Then you're gonna have to show why you want to do something else go ahead right

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Well, and I agree with that too, yeah, well, let me just say something about parental rights because Here's an amazing thought you know you're

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You're less than 18 year old child So your junior child your juvenile child your minor child

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May not get a tattoo without your approval But can get an abortion without your approval

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Now there's definitely something wrong with that and that that really makes no sense So that's I see that as a definite infringement on parental rights, and I understand what you're saying here, too

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I think though they have held in a number of cases especially with Christian scientists the courts have held that if withholding medical treatments, you know

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Your child has a Needs a transfusion or whatever that that would be Jehovah Witnesses Needs a transfusion and you say no our religion forbids that and that's the only thing that will save the child's life

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Courts have a tendency to intervene in that kind of thing So another question over here

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Yeah, yep Which is an excellent point Jodi says listen she said it's my body it's my right to decide

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Well, but that's the argument that's made for abortion right Which of course is incorrect as Charlie said why because it's not her body has a separate

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DNA Right. Yes, we all belong to the

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Lord. That is true. He's a creator. We are the creatures true He's the owner, you know, Psalm 24 the earth is the

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Lord's and all it contains, right? But going a step beyond that even just looking at it from the mere scientific viewpoints.

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How can you say that a child's body? Inside the mother is her own body when it has, you know separate

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DNA separate heartbeat, etc Etc, etc. So you could go right down the the list You know, how do you identify a human body by DNA?

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So, you know, let's say let's just get gruesome here for a moment. Sorry let's say there's an airplane crash and a woman is eight months pregnant and And she's just She winds up all over the airplane.

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Well, how would they identify where she was? Well, they could look at places and where her DNA was they could identify that as her but where her baby's

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DNA was They would say well her child was in that plane as well.

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They wouldn't have the same DNA You could see the you could see the family attachment, but it wouldn't be the same

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So, you know how how could a pregnant person say it's my body when it's not now

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She's saying it's my body and I wanted it and it is exactly the same Arguments and the court rules one way on one thing.

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But of course, this is the Connecticut Supreme Court and I I'm sorry to say

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I don't think courts are well known for their consistency If they were you know

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This would be a lot easier right because because she'd just say well, it's my body and my right and they'd go

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You win Go do what you want other thoughts.

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Yes Okay wait, I Pretty soon pretty soon.

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We're gonna need a flowchart Okay You know, let me see what if I could recap

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I can't recap What am I saying? minor child unsaved

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Let's leave aside the unsafe part for a moment minor child should the minor child be able to decide

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I want the right to Alternative treatment which in the courts mind and by the way, it doesn't matter whether I agree with this or not in the courts mind

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Refusing the chemotherapy is what? Death Okay, a couple years the court saying this child is going to die

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On the other hand take the chemotherapy, there's a very good chance to 80 % whatever it is.

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She's gonna live Well, you know what? Let me put it another way. Let's just talk about the 80 % for a minute

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If I told you that a given investment was 80 % likely to succeed Would you be likely to invest in that I'd say you probably would if on the other hand

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I told you you know what if You put all your money in this There's a 20 % chance that you'll get a decent return on it 20 %

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Life savings not really going for it. So back to your question.

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I Think that the state as Charlie said earlier Ought to be about protecting life and when you're talking about a child

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Whether it's in the womb or whether it's 17 years old I think they have a responsibility to protect that child because guess what?

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I don't think the child in the womb Has the right to determine whether it should die or not

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And I don't think a 17 year old has the wherewithal to decide whether he or she Has the best has the best thinking with regard to whether they're going to undergo a particular

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Treatment or not and you know parental rights I think there are any number of cases where parents have been overruled by the state for the good of the child and I think it's a tough one and I think what well,

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I I think I think the bar has to be the court looks at the situation, I mean

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I I I Think if the courts look in a situation and saying okay on the one hand good chance of living on the other hand

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Good chance of dying. I don't think that's that hard. Yes And and I'll get to Bob in a second

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But you know I want to say that sometimes I think that the day is coming when government will mandate that even adults have to wear

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Helmets in their homes 24 7, you know And maybe by the time you hit 65, you'll have to wear great big hip pads because what happens?

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They fall down they break their hips and they die from the you know, the recovery So, you know it you have to live life in a bubble, you know me we'll all be doing this bubble thing, you know and And one might argue it has reached a certain level but All I'd say, you know, should we artificially prolong life as long as possible?

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I think the answer to that is no but and The but there is we have to consider fully what it means to have the breath of life

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What it means to have the image of God what it means to really view life as valuable as Important as precious as God ordained and then say to ourselves again

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Should a 17 year old say my life for the next couple of years as I'm going through This is not going to be worth living.

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Therefore, whatever might lie beyond Age 19. I don't want to know about I don't think that's

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I Don't think that's in keeping with how we ought to view life.

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What's that? And she can't even enter a contract but we want to you know say well, she's right and her mom has the right to consign her to a

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One in five chance of survival. Let's let's just put it that way other thoughts or questions Well, I think that's right.

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That's what I want us to do because if we really think I mean we're thinking legal We're thinking about alternative medicine. We're thinking about all these other things.

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What does God say? How should we view life? And And and then move on from there.

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I mean, I think Let's put it this way. I'll back up a second. Then I'll take a couple more questions and we have to close it up I'm gonna go far afield here for a moment

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But I'll bring it back Why do you suppose that? Congregational rule is so popular in the

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United States. It's almost unheard of anywhere else in the world Why is it so popular in the United States? Because it mimics the democratic system one man one vote or you know, one person one vote to be more modern about it

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We like, you know every person to have their say because that's fair And I think the same thing can infect our thinking when it comes to this.

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Well, what about our American rights What about our right to be free from government infringement and I Wanted I want us to kind of shift our thinking and I think it's fine to think about the

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Constitution It's fine to think about how the courts and the government are overbearing because those things are true.

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But what about life? What about the God -ordained? Breath of life.

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What about the value in that? And and we're gonna see this bleed into a bunch of different scenarios

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I I think because like I said, there have been a lot of things that have come up To give you another example

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This young woman, I don't know if you've seen these pictures this young woman who does this game hunting over in Africa You know, you see pictures of her with dead leopards and she's you know

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She's got quite a toothy grin and I guess she's fairly attractive but you know, she's like lounging over all these dead animals that she shot and And you know, it took me a while to really figure out what bothered me about that And what bothered me about it is this idea that you should cavalierly go out hunting and killing things

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Because it here's the problem and we'll talk about when it's okay to just kill things to kill things

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But if we think about everything and we'll see this in Scripture every

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Animal has this God -given breath of life And we need to view it rightly no, it's not it's not a sin to go out and kill but it ought to be something that We think about unless you know the

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Bears charging at you, you know, then boom But big game hunting just for the sake of you know

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Photo ops or getting a reality show. I've heard that she has some desire to have that Those things should not we should just not think as Christians I want to go kill a rhino so that I can say

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I killed a rhino I shouldn't you know,

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I'll go a step further in just in terms of how we should view our stewardship of the planet. I Should not if I'm running a business just think well,

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I can dump those chemicals out the water because it saves me money. I Ought to think that's a sin to do that.

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This is God's creation. I ought not to do that It doesn't matter whether the government tells me it's wrong or not.

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I should know better Now other comments about this young woman here, yeah,

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I don't I Guess the other thing I mean you'll notice and I'll probably offend somebody here

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You'll notice that the American flags in the back there And I think the truth is, you know, we'd probably be more comfortable if it wasn't here at all

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Well, why is that aren't you guys proud to be Americans? I'm glad I live in the

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United States. I'm glad I was born here But there's a bigger picture and the bigger picture is we're

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Christians first, you know in Christ there no longer is

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Jew nor Gentile we're not that the world might view us as black or white or Asian or whatever, but we're in Christ.

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That's the issue Charlie. Yeah one more comment that we're gonna have to close in prayer

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That's an excellent question the question was what if she's a Christian, you know, then what would I say, you know what she was just Here's what

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I would say Supposing she was a Christian. I would say you know what? I think you should consider two things

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Number one is that in fact you have the breath of life that you've been granted not just regeneration, but you have life now and that other people are looking at how you do this how you

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Persevere through this trial and if you just say well, I've got cancer. Therefore, I'm gonna die because I'm in Christ Jesus and I don't care

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Then I'm going to suggest to you. Yep. I'd be we really have to close. So go ahead and be quick right and How do we how do we know because Because as a judge and this is what we would have to think about as a judge a judge is going to sit there and do what they can only listen to the best information that they have and They can't go well, you know what there's some trial in Switzerland or there's you know

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A treatment a speculative treatment in Brazil or there's you know All these different things all they could do is go by what the best experts say and you know again

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I'm not arguing that this is this is the ultimate treatment because I think you know Should the

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Lord Terry a couple hundred years for another there might be better treatment. The question is I First of all,

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I'd I see no reason to think she is a Christian But secondly if she was a Christian, it's like my my brother and sister -in -law.

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They are Christians in Iowa my brother's prayer throughout or my brother -in -law's prayer throughout all this is that he would a glorify the

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Lord in his response and B have opportunities a witness and I think that is the right attitude not

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I don't want to go through this pain Therefore I'm going to die That now there does reach a point and I understand that was with you know

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Mark Westcott where he wanted to die and I'm going I get that because he knew he wasn't gonna get any better there

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Medically speaking there was no way he was gonna get better But that's not the situation with this young woman, but the important thing for me is this

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How do we view? the gift of God that is life if life is a vapor which

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James says it is if We are inanimate clay we are nothing we are dirt

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Apart from the breath of God and this really is a gift. Then how should we view that gift? That is the issue.

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How should we view how other people treat it? We'd like we we think it's precious and God -given in the womb and I'm gonna suggest to you.

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It's always precious and God -given at any stage of life And we need to think about it that way and and whether or not as Americans we necessarily agree with this decision

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That's not the issue. The issue is how do we view through the prism of Scripture?

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difficulties in life Even the issues of life and death. Anyway, we have to close in prayer father

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Thank you for this time Lord. I pray that you just Convict us of our need to see things through Yeah, the lens of Scripture as you do and Lord these are difficult issues and I don't know that there's any

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Definitive answer for this young woman except we do know this that you've ordained all these things and that every situation in life you whether it's a terror attack over in France or whether it's our next paycheck

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Every issue in life every matter of life should be viewed through the prism of Scripture Father teach us to Value the importance of life teach us to number our days teach us to order our lives

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According to your word and to work on having a biblical worldview. We pray in Christ's name.