The Beauty of Life

Episode notes:

These programs make up today's Revive Our Hearts Weekend program:

"Why Is Human Life Precious?"

"Speaking Up for Life"

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Dannah Gresh: Autumn Lindsey is with an organization called Students for Life. She has a burden.

Autumn Lindsey: If you stand outside Planned Parenthood, the women coming out of there are crying. They’re broken, and they feel like they’ve lost something—because they have!

Dannah: There is a beauty inside every single person, even the broken ones, because we are made in the image of God. Today, we’re talking about the beauty of life.

Welcome to Revive Our Hearts Weekend, I’m Dannah Gresh. This weekend we celebrate the Sanctity of Human Life. 

The sanctity of human life is a contentious issue in our culture and has become even more so as of late. At the same time, we are seeing a possible shift in some states with some of the court cases here in the America, and that’s hopeful. You know what else gives me hope? Today, we’ll hear from a young woman who claims that it will be her generation to make changes to the abortion laws. She’s resolved! And it’s exciting to hear.

But first, I want us to hear Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth’s heart on the value that God has for every single human soul. It’s from a message that aired as a part of a series on the True Woman Manifesto. You’ll hear Nancy refer to that today in her teaching on life.

Before Nancy talks to us, we’ll begin with a poetic sermon written in 1927 by James Weldon Johnson. You'll hear it recited by singer Wintley Phipps.

Wintley Phipps:

From the bed of the river
God scooped the clay;
By the bank of the river 
He kneeled him down;
And there the great God Almighty 
Who lit the sun and fixed it in the sky,
Who flung the stars to the most far corner of the night,
Who rounded the earth in the middle of his hand;
This Great God 
Like a mammy bending over her baby,
Kneeled down in the dust
Toiling over a lump of clay
Till He shaped it in his own image;
Then into it he blew the breath of life,
And man became a living soul. 
Amen. 1

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: Well, we just heard a creative rendering of one of the most poignant and important scenes in the whole Bible. That scene, the Creation, is the foundation. It’s the starting place for the next affirmation in the True Woman Manifesto. Here’s what it says.

We affirm that human life is precious to God and is to be valued and protectedvfrom the point of conception until rightful death.

The sanctity of life. If you’ve been around any length of time, you know that this is a great divide in our country on this very issue. You hear a lot of rhetoric, a lot of intense emotions, a lot of finger pointing around this point. It’s easy for those of us who consider ourselves pro-life to lob grenades at those who disagree with us.

I want to give you five words today to wrap our thinking around. Five words to describe why God values human life, why it’s so precious to Him, and how human life is different from other life forms.

Here are the five words:Creation. Reflection. Affection. Redemption. Intention.

These five words (creation, reflection, affection, redemption, intention) inform us how we view life. How we view human life, and how we treat it. 

Creation. Human life is precious. It’s to be valued and protected because it is God’s special creation. The piece we just heard is called, “The Creation” from God’s Trombones. That wonderful piece was written back in 1927 by James Weldon Johnson.

It describes the creation of the man and the woman that was distinct from the rest of creation. You see, when God created trees and plants and animals and fish and birds, He merely spoke them into existence. But when God made human life, He, so to speak (and I don’t mean this in any way disrespectfully), rolled up His sleeves and got His hands involved. He personally shaped and made and formed human life in a way that is different than the rest of creation.

Genesis chapter 2 describes this process for us. I know it’s a familiar passage, but sometimes we need to just go back to these passages and read them or hear them with new eyes, new ears, as if we were reading them for the first time. Genesis 2:7.

Then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, [you can just picture this] and the man became a living creature.

God shaped the man. He formed the man. He breathed into him, and the man became a living soul. Verse 21 goes on:

So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made [he fashioned—the literal word is “he built”] into a woman (vv. 21–22).

It was a very personal, involved, engaged act of creation when it comes to the man and the woman. You see throughout Scripture, this emphasis on a personal God creating human beings.

“Is not he your father, who created you, who made you and established you?” (Deut. 32:6)

“Thus says the LORD who made you, who formed you from the womb and will help you.” (Isa. 44:2)

He is a personal God engaged in creating and in loving and in fathering and in helping His creation—human beings.

Now, it’s not surprising in all this that there is such a battle front when it comes to this whole issue of creation and evolution. That whole issue is not insignificant, because if we believe that humans evolved from lower forms of life, then life is ultimately meaningless—human life is meaningless. What we end up with is the “survival of the fittest.” This utilitarian view of life is where value of a creature depends on how healthy it is; how productive it is; how useful it is; what it can produce; how well it can function. This was the fundamental view of Nazism. Those who were considered less useful by the State ended up in concentration camps or gas chambers.

Even in our society today we see this move where it’s considered that those who are unable to function on their own or are considered unnecessary or a drain on the State or on their families or on society, you have more and more people saying those people have no right to live. Society, family, friends have a right, or maybe even an obligation, to end their lives. What we end up with in a national culture of death.

God thinks so differently. And many passages in the Scripture point this out. I think of that passage in Exodus chapter 4 where Moses is being conscripted by God into “duty.” And Moses is protesting, “I’m just not qualified for this job.” Moses says to the Lord, “Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent [I’m not a speaker], neither in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue” (v. 10). “I stutter. There’s no way I can go speak to Pharaoh, and tell him ‘let My people go.’”

Then the LORD said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the LORD? (Ex. 4:11).

You see, God says, “I have a purpose for the life of every human being I have created, in the way I have created him.” And some are not perfect as we would often define perfection. Some with what we would consider defects and flaws, but God has said, “I have made them. They are precious to Me.” God is the sovereign author and designer of life. That’s why He alone has the right to give and to take life.

Now the second word is reflection. Man was created to reflect the image of God. You’re familiar with the passage in Genesis chapter 1, verse 26. God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” This is the Trinity holding a council in heaven. And they say to each other, “Let us make man in our image.”

So God created man in his image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And god blessed them. (Gen. 1:27–28)

Unlike ladybugs and daffodils and geese and turtles, cute as we may think all these things are, man and woman, unlike all the rest of life, are created in the image of God, in the likeness of God, to reflect the glory of God. So human dignity and value and worth is not based on what we can produce or our achievements or our IQ or abilities or earning power or physical abilities or disabilities or how we measure up to others. Our dignity, our worth, our value is based on the fact that we were created in the image of God. By the way, that includes you.

Flawed and failing though you may see yourself to be, you were created to reflect the image of God. To devalue or harm human life is to devalue God. It’s to attempt to harm God Himself. God takes it personally when we devalue human life.

Creation. Reflection. And then, affection. The third word, affection.

Human beings are uniquely the object of God’s attention and affection. Don’t you love that passage in Psalm 8 that spells this out? The Psalmist says:

When I look at your heaven, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place [The implication is that those things are awesome; they’re amazing; they’re mind-boggling.] But what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? [Who are we?] Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly being [the angels] and crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea. (Ps. 8:3–8)

Listen, you may love your pet, but I’m telling you, your pet is nothing compared to you. God has a unique affection for human beings—for men, for women, for His creation— that is different than what He thinks or feels about any other created thing.

We have switched the price tags on God’s creation. We devalue human life while elevating other created things. You see that contrast on the Sermon on the Mount. Remember that passage in Matthew chapter 6 where Jesus says:

Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them [He cares for them; He takes care of them]. Are you not of more value than they? . . . Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? (Matt. 6:26-30)

You see God’s priorities, the value God places. Yes, He cares for birds. Yes, He cares for flowers. Yes, He robes them so they are beautifully dressed and adorned. But the way He cares about us is unique. It’s distinctive. God uniquely places His affection and attention on human beings. He cares for birds and flower. How much more does He care for us?

Human life is precious to God and is to be valued for these reasons. And then for a fourth and very important reason, redemption.

I won’t say much about that here except that it is just so obvious that Jesus did not come to this earth, leave the splendor of heaven, take on the form of a servant, and come and live for thirty-three years on this planet in order to die for slugs, or maple trees, or goldfinches. He didn’t do it for them. He gave His life, He shed His blood, He died for lost, sinful, fallen, human souls. Does that say something about the value of human life? It’s precious because of redemption.

And then number five, human life is precious and to be valued and protected because of intention. God was intentional about creating human life. He created us for His kingdom purposes. We were not a random thing that God just had as an afterthought. “I’ll think we’ll have something different.” God was intentional in creating us. And He has a mission, a plan, a purpose for each human life.

The plan has been in place from eternity past, before we ever were, before we were ever conceived. God knew us. He designed us. We were created in His mind, in His heart in eternity past with a specific plan and purpose for our lives. Scripture tells us that.

I love that verse in Ephesians 2. It’s right after verses 8 and 9 that talk about “by grace you were saved through faith. . . . It is a gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” And then it says, verse 10, “For we are his workmanship.” God formed the man. God made the woman. He shapes; He built. “We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for [a purpose for] good works, which God prepared beforehand [before He even made us. He planned those works] that we should walk in them.”

Your life is not an accident. God put you here for a purpose. God said to Jeremiah in chapter 1, “Before I formed you in the womb.” Before anyone thought about you. Before there was a cell in your being. “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations” (v. 5). God says, “I had a purpose for you. I had a design for your life.” Now God’s design for your life might not be to be a prophet to the nations, but it is something. God knows what it is, and it was designed for you before you were even born.

The apostle Paul recognized this. He says in Galatians 1, “God set me apart before I was born and called me by his grace” (v. 15).

Dannah: Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth is reminding us of just how precious life is to the One who created it. Let’s just review those words that Nancy shared to help us remember why God values your life:

• Creation
• Reflection
• Affection 
• Redemption 
• Intention 

If you got caught up in Nancy’s teaching, like I did, you can listen to this powerful episode in its entirety just go to ReviveOurHearts.com/weekend and click on "The Beauty of Life."

This is Revive Our Hearts Weekend, and I’m Dannah Gresh.

You know today’s topic of Sanctity of Life is a hot button topic in our society. I want to turn our attention to a young woman named Autumn Lindsey. Autumn read an article in Teen Vogue. The title was “What to Get a Friend Post-Abortion.” I can’t believe I just read that, more than that, I can't believe people are writing things like this. It was an article about ten things to get your friend, almost gag gifts, after an abortion. My heart breaks for what our young women are being fed.

When Autumn read that article, she felt it too. Her heart broke. She was concerned that the message being fed to teens her age was that abortion wasn’t a big deal. So Autumn did a video to rebut this line of thinking. A video that went viral. Here’s Autumn with some narration from Nancy.

Autumn on video: Hello, my name is Autumn. I’m sixteen, and would like to talk to you about an article recently posted by Teen Vogue called, “What to Get a Friend Post-Abortion.” And since I’m a teen, this was directed toward me, and I would like to respond.

Nancy: Autumn sounds so confident in this video. It might seem like she’s had a lot of experience in front of the camera.

Autumn: No, that was kind of the first video that I’ve ever made.

Autumn on video: The point of the article was to make this situation seem as lighthearted and nonchalant as possible in order to convince girls my age that abortion is no big deal. Well, we need to clarify one thing first: Abortion is a big deal—a very big deal—and to say it is not is simply feeding us a lie!

Autumn: So I just started out and said, “Teen Vogue should be responsible for this.” They’re a fashion magazine; they should not be talking about abortion in the first place. Second of all, they shouldn’t be talking about it in the way that they are.”

Autumn on video: Such a blasé approach hurts women who regret their abortions. It minimizes their pain!

Autumn: So I just kind of listed out some of the gift ideas. I think I talked about five or six. I just pointed out how incredibly offensive and crazy this article was!

Autumn on video: Gift number one: a funny movie. Let’s look what this is saying: “We understand that you’ve had a rough day, so here’s a funny movie to get your mind off of it.” 

Autumn: That’s not the time for that! Abortion is a loss, and so you shouldn’t be treating it like you just got your wisdom teeth taken out. You should be treating it for what it is—a tragedy!

Number seven: A needlepoint that reads, ‘We Won’t Go Back!’ I’m only sixteen and know that guilt follows women for years after abortions. And I also know a cross-stitch isn’t going to change that! But this article said, “There is nothing to be ashamed of or feel guilty about.”

If girls are being told this, no wonder our culture has become so desensitized to the idea of taking the life of a baby! It’s only after it happens and the guilt plagues them and the depression drags them down that they look at the cross-stitch on the wall that their friend gave them and think, I actually wish I could go back!

But sadly, by then it’s too late. The “We won’t go back” turns into, “We can’t go back.” Which, unfortunately, is something women only realize after they’ve had an abortion.”

And so, I just wanted to share with young girls that this is not the reality, and if you take this as truth, later on in life—if you do have an experience with abortion—you’ll understand that it is not what they laid it out to be, because not only is it physically painful, but mentally it leaves so many women in turmoil.

Planned Parenthood is saying, “This is the greatest thing for you; this is a good decision. You’re going to feel better.” But in all reality, if you stand outside Planned Parenthood, the women coming out of there are crying. They’re broken, and they feel like they’ve lost something—because they have!

But no one talks about that. So I think something that people need to be more aware of is that abortion is not something simple!

Nancy: In Autumn’s area, a group of young people had organized to speak up for life. Autumn had never gotten involved with that group, but once she recorded this video, she began partnering with them to let people know about it.

Autumn: So we actually reached out to Students for Life of America, which is a very large non-profit pro-life organization. Because that was the group that had started in my area, we reached out to them and asked them if this was something they’d be interested in sharing.

They picked up the video, shared it through their outlets, and so then we kind of just started watching the views go up and seeing the shares and the comments—which was unbelievable! I tried as I hard as I could to not read the comments, because the bigger it got, the more circles it reached. It kind of left the pro-life circle which we kind of started in.

So the video started to get big and then . . . I now teamed up Students for Life. I intern for them. I speak at conferences on behalf of them now. I do videos, interviews, blog posts, so it’s been a really, really amazing experience! And it all started with a ten-minute video.

Nancy: By the time our team talked with Autumn, this video had been seen by a large audience.

Autumn: If you add up all the outlets it was shared on, I think it’s about seven million! So it’s beyond expectations of what we thought it would do!

Nancy: Autumn realized that by speaking up, it encouraged other young people to get involved with this issue as well.

Autumn: What surprised me the most, I think, was the fact that God used it so quickly! He had been planning this for years. I compete in a speech and debate league; I started that about three years ago. Three years ago, I hated speaking in front of people! I would never had done this.

I think way back then He knew this is a tool I would need now, the ability to speak. Thinking about all of the things that He had set up for this moment . . . He started years ago preparing me for all of this—working in my heart, giving me compassion for the pro-life movement, giving me the ability to know how to speak and debate so that I can handle this issues, but also do it in a way that’s loving and compassionate. So I think the most surprising thing is how long God has been preparing for this.

I think, for me, the biggest thing has been being able to be a voice for other teens. I meet a lot of people that now look up to me because of what I’ve done. But I get to stand there and say, “It’s nothing special; there’s nothing unique about me that makes me more able to do this than anyone else.”

It’s really just the fact that I was willing to stand up for what I believe in and be a voice, and God is going to use that for His glory. It has been such an amazing experience to be not only kind of a role model for other teens, but just to be an encouragement to say, “This is absolutely something that you can do.” I get to encourage teens to be involved in the most important movement of our time.

Dannah: Wow! That is hope filled. That was Autumn Lindsey, who now works with Students for Life as their Marketing Coordinator and spokesperson. Were you challenged by her story? Me too, what she did and continues to do takes guts. She’s taking a stand and this stand is speaking volumes. We have a link to this original broadcast and Autumn’s famous video on our website, ReviveOurHearts.com/weekend and click on "The Beauty of Life."

Autumn believes that her generation will be the generation to end abortion, or to make it no longer legal. Autumn not only says that, she’s not afraid to post a video, pray outside of abortion clinics, and kindly engage in conversation with people who don’t believe like her. 

Human life is precious to God. Autumn knows that. I know that. And I’m sure you know that too. Maybe write down Nancy’s five words to describe why God values human life: creation, reflection, affection, redemption, intention. 

Write those down, memorize them, and maybe softly but confidently share them with someone who might need to hear how much God loves them.

You know, one way to be confident in what God says about life is to study His Word. To read it, to soak in it and to seek His thoughts and words. Revive Our Hearts wants to help you do just that.

For your financial gift of any amount this month, we will send you A Place of Quiet Rest Journal by Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth. This journal will help you begin cultivating a deeper understanding of what God says about you, and also what He says about Himself.

Giving a financial gift is quick and easy. Go online to ReviveOurHearts.com/weekend and click on today’s episode. It’s called "The Beauty of Life." Or give by calling 1–800–569–5959. Don’t forget to ask for your copy of A Place of Quiet Rest Journal. 

Today we talked about the "Beauty of Life," next week let’s talk about the beauty of our creator, the One who created all that life. That’s next week on Revive Our Hearts Weekend. 

Thanks for listening today. Thanks to our team: Phil Krause, Blake Bratton, Rebekah Krause, Justin Converse, Michelle Hill. And for Revive Our Hearts Weekend, I’m Dannah Gresh

Revive Our Hearts, calling women to freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness in Christ.

¹ James Weldon Johnson, “God’s Trombones: The Creation”—From The Heath Anthology of American Literature, Volume Two, Second Edition, 1053–1055. Reading by Wintley Phipps. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-h4_VPXdoY&NR=1

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