Making Life Work

From the Program Notes of Ronald L. Dart

    There was a time when I thought anti-abortion people were a little too cute in calling themselves, “pro-life.” I don’t think that any longer. I have come to the conclusion that it was precisely the right term to use—at least it is the right term for Christians to use.

    The real issue is much bigger than abortion. To some degree, the issue is clouded by the terminology. For example, “choice” is not the opposite of “life,”as in “pro-choice vs. pro-life.” The opposite of life is death.

“This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live” (Deuteronomy 30:19 NIV).

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From Ronald L. Dart's Program Notes:

    Does God get angry? We know he does. Everyone has heard about the wrath of God. It’s fair to say many people don’t see what God has to be all that angry about. When they read the Scriptures about the wrath of God, they may shiver a little, but they really don’t understand. They either think of God as a belligerent tyrant, or they don’t believe he’s all that angry.

    Between the movies, The Ten Commandments and The Prince of Egypt, everybody knows how the death of the firstborn in Egypt was the means God used to finally force Pharaoh to let the Israelites go. But, someone asked on one of our Internet forums why God had to kill the firstborn of Egypt just to get the Israelites out of there. After all, he’s...

By: Ronald L. Dart

The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter! Even the sea monsters draw out the breast, they nurse their young ones: the daughter of my people is become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness (Lamentations 4:1-3).

    The high school graduating class of ‘94 was decimated by a terrible plague and no one paid it much mind. If a bus load of them had been killed on the way to a game, it would have made headlines–at least locally. If a school had blown up and killed a few hundred of them it would have made national, even worldwide, news.

By: Ernie Klassek

    NO, DO NOT BE SURPRISED—the time is coming when all those who are dead and buried will hear His voice and out they will come— those who have done right will rise again to life, but those who have done wrong will rise to face judgment!

    That is how J. B. Phillips rendered some words of Jesus in St. John’s Gospel.1

    St. John described a similar scenario of people coming back to life in another book: "Then the sea gave up its dead. Death and the world of the dead also gave up the dead they held. And all were judged according to what they had done." 2

    All. When we read that word we think of every human being—past, present, and future—our ancestors, people here and now, and those yet to come.

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