Episode Transcript
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SPEAKER_01 (00:16):
Welcome back to the
Pro Life Kitchen Table.
I'm Deborah Holyfield, and I'mlooking forward to switching
things up a little for the last13 weeks of the Baby Chris
Devotional Project.
We're going to continue witheach week of the development
through week 40, when Baby Chriswill be delivered.
But instead of sharing anarticle or essay in the first
(00:38):
segment of each episode, likewe've been doing so far, I'm
going to share a story about thepregnant women in the Bible,
Eve, Hagar, Sarah, Mary, and theothers.
And best of all, from my pointof view, these character studies
that actually reveal thecharacter of God are excerpts
from a wonderful book written bymy dear friend Marie Bowen,
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entitled Pregnant with Promise,a Study of the Character of God
who Cherishes Human Life asShown Through the Stories of
Women of the Bible.
Marie served as the executivedirector of Presbyterians
Protecting Life for many yearsand is a wealth of knowledge of
the scriptures, the pro-lifemovement, and the issues of
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pregnancy and abortion.
Her book was first published in2010, and while it is presently
out of print, it may still beavailable with a few online
sellers.
The book itself is a Biblestudy, and of course, this
podcast format won't lend itselfto Q ⁇ A, but I will put the
scripture references in the shownotes.
(01:41):
I hope you will enjoy theseupcoming weeks as we explore the
lives of our pregnant sisterswho met difficult pregnancies
with faith in God.
The first five mothers mentionedin Scripture are in the book of
Genesis, so we will also spendsome time exploring the themes
of Genesis that will continue toreveal the character of God
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throughout the stories of thenext seven mothers.
Our first young mother, bothliterally in Genesis and for our
series here, is of course Eve.
Eve discovered that God is a godof surprises, and she learns
about grace, hope, faith, andlife.
A little bit about the backdropof Genesis is that it's
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important to remember thatGenesis covers a huge span of
time.
The stories and events recordedare chosen specifically for a
purpose to help us consider whatis God's intent in preserving
this particular story for futuregenerations.
What is God telling us aboutHimself?
How can we better relate to Godas His people?
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In the first pages of chapterone, we read about the account
of the creation of the worldfrom the darkness and void of
chaos to light and order, andwhere there is nothing, he goes
on to create beauty and life.
On the sixth day he createshumans in his own image.
So God created man in his ownimage, in the image of God he
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created him.
Male and female he created them,and then God blesses them
together with the command to befruitful and multiply.
In chapter two of Genesis, wefind that God has planted a
garden where every tree ispleasant to the eye and good for
food, but two trees arementioned specifically the tree
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of life and the tree ofknowledge of good and evil.
Verse seventeen records thesingle prohibition that while
the man and the woman havepermission to eat of any tree,
they are forbidden to eat thefruit of the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil.
So the man and the woman liveand work together in the garden
in a special relationship thatis unique among all creation,
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that the two should become oneflesh.
There is mutuality, intimacy,and shared responsibility.
They are both naked andunashamed.
But in chapter three, there isan account that we describe as
the fall, where theirdisobedience in eating the fruit
of the tree of the knowledge ofgood and evil immediately
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changes their relationship.
Their intimacy is destroyed.
The open trust in theirrelationship with God is gone.
They are afraid of God'spresence, and they hide from
him.
When God confronts them with thequestion, have you eaten of the
tree of which I commanded younot to eat?
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They don't deny eating thefruit.
But Adam blames the woman andshe blames the serpent.
God pronounces his punishmentfor all three.
The man and the woman rightlyexpected to die that day because
God had warned them, for in theday that you eat of it you shall
surely die.
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But the mercy, grace, andjustice of God is evident in
their punishments.
The serpent is condemned tocrawl forever on his belly, and
is now at war with the woman,and the serpent's offspring will
be at war with her offspring.
Adam is now condemned to battlethorns and thistles for his very
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food, and worse death wouldcome, and he would return to the
dust from which he had beenmade.
And to the woman God said, Iwill surely multiply your pain
in childbearing.
In pain you shall bring forthchildren, your desire shall be
for your husband, and he shallrule over you.
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Remember, her intendedrelationship with Adam was
mutuality, shared responsibilityand intimacy, but the fall had
made it more difficult anddestroyed much of it where it
had once existed in therelationship between the man and
the woman, and now shame,selfishness, conflict, and
competition have beenintroduced.
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Still, where Adam is relieved tofind that their deaths will not
be immediate, he gives his wifeher new name, Eve, which means
living, so that she will foreverbe known as the mother of all
living.
Eve's name defines not herorigins but her destiny.
Humanity will not end becauseAdam and Eve disobeyed God's
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word.
Instead, embedded in Eve'spunishment is God's promise of a
future for humanity, salvation,and the restoration of eternal
life.
Genesis chapter four begins NowAdam knew Eve, his wife, and she
conceived and bore Cain, saying,I have gotten a man with the
help of the Lord.
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And again she bore his brotherAbel.
For any woman who has conceiveda child and lived through nine
months of pregnancy, and thenendured a hard, painful labor
bringing that child to birth,this terse description is
totally inadequate.
Yet we have all that is neededfor us to see God's grace.
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Eve has already suffered for herdisobedience.
Her childbirth is painful.
Harmony, intimacy, and mutualityare difficult in her marriage.
But looking into the face of herchild she must have understood
the great grace of God.
Not only has her life beenextended, but through her seed
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God has promised to bruise thehead of the serpent who is now
warring against her offspring.
Eve does not know all that is tocome.
Her firstborn Cain will murderhis brother Abel.
God will give her a third sonnamed Seth, and it is through
him that our Lord and SaviorJesus Christ, the very Son of
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God, will eventually be born.
When he comes, the brokenrelationship between humanity
and God will be restored.
Eve doesn't know any of this,but she does know that God has
granted life where death wasdeserved.
Like Eve, in our daily decisionsabout right and wrong, we rarely
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think about the impact of ouractions on future generations.
I can think of many times when Irationalized a behavior or an
attitude that I knew was wrongby saying, Surely God didn't
mean that.
Have you ever adjusted yourinterpretation of the meaning of
Scripture in order toaccommodate your actions?
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Do you now find that yourbehavior has been changed in
significant ways by yourrelationship with Jesus Christ?
Now more than ever, we live in asociety that uses power and
control in relationships assomething to be achieved.
We spend a lot of time and moneytrying to make ourselves appear
better than the other and incontrol.
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It's no wonder that women rebelagainst the part of God's word
to Eve that says, and he shallrule over you.
It's a challenge to set asideour cultural concepts of what
that means and see God's promisein what we see as a punishment.
Yet as we have all learned, Godleads us to believe that He
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intends this for our care,provision, and protection.
Hear the word of the Lord.
Therefore, just as sin came intothe world through one man and
death through sin, and so deathspread to all people because all
sinned.
For indeed sin was in the worldbefore the law was given.
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But sin is not counted wherethere is no law.
Yet death reigned from Adam toMoses even over those whose
sinning was not like thetransgression of Adam, who was a
type of the one to come.
But the free gift is not likethe trespass, for though many
die through one man's trespass,much more hath the grace of God
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and the free gift by the graceof that one man Jesus Christ,
abounded for many.
And the free gift is not likethe result of that one man, for
the judgment following onetrespass brought condemnation,
but the free gift following manytrespasses brought
justification.
For if because of one man'strespass death reigned through
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that one man, much more willthose who receive the abundance
of grace and the free gift ofrighteousness reign in life
through the one man, JesusChrist.
Romans chapter five, versestwelve through seventeen.
This is the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
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And now we are ready for ourbreak, so you can go and check
and see if the baby is stillasleep, because when we come
back, we are going to hear aboutbaby Chris's dreams.
SPEAKER_00 (11:13):
We have answers to
your questions, referrals to
specialized care like abortionpill reversal and post-abortion
recovery, current statistics andinformation, discussion
starters, and devotionals tohelp you think about and share
about pregnancy and abortion,adoption, foster care, and even
suicide, assisted suicide andend-of-life challenges.
Visit ppl.org to learn more.
SPEAKER_01 (11:40):
This week
twenty-eight baby Chris
devotional is called Booting Up.
Hear the word of the Lord.
When there is a prophet amongyou, I, the Lord, reveal myself
to them in visions, I speak tothem in dreams.
Numbers chapter twelve, versesix.
Thanks be to God.
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At twenty eight weeks, babyChris's brain development is
continuing rapidly, and his headis now in proportion to his
body.
He has rem rapid eye movementduring sleep phases.
In adults, rem indicates a dreamstate.
Scientists are intrigued by theidea that if babies have rem in
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the womb, it follows that babiesalso dream.
But what could he be dreamingabout?
The voices he has heard today?
Harsh, soft, exciting voicesreading of stories?
Do babies have the same kind ofsurreal images and sensations in
their dreams as adults?
Some scientists believe thatinstead of dreaming in the womb,
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baby's REM activity indicatesthe development of neural
connections related to language.
Whatever is happening a lot ishappening while we sleep, no
matter what our age or stage ofdevelopment.
And it happens without inputfrom or activity by the sleeping
human.
There is a computer term bootthat describes the process when
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a computer is powered on and thevery first program starts up,
followed by a series ofprocesses.
When we reboot a computer, weare forcing the computer to
refresh and repeat those stepsagain.
Maybe REM is something likethat.
Our mental programs are runningin the background, embedding
memories, processinginformation, cleaning up neural
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pathways as we sleep.
And when we reawaken, rebootingafresh for maximum cognitive
functioning in the next wakeperiod.
To be made in the image of Godmeans many things.
Unlike animals, humans share theattributes of our creator love,
self awareness, justice, grace,and mercy.
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While we acknowledge theexistence of DNA and the
multitude of uniquecharacteristics and propensities
it carries, the spiritualaspects that separate human
beings from the animal world aremore than just the sum of
chemicals and the mechanics ofcell division.
These spiritual aspects of ourbeing, the expression of the
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imagode, is something thought ofas personhood.
Some philosophers argue that thesentience that comes with
personhood, the self awarenessand the ability to relate
emotionally and consciously toour environment and other human
beings, should be theutilitarian litmus test for when
life begins.
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But REM in the womb, coupledwith the ability to recognize
human voices at weeks twentyfive through twenty eight,
respond to music at weeksixteen, react to touch at eight
weeks, recoil from pain attwenty weeks, and self soothe at
twenty seven weeks, indicatesthat self-awareness and
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environmental interaction arepresent in utero.
It seems there is a point in ourearliest fetal development, or
even before, when God beginsequipping and gifting humans
with whatever it is that theywill need to become the fullest
expression of the Imago Day intheir unique selves.
There is a Kairos timedesignated by God when we are
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equipped and gifted to answerGod's call and fulfill God's
purposes as evidenced in theprenatal call stories of the
patriarchs, prophets, and ChristHimself.
I would not go so far as to callit programming, but perhaps
mapping the hard drive isn't toomuch of a stretch.
There is something intentionalgoing on.
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God is fashioning a dream cometrue.
Hear the word of the Lord, forGod does speak now one way, now
another, though no one perceivesit.
In a dream, in a vision of thenight, when deep sleep falls on
people as they slumber in theirbeds.
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Job chapter thirty-three, versesfourteen through eighteen.
Thanks be to God.
SPEAKER_00 (16:22):
We hope you enjoyed
this week's reflection.
We encourage you to share it andjoin us next time on Pro Life
Kitchen Table.
May God bless you.