Class Lesson January 15, 2012

Hey Gang,

Our lesson this week says that we live in a culture that actually sees some people as disposable, having no real value. Can you believe that? As Christians we are called to oppose what is wrong and support what is right. People that are considered expendable, end up on the trash heap of history and many of them need to be cared for; their plights are physical and spiritual. In the case of some, it is a matter of life and death, because they are powerless to defend themselves. The hand of God should guide our care of each of these precious lives.  

God values life and so should we. Let’s show respect for others by treating them as God sees them and values them.

Yes, it's Sanctity of Human Life Sunday and most of the time this lesson deals with the subject of abortion. Not to minimize the importance of this topic, but many times other sanctity of human life issues go unnoticed - can you name them?

SUNDAY

 Disposable

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Define expendable. Who are the expendable in our society?

• Expendable = For use or consumption; not worth preserving; not really necessary; can be sacrificed for the sake of an objective.

• Prevalence of abortion, human trafficking, euthanasia, and elder, spouse, and child abuse reveals this culture’s view that anything or anyone that doesn’t benefit me can be tossed.

• Most of us are not uncaring, but it may be difficult to naturally show care for the vulnerable and unlovely.

Psalm 139

Our study of Psalm 139 will show us just how God views people. God not only knew the psalmist intimately, He knew everything about him. God knew his words and deeds, his thoughts and intentions. God’s knowledge grew out of the fact that He had created him and formed him in his mother’s womb. David, as all human beings, was fearfully and wonderfully made. David’s psalm illustrates God’s love for all people. And because God loves all people, He values all people, and because He values them, He has a plan for them. The challenge we face as we study this psalm is to evaluate our own actions (or inaction's) that either devalue people or usurp the plans God has for them. Three important truths from Psalm 139 this week: God values us, God has a plan for us, and God is with us.

I. GOD VALUES US – PSALM 139:1-6

1 LORD, You have searched me and known me. 2 You know when I sit down and when I stand up; You understand my thoughts from far away. 3 You observe my travels and my rest; You are aware of all my ways. 4 Before a word is on my tongue, You know all about it, LORD. 5 You have encircled me; You have placed Your hand on me. 6 This extraordinary knowledge is beyond me. It is lofty; I am unable to reach it. 

King David authored many of the psalms; this is one of his. David's focus was one thing: God knew him intimately. Who knows you better than anyone else? What is the benefit of knowing someone? Does this give you more reason to value them?



If you knew everything about a person – all his or her secrets – what might be your attitude about the person? What is God’s attitude, evidenced by His actions, about you? 

 What if I knew more?

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Does it frighten you or comfort you to be so completely known by God?

• God knows each believer.
• God knows everything about each one.
• Some people view this as stifling control.
• Others see it as His awesome protection.

If I were to crumple up and trample a $20 bill, would it still be valuable? What does this say about people our culture considers expendable?

• No matter what people have been through, even brought on themselves, they still matter.
• Everyone is valuable, even those who have abortion in their past. God’s grace restores all who repent and seek His forgiveness.

How can the elderly HOLD their value?



How would seeing yourself as valuable help you regard others as valuable? Would this also help you treat them so? Does God's value of you give you reason to value others?

II. GOD HAS A PLAN FOR US – PSALM 139:13-16

13 For it was You who created my inward parts; You knit me together in my mother’s womb. 14 I will praise You because I have been remarkably and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful, and I know this very well. 15 My bones were not hidden from You when I was made in secret, when I was formed in the depths of the earth. 16 Your eyes saw me when I was formless; all my days were written in Your book and planned before a single one of them began.

This passage is sometimes used to encourage and uplift those who feel confused or listless. However, it is one of the most profound and faith-altering passages in all of scripture: God has loved us since before we took our first breath. What an amazing truth. What an amazing God. This should change our lives not only in our big-picture planning but also in our day-to-day activities.
 

How can we tell what’s God’s plan and what’s not God’s plan? Why does God’s plan sometimes take time?  Are our elder years part of God's plan? Is our pre-birth time also part of God's plan?






Do you think medical advancements have added to or taken away from the majesty and mystery of birth? What is the contrast to the cultural and biblical view of conception? Why is life valuable, period?

• God is involved in conception and in the development of life within the womb. These things are not purely biological in nature.
• The unborn child is a human being.
• God creates each person in the womb and endows each with the same image of God given to the first pair.
• God has a purpose for people before they are born.
• None of the differences between an unborn child and a new-born baby is significant enough to consider the unborn child to be less than human.
• Since the unborn child is a human being, that life is to be nurtured and protected, not threatened or taken.

Think about things you are intimately involved in creating. Do you make those things just to forget about them or for a purpose? Why does God create each person? How do these verses affirm the valuable purpose of not just the unborn but the homebound, handicapped, and terminally ill? 

• Believers need to speak up not only to affirm each life is wonderful but to defend each person’s, born and unborn, right to life.
• We don’t have to justify anyone’s existence.
• Every person, even those severely handicapped, is more like us than unlike us. One way to show love is to find a commonality and to build a friendship on it.

 

III. GOD IS WITH US – PSALM 139:17-18

17 God, how difficult Your thoughts are for me to comprehend; how vast their sum is! 18 If I counted them, they would outnumber the grains of sand; when I wake up, I am still with You. 

What was the psalmist finding difficult to comprehend about God? Can you relate to his overwhelmed state?
 


God is so amazing that we can't begin to take it in. It simply indescribable that He cares so much. And though we feel loved and comforted at the thought of God actively loving us; we sometimes live our adult lives wondering if He's still really involved or interested at all.

What circumstances have caused you to doubt God's presence or love?

Who are the expendable in society? What is our responsibility to them? How can we as a class work together to value and defend life? How can we individually value life on a daily basis? 



Below is an article I read this week. Read it and tell me what you think?

Our Disposable Society

  By: Michelle and Charles Wise 

Our nation is caught up in the problems of today. If you ask the people of America, "Is our society broken?" many would respond with an overwhelming "Yes!" We are worried about the economy, environment, stock market, and losing our homes. Many of us feel broken by the stress of every day life and how we are going to pay the rent or the bills. But the real judge of how broken our society has become is the state of our elderly.


The President has recently thrown our seniors a bone and is giving them each $250 for the stimulus. Is that a joke? Most seniors need a lot more than that token gesture. We have forgotten that many of them had invested their retirement in the stock market and trusted individuals to make sound decisions for them. They have taken a hard hit to their means of survival and some will be forced from their homes. I have heard several even debating that they might need to get back into the work force to make ends meet. But with a society that doesn't think that older is necessarily wiser, could they really get a job? How could we be so busy and self absorbed to forget about those who have come before us? Our tunnel vision is just that, we are focused on our problems. Who has time to be focused on Mom or Dad, when we have kids to support and lives to live? We are forgetting that many of them have had to bail us out time and time again when we needed them. We are trying to solve our problems, but what about theirs?


When we think back on our seniors it should be with reverence. Have they not paved our proverbial road? They made our country what it is today with blood, sweat and tears. Are they to be forgotten? What about their legacy and stories, those that go back generations? Do we listen as tentatively as we should? Do we care?


I am a Home Health Nurse and when I think about many of my patients, many of them are facing a crisis of "Should I buy food or get my medications this month"? "Do I need to sell my home or file bankruptcy?" Many of them are facing large looming medical bills that they thought Medicare would cover. If they don't have supplemental health insurance it is now too late to purchase it or it is too expensive. Many "nice" retirement homes or assisted livings charge an exorbitant amount monthly. Seniors have to spend all of their savings and then when they run through that hope they can transition to a Medicaid bed. This is an equivalent of a housing project, where they get to look forward to their monthly Social Security check being signed over to the nursing home for their care.


All I can say to the "Baby Boomers" is you better be prepared. The system is a mess and you are about to jump off into the deep end. Start planning and hope that you have been nice to your children. Because most of them have seen you make excuses for not wanting your Mom or Dad to move into your home; because they are too much trouble; have medical problems that would be better suited for medical professionals; have Alzheimer's and they would be too hard to supervise; or better yet you are just too busy. These are the examples that are being set.

What it really has come down to is that the family unit does not look like it once did. In the past generations of America, and presently in most other countries around the world, the elderly are revered and treated with respect. They are brought into the family home, to live as a "family." To have dinners, share stories of the past, and celebrate their last days. We need to get back to these traditions before it is too late.


It should not be an option that Gramma will go to the nursing home. It should be a last resort! Grandmother or Grandfather is brought "home", no questions asked. Our elderly should be treasured, not placed out on the curb for recycling or put out to pasture in some slum nursing home. They fought wars, built our cities, and gave us life. Are we really too busy, or just too blind to see all that we owe?


I can't tell you how many sad, depressed, lonely seniors I see on a daily basis. It breaks my heart because many of them don't have a voice or a family to care or hear it. Many are waiting to go off to heaven and a life beyond because their families have left them to die. Or else they feel that they are a burden and that they have nothing left to contribute. How sad it is when they have given everything and the only thing they have to look forward to is spending their last days worthless and alone.


What I want to know is this - what were the 60's and 70's about, was it a revolt from the stifling ways of your parents? Was it is about free choice and no responsibilities? Doing what feels good and about instant gratification? This mentality has made us so used to the fast food world of it all. We have made computers, televisions, and radios that are so cheap we just replace them. We have become a disposable society. Now our parents are in that same boat. Is this what we really wanted? When the "Baby Boomers" raised their children this way, was this the example they really wanted to set? In my house it was. "Do what feels good and right at the time--we will pay for the consequences later." When I look at our youth, it's apparent that the time has come to pay the bill. Children these days have all sorts of problems and it is a direct reflection on our society. What is empathy? What is selflessness? What is doing good for others without getting anything in return?


Many families live in other states far away from Gramma and Grandpa on purpose, and like it that way. That way it is harder to be bothered, and besides that, someone else can take care of their folks. What's even worse, there are others who live in the same towns, but don't make them the priority.


The common thread seems to be this, that "The Golden Years" are not too golden. Now that I'm out on the front lines, I can say with assurance that there isn't much to look forward to. In fact, most of my seniors, the ones who have the luxury to be in their own homes and perhaps still with a spouse, tell me to have fun while you can. Don't wait until you retire to start living your life, because there's nothing to look forward to once you get old.


Not everything was meant to be recycled. I want those who have elderly people in their lives to stop and take a minute with this article. I want you to ask yourself, "Am I doing all that I can to make my parent(s) comfortable and happy?" "Am I failing the ones who paved our road?" The next question you might ask yourself is this: "Will this be me in ten or fifteen years?" The decision is yours. Will you be trash or treasure?
 

End of article.

Prayer of Commitment

Lord, help me live with reverence for this sanctity of human life, and help me make my stand clear. Amen

 
Please be in prayer this week for this lesson as it speaks to so many issues we are facing right now. Have a blessed rest of the week as we continue in God's unchanging truths for a radically changing world.

See you on Sunday! 


In His Love,

David & Susan