"God loves and celebrates life. So must we."
You make known to me the path of life… (Psalm 16:11)
For many in America today, the advent of June signals the beginning of what has been labeled “Pride Month” by the activist Left. Originally linked to what is called the “Stonewall Uprising,” Pride Month symbolizes glowing affirmation of LGBTQ identity.
All June long, corporations and cultural institutions practically trip over themselves to promote their involvement in Pride Month, putting many Christians (or people who simply hold to a traditional sexual ethic) in difficult spots. When we try to watch a show at the end of a workday, our entertainment platforms drive us to Pride Month content. When buying a tube of toothpaste at our local big-box store, Pride Month displays greet us. When we watch sports, teams wear rainbow patches to celebrate Pride Month. The celebration of LGBTQ identity feels ubiquitous, and belies the claim that our public square is “neutral” and closed to assertive worldviews.
𝐖𝐞 𝐋𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐃𝐚𝐫𝐤 𝐃𝐚𝐲𝐬
From many angles, the entire tone of June in America has shifted. It is one of aggressive approval of a heart attitude that the Word of God rebukes in no uncertain terms: pride. To be proud in one’s natural instincts and desires is to go against God at full velocity. It is to put oneself under certain threat of eternal judgment. Sin, after all, is at base nothing other than pride — it is choosing one’s way over God’s way, and one’s instinctual desires over God’s eternal truth. How we Christians should tremble and pray for all who exult in Pride Month. How we should reach out to them, and proclaim Christ in love to fellow sinners just like us.
But we should not stop there. We have our own cause to celebrate in June. Our cause, quite simply, is life. In June 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade, the devastatingly inhumane court decision that since 1973 has enabled the destruction of millions upon millions of children. In the long annals of public jurisprudence, one can scarcely find a more wicked measure than Roe. Yet in his all-wise providence, God saw fit to strike Roe down right in the middle of Pride Month. What a rebuke! What an otherworldly intervention.
It’s hard to underplay just how shocking this development was and is. News of the coming overturning of Roe started leaking in early May 2022. Personally, I happened to be flying into D.C. for FRC meetings just as this news broke. It seemed too wonderful to be true: the most monstrously evil decision in modern American history was going to be struck down? The night after word got out, FRC staffer David Closson and I went to the Supreme Court. The tone was one of rage as countless young men and women protested the news. I scarcely knew what to do as David and I wound our way through the huge — and very angry — crowds. Was this real life?
𝐉𝐮𝐧𝐞 𝐈𝐬 𝐋𝐢𝐟𝐞 𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐡, 𝐍𝐨𝐭 𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐡
It was indeed real life. But those days of dazed wonderment are over. Now, as in ancient Israel, have come the days of settled joy. No, the fight against abortion is not over, not by a long shot. But believers should celebrate genuinely God-given victories. We who are saved by grace would be ungrateful children indeed if we did not honor this great outcome in the public square, one akin to the ban on slavery in Wilberforce’s day. Toward that end, here’s my encouragement: all through June, celebrate “Life Month.”
We should not do so in an obnoxious way. We are not fighting flesh and blood, after all. But in days that feel so dark, God has given us a great victory. This means that June is no longer a month for exalting human pride; June is a month for exalting God’s greatness. It is a time to rejoice in God’s gift of life, natural life, and spiritual life. God is our Creator, making every image-bearer such that every single unborn child has God-given dignity, worth, and purpose. God is also our Redeemer, making dead sinners live through the gospel message (Romans 1:16).
There is no better message than this. It is far, far greater than the pagan gospel, the message that you will find true happiness by embracing your natural instincts and then finding affirmation from others in them. This is no gospel at all, in reality, and it leads to fleshly captivity. But according to the true gospel, there is a way out of this enslavement. God is not only Creator and Redeemer, but Lord. The risen and ascended Christ rules the cosmos. At present, his rule is a spiritual rule, calling us to forsake the flesh, join the visible church as members, and live by grace as salt and light in this realm. In human pride, there is slavery; in Christ alone, there is freedom.
𝐆𝐨𝐝 𝐋𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐋𝐢𝐟𝐞
Our world loves death, for death is what following the father of lies gets you. But Christians love life, for life is what God delights to form, naturally but especially spiritually. So, in June, I encourage you: celebrate Life Month. Praise God for his grace. Share your celebration on social media. Create graphics and images, and promote them. Do podcasts about this. Don’t be silent; don’t be intimidated by our pagan culture into muteness. Speak, and don’t stop speaking. Pray, and don’t stop praying.
Start serving at a pro-life work. In fact, work against abortion any way you can, recognizing the murder of an unborn child as a genuine crime, whatever complex factors may lead to the pursuit of one. Calmly engage someone who is celebrating Pride Month, and proclaim Christ to them. Lovingly tell them the truth about sin and the hope that is in Christ. No one is too far gone for God to save them. And no one who is saved is a hopeless case, an abandoned child of God, or too much of a spiritual failure to grow in grace. I repeat myself: for all of us, there is hope, infinite hope, in Christ (Colossians 1:27).
June is Life Month. It cannot be otherwise. In June 2022, the Lord of heaven and earth saw fit to strike down the chief “right” (and rite) of the liberal worldview in the very month when that worldview was most glorified and praised. What an incredible move this was. God, you see, is not mocked. Nor is God asleep. To the contrary, the living personal God is active and working. This God is the God of dramatic reversals and breathtaking miracles. This God loves and celebrates life.
𝑊𝑟𝑖𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑛 𝑏𝑦 𝑂𝑤𝑒𝑛 𝑆𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑛, 𝑝𝑢𝑏𝑙𝑖𝑠ℎ𝑒𝑑 𝑖𝑛 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑊𝑎𝑠ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑡𝑜𝑛 𝑆𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑑.
"God loves and celebrates life. So must we."
You make known to me the path of life… (Psalm 16:11)
For many in America today, the advent of June signals the beginning of what has been labeled “Pride Month” by the activist Left. Originally linked to what is called the “Stonewall Uprising,” Pride Month symbolizes glowing affirmation of LGBTQ identity.
All June long, corporations and cultural institutions practically trip over themselves to promote their involvement in Pride Month, putting many Christians (or people who simply hold to a traditional sexual ethic) in difficult spots. When we try to watch a show at the end of a workday, our entertainment platforms drive us to Pride Month content. When buying a tube of toothpaste at our local big-box store, Pride Month displays greet us. When we watch sports, teams wear rainbow patches to celebrate Pride Month. The celebration of LGBTQ identity feels ubiquitous, and belies the claim that our public square is “neutral” and closed to assertive worldviews.
𝐖𝐞 𝐋𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐃𝐚𝐫𝐤 𝐃𝐚𝐲𝐬
From many angles, the entire tone of June in America has shifted. It is one of aggressive approval of a heart attitude that the Word of God rebukes in no uncertain terms: pride. To be proud in one’s natural instincts and desires is to go against God at full velocity. It is to put oneself under certain threat of eternal judgment. Sin, after all, is at base nothing other than pride — it is choosing one’s way over God’s way, and one’s instinctual desires over God’s eternal truth. How we Christians should tremble and pray for all who exult in Pride Month. How we should reach out to them, and proclaim Christ in love to fellow sinners just like us.
But we should not stop there. We have our own cause to celebrate in June. Our cause, quite simply, is life. In June 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade, the devastatingly inhumane court decision that since 1973 has enabled the destruction of millions upon millions of children. In the long annals of public jurisprudence, one can scarcely find a more wicked measure than Roe. Yet in his all-wise providence, God saw fit to strike Roe down right in the middle of Pride Month. What a rebuke! What an otherworldly intervention.
It’s hard to underplay just how shocking this development was and is. News of the coming overturning of Roe started leaking in early May 2022. Personally, I happened to be flying into D.C. for FRC meetings just as this news broke. It seemed too wonderful to be true: the most monstrously evil decision in modern American history was going to be struck down? The night after word got out, FRC staffer David Closson and I went to the Supreme Court. The tone was one of rage as countless young men and women protested the news. I scarcely knew what to do as David and I wound our way through the huge — and very angry — crowds. Was this real life?
𝐉𝐮𝐧𝐞 𝐈𝐬 𝐋𝐢𝐟𝐞 𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐡, 𝐍𝐨𝐭 𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐡
It was indeed real life. But those days of dazed wonderment are over. Now, as in ancient Israel, have come the days of settled joy. No, the fight against abortion is not over, not by a long shot. But believers should celebrate genuinely God-given victories. We who are saved by grace would be ungrateful children indeed if we did not honor this great outcome in the public square, one akin to the ban on slavery in Wilberforce’s day. Toward that end, here’s my encouragement: all through June, celebrate “Life Month.”
We should not do so in an obnoxious way. We are not fighting flesh and blood, after all. But in days that feel so dark, God has given us a great victory. This means that June is no longer a month for exalting human pride; June is a month for exalting God’s greatness. It is a time to rejoice in God’s gift of life, natural life, and spiritual life. God is our Creator, making every image-bearer such that every single unborn child has God-given dignity, worth, and purpose. God is also our Redeemer, making dead sinners live through the gospel message (Romans 1:16).
There is no better message than this. It is far, far greater than the pagan gospel, the message that you will find true happiness by embracing your natural instincts and then finding affirmation from others in them. This is no gospel at all, in reality, and it leads to fleshly captivity. But according to the true gospel, there is a way out of this enslavement. God is not only Creator and Redeemer, but Lord. The risen and ascended Christ rules the cosmos. At present, his rule is a spiritual rule, calling us to forsake the flesh, join the visible church as members, and live by grace as salt and light in this realm. In human pride, there is slavery; in Christ alone, there is freedom.
𝐆𝐨𝐝 𝐋𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐋𝐢𝐟𝐞
Our world loves death, for death is what following the father of lies gets you. But Christians love life, for life is what God delights to form, naturally but especially spiritually. So, in June, I encourage you: celebrate Life Month. Praise God for his grace. Share your celebration on social media. Create graphics and images, and promote them. Do podcasts about this. Don’t be silent; don’t be intimidated by our pagan culture into muteness. Speak, and don’t stop speaking. Pray, and don’t stop praying.
Start serving at a pro-life work. In fact, work against abortion any way you can, recognizing the murder of an unborn child as a genuine crime, whatever complex factors may lead to the pursuit of one. Calmly engage someone who is celebrating Pride Month, and proclaim Christ to them. Lovingly tell them the truth about sin and the hope that is in Christ. No one is too far gone for God to save them. And no one who is saved is a hopeless case, an abandoned child of God, or too much of a spiritual failure to grow in grace. I repeat myself: for all of us, there is hope, infinite hope, in Christ (Colossians 1:27).
June is Life Month. It cannot be otherwise. In June 2022, the Lord of heaven and earth saw fit to strike down the chief “right” (and rite) of the liberal worldview in the very month when that worldview was most glorified and praised. What an incredible move this was. God, you see, is not mocked. Nor is God asleep. To the contrary, the living personal God is active and working. This God is the God of dramatic reversals and breathtaking miracles. This God loves and celebrates life.
𝑊𝑟𝑖𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑛 𝑏𝑦 𝑂𝑤𝑒𝑛 𝑆𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑛, 𝑝𝑢𝑏𝑙𝑖𝑠ℎ𝑒𝑑 𝑖𝑛 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑊𝑎𝑠ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑡𝑜𝑛 𝑆𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑑.
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