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Continuing our discussion from part one, as I have already made clear, in my view, the proper attitude of a God-fearing Christian married couple is to believe that if God blesses us with a certain number of children, then we must also have the faith to believe that if we are earnestly seeking to please Him, He will open the right doors of opportunity, and provide us with the necessary means to support and raise our children for His glory. As the Apostle Paul also wrote in his first Epistle to Timothy:

"But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel."


So as you can plainly see, it is our Christian responsibility to provide for our families. Not only that, but as many of my Christian readers will already know, as children of the King, we are each a part of God's household. Through our faith in Jesus Christ, we become His adopted sons and daughters. This Scriptural truth becomes evident by verses such as these:

"Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God;"


"But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:"


"For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but YE HAVE RECEIVED THE SPIRIT OF ADOPTION, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that WE ARE THE CHILDREN OF GOD: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together."


"For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus."


"But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that WE MIGHT RECEIVE THE ADOPTION OF SONS. And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father."


"Having predestinated us UNTO THE ADOPTION OF CHILDREN BY JESUS CHRIST to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,"


"Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, THE LORD KNOWETH THEM THAT ARE HIS. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity."


Being then that we are a part of God's extended household, just as we form our own families here on Earth as well, and faithfully provide for them, can there be any doubt that the great Creator of the Universe is likewise more than able and willing to provide our every need, when we are pleasing in His sight? Do you honestly believe that our Heavenly Father is limited by the number of children that we have? If your faith is a little weak in this area, then please consider the following verses where He promises to provide for us:

"Behold, the LORD'S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear:"


"Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart."


"But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof."


"Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened . . . If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?"


"And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive."


"Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God? But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: ye are of more value than many sparrows."


"And he said unto his disciples, Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat; neither for the body, what ye shall put on. The life is more than meat, and the body is more than raiment. Consider the ravens: for they neither sow nor reap; which neither have storehouse nor barn; and God feedeth them: how much more are ye better than the fowls? And which of you with taking thought can add to his stature one cubit? If ye then be not able to do that thing which is least, why take ye thought for the rest? Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. If then God so clothe the grass, which is to day in the field, and to morrow is cast into the oven; how much more will he clothe you, O ye of little faith? And seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind. For all these things do the nations of the world seek after: and your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things. But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you."


"He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?"


"Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen."


"But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus."


"And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him."


Those verses are God's promises to us, and He is a man of His word. As I have testified in some of my other articles, and personally witnessed in my own life, where God guides, He also provides. The Lord is not one to say, "This is the way, walk ye in it" -- Isaiah 30:21 -- and then not provide for His children along that way. It is through God's provision, that we know that we are in His Will. Of course, the Lord may also test our faith a little, to see if we are still willing to believe and obey, even when the situation seems contrary to what we expect.

However, if there is one thing of which I am certain, it is that we are not to worry about the future, no matter how many children we have. To do so, is totally contrary to the Lord's teachings, as we see by the previous set of verses. Whether we have one child, five children or more, God can and will provide for all of them. So again, please ignore the ungodly abortion hype of the world. Don't give in to it. Be fruitful and multiply.

While the Lord may sometimes give us glimpses of the future, even our personal future, for the most part, as far as the Christian walk is concerned, it is usually a matter of blind faith. In other words, we must be willing to sign the dotted line on our blank contract with the Lord, and then allow Him to fill in the details, according to what He knows is best for us, even when it comes to having children. When we begin to try to control our own future, such as when it comes to matters of birth control, we are placing faith in ourselves, instead of in God. In fact, we may be placing our will above God's Will. Instead of stating that children may not be a part of one's future, it is better to say along with Jesus and James, "Lord, Your Will be done, and not mine"; and that takes a lot of faith. Consider the following verses:

"Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven."


"And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt . . . He went away again the second time, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done."


"Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second."


"Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that."


This attitude of "If the Lord will", is found throughout the Scriptures. Unlike many hardhearted people of our modern era, who do everything within their power to try to explain life from a purely rational or scientific perspective -- and by so doing try to keep God out of the picture -- the God-fearing Israelites of old attributed every life event to the Will of God. Whether it was blessings or curses -- such as having children or being barren, or having good weather or bad, or being victorious over their enemies or else being defeated by the same -- they realized and accepted that all things came from the Hand of God, and that He was the source of all things. God was central to their lives, and all things, good or bad, happened according to His perfect Will. Consider the following examples which deal specifically with the issue of childbearing:

"And they said unto him, Where is Sarah thy wife? And he said, Behold, in the tent. And he said, I will certainly return unto thee according to the time of life; and, lo, Sarah thy wife shall have a son. And Sarah heard it in the tent door, which was behind him. Now Abraham and Sarah were old and well stricken in age; and it ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, After I am waxed old shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also? And the LORD said unto Abraham, Wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying, Shall I of a surety bear a child, which am old? Is any thing too hard for the LORD? At the time appointed I will return unto thee, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son."


"And there was a certain man of Zorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah; and his wife was barren, and bare not. And the angel of the LORD appeared unto the woman, and said unto her, Behold now, thou art barren, and bearest not: but thou shalt conceive, and bear a son. Now therefore beware, I pray thee, and drink not wine nor strong drink, and eat not any unclean thing: For, lo, thou shalt conceive, and bear a son; and no razor shall come on his head: for the child shall be a Nazarite unto God from the womb: and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines."


"And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end. Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. And, behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren. For with God nothing shall be impossible."


Notice that in the first two cases, we have women who were barren; and in the third case, we have a young woman who was not even married yet. These were three impossible situations. They knew it, and everyone else knew it as well. Based upon modern scientific reasoning, and our human understanding of conception, we can also agree, that given the situation in which each of these women found themselves, they simply could not have become pregnant by normal or acceptable means. Two of them were too old, and one -- Mary -- had never even had sex before. So for them to become pregnant required an actual miracle. It required the Will of God, and it required the Hand of God as well.

Why were these messengers able to proclaim such messages? It was because, in the words of the Angel Gabriel, "For with God nothing shall be impossible". These messengers knew that the process of becoming pregnant was not merely the result of the physical act of engaging in sex. It likewise required the key factor of being God's Will. While some nonbelievers may not agree with me, I believe that in the lives of us Christians, unless God's Will is present, pregnancy simply won't happen. But if it is His Will, then a conception will occur. It is for this reason that the Psalmist was inspired to write the following in Psalm 139:

"For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them."


It may surprise you to know that this is not the only place in the Scriptures where we learn that God knew us before we were physically born into this world. There are a few other verses which suggest the very same thought. Consider the following:

"BEFORE I FORMED THEE IN THE BELLY I KNEW THEE; and BEFORE THOU CAMEST FORTH OUT OF THE WOMB I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations."


"For whom he did foreknow, HE ALSO DID PREDESTINATE to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren."


"According as he hath chosen us in him BEFORE THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love . . . HAVING PREDESTINATED US unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will . . . In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, BEING PREDESTINATED according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:"


So as you can see, from God's perspective, we could say that we, His children, are prefabricated. Not only did He already know us before we came into this world, but He also designed our bodies beforehand as well. God knew exactly what we were supposed to look like, even before we were actually formed in our mother's womb! As I was typing this paragraph, I was just reminded of the fact that in the Epistle to the Hebrews, the writer -- who I believe was Paul -- informs us that God the Father even prepared a body for Jesus to come into the world. Consider the following verse as proof of this:

"Wherefore when he [meaning Jesus] cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me:"


Based upon the aforementioned Scriptural facts, I conclude that cold-hearted people who argue about when life actually begins -- as a means to justify their murder of the unborn innocent -- are blatant liars and deceivers. Their thought seems to be that by dehumanizing an embryo or fetus -- or making it seem less human and denying it "fetal personhood" -- by coldly referring to it as "just a clump of cells", or as a "product of conception", they can help a woman to feel less guilty about having an abortion and murdering her unborn child. In other words, it appears to be a subtle tactic to help expectant mothers to emotionally detach themselves from their unborn child, so that they are willing to kill it with ease. I am reminded of something that the Apostle Paul wrote in his second Epistle to Timothy. Consider the following:

"But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived."


That is exactly what abortionists, pro-choice advocates and misguided medical professionals are doing when they deny that an embryo or a fetus is a human being. They are denying God's truth and God's Word, and purposely deceiving young pregnant girls and women. They are deceived themselves, and they are deceiving others as well.

Returning for a moment to the attitude of "If the Lord will", when Mary was informed of her soon-coming pregnancy, what was her reaction? Did she say to the Angel Gabriel "What do you mean?! You can't do that to me God! What will people think?! What will Joseph think?! We are not even officially married yet! They will call me a whore and a slut!" Or did Mary get uptight and think about the soon-coming loss of her personal freedom and say "I'm really sorry, Lord, but I am not ready for this. I am young. I haven't enjoyed life yet. Becoming pregnant would be too much of an inconvenience for me at this current time. Maybe later. Okay Lord? You understand, don't you?" Or did Mary argue "Listen Lord. I am a working woman. I am very career-oriented. I have worked very hard to make it this far in my life, so I just really can't be bothered with becoming pregnant right now."

No! Absolutely not! That dear young woman didn't say anything of the sort! Mary was so yielded to the Lord that she simply responded in the following way to the Angel Gabriel:

". . . Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her."


Simply put, Mary fully accepted the message from her Angelic Visitor as being the Will of God. She did not fight against it like a lot of these so-called "liberated women" do today. She humbly accepted her God-ordained, and God-given role, as a mother-to-be. Now, I realize that some worldly people who may possibly be reading this series may consider these views to be old-fashioned. However, they are Scripture-based. They are the Word of God. So, if there is any error in thinking, it is clearly on the part of those people who would dare to call God a liar, and His inspired Word a lie.

Based upon the Scriptures I have shared thus far, it's very difficult for me to accept that any married Christian would suggest that children might not be a part of their future; unless, of course, they have received an outright revelation from the Lord, or if perhaps there is something extremely wrong physically with either the woman or the man. But even then, as we have already seen, there are no insurmountable obstacles as far as the Lord is concerned. He is more than capable of overcoming all of them, if He so desires. Such a thought -- as was expressed by the person who wrote to me -- simply does not sit well with me; and it honestly makes me wonder if there might not be something amiss in the hearts of those people who say such things. Perhaps what they are really saying is, "I hope that children are not a part of my future, because I don't want any".

If that is the case, and a Christian married couple really does not want to have any children, then I feel obligated to ask, why then did such a couple even choose to get married in the first place? In quoting from the Book of Genesis, Jesus makes it very plain that marriage, and becoming one flesh, has been God's plan from the beginning of the world, as becomes evident by the following set of verses:

"But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife; And they twain shall be one flesh: so then they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder."


Obviously, being one flesh also includes becoming one flesh through sexual union; and such a union normally results in children sooner or later. That is, if a couple is placing their faith in the Lord, and not in any form of artificial birth control. Personally, I am not aware of any places in the Bible where God's people are instructed to purposely seek out methods to hold back the Lord's blessings through childbirth. The only examples I can think of where such wicked things occurred in the Scriptures, were all selfish, murderous acts. For example, we have the story of Pharaoh instructing the Hebrew midwives to kill the Hebrew newborns, when the Egyptian king felt threatened by the growing Hebrew population in Goshen. Consider the following verses:

"But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were grieved because of the children of Israel. And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigour: And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in morter, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field: all their service, wherein they made them serve, was with rigour. And the king of Egypt spake to the Hebrew midwives, of which the name of the one was Shiphrah, and the name of the other Puah: And he said, When ye do the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women, and see them upon the stools; if it be a son, then ye shall kill him: but if it be a daughter, then she shall live. But the midwives feared God, and did not as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the men children alive. And the king of Egypt called for the midwives, and said unto them, Why have ye done this thing, and have saved the men children alive? And the midwives said unto Pharaoh, Because the Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women; for they are lively, and are delivered ere the midwives come in unto them. Therefore God dealt well with the midwives: and the people multiplied, and waxed very mighty."


When this plan failed to work because the Hebrew midwives feared the Lord more than they feared Pharaoh, that wicked Egyptian king then ordered that all Hebrew male newborns be cast into the Nile River, as we see by the following verses. As you may already know, it was because of the faith and obedience of two Hebrew slaves -- Amram and Jochebed -- that Moses' life was spared, and he was eventually found in the bulrushes by the daughter of Pharaoh, who had compassion upon him:

"And it came to pass, because the midwives feared God, that he made them houses. And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, Every son that is born ye shall cast into the river, and every daughter ye shall save alive."


"And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a daughter of Levi. And the woman conceived, and bare a son: and when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months. And when she could not longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein; and she laid it in the flags by the rivers brink. And his sister stood afar off, to wit what would be done to him. And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river; and her maidens walked along by the river's side; and when she saw the ark among the flags, she sent her maid to fetch it. And when she had opened it, she saw the child: and, behold, the babe wept. And she had compassion on him, and said, This is one of the Hebrews' children. Then said his sister to Pharaoh's daughter, Shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee? And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, Go. And the maid went and called the child's mother. And Pharaoh's daughter said unto her, Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages. And the woman took the child, and nursed it. And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses: and she said, Because I drew him out of the water."


Many hundreds of years later, after the Lord had blessed the Hebrew children, by freeing them from Egyptian bondage, and making them a powerful nation of over one million strong, sadly, these very same people fell into such an utter state of apostasy, that they were actually sacrificing their sons and their daughters on the fiery altars of the false heathen god, Molech, in the Valley of Hinnom, which was located to the south of Jerusalem outside the city wall. I discuss this topic in other articles such as in the series "The Fruits of Disobedience". This cold-blooded sacrifice of young children was one of the primary reasons why the Lord sent in King Nebuchadnezzar and his army to chastise the house of Judah. Consider this group of verses:

"And say, Hear ye the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem; Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, the which whosoever heareth, his ears shall tingle. Because they have forsaken me, and have estranged this place, and have burned incense in it unto other gods, whom neither they nor their fathers have known, nor the kings of Judah, and have filled this place with the blood of innocents; They have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings unto Baal, which I commanded not, nor spake it, neither came it into my mind: Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that this place shall no more be called Tophet, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of slaughter. And I will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place; and I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hands of them that seek their lives: and their carcases will I give to be meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth. And I will make this city desolate, and an hissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished and hiss because of all the plagues thereof. And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they shall eat every one the flesh of his friend in the siege and straitness, wherewith their enemies, and they that seek their lives, shall straiten them."


"Then did Solomon build an high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, in the hill that is before Jerusalem, and for Molech, the abomination of the children of Ammon."


"And he defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech."


"And they built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire unto Molech; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my mind, that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin."


Please go to part three for the continuation of this series.

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