'I call you a watchman'

They call it an intervention.

When someone engages in an activity that is detrimental to themselves, to those who love them, or is dangerous or addictive, oftentimes a plan is formed.

Friends, family members, clergy and counselors sit down and rehearse how they will communicate to their afflicted loved one their deep concern, their hurts and their hopes, all with the intent to lovingly provide a different path for that loved one, who, if they continue on the path before them, will surely die.

Sometimes interventions work. Sometimes they don't.

Sometimes, at least according to the cable program of the same name, the one confronted responds by completely withdrawing, choosing to stay on the path of their addiction, leaving friends and family behind, and the mourning begins.

Sometimes, the one confronted will accede to the wishes expressed by the family and eagerly embrace the new path offered, only to stumble along the way, and return to their destructive behavior.

And sometimes, the intervention works, first time, like a charm.

I say "first time" because sometimes the one who storms out in hurt and anger, stumbles onto the path of healing, because even in the depths of the addiction, he remember there exists another path, another choice, another chance.

And the one who stumbles? Nothing prevents the stumbler from getting up, one more time, and setting his feet again on the new path, the path that leads to life, to healing, to restoration, even to redemption.

This was Paul's aim when he advised the Corinthian church to expel the immoral brother, saying, "hand this man over to satan, so that the sinful nature may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord." (I Corinthians 5:5)

But what if no one intervenes? What if they are not only not warned, but are even encouraged to continue on a path of self-destruction, unaware of the deep dangers, the pitfalls, the final accountability that looms before every man? What if those who are called to be watchmen, fail to call out the warning?

I fear this is happening all too frequently as the church Jesus died to give life to fails to call out the needed warnings.

It has happened with the scourge of divorce. It has happened with the faithlessness of co-habitation. It is happening now in the realm of the gay-lesbian movement and it is happening with the scourge of abortion.

The church is called to be light, to be a "city on a hill," but all too often, members are all eager to hear how good God is, but seem to have little interest in hearing how holy he is and how abhorrent evil is in his sight. Members seldom hear the admonition Jesus gave to the woman caught in adultery, "go and sin no more."

Tragedy struck hard Sunday on so many fronts. The pro-life group is once again forced to go on the defense thanks to the murderous actions of one man. Both men will stand before God, who alone is righteous to judge, and face his sentence.

I have written about the heartache of abortion numerous times over the years in this forum. The question became quite personal to me when I became pregnant with my third child and I was challenged with the "choice." Therefore, it is a subject of serious study on my part because, believe me, I don't want to get it wrong.

Science and theology clash on the issue of when life begins. Even theologians have differing opinions. Science knows what has to occur for human life to begin, it's pretty elementary: sperm meets egg. And if nothing happens to interfere with that process, science tells us, 40 weeks later, a baby will be born and the date of his or her emergence from the womb becomes the child's birthday. Some believe that the result of this event is called "life" and anything that happens prior to this event does not happen to a living being.

Others believe differently. Others, and I among them, believe that life begins at conception, the meeting of the sperm and the egg. With that event, life, short or long, is set in motion. Without that event, not so much.

In fact, this process began without any knowledge on my part three times in my life. Oh, the potential for the event was there, but I had no way of immediately knowing whether or not the union of a husband and wife had created life until weeks after the fact. But once I knew, I loved, and from that moment on, there was a new life. Even if I had never held them, kissed them or nursed them, they lived. They mattered. They had influence. They had impact. They lived.

What I'm struggling to understand is the church's seeming failure to bring to bear upon those who call themselves Christians, who gather in Christian church buildings, who sing praises to the God of creation, the very Author of Life, the full understanding of who God is and who we are before him.

The One who sees the sparrow fall sees life's beginning in the womb. He, the Giver of Life, is the only One who has the right to say how long that life will be, even what the quality of that life will be. Those who believe otherwise, those who believe that created man must somehow help God to save, to heal, to restore, or even to destroy when nature has gone horribly awry -- the argument most often presented in the defense of late term abortion -- follow a small, impotent god.

"'Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me. When I say to the wicked, 'O wicked man, you will surely die,' and you do not speak out to dissuade him from his ways, that wicked man will die for his sin, and I will hold you accountable for his blood. But if you do warn the wicked man to turn from his ways and he does not do so, he will die for his sin, but you will have saved yourself.'" Ezekiel 33:7-9 (NIV)