We spent Saturday slaughtering our meagre flock of five doomed cockerels at a very kind friends' house. Welsh Hill Farm http://www.welshhill.com let us come alongside for their slaughter day and we learned the ropes under some gentle tutelage... mostly Jason learned the ropes and I stole the new baby and fussed in the kitchen. There was blood and feathers and innards. When we left, we had our naked birds in ziplocks for the freezer.
I am not a vegetarian. But I am also not an avid hunter, trapper, dissection-ist either. I don't get a kick out of ending their little lives, but I increasingly feel that the further we are from the food we eat, the less "real" this loss of life becomes, the easier it is to put death "away" in all the cupboards of our minds.
It is Satan's oldest lie, "Surely you will not die," he said to Eve in the Garden, Genesis 3:4. But surely...certainly, we will.... Praise God that when my life is laid bare in front of God, when I am called to "give and account of ourselves" Romans 14:12, I will thank God that I have a High Priest in Jesus Christ who will intercede on my behalf and hold up His likeness before the Face of God and say, "Not by her works, but by My Righteousness: This is a Daughter of the King."
Heidelberg Catechism: Question 60.
| 60. | Q. |
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| A. |
Only by true faith in Jesus Christ.
Although my conscience accuses me that I have grievously sinned against all God's commandments, have never kept any of them, and am still inclined to all evil,
yet God, without any merit of my own, out of mere grace, imputes to me the perfect satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of Christ.
He grants these to me as if I had never had nor committed any sin, and as if I myself had accomplished all the obedience which Christ has rendered for me, if only I accept this gift with a believing heart.
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