Category Archives: Redemption

The Gruesomeness of Gosnell

As the Kermit Gosnell trial has been proceeding, I’ve remained silent for no other reason than this is all so gruesome I just could not bring myself to even read the reports. I sit back at times and I wonder who these people are, the likes of Carhart, Gosnell, and any other abortion provider? How do they sleep at night? If they have even the smallest amount humanity in them, they certainly are aware that they are killing another human being when they perform abortions. But then, I have to even wonder if they even are human anymore. Are they so influenced by the enemy of our souls and so driven by him to destroy the image and likeness of God that there is no humanity left. I don’t know the answer to that question, only God does and that is for Him to deal with and for us to continue pray for these individuals.

I felt like the time had come to speak out about Gosnell because of an article I read in the Huffington Post. The Huffington Post is a liberal online newspaper and they posted an article on March 26, 2013 entitled “The Questions No One Is Asking About The Kermit Gosnell Case” by Kate Michelman, former president of NARAL (National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League). Her article asks with such unbelief – How could this happen? How in this country where abortion has been legal for 40 years could such a thing ever happen. Her answer was astonishing to me. Ms. Michelman surmised that this happened because the state of Pennsylvania was so intent on passing abortion restricted legislation and completely missed the fact that someone was performing a medical procedure unsupervised. But had this clinic been a Planned Parenthood clinic there would have high medical standards set in place these tragedies could never have occurred. Wow – really???? I don’t know, maybe we should consider the high standards that were put in place at the Delaware Planned Parenthood clinic and compare tragedies. According to Operation Rescue, the Planned Parenthood clinic in Delaware had four botched abortions in the span of five weeks and to top it off they are a training facility for other abortion providers! Now that’s what I call a high standard. According Operation Rescue, fifiteen new abortionists a year are trained in these high quality medical procedures at the Wilmington, DE clinic.

According to Ms. Michelman “Reputable, careful providers of high quality abortion care are under attack” and “the number of abortion providers in the United States declined 38 percent between 1982 and 2005.” Additionally, Ms. Michelman states:

“To compound the provider shortage problem, the Pennsylvania legislature passed a new law in 2011 modeled after a bill on the wish list of the National Right To Life Committee: mandating that the remaining handful of abortion providers come into compliance with volumes of costly regulations designed for ambulatory surgical facilities where much more complex surgeries take place. Today, there are just 13 freestanding providers of surgical abortion care in Pennsylvania, down from 22 two years ago.”

I would think this would make her happy. The Pennsylvania legislature has mandated that abortion facilities come into compliance with regulations designed for surgical facilities. She stated earlier in her article when asking the question of how this happened that the reason was “our policymakers have never viewed abortion as a medical procedure.” Seems to me that the 2011 law takes care of that problem.

Simply stated – abortion is NOT healthcare and never will be. It is a greedy money making institution that seeks to repress minority groups by making them believe that providing abortions at low or no cost is adding quality to their healthcare. There is no care for women here whatsoever, regardless of any social or financial standing. There is only the “love of money; which is a root for all kinds of evil.” (1 Timothy 6:10)

    References


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kate-michelman/kermit-gosnell-abortion_b_2924348.html
http://www.operationrescue.org/archives/competency-of-planned-parenthoods-training-program-questioned-after-rash-of-botched-abortions/

As we move from 2012 to 2013 – a few thoughts

As we have crossed over from 2012 into 2013 I’m taking some time to reflect on events of this past year in light of the circumstances we are about to find ourselves in across this nation.  As the media tells us in this 11th hour that we are indeed about to go over the “fiscal cliff”, even if for only one day, I have to wonder how we got here.  While great minds in Washington try to solve enormous problems of trillion dollar deficits, raising taxes or not raising taxes, and cutting spending our nation continues to suffer.  We hope and pray that someone somewhere comes up with the solution to solve these problems; we hope that suddenly there will be a creative solution that no one has yet thought of, but sadly that will not be the case.

Why is that?  Why can’t someone come up with the creative solution that will make everyone happy and solve this great looming crisis?  Well, the truth is that no matter what great plan is conceived it will not work if it is not God ordained.  We pray for God to bless our nation, but can He really do that?  We are a nation that has seen fit to murder more than 55 million of her children.  America has become the valley of slaughter as mentioned in Jeremiah chapter 7 (see Jeremiah 7:30-34).   This passage in Jeremiah says that because the people of Judah allowed their children to pass through the fire and be burned, something the Lord DID NOT command, Jerusalem will become a desolate place.  American has allowed her children to pass through the fires of burning saline abortions and worse for the past forty years.  That essentially amounts to entire generation of children that have been lost and we wonder why the nation is in such bad shape.  The Lord says He will bring an end to joy and gladness in the city because of this behavior.

The thing that everyone is so focused on right now is the financial side of this cliff, but the cliff truly has many sides.  Some will go over the cliff and others will get caught in the landslide at the bottom. In just this past year we seemed to have had one tragedy after another related to the violent use of guns.  Seriously troubled individuals are moved by evil to kill many innocent and unsuspecting people and no one is off limits, not even small children.  Crazy weather continues plague the nation and cause devastation and loss that is unimaginable and there is more fear about the world ending and the destruction of global warming than ever before.  Man just continues to respond to these tragic events with more calls for gun control and laws to create a greener more sustainable environments.  Honestly, I think that we have just continued shaking our fists at God and saying we don’t need You!  We can take care of this all by ourselves, go away!  The government is working on becoming more and more involved in our individual lives by mandating the kind of health care that is offered, by trying to create greener safer environments through energy legislation, and creating a false sense of security for its citizens through the promise of more gun control.  These government solutions will never be the answers we so desperately need.  Our answer is found only in God.  If we do not turn our hearts back to God and stop apologizing for our Judeo/Christian heritage, we will end up desolate just as Jerusalem did in Jeremiah’s day.

Where do we begin?  We start by ending the slaughter of the innocent.  On January 25, 2013, the 40th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade will be marked by the march in Washington, DC.  Over the years great progress has been made in slowing down the advances of Planned Parenthood and others whose sole purpose is promoting abortion.  Ministries such as 40 Days for Life have seen great successes, not only in women who change their minds about having an abortion, but also in seeing abortion clinics close down.  Abby Johnson’s ministry (And Then There Were None) has seen 40 clinic workers leave the industry in its first year of operation (2012).  These are great victories but there is so much more work to be done.  There is always hope though – we have not become completely desolate yet.  God says His mercies are new every morning, His compassion does not fail, and above all, He is faithful.  The Lord is good to those who wait for Him and who seek Him (Lamentations 3:22-25).  Please join me in 2013 as I purpose to seek the Lord more earnestly and pray more faithfully for those in the seats of power.  It is only in Him that our nation will be saved.

Post Election Pro-Life Persistence

Planned Parenthood has released a brand new logo in celebration of their victory this week by the re-election of Barack Obama.  In a press release that the abortion giant put out on Tuesday they claim:

“This is a resounding victory for women. More than ever before, women’s health was a decisive issue in this election. Americans today voted to ensure that women will have access to affordable health care and be able to make their own medical decisions,” said Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Action Fund.

“This election sends a powerful and unmistakable message to members of Congress and state legislatures all around the country that the American people do not want politicians to meddle in our personal medical decisions, and that politicians demean and dismiss women at their own peril,” Richards said.

 This is hardly a victory for women.  Along with the new logo, the new tag line is “Care. No matter what.”  Really?  I’m wondering how are women being cared for when there is story after story from organizations such as Live Action, Life News, and Life Site News concerning the number of women who are injured from botched abortions performed at Planned Parenthood clinics.  I’m also baffled about the issues around sex selection and abortion that is so heavily promoted by Planned Parenthood.  Thanks to Live Action, this horror has been exposed.  Is this “Care.  No matter what” to encourage women to abort their child because it happens to be a girl?  What has happened to us in America?  Planned Parenthood invested $15 million dollars in getting Barack Obama re-elected.   Now that’s been accomplished and Cecile Richards further states that“we will focus on working with lawmakers at all levels, from all political parties, to ensure that millions more Americans can get the health care they need.”

This is all very confusing.  On the one hand, Ms. Richards states that the American people do not want politicians to meddle in our personal medical decisions, yet on the other hand, she suddenly wants to begin working with politicians on both sides of the aisle to make sure that we all get the health care we need.  Well, which is it Ms. Richards?  You can’t have it both ways.  Either Planned Parenthood wants the government involved, so they can continue funneling our tax dollars into the abortion industry or Planned Parenthood doesn’t want them to “meddle”.

So, what do we do with all of this?  We NEVER  give up.  We are the church militant!  We continue to be persistent in our pro-life efforts.  We continue to pray at abortion clinics, we continue to march for life, and we continue to reach people one soul at a time.  The best thing that I’ve read so far are the words of Archbishop Craig Bates, the Patriarch of the International Communion of the Charismatic Episcopal Church.  He said the following – “We must reach out to single women who have been deceived into believing that the right to choose an abortion is freedom rather than inflicting upon themselves guilt and torment that could last for years.”  Preserving the sanctity of life is the most important issue facing our nation today, not the economy as some may think.  I believe God will bless the economy when we honor Him by preserving the sanctity of human life.  It is the image and likeness of God that is being destroyed in every abortion and as we reach out to single women, as Archbishop Bates suggests, we have the opportunity to reach them with the truth that they were fearfully and wonderfully made as well as the child they carry.

Day 37 – November 1, 2012

It’s a Romans 1 kind of world!  I’m praying this week for the pro-life counselors and for the Lord to shine through these courageous people as they meet the lie of the culture head on.  Pro-life counselors are faced with trying to show abortion minded women the truth and combat all of the lies that have been fed to women in our society by the likes of Planned Parenthood and even other people of faith who choose to believe their own truth.  In Romans chapter 1, in The Message it says:

“But the basic reality of God is plain enough. Open your eyes and there it is! By taking a long and thoughtful look at what God has created, people have always been able to see what their eyes as such can’t see: eternal power, for instance, and the mystery of his divine being. So nobody has a good excuse. What happened was this: People knew God perfectly well, but when they didn’t treat him like God, refusing to worship him, they trivialized themselves into silliness and confusion so that there was neither sense nor direction left in their lives. They pretended to know it all, but were illiterate regarding life. They traded the glory of God who holds the whole world in his hands for cheap figurines you can buy at any roadside stand.”

These verses of scripture say a lot.  It says people know full well who God is and they know what is right and what is wrong and therefore they have no excuses.  However, the bottom line is that people decided they know it all and they know better than God.  They decided they could be God.  But hasn’t that been going on since the Garden?  Satan convinced Eve that the reason God did not want her to eat of the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden was because it would make her like Him, as if God were threatened by Eve becoming like Him.  What Eve did not realize was that she was already like God.  She was created in His image and likeness and this is what Satan has been trying destroy since that moment!

Please continue to pray for the courageous pro-life counselors who are fighting against the lies perpetuated by the abortion industry.  Please pray for the pro-life counselor who is faced with trying speak the truth to the abortion minded woman who believed the lie and traded the glory of God for a cheap figurine.

Day 28 – October 23, 2012

For Such A Time As This

Spiritual warfare can take on many forms.  Sometimes we march around the city in order to see the walls fall down and sometimes it is a matter of being in the right place at the right time with an ear that is close to the heart of God.  Such was the case with Esther.  She literally found herself in the right place at the right time to make an enormous difference in the lives of her people in a foreign land.  Had it not been for her uncle’s willingness to sit at the gate of the King to make sure that he was fully aware of all that was going on in the kingdom and Esther’s willingness and courage to stand up for those who had no voice, the Jewish people may have been annihilated.

The book of Esther indicates that she could have chosen to do nothing to help her people, but her uncle warns her that just because she is the queen does not mean that she will escape the fate of the Jewish people that is coming.  But, instead, he presents her with the idea that she may have been placed in this position precisely because she was meant to do something about the situation that was coming.  I imagine this was a very difficult decision for Esther, one that took a great deal of courage.  In short, her life was on the line here.  For Esther to act on her uncle’s request meant that she had approach the king without being summoned by him.  If he happened to be in a particularly bad mood the day she decided to go and speak with him, she may very well have been the first Jewish person executed in that kingdom.  But Esther went to prayer – she fasted and prayed for three days before deciding on how to approach the king and God heard her prayer!

The story of Esther is a wonderful picture of how God answers prayer and shows us how the battle belongs to the Lord.  The battle is not won through human strategies but in the place of prayer and fasting and by employing God’s strategies.  In the fight against abortion, we have to be careful to always seek to obtain God’s strategy for each battle.  We each need to ask ourselves what the Lord would have us do in this fight – what is our place in His army?  Like Esther, we may find ourselves in unusual situations with regard to either speaking out on behalf of the unborn or protesting on behalf of the unborn, or even being willing to be arrested on behalf of the unborn.  Whatever the Lord asks us to do, we need to have the faith that He has equipped us to accomplish the task.  Let us always remember the words of the book of Esther that say “yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14)

Day 27 – October 22, 2012

” Take up the ark of the covenant of the Lord and have seven priests carry trumpets in front of it.”  And he ordered the army, “Advance! March around the city, with an armed guard going ahead of the ark of the Lord.  The seventh time around, when the priests sounded the trumpet blast, Joshua commanded the army, “Shout! For the Lord has given you the city!” (Joshua 6:6-7, 16)

Today is Monday and the start of a new week of prayer and a new focus on a prayer for me at the Germantown clinic.  I have sensed from the Lord that I should continue to use the Rosary as a means of prayer but to add to the intention this week spiritual warfare.  I will look at five events in scripture that speak of spiritual warfare, the first of which is the falling of the city of Jericho.  At the end of Joshua chapter 5, Joshua has an encounter the Commander of the Army of the Lord, where Joshua falls on his face and  is told to remove his sandals because he is on holy ground.  This is all we know about this encounter but obviously the Commander instructed Joshua to take the city of Jericho because in the next chapter Lord says that He has given the city of Jericho into the hands of Joshua along with its king and fighting men.  The Lord proceeds to give him instructions on how to take the city.  It all looks a little strange when you first read the account of the fall of Jericho.  March around the city once a day for six days behind the ark of covenant, blowing trumpets the whole time.  Do not raise a battle cry, don’t say anything until you’re told to.  Then on day seven, march around the city seven times, blowing the trumpets, circling the city, but now on the seventh time, they are commanded to SHOUT!!  The Lord has given them the city!

That story has always excited me because it is completely the opposite of what one might think of doing when it comes to a battle.  No fighting, no bloodshed, just obedience to the Lord.  In fact, it is the bloodshed that we are fighting against in this battle for the unborn.  In obedience to the Lord, the 40 Days for Life campaign is promoting peaceful, prayerful vigil outside of the abortion clinic in order to see an end to the bloodshed of abortion.  In fact, today on day 27 of the campaign, it has been reported that 341 lives have been saved through this unusual form of spiritual warfare.  Yet we are in a battle.  We are fighting for the life of the unborn child and for the life of the mother of the unborn child as well.

God’s ways are not our ways to be sure, but His ways are always the best ways!

Day 25 – October 20, 2012

Today is the last day of a week that has been focused on praying for women who have had abortions.  I’ve spent time this week trying to focus my prayer on the tremendous need for healing for women who’ve had an abortion, and who need healing from the pain and agony suffered over having made the decision to kill her unborn child.  This may be experienced immediately or it may not be felt for years after.  I thought back to something I mentioned earlier in the week about those who promote abortion as not only a justifiable option but as a woman’s right.  I become angry when I hear the term “Reproductive Rights” and I wonder who came up with that terminology anyway.  I decided to do a little research on the term, looking for a good working definition and found something interesting.  According to the World Health Organization, Reproductive Rights are defined as:

“the recognition of the basic right of all couples and individuals to decide freely and responsibly the number, spacing and timing of their children and to have the information and means to do so, and the right to attain the highest standard of sexual and reproductive health. They also include the right of all to make decisions concerning reproduction free of discrimination, coercion and violence.”

Wow, now that is interesting.  We need whole organizations and lawyers (I’m thinking of NARAL and the National Women’s Law Center) to protect this?  The last time I checked, no one in America is told when to have a child and how many children they must have and we already have plenty of laws against discrimination and violence.  This is crazy.  This term is thrown around like women can’t already make this decision, ideally with their husband.  It’s the “responsibly” part of this definition that pro-aborts ignore.  They want women to believe that it’s OK to make the decision to have that one night stand and if they get pregnant, well just get rid of it, it’s part of your reproductive rights.  There is no reason to be responsible for the life you just participated in creating.

God says differently.  In the book of Jeremiah he says “before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you were born I sanctified you” (Jeremiah 1:5).  God also played a part in creating the life inside the womb.  In fact, He has known from all eternity about the life of that child and has planned for that child to accomplish something in this life.  God also says in the book of Jeremiah, chapter 29, verse 11, “for I know the plans that I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.”

Today as I prayed, I felt a particular burden for those who promote the pro-choice idea as something that is good for women.  It is not good for women.  It is harmful to women.  It is devastating to women.  The lives of 50 million children have been lost to this lie. 50 million children that God had plans for, plans for hope and plans for the future.  God’s plan does not include children being unwanted or abandoned.  That argument is thin at best.  And, yes even in  the cases of rape and incest, while the acts committed against a woman are violent and inexcusable, if a life has been conceived through that act, then God has a plan and it is a plan that can be trusted.

Pray for those at the forefront of promoting abortion as a reproductive right.  Pray that their eyes are opened to the lie that they have bought into, but also that their eyes will be opened to a loving and merciful God who waits for them with open arms.

Day 22 – October 17, 2012

I know I’ve mentioned this before, today, being Wednesday, is the day that the babies are delivered by dismemberment in Germantown and I was so grieved for the lives of these children today.  I have no idea how many children died in Germantown this week, but just one is too many.  This morning was very different for me, something I’m generally not used to doing.  The Lord had me keep a silent vigil this morning in honor of those who died today.  I didn’t pray anything this morning, I just was there in silence and after about a half an hour I decided to read the scripture.  I felt impressed to read the book of Habakkuk, which is probably not one of those books that is read so frequently or that one would just of think of reading as I did this morning.  But, as is so true with the Lord, it was the right book to read today.  The book only has three chapters, so it’s a quick read.  Habakkuk’s name means to wrestle with or embrace as in a particularly bothersome issue, i.e. ABORTION.  The prophet attempts to explore the issues of why God has allowed evil.

A study by Hampton Keathley at Bible.org does a good job of looking at the book of Habakkuk and explaining the idea of questioning God or wrestling with God over the evil and injustice seen in the world and why this okay to do.  But more than that, this book is about faithfulness.  It is about the faithfulness of God to redeem His people and bring justice where there is evil and it is about the rewards we receive for being a faithful people.   I must remember to remain faithful to that which God has called me and recognize His sovereignty.  I must also realize that the answers I want may not come when I want them or in the way I want.  It is important to remember that God does not condone evil and His will be done on earth as it is in Heaven!  By the end of the book Habakkuk was able to see this and proclaim praises to God.

Though the fig tree should not blossom
And there be no fruit on the vines,
Though the yield of the olive should fail
And the fields produce no food,
Though the flock should be cut off from the fold
And there be no cattle in the stalls,
Yet I will exult in the Lord,
I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.
The Lord God is my strength,
And He has made my feet like hinds’ feet,
And makes me walk on my high places.

Habakkuk 3:17-19