Serious
"We must demand our governing authorities establish equal justice, making it illegal to murder babies because governing authorities must not judge unjustly nor show partiality to the wicked. They must give justice to the weak and the fatherless, maintaining the right of the afflicted and the destitute." ~ Rescue Those
Not So Serious ~ "Twoo Wuv"
If you haven't seen this 1987 cult classic, treat your sweetheart to the fanciful romance adventure film The Princess Bride. Farmboy-turned prince, Westley, faces great peril--including the Fire Swamp with quicksand and R.O.U.S. (rodents of unusual size)--in his attempt to rescue the fair maiden, Buttercup. Watch for yourself to see if he is successful, laughing along the way with scenes like this:
True Love
A year ago we brought home this little orange and white furball...
He has captured our hearts, despite--or maybe because of-- late nights, early mornings and swallowed-then-vomited socks. Yes, I did photograph it, as I was totally grossed out and amazed and had to show Scott. And, yes, the broccoli was fed to him on purpose:
Buck has made good friends like the gentle giant, Biscuit, the neighborhood Labradoodle who visits occasionally:
And Gemma Jean, his doxie sweetheart--a whole foot shorter, she makes up for in cuddles what she lacks in height:
Buck loves when he gets to play with his sister, Lady. She can be fierce but has such nice manners and puts Buck in his place when needed:
One friend referred to Buck as "a noble beast":
This type-A Brittany is taking to his upland bird hunting training like a boss, making his master proud:
It has been a very full year, watching Buck grow, play, learn and acclimate to his feline housemate. Tikhvah/Jack guardedly trusts Buck not to eat him, having established a hierarchy from the get-go with hisses and claws. This idyllic scene now happens occasionally:
For all of this, we are thankful. Animals are a gift to us from the LORD. We take pleasure in their care and companionship. It's clearly not the same as raising humans (interestingly, these two commandments are given in the same breath--see below) but God has allowed animals to fill a special place in our hearts.
"God blessed them; and God said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.'" ~ Genesis 1:28
"Whoever is righteous has regard for the life of his beast, but the mercy of the wicked is cruel." ~ Proverbs 12:10
The juxtaposition in this verse has perplexed me and many of the Proverbs have a similar pattern, contrasting good with evil. This part of the proverb, "the mercy of the wicked is cruel", lit up for me today as I watched then heard what a woman at the abortion mill argued about why killing her baby was good. Her attempt to justify her behavior--paying an abortionist to help her murder her child--came on the heels of another conversation minutes earlier, one which had the same theme: killing is merciful.
My friend Andrea details her and her husband's first-hand encounters with both of these individuals:
First encounter:
"A passerby swerved into the parking lot and drove up onto the curb. He rolled down his window and began by stating that, in the Bible, abortion is not murder. He identified himself as a Jewish psychiatrist and said that he had worked with institutionalized children who had been abandoned by their parents and that many of them said they wished they had never been born. I told him it’s a horrible thing when parents don’t love their children, and that that is also what’s happening here at this abortion mill. He referenced the scripture about when a man strikes a woman who is pregnant that he has to pay a fine. I told him that everybody knows it’s murder and the Bible says that we suppress the truth in unrighteousness. He continually interrupted me but that was pretty much the only moment he was quiet and asked me where that was in the Bible. When I told him the Book of Romans he said, 'I’m Jewish and I don’t believe in the New Testament. That’s not in my Bible.' He said he had to go because he was on his way to Torah class. Chad then called him to repent and turn to Christ.
"The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them." ~ Romans 1:18-19
Second encounter:
A woman leaving the abortion mill walked over to us in response to us calling out to her. She started by saying that we were not genuine, we were not here to help anyone. She then went on to explain that she and her husband decided they could not have a child at this time. Her husband was just diagnosed with autism, she had just recovered from breaking her back/back surgery and they have two other children. They want to possibly have another child in the future but this wasn’t the time. The pregnancy would be very dangerous with a risk of her breaking her back again and causing mental distress to her husband. She was five weeks pregnant. She had already had the abortion and this was her follow-up appointment.
She was full of justification as to why killing her child was right. Chad told her that there’s no greater love than to lay down your life for someone else. She did not believe that 'clump of cells' was her child (a person) but did acknowledge that it was a life—a potential life. She said, 'I stewarded that little life as best I could for three weeks,' and, 'My husband and I prayed about it, that God forgives and gives room for error.'
I asked her, 'What do you believe was error in this situation?' She essentially answered that she had done right and there was no error.
When we tried to talk with her further she said she had to go. In a desperate attempt to bring conviction I called out to her as she was walking away that she had indeed murdered her son or daughter and that forgiveness is not possible unless she admits her sin, that she had done wrong. She rolled down her window and shouted something at us as she was leaving but I couldn't hear."
"Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends." ~ John 15:13
Two week's ago, I had a conversation with a father and his daughter as they pulled out of the abortion mill parking lot. As I reached out my hand to offer a gospel tract and information from a local pregnancy care center they stopped and she rolled down her window. I asked if she had been here for an abortion. They nodded yes. I said, “I’m so sorry, you realize you destroyed your baby, made in God’s image?”
They answered yes, they'd been struggling with that. The father said, “She’s 16.”
I said, “My mom was 19, she placed me for adoption.”
She told me she had taken the abortion pills last week. She was here for a follow-up. I asked how it went. She said it was awful. I asked if she saw the abortionist. She said only by video call last week. I asked if she saw him today? She said no, she had not, she just saw the workers, not the abortionist. I asked her name so I could pray for her. Christina. I told them both they need forgiveness and healing that can only be found by confessing their sin to God. As they pulled away, my eyes welled with tears for the terrible sin and loss.
"Stop shaming women!" is a common refrain yelled by angry passers-by to those of us standing on the public right-of-way calling out to women. We are not deterred. We are not shaming. We are warning them of the dire consequences of killing their babies. Shame is the result of a guilty conscience:
"They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them..." ~ Romans 2:15
And we do not judge them. That task is not ours:
"...on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus." ~ Romans 2:16
We offer women and men hope and help, proclaiming the gospel and telling them the way to love God and others rightly, His way:
"He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God." ~ Micah 6:8
Wickedness Abounds
A recent disgusting Twitter post:
"Furthermore, since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, He gave them up to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed, and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant, and boastful. They invent new forms of evil; they disobey their parents. They are senseless, faithless, heartless, merciless." ~ Romans 1:28-31
Modern-Day Child Sacrifice
This poignant video is one of many produced by Laura Klassen, founder and director of CHOICE42, a Christian, Anti-Abortion Organization based on these four basic principles:
Pre-born human beings are human beings designed with purpose and are deserving of life.
Abortion is murder.
Women are capable and strong enough to choose life for their babies.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is crucial to the fight against abortion.
Go To The Abortion Mills and Plead for Lives
For sidewalk training and to connect to the global movement of local Christian churches committed to ending abortion with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, please visit END ABORTION NOW. Hear how this ministry is making an impact for the Kingdom of God in Michigan:
Evangelist Andrew Belanger serves alongside pastor Justin Philips with One Life for Life at a local abortion mill, pleading with men and women to love God and their babies, proclaiming the gospel of life.
An Open Letter to Pastors in The United States
Dear Pastor, Roe v. Wade has been overturned by the Supreme Court in the United States. Many of you have told your churches or have said on social media that now is the time to show compassion. May I ask you a question or two? May I ask, respectfully, what your church has done over the last fifty years to show compassion to the true victims of abortion? Specifically, what have you done to rescue those precious babies that were appointed to slaughter (Proverbs 24:10-12)? The question could be answered in any number of ways. You have encouraged your church to vote. You support a crisis pregnancy center. Or perhaps you have prayed to end abortion or held a Sanctity of Life Sunday. All of those can be good things. But in a culture that murders its preborn children, is that a thorough, Biblically based response?
No one has done enough.
Too few have even tried. Many states still have murder mills that are open and functioning as they have for 50 years. A few have closed them, but women can still sacrifice their son or daughter using chemical abortifacients at home, either through prescription or through sources obtained online. Women can still travel out of state or out of the country to have surgical abortions where they are still legal.
Pastor, will you:
Download the Rescue Those app and use the free resources there to get equipped with a Biblical ethic on abortion?
Study the Biblical history of child sacrifice in the Old Testament?
Preach that abortion is child sacrifice in your church?
Preach the gospel at abortion clinics or in the public square in your community?
Preach the gospel to your local and state elected officials when there is opportunity to testify in support of bills that would provide equal protection and equal justice for life in the womb?
Locate a church volunteer to network with CHOICE42 to help vett women who come to them for assistance?
Abortion has not ended anywhere in the United States. The battle lines have shifted, but the war rages on. I hope you will engage in the battle. If you would like assistance in how to get into the fight, please contact me. I am glad to help you mobilize your church in the battle to end child sacrifice on this continent.
In Christ,
Pastor Jon Speed Co-Producer of Babies Are Murdered Here (2014) and Babies Are Still Murdered Here (2019)
Abolish Human Abortion is a gospel-centered movement that seeks to contrast two visions of reality and morality and demonstrate how one vision, the Christian view, centered on God, leads to the humane and dignified treatment of human beings, while the other view, centered on man, leads to the inhumane and undignified treatment of human beings. "Following in the footsteps of former abolitionist movements, we aim to end one of the greatest human miseries and moral evils ever to be entrenched in our world. Human beings are created in the image of Almighty God, the very Creator of the universe. The weakest and most helpless among us have been subjected by this wicked culture to accepted, legal, and systematic destruction."