God's Right to Choose!

Two years ago this month, my mother left us to go to Jesus. A week later, my husband's brother also left us for Heaven. How great was our loss! How great was their gain!

Thinking about them both, I marvel at the number of lives Mom touched in her 84 years and Fred in his 65 years. The same goes for you and for me. We each have the opportunity to touch others for good, to brighten each life with hope and encouragement.

This world is often a fearsome place. Everyone needs reassurance and the peace Jesus promises to those who place their trust in Him. The Bible instructs Christians to be ready to give an answer to those who ask us a reason for the hope and peace we have.

In fact, that is our purpose . . . to introduce others to Jesus Christ. Why? So they can enjoy His peace and presence on earth and then one day, when they die, join the heavenly throngs singing His praises.

When they die . . . . Only God knows when that will be. The author and finisher of life has ordained a certain number of days for each person He creates. How short or how long each will live is determined by Him. We intervene at our peril.

May I ask you something? Why do you suppose some people have a harder time than others in granting God His right to choose?

Imagine that . . . (Part 3)

Imagine that you're sixteen. Your parents are professional people and you come home from school every day to an empty house. You invite a few friends over to study. Your intentions are good, but one thing leads to another; and, before long, studying of one kind has been replaced with studying of another. You and your friends are experimenting with sex.

One of the boys calls it "friends with benefits" and you discover that the benefits include having sex (oral and vaginal) within the confines of friendship--no strings attached, no commitment involved.

Imagine that you get pregnant! Imagine having to tell your parents! Imagine hearing from the young man who impregnated you that you are just friends, nothing more! It's your problem . . . .


Across the country, young women like the one described above visit pregnancy resource centers and find a listening ear and outstretched arms. They find the support they need in a safe, confidential, non-judgmental environment. Whether it's factual information (about their pregnancy options), material goods and services (housing, adoption, legal, medical referrals, or maternity and baby clothing) or emotional and spiritual support, these centers save lives and mend broken hearts.

If you are looking for just such a place, you can find your nearest pregnancy resource center by visiting the website www.pregnancycenters.org or by phoning (800) 395-HELP.

We never know what goes on behind closed doors in our own neighborhoods. But we can pray and we can support organizations that offer the help these young women need.

"Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you." -Matthew 7:1-2

Imagine that . . . . (Part 2)

Imagine that you're in your sixties and hiding a deep dark secret.

When you were young, you were a flower-child, living in the Haight-Ashberry district of San Francisco. You participated in Woodstock, smoked pot, chanted "make love, not war." And you did make love, indiscriminately. Then you got pregnant.

At the time they told you it was merely a blob of tissue, nothing to be concerned about. They told you where to go to get an abortion--and you did. You never felt good about it but managed to push it back into the recesses of your mind. Eventually you left the "wild side," married and moved on.

Sadly, you were never able to have children: the doctor said there was scar tissue from your earlier abortion. You attended all your friends' baby showers and winced every time someone asked you and your husband, "When are you two ever going to have children?" Finally they quit asking.

One day you saw an ultrasound picture of a fetus at 12 weeks gestation--about the age of the "blob of tissue" you aborted. Your heart sank as reality hit. This was a baby! The only baby you would ever have!

Imagine how you would feel . . . .

For years you resented Christians. They seemed so judgmental, particularly when it came to abortion. All they seemed to talk about was babies and how terrible women were who aborted them. Didn't they know how much you were suffering?

But one day Christ's voice spoke to your heart and you responded to Him.

Now you sit in church, terrified that one of those Christians will find out that you are a "murderer." Maybe they'll toss you out of the church. Every Sunday you leave the minute the service is over and you sit on your hands every time someone asks for help that you know you can give. But you don't dare risk letting anyone get to know you. They might find out your secret . . . and then what would happen?

Imagine how you would feel if you were this woman.

Unfortunately, she has yet to discover that there are countless Christians who want to help women like her. Across the country, women with prior abortions find listening ears and outstretched arms at more than three thousand pregnancy resource centers, financed largely by the Christian community. In safe, confidential, non-judgmental settings, most of these centers offer Bible-based support groups for women suffering with post-abortion stress. To find the center nearest you, visit their website at www.pregnancycenters.org or call (800) 395-HELP.

We never know what goes on behind closed doors in our own neighborhoods. Nor can we guess the pain behind the forced smile of the older woman sitting next to us in church. But we can pray and we can support organizations that offer the help these women need.

What if . . . ?

What if you learned early on in your pregnancy that your baby had a serious birth defect, an anomaly that could not be corrected? Your baby would die, if not before birth then shortly after.

What if, for as long as you could remember, you believed that life and death decisions were in the hands of God. But now you wonder . . . you wonder if abortion wouldn't be the kinder act.

Kinder? For whom? Not for the baby. The baby is comfy and cozy in his sac of waters. He hears you talk and sing, feels him pat your tummy, sleeps safely inside you through the night. He doesn't know he's sick!

But you do and, in your grief, you wonder.

Surely God wouldn't ask you to carry this baby to term knowing the separation anxiety ahead of you will be greater with every passing day. Surely God could have no purpose in asking you to sacrifice so much . . . . Why would He do that?

But you remember all the times you've thanked Him for His many blessings and you decide to let God be God. You decide to choose life even though you don't understand what is going on? You choose to declare along with Job, "The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord."

Then, what if you carried your baby to term and delivered an unblemished child? Such things happen. Medical mistakes? Miracles?

What if . . . we simply trust God and obey Him? Whether or not the outcome is what we hope for, our response will have been right. Those who receive a "less than perfect" child at the hands of the Lord also receive His grace to find joy in the morning.

For information and help surrounding this issue, visit www.perinatalhospice.org and www.aaplog.org/PositionsAndPapers/PerinatalHospice.aspx

Imagine that!

Imagine you're a young woman with a long history of abuse. You've been told all your life you'd never amount to anything, that no one would give you the time of day, that you are hopeless. Your self-esteem doesn't even register on a scale of 1-10.

Imagine one day a man looks at you and smiles. He treats you to an ice cream cone and tells you that you're pretty. He takes you for a ride in his car and does things that scare you, but you're afraid to object because he might not like you anymore.

Imagine one day you discover you've missed your period . . . the first time ever! But it happens again, and you notice that your breasts hurt and you have to pee more often and you're suffering from fatigue.

Imagine you tell the man, and he cusses and says he'll take you to a place where they'll "get rid of the kid." Imagine what you would do if you were her. Imagine that!


Across the country, young women like the one described above visit pregnancy resource centers and find a listening ear and outstretched arms. They find the support they need in a safe, confidential, non-judgmental environment. Whether it's factual information (about their pregnancy options), material goods and services (housing, adoption, legal, medical referrals, or maternity and baby clothing) or emotional and spiritual support, these centers save lives and mend broken hearts. You can find the pregnancy resource center nearest you by visiting their website www.pregnancycenters.org or by phoning (800) 395-HELP.

We never know what goes on behind closed doors in our own neighborhoods. Nor can we guess the pain behind the forced smile of the young lady sitting next to us in church. But we can pray and we can support organizations that offer the help these women need.

"Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you." -Matthew 7:1-2

So Much for the Conscience Clause!

The current proposed health care plan has drawn fire from many angles. One that particularly interests me is that, somewhere in the 1,000+ pages, there is a provision for state-funded abortions. Now while President Obama dismisses this claim as a "crazy myth," the FactCheck.org web site has confirmed that House and Senate measures both open the door to government funding of abortion.

Furthermore, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has gone on record as saying that "reproductive health includes access to abortion." Many of us believe that abortion is NOT health care. But if we do not speak up, abortions will be included in the health reform plan, and you and I--against our conscience--will be paying for them.

So much for the conscience clause!

Yet why should that surprise anyone? The conscience clause has similarly been disregarded when it comes to the right of health care providers (doctors, nurses, pharmacists) to act according to their conscience. In many states, pharmacists risk censure and dismissal for refusing to dispense Plan B, the emergency contraception/abortifacient pill. Similarly, doctors risk losing their right to refuse to perform abortions (or refer for them) if abortions become standard of care under the new health plan.

Think what this will mean! Doctors will be forced to choose between their principles or their right to practice medicine. Principled medical professionals will leave their life work, thereby impoverishing the field of medicine. For patients, it will become more difficult to find Christian medical professionals, particularly in the fields of ob/gyn and family practice.

Especially hard hit will be medical pregnancy resource centers who depend on Christian pro-life medical professionals who neither perform abortions nor refer for them. Many pregnancy center clients choose life for their babies on the strength of a medical professional affirming the personhood of the child.

This is not a time to stand on the sidelines. We who believe in the sanctity of human life must step up and make our voices heard before Congress votes on health reform next month. May God give us strength to do so!

The Euthanasia Trojan Horse

I'm concerned about an article recently issued by the American Association of Pro-Life OB/GYNs (AAPLOG). AAPLOG is a group of honorable medical professionals and when they sound a warning, I listen up!

To read "The Euthanasia Trojan Horse" in it's entirety, go to
http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=128544511983

In question is a protocol, recently come to light, employed in the United Kingdom (UK) which has shocked the citizens of that country. Called the Liverpool Care Pathway, it was designed initially for terminal cancer patients. However, it has since become a standard of care nationwide.

The Liverpool Care Pathway, sometimes just called "The Pathway," allows a medical team to determine when the end of life is near. From that time on, the medical team (without permission from the patient or his representatives) "withholds food and fluids while administering a sedative to usher the soon-to-be dear departed from this world to the next."

In 2007-2008 credible British researchers determined that 16.5 percent of deaths in Britain resulted from this "continuous deep sedation." That's one in six, folks!

As the article points out, this protocol deprives these dying people of opportunities to impact their world, reconcile fractured relationships, make their peace with God . . . .

You know, of course, that the UK utilizes a one-payor socialized healthcare system, employing buzzwords such as evidence-based medicine, best practices, care pathways and protocols. Do you recognize any of these terms? If you are keeping up with health-based discussions here in the U.S., you've already heard them.

Beware, my friends, and alert those you know to be vigilant guardians of life from fertilization to natural death.

Happy Labor Day Week-End!

A respite from our labor! What a welcome concept!

We often complain about our work; yet in all labor there is profit. That's what the Good Book says anyway. In all labor. Say, could that include labor--as in labor and delivery? Is there profit in that kind of labor?

Think about it. What could be more profitable than delivering a new life? A new life that, with tender nurturing, could grow up to become a lover of what is right and good . . . a poet, pastor, possibly a doctor, or President of the United States?

It seems in recent years many have considered children a liability rather than an asset and a blessing. On the other hand, ask women who are not able to conceive and most will tell you they'd give anything to have a child. Adoption agencies maintain long lists of people waiting for a baby they can call their own.

Which begs the question: with all those people wanting children, why is abortion even an issue? As a pregnancy care center staff person, I spoke with hundreds of women who had unplanned pregnancies. Though no one wanted to abort, many considered it their only option: they were scared and looking for the quickest way out of their dilemma.

Considering it is no longer the shameful situation it used to be to have a child "out of wedlock," I have two questions for you:

1. How can we encourage a woman who has an unwanted pregnancy to carry her baby to term, and
   
2. How can we help her whether she decides to keep her baby or relinquish it for adoption?

When it comes right down to it, it's up to all of us to care for one another and help one another . . . whether we're young or old, rich or poor, big or small.