What EVERY Pastor Should Know
As a minister of the Gospel of Jesus
Christ, I believe that abortion is a non-negotiable issue. As a Christian and
follower of Jesus Christ, you are commanded to respect LIFE. Any
denomination or church that waffles on the Message of LIFE have lost their way
and needs to go back to the altar.
The Message of LIFE
I have
thought a lot about how to address the Message of Life in the pulpit. Being a
Prolife Advocate is difficult especially with other prolifers. Some think I’m
too bold, some think I’m not bold enough. It’s kind of like how Christians
think and talk about each other; some are weak, some are stronger and both
point critical fingers at each other. If you have not been persecuted or
criticized as a Christian or Prolifer...something is dreadfully wrong.
The boldness
of a Prolife Christian comes from a joy that the world does not understand –
but the world looks at us and wants what we have. Jesus is our Joy, our Love,
our Peace, and our Deliverer:
John 14:27, ‘Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world
gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be
afraid.’
I say do
what God says, not what someone else thinks I should do. When I come to a crossroad,
I go to the Word of God:
- What God says about Life Deuteronomy 30:19 ‘I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live.’
- The Call Ezekiel 3:17, “Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; therefore hear a word from My mouth, and give them warning from Me.’
- Boldness in speech and spirit Acts 4:31, ‘And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness.’
To be frank,
the Church is doing nearly nothing for the lives of our unborn. The ‘abortion’
subject is so uncomfortable that most Pastors and preachers won’t come near it.
I don’t understand why it’s so hard to speak up for Life. God has given us
Life:
“Before
I formed you in the womb, I knew you; before you were born I sanctified you;
I ordained you a prophet to the nations.” Jeremiah 1:5
AND
“For You formed my inward parts; You
covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and
wonderfully made; marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well. My
frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, and skillfully
wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance, being yet
unformed. And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them.”
Psalms 139:13-16
Is a picture worth a thousand words?
YES.
Some prolife
advocates think that hitting you between the eyes with graphic photos of
aborted children is the best way to get their point across. I don’t think those
photos have a place in the church building (the church body, YES); instead the
biblical model of Life needs to be preached and taught thoroughly and correctly
by the pastorate. This is what will lessen the need for abortion.
But if you
want to see what an aborted baby looks like at every gestation, or even the
actual abortion procedure, just do a ‘Google’ search. I assure you, you will
find things that won’t let you sleep at night.
The Church
has a hard time talking about the abortion issue, but in my experience it’s
about the Message of Life, not of death. Yes, a child dies during an abortion
but it’s us, the ‘living’, that make decisions to vote for one person or
another that is either prolife or prochoice. It’s those decisions and the
Church that keep Roe v. Wade alive and well.
And it’s
also the responsibility of the members of every Church to demand that their
Pastors preach the Message of Life. I know many of you have read the book ‘The
Purpose Driven Life’...was the subject of abortion touched upon? Mr. Warren is
under the impression that self-purposing ourselves into being saved is much
more important than reaching out to unborn children that can’t speak for
themselves. Mr. Warren partners with Bill and Melinda Gates who are outloud
supporters of Planned Parenthood. In fact, Bill Gates father – Bill Sr. – was
the head of and a board member of Planned Parenthood. Always be very aware of
Pastors and preachers you read after and support. I believe Mr. Warren needs to
consider a RePurposed Driven Life - to one that will actually edify the
Church body.
A Call to Arms ARMED with the Word of
God.
However, the
Church, as a whole, has been woefully inadequate in getting the Message of Life
out. The Church has stood by silently while millions of children have died
these past 40 years. The Church typically stands on the excuse that the
abortion issue is political. Is it political that innocent children die every
day to the tune of at least 4000 per day in the United States? The answer is
that abortion is a political card for Liberals; Conservatives believe that
Life begins at conception and should be preserved as a right to Life and birth.
I am here to
tell you that you can make a difference in the lives of the unborn. Each and
every one of you probably know a woman that has had an abortion; in fact
statistics say that 43% of all women under the age of 45 have had an
abortion...and half of them have had more than one....that’s actually about 1/3
of all women in the United States. Think of how many post-abortive women are
sitting in pews in every Church in America. Are they being ministered to or
ignored?
When you get
to the point of questioning why you should be ‘prolife’ or not, go back to the
Life of Christ and that will answer your question.
- Christ was born to die Isaiah 53:5, ‘But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.’
- Christ was born to be our Savior Luke 2:11, ‘For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.’
- Christ IS the way to salvation and Life John 14:6, ‘Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.’
- Christ taught us to live by using his Life as an example 1John 2:6, ‘He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.’
Evangelizing
the lost is arduous at best; evangelizing the pre-abortive parent at the
abortion center is even harder. By the time most pre-abortive moms and dads get
to the abortion center, they have already rationalized God out of the decision:
“But God demonstrates His own love toward us [by giving us His only Son, Jesus], in that while we were still
sinners [no one is sinless but Christ],
Christ died for us [even for those that
bitterly hated Him],” (Romans 5:8) AND ‘All have sinned and fall short of
the glory of God’ (Romans 3:23).
One of the
points I try to make is that only Jesus Christ was meant to die for us for our
salvation. No unborn child was ever created to die for MY sins or YOUR sins. In
other words, our unborn children are not created to be martyred for OUR greater
good. Women in this country use their unborn children as pawns in relationship
battles and other opportunities. An unborn child that would die for me does not
enhance my life, instead it made my life empty of the beautiful gift that God
had grace enough to give me.
Numbers don’t lie.
18% of all
abortions are performed on women who identify themselves as
"Born-again/Evangelical" (abortionno.org). The breakdown is this:
- Protestants account for 37.4% of abortions
- Catholics account for 31.3% of abortions
- Jewish women account for 1.3% of abortions
- No religious affiliation obtain 23.7% of all abortions
Are you really Prolife?
There is
this line in the dirt that prolifers stay on either side of – I stay on the
side of making a difference in the statehouse and in churches; others are on
the front lines making a difference with moms-to-be on the sidewalk in front of
the abortion center. Much is the same with church members. This is more than
one way to be a prolife advocate. You don’t have to be a sign carrying
protester or sidewalk counselor; I believe God purposes certain people to do those
things. People drive past abortion centers where Prolifers are and throw trash
at them and yell obscenities – but now and then you get a kind word and a
beautiful testimony. I promise you, it’s well worth it.
Jesus said,
“These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world
you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” John
16:33
