Saturday, October 26, 2013

Pictures that Awaken the Soul

We have another guest blogger! Eliana is a wonderful, godly woman that I have had the privledge of ministering with at one of our local abortion mills for the last several months. She's written a great blog post for us; her love for Jesus and unborn children shows in her writing, and I love it! Thanks for writing for us, Eliana! 


I realize that many people have a sincere concern about the public display of graphic abortion pictures. But when it comes to fighting for the lives of children in the womb, it is absolutely necessary. When those heart-breaking pictures of distorted baby bodies are shown, people become nervous, angry, and awfully offensive. Of course none of us like to look at them, and I do find it understandable when the average secular person gets upset upon seeing a display of graphic abortion pictures- BUT I am so dissapointed when a fellow Christian claims that showing the victims of an abortion is “too much.”

 Just as our faith demands that we face head-on the brutality that Jesus underwent for our sake in His Death, and to share this truth with our children and with the world- we are also to face directly the brutality being done to the 3,500 babies who are created in the image of God and are being slaughtered daily. Our intent in showing graphic abortion pictures is rooted in LOVE: Love of God, first of all, Love for the babies He created and who are victimized by abortion, and Love for the parents who are considering abortion-as we do not want them to do something that is so wrong and will cause a lifetime of remorse. Our purpose in showing these graphic abortion pictures is NOT to condemn, but to AWAKEN. Throughout American history, ALL successful social reform movements have used images that depict victims of maltreatment and violence. Public support for such reforms would have NEVER been acquired without publicly showing graphic images of the victims. The horrors of the holocaust have more impact when you see pictures from the extermination camps. Consider the case of Emmett Till and the tremendous impact that those pictures of his distorted body had on the entire country. Consider the effect of pictures of the civil rights movement- They put these kinds of pictures in history books so that we may never forget and never repeat such evil. So yes, It is crucial that we show photos of aborted babies, especially to someone who is considering an abortion. It brings to light the darkness behind abortion. 

So why do Pro-abortion groups despise us for displaying graphic abortion pictures? Because they know that it changes hearts and awakens the conscience. Because it exposes truth! Ephesians 5:11- And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.


 ~Eliana Smith

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Wanted!!!

A mother sits weeping on the edge of her bed.  In her mind she is continually seeing that ultrasound screen.  She is sobbing as she remembers the heartbeat that was there no longer.  She grieves the loss of her child-though never to breath air on earth-it was still her baby.  She wishes she could have cradled the little one in her arms and raised her son or daughter to adulthood.  This baby meant just as much to her as her other children and was already a treasured member of the family.  Her heart is crying.

Sitting in a red chair, in a little brick building, is another mother.  She squeezes the few hundred bucks in her hand and can't wait to just get this over with.  In her womb is a living child, totally unaware of the upcoming destruction.  The mother thinks to herself about how great life will be after the abortion.  She envisions her college grades and smiles.  In the room next to her the vacuum machine that will be used to tear her baby to shreds is being prepared.  Her heart is hardened.


It is so sad to think, that there are women who have miscarried, and lost the baby they had waited for so expectantly.  That there are some women who are barren, and want children ever so badly. But yet there are millions of women who kill the very children God blessed them with.  Every child is wanted!  Wanted by the people that have lost their own, wanted by the people who cannot conceive, wanted by GOD.

Job 10:12 "You clothed me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews.  You have granted me life and steadfast love, and your care has preserved my spirit."

~Theresa

Thursday, October 17, 2013

Stop Harassing the Women!

We've got a little surprise for ya'll today!  A guest post!  Kaitlin and I have been talking about spreading out the blog to include more Christians involved with abortion by doing guest posts.  We have just recently been privileged to meet a godly young lady, Anna Misko, and she has agreed to write an article for the blog.  Yay!  She has a blog called "A Handmaiden of the Lord...", which I would strongly encourage ya'll to check out!  And if you'd like to follow her as well, that would be sweet :).  
She's our first guest poster, and will hopefully post again.  She not only has a heart Jesus, but she has a heart for writing as well.   I think this post is excellent, and I think you will too.  Thank you so much Anna!  It's title is "Stop Harassing the Women!"

Have you heard that before? Or something like “You only think about the fetus”, “You’re ignoring the mother”, “You don’t care about anything or anyone except babies”, or “You’re not looking at things from the woman’s point of view. You should care about her, too”.
Pro-lifers are often accused of only caring about the unborn child, not the mother, father, family, friends, or even the child once he or she is born. However, a person who only cares about the unborn child is not thoroughly pro-life. If a person is really pro-life, they will be just as concerned about the mother’s life as the child’s. There is nothing about being pro-life that restricts who the subject must be – young, old, male, female, child, parent. Neither should there be a restriction on what type of life – physical, spiritual, emotional, mental.
We already know that the unborn child is destroyed by abortion, and thus every pro-lifer wants to save the baby. The need to help the child is obvious. But what about the mother? Does abortion hurt her? If it doesn’t, then she doesn’t need help, and thus the accusation about not helping the mother would not apply. Let’s look at some facts and testimonies from women who have had abortions and see what we find about the mother’s need.
According to an article titled “PsychologicalReactions Reported after Abortion”, over half of the women surveyed reported strong feelings of guilt, shame, and self-condemnation after their abortions. 55% of post-abortive women indicated they had strongly considered or attempted suicide, 89% said that they experienced negative reactions to their abortion (86% of those women would not have had an abortion if they could do it over), and many increased their use of alcohol and drugs.

Another study, outlined in the article “Abortion Risks: A list of major physical complications related to abortion”, noted that women who had abortions were six times more likely to commit suicide than women who had carried their babies to term. Other health issues such as cervical, ovarian, and breast cancer, ectopic pregnancy, and complications during later pregnancies were found to be far more common in women who had previously had abortions.

Beyond the facts, countless post-abortive mothers have deep regrets and emotional wounds from having had an abortion. Here are a few statements from some of these women:

 

Anna writes, “The guilt and pain from my decision that day still haunts me. I wish I could go back in time and undo that.”

From someone telling the story of a post-abortive mother: “There was one more thing that no one told Marquis at the abortion clinic, and that was how broken she was going to be. That she would spend years and years trying to fill a void with everything from people to experiences to alcohol because there was an aching need inside of her that she just didn’t know how to fix.”

Hannah laments, “I wish abortion was never legal, and I never would have had that choice, because I would be with my child, and my life would not be so full of pain and regret.”

Lori shares, “The nightmares began immediately. I was isolated in my intense pain and grief. I experienced depression, anxiety, mistrust, and feelings of worthlessness and low self-esteem. It took months, but at some point I succeeded in rejecting my experience, denying my hurt, and suppressing all thought surrounding abortion. I numbed my pain but it did not really go away; it just waited.”

These testimonies are a tiny sampling of the heartache and turmoil that post-abortive mothers experience (for more, see After Abortion Testimonies). These are not the exception, they are the rule. Everywhere you turn, women are grieving because of abortion, often silently and under a pretense of being just fine.
These statistics and testimonies show us that most, if not all, women suffer terribly from abortion. In fact, we could say that abortion harms the woman more than it harms the baby. That may seem like a strange statement because the baby loses its life. However, death is as far as it goes for the baby. For the mother, on the other hand, there can be a lifetime of physical, spiritual, emotional, and mental pain and anguish. She will have to live with the ongoing consequences of having killed her child. Many of these women will have deep scars for the rest of their lives.
The father of the child, as well as family and friends, are also deeply affected by abortion, as illustrated by the following statements:

Jerald, a father, says, “Aborting our child actually seemed convenient at the time and was kept a total secret.  What I didn't realize then was how this would affect me for the next 30 plus years of my life.  Without my even realizing it, the guilt of what I had been part of created anxiousness, anxiety, and an anger hidden deep inside of me that I just could not understand.”

One person wrote a letter to her aborted half-sibling, asking, “Is it possible to miss someone you’ve never even met? . . . because my heart longs for you. It longs for you to have life.”
“I miss you. I love you,” the letter continued. “I’m so sorry no one loved you.”

In light of all of this, let me point out that it may often seem like pro-lifers are more concerned about the unborn child, but this is only a short term perspective. Since the baby in the womb is the one without a voice and the one whose physical life is in most immediate danger, our first goal is keep the baby from being killed. Once the baby is safe, the physical and spiritual life of the mother (as well as others) can also be ministered to and helped. That is what it means to be completely pro-life. With an attachment as close as that of the mother and her unborn child, nothing can happen to one without affecting the other. Because killing a child in the womb is never the best option for the mother, to save the baby is to care for and help the mother.
 ~Anna Misko

Sunday, October 13, 2013

Late Term Abortion

Back in May of this year, Kermit Gosnell's face and pictures of his late-term aborted victims were plastered all over social media, along with all of the details of his filthy and illegal practice. People everywhere were disgusted and outraged; good ole' Planned Parenthood even went to Twitter to voice their hypocritical and moronic opinion on the matter-




You know it's bad when Planned Parenthood says that you're appalling. I mean, come on.





Basically, it was horrific; but despite that, there are some things that need to be said. What Gosnell did was terrible, but so are the things that every other abortionist in America does every day. Those late-term babies didn't deserve to die, but neither did all of the first trimester and second trimester babies who were murdered in his clinic. Something we need to remember is this; late term abortions are no morally worse than abortions performed in the very first weeks of pregnancy. Did you get that?

Notice that I said morally worse. I'm willing to admit that seeing an aborted 35 week old baby is harder to stomach than an aborted 10-week old baby. Late term abortions are much more gruesome looking than, say, the baby pictured on the right of this image:




Maybe you feel the same way; maybe you believe that life begins at conception and that abortion is murder from that point up until a child is born. That's great. But why are we so much more repulsed by late term abortions than by first trimester abortions? Really, why? Because late term babies are bigger, older and capable of life outside the womb? Those things are true, but does that make them more human or more worthy of love than smaller, younger babies? Absolutely not. Unborn children the size of a grain of rice or even the size of your thumb are just as precious as any late term baby boy or girl. They have potential, worth, value and are loved and cherished by the Lord God. They have inalienable God given rights, and they deserve our faithful and unwavering protection! 


Please know that my goal is not to minimize or depreciate the horror of late term abortion; my goal is to expose the equally inherent evil and wickedness of ALL abortion. 
 


~ Kaitlin


Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Boundaries

Have you ever read something before, and then been like "wow, what a great point!"?  I know I have, and one thing comes to mind that I read not long ago.  

 In a book called "One Heartbeat Away", Mark Cahill gave a perfect description of boundaries.  I understood what they were and why they were needed, but I never understood it as fully as I did after reading how he put it into words.  Here's the quote.

"...If we live in a world with no rules, we actually have no freedom.  We can't really be happy.  But when there are boundaries and rules, we have "all the freedom in the world."  We can be happy people.  Does that sound strange?
     "As I talked with a guy one day, I gave him this example:  If you were staying on the thirtieth-floor of a hotel, would you go out on the balcony if it were just a slab of concrete, but no railings?  Would you put your child out there?
     " Of course, you wouldn't.  It would be too dangerous.  But once you put some good strong railings on the balcony, would you go out there?  Would you go out there with your child?
     "Sure!  Not only would most of us go out there, we would even lean on the railings while we were out there.  Why would we want to do this?  Once there is a boundary, you have all the freedom you want inside that boundary.  You can have lunch out there if you want.  Boundaries provide freedom.
    "One time in Myrtle Beach, I was talking with two 18-year-olds.  They told me they would never become Christians.  I asked them why.  They said it would take all the fun out of life.
     "I looked them in the eye and said "Today there is a zero-per-zero-percent chance that I am going to get someone pregnant.  There is a zero-percent chance that I am going to get AIDS today.  There is a zero percent chance I am going to get a DUI today.  You know there are some pretty good benefits to becoming a Christian?
     "Both young men's jaws dropped.  They told me that they had never thought about that before.  They thought they had freedom, but they really didn't. They thought they could do whatever they wanted too, but they didn't realize they would become slaves to the consequences of their choices."

 Boundaries are here for a reason, and if they were used, abortion wouldn't be in its current high demand.  Abortion is so rampant because of the lack of obedience to boundaries, not because of lack of boundaries.  Making lots of laws (boundaries) is not going to fix it, there are already laws in place!  But even more important than man's laws are the laws of God.  If we obeyed the command not to be sexually immoral, then there would never be that temptation to murder, lie, and be selfish with an abortion.  If we would live according to His word, we would be so much better off and so much FREE-ER!  But instead, we have bound ourselves up with sin and play a dangerous game on a 30 floor balcony with no railings. Though we think that abortion will "free us", it's just making it worse.  Sin will not free you.  Only Jesus Christ will free you.

God set boundaries in place for a reason.  It's up to us to follow them.

~Theresa