From the Womb To the Tomb (Sanctity of Human Life)

 
Today is the 40th Anniversary  of the Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision. Since January 22, 1973 over 50 million unborn babies have been killed legally in the United States of America.

Over 50 million unborn babies. Let that number sink in: over 50 million.  Heartbreaking!

That is more the eight times the number people who died in the Holocaust.

Look at the number of people we have lost to war casualties in America:

AMERICAN WAR CASUALTIES (from US Army Military History Institute)
Revolutionary War               25,000
War Between the States   ~625,000
World War I                       116,516
World War II                      405,399
Korean                                  36,516
Vietnam                                58,209
Afghanistan                            2,145 (thru 11/2012)
Iraq                                         4,486
War on Unborn           52,008,717+ (10/1/2010 from Bethlehem Baptist Church)
 


"Imagining a concrete picture can bring abstract truth to life. To help us understand what this month's 40th anniversary of legalized abortion in the United States means, one Care Net website offers this picture:  
    [I]magine Camp Randall Stadium in Madison, Lambeau Field in Green Bay, and Miller Park in Milwaukee filled with fans. Now consider this: to host more than 55 million people, all three of these stadiums would need to fill to capacity 290 separate times!"

The sanctity of life refers to the idea that all life is sacred. God is the creator of life and any attack on life is an attack on His authority and His worthiness to be worshiped, be it abortion, physician assisted suicide, euthanasia, embryonic stem-cell research etc. Human life is precious to God. (Genesis 9:5-6)  Life is sacred and should be valued and treasured from conception to natural death (from the womb to the tomb).

God is our creator (Genesis 1:1; 1:26-27; 2:7) so He has authority to rule and govern our lives.
We know that Jesus came to save, restore and renew life. (John 3:16-17; 10:10b)

Satan comes to steal, kill and destroy. (John 8:44; 10:10a)

The birth of Moses and Jesus saw a massive slaughter of innocent children. (See Exodus 1:15-22, Matthew 2:13-18)

Pagan worship in the Old Testament often involved child sacrifice (Jeremiah 19:4-5; Psalm 106:36-38)

Satan is still attacking God using abortion & euthanasia to destroy His image-bearers. "To murder a person is to attack one who is the image-bearer or God." R.C. Sproul

Proverbs 8:36b (ESV) ³⁶   all who hate me love death.”


3801 Lancaster is a documentary film about Dr. Kermit Gosnell - an infamous abortionist who got rich selling abortion services to poor minority women in west Philadelphia.  It is difficult to watch but we do not need to turn our eyes away from the evil of abortion.

Further reading:

We Know They Are Killing Children - All of Us Know by John Piper


Anniversary Pictures: Remembering Roe vs. Wade by Kathleen Neilson  What should we do?

1. Remember  2. Pray  3. Offer Gospel Hope  4. Add Concrete Action


Abortion and the Gospel by Russell Moore


We have a responsibility to speak out for life from the womb to the tomb! (Proverbs 31:8-9)

Soli Deo Gloria,
ah

The Family

23 Then the man said,"This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man." 24  Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
Gen 2:23-24 (ESV)

4  Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.
Heb 13:4 (ESV)

The Baptist Faith & Message

XVIII. The Family


God has ordained the family as the foundational institution of human society. It is composed of persons related to one another by marriage, blood, or adoption.
Marriage is the uniting of one man and one woman in covenant commitment for a lifetime. It is God's unique gift to reveal the union between Christ and His church and to provide for the man and the woman in marriage the framework for intimate companionship, the channel of sexual expression according to biblical standards, and the means for procreation of the human race.
The husband and wife are of equal worth before God, since both are created in God's image. The marriage relationship models the way God relates to His people. A husband is to love his wife as Christ loved the church. He has the God-given responsibility to provide for, to protect, and to lead his family. A wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband even as the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ. She, being in the image of God as is her husband and thus equal to him, has the God-given responsibility to respect her husband and to serve as his helper in managing the household and nurturing the next generation.
Children, from the moment of conception, are a blessing and heritage from the Lord. Parents are to demonstrate to their children God's pattern for marriage. Parents are to teach their children spiritual and moral values and to lead them, through consistent lifestyle example and loving discipline, to make choices based on biblical truth. Children are to honor and obey their parents.

Genesis 1:26-28; 2:15-25; 3:1-20; Exodus 20:12; Deuteronomy 6:4-9; Joshua 24:15; 1 Samuel 1:26-28; Psalms 51:5; 78:1-8; 127; 128; 139:13-16; Proverbs 1:8; 5:15-20; 6:20-22; 12:4; 13:24; 14:1; 17:6; 18:22; 22:6,15; 23:13-14; 24:3; 29:15,17; 31:10-31; Ecclesiastes 4:9-12; 9:9; Malachi 2:14-16; Matthew 5:31-32; 18:2-5; 19:3-9; Mark 10:6-12; Romans 1:18-32; 1 Corinthians 7:1-16; Ephesians 5:21-33; 6:1-4; Colossians 3:18-21; 1 Timothy 5:8,14; 2 Timothy 1:3-5; Titus 2:3-5; Hebrews 13:4; 1 Peter 3:1-7. 
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The modern secular concept of the family is largely driven by sociological theories and assumes that marriage and the traditional family structure are merely the products of human social evolution. Thus, proponents of the secular view believe that because the family is simply a sociological development, it can be renegotiated and restructured to meet modern expectations.

Christians must insist otherwise. We believe marriage, which was instituted by God before the fall, was a central part of God's design for humanity from the beginning (see Genesis 2:23-24). Furthermore, we believe the family, consisting of a mother, a father, and their children, reflects God's glory in the right ordering of civilization and society.

In our confused times many people celebrate what is described as a diversity of family forms. Although Christians recognize that families can experience brokenness, we must also assert that God's purpose and intention are that we build, nurture and respect  ties of marriage, blood and adoption. The family is not a laboratory for social experimentation but an arena in which God's glory is shown to the world in the right ordering of human relationships. ...

The primary responsibilities of nurturing the family and raising children are assigned to the husband and wife. Children are also assigned responsibility to honor and obey their parents, for this is pleasing to the God and is a testimony to God's loving purpose for the family.
We live in a time when the definition of family is a matter of political and social controversy and when the culture is confused about the definition of marriage. Christians bear the unique responsibility to tell the truth, to live the truth, and to bear witness to God's loving intention in establishing marriage and the family for our good. God gave us marriage and family for our happiness and our health, but he also created them as structures of accountability so that we can live holy lives, demonstrating His character, love and wisdom as we fulfill all the responsibilities and roles assigned to marriage and the family.

Pray that God will strengthen homes and help Christian families be all He wants them to be.

from The Baptist Faith & Message Study

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Soli Deo Gloria

ah

FROM THE WEEK ENDING MARCH 5, 2011

HELL, NEIGHBORS, PUBERTY, MARRIAGE, LIFE & PRAYER

• HELL: A REAL PLACE!

"Rob Bell’s forthcoming book Love Wins has already raised perennial questions about universalism, exclusivism, the love of God, and heaven and hell. Every day more voices lend their opinions on the growing controversy—most recently Brian McLaren, Albert Mohler, Scot McKnight, and Mark Galli of Christianity Today among them. The mainstream media, including The New York Times and CNN, have even taken notice.
The book, then, affords Christians the opportunity to revisit the biblical teaching on these weighty matters. Actually, the controversy demands that we seek together how to understand and fit together the Scriptural testimony of God’s character. What did Jesus himself say about God’s wrath and hell? Why did Jesus go to the Cross? And what’s the best way to relate this teaching to a skeptical culture? How do we love our neighbors by relating this news to them?" Justin Taylor

Rob Bell - Universalist? by Justin Taylor

 Two Thoughts on the Rob Bell Brouhaha by Kevin DeYoung

 

Universalism As A Lure - The Emerging Case of Rob Bell by Albert Mohler

Heaven, Hell and Rob Bell: Putting the Pastor In Context by Mark Galli

Pastor Stirs Wrath With His Views on Old Questions - New York Times

"If there no eternal punishment, then WHY IN THE WORLD....did Jesus INTENTIONALLY walk to the cross to suffer and die?"  Matt Carter

THE BIBLE SAYS:
"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. ...
41 "Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels... 46 And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."
Matt 25:31-33;41;46 (ESV)

13  "Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. 14 For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.
Matt 7:13-14 (ESV)

• WHO ARE YOUR NEIGHBORS?

Charlie Sheen Is My Neighbor by Jim Daly

Admittedly, we don't have much in common. We were born years apart, he to parents of great means and me to parents grasping to make ends meet and an alcoholic father in search of meaning itself. We've been going our separate ways ever since. I'm happily married. He's not. I enjoy a warm and loving relationship with my boys; the courts dictate when he sees his. I attend church. He doesn't. It's not that he doesn't believe in God. I think he's like a lot of people today. He probably believes in Him, but doesn't really know who He is.  Click here to continue reading.

THE BIBLE SAYS:
And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40  On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets."
Matt 22:37-40 (ESV)

See also The Parable of the Good Samaritan
Luke 10:25-38 (ESV)

• PUBERTY & DISCIPLESHIP

What The Puberty Talk Can Teach Us About Discipleship by Russell Moore

A friend of mine is about to take his son on a road trip, to talk about the birds and the bees. His son, just a bit older than my boys, is within the horizon of hitting puberty. The father is going to get away with him on a retreat and talk about what’s going to be happening to him in a year or two, and how to handle these changes as a Christian. As I talked with my friend about his plans for the retreat, I wondered why this paradigm doesn’t continue in our churches throughout the Christian life.  Click here to continue reading.

THE BIBLE SAYS:
19  Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age." Matt 28:19-20 (ESV)

• MARRIAGE: One Man, One Woman, For Life

Evolutionary Law by Cal Thomas

President Obama has said his view of same-sex marriage is “evolving.” Apparently he thinks that the law should be based on a kind of Darwinian jurisprudence that allows it to “evolve” and become whatever the ruling politicians at a given moment say it is (or isn’t). Click here to continue reading.

THE BIBLE SAYS:
4 He answered, "Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, 5 and said, 'Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh'? 6 So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate."
Matt 19:4-6 (ESV)

• CHOOSE LIFE

Top 10 Reasons To Be An Optimistic Pro-Lifer by Trevin Wax
Those of us who believe unborn children deserve human rights can be encouraged. Though we still have many hurdles to overcome before we arrive at the place where all human life is legally protected in the United States, we can be optimistic about the end result. Here are 10 reasons why:  Click here to continue reading.

THE BIBLE SAYS:
For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. 14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. 15  My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. 16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there were none of them. 17 How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! Psalms 139:13-17 (ESV)

• PRAYER

Seven Specific Prayers by Tom Elliff

Over the last few weeks, many of our friends have asked how they could pray for us in a specific fashion. You cannot imagine how such a request blesses our heart, especially since all things come by prayer. So I thought it might help to share with you seven specific prayers we pray each day. Thanks, so much, for praying with us.  Click here to continue reading. 

NOTE: Tom Elliff has been nominated to serve as the next president of the International Mission Board (IMB).

THE BIBLE SAYS:
And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10 so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. 11  May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, 12  giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. 13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14  in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
Col 1:9-14 (ESV)

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Soli Deo Gloria

ah

FROM THE WEEK ENDING JANUARY 22, 2011

Remember the sanctity of life:

Today is the 38th anniversary of the infamous Roe v. Wade decision that opened the floodgates for abortion in America. The U.S. Supreme Court handed down the decision, declaring that women have a constitutional right to an abortion on January 22, 1973.

Don't give up on the unborn. Support support crisis pregnancy centers, adoption  ministries, etc. and help end the slaughter of innocent babies!  Get involved!

You shall not murder.

Exodus 20:13 ESV

"For you formed my inward parts;
   you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works;
   my soul knows it very well.
My frame was not hidden from you,when I was being made in secret,
   intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

Your eyes saw my unformed substance;in your book were written, every one of them,
   the days that were formed for me,
   when as yet there was none of them."

Psalm 139:13-16 ESV

Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD,
    the fruit of the womb a reward.

Psalm 127:3 ESV

Powerful speech from Representative James Lankford: "The Right To Life Is Self Evident"

Click on the following links to read more:  (WARNING - some of the videos are graphic but true!)

It's Time To Stop Pretending Abortion Is Anything But The Ruthless Killing Of An Innocent Human Being by Randy Alcorn

This Is Abortion by Justin Taylor

What About The Twins: The Deadly Logic Of Abortion by Albert Mohler

Remember our only hope if found in Christ alone!  Below is a video of my favorite modern hymn.

In Christ Alone - 10th Anniversary Arrangement by Keith and Kristen Getty

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Soli Deo Gloria

ah