January 2013 Newsletter
Posted By cmbuuck on January 11, 2013
Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, that you and your descendants might live! Choose to love the Lord your God and to obey him and commit yourself to him, for he is your life. Deuteronomy 30:19-20a (NLT)
Sunday and Roe vs. Wade
by Rev. Dr. James I. Lamb
God and abortion came face to face last year with the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, January 22, 1973, falling on a Sunday. People gathered to worship the Lord and Author of Life on the day when, thirty-nine years before, the U.S. Supreme Court effectively took the right to life away from the defenseless unborn and declared the right to murder them constitutional.
Since then, over 55,000,000 little lives have been slaughtered under the death cry of “the right to choose.”
Many would say I exaggerate the importance of the convergence of Roe v. Wade and Sunday. They maintain there is no connection. Their oft repeated mantra: “Abortion is political and the Church exists to proclaim the Gospel not to be ensnared in politics.” This flawed and deadly reasoning is precisely why the carnage of abortion continues.
The killing of little boys and little girls at any stage of development for any reason is a travesty. Killing little boys and little girls created and gifted by God, purchased by the blood of Jesus, and children God desires to call into an eternal relationship with Him is a travesty against our Triune God.
Therein lies the connection. Abortion is not just a choice that destroys life. It destroys life precious to God.
Add to this the immeasurable guilt and regret an abortion choice eventually brings to the hearts of those involved in that choice and you have a set of circumstances that compels the Church of Jesus Christ to speak and act. You have a mission field tailor made for the proclamation of God’s law and especially the proclamation of His life-changing Gospel.
For the Christian, abortion is at its core idolatry, a failure to “fear, love, and trust in God above all things.” We choose the death of the helpless to deliver us from a difficult situation rather than trust in God “my help and my deliverer” (Psalm 40:17).
But the Church dare not merely pound her pulpits and demand, “Trust God, choose life” as if trust in God is something we can conjure up if we just try hard enough. Time and time again the Scripture associates help from God with salvation from God. “Help us, O God of our salvation” (Psalm 79:9). Those who profess Jesus Christ as the source of their salvation must be led to see and trust that the God who saved them from sin is the source of their help and will never abandon them.
“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:31-32 ESV)
Because God’s love for us was demonstrated on the cross, we can confidently trust that nothing “in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:39b ESV). Christ’s Church has a responsibility to help her people connect this wonderful promise to the life issues.
Our prayer at LFL, is that the Church will make this connection, not just on Life Sunday, but frequently Sunday after Sunday. We stand ready to help and equip the Church to connect and apply what she is already proclaiming, the Gospel, to these issues of life and death. It is the Gospel that truly changes hearts and lives.
Speaking Up For Life
“Abortion must be fought one heart, one mind, and one life at a time. This is what Christians have always done!”
Diane E. Schroeder, President of Lutherans For Life
“God has brought so many broken and hurting to us in ways we can’t even comprehend. We continue to proclaim Christ’s healing, and serve the needs of women and men who have experienced the loss of a child through an abortion. We know that God is in control, we also know that He uses people to do His work.”
Grace Kern, Director of Word of Hope (See “Need Help?” below)
If you are in a crisis situation, have had an abortion, are pregnant right now, or have been hurt by someone; here you will find hope. Please contact us at:
- Toll Free 1-888-217-8679
- In Illinois 1-630-990-0909
- Email: help@word-of-hope.org