Posted on 07/21/2015 6:18:05 AM PDT by Gamecock
From The RM home page: Religion Forum threads labeled “Caucus” Caucus threads are closed to any poster who is not currently and actively a member of the caucus group. (IOW, ALL Protestants are welcome to participate.)
As a Presbyterian, I’m not terribly comfortable with the language of spiritual warfare. I’m not given to subtle premonitions, nor do I have an internal “powers and principalities” alert system. But I’m also not spiritually blind. So, despite my austerity and native skepticism, there was no denying what I was feeling as I stood on the sidewalk outside one of Orlando’s abortion mills. Though the sun was shining, it was a dark place. Though the weather was balmy, there was a definite chill. It wasn’t ordinary humidity that slowed my steps, but an invisible, gloomy cloud that carried the acrid odor of blood. Were I a less uptight man, I might have seen demons dancing on the roof. I had come to the gates of hell.
Jesus, we all remember, made an astonishing promise to His disciples. After Peter boldly affirmed that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God, Jesus replied, “You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matt. 16:18). I did not come to the gates of hell merely to experience their horror. I did not come merely to make some sort of political statement. I did not come merely to support the pro-life movement. I came to see the power of the gospel at work.
There on the sidewalk, I got on my knees and prayed. I repented first. I confessed my selfishness, the callousness of my heart. I confessed that whole hours, indeed whole days, go by when I do not even think of the suffering of His littlest image-bearers. I repented for my country. I confessed that we corporately stand before Him more guilty than even Nazi Germany. The numbers killed in the American holocaust, fifty million and counting, dwarf the numbers killed in the German Holocaust. And we, all of us, know it is going on. Forty years later, and it is business as usual.
Finally, I repented for the church. We who have been rescued from the darkness, we who were dead but have been made alive, we who carry within us the Holy Spirit of God, are so often numb, indifferent, distant, and uncaring.
We might vote for the less pro-abortion candidate every four years. We might collect diapers or dollars for our local crisis pregnancy centers. These, of course, are good things. But they are not all that the true religion of Scripture requires of us in regards to legalized abortion on demand in the United States and throughout the world.
James tells us that true religion consists in visiting the widow and the orphan in their trouble, and keeping ourselves unspotted from the world. We can’t even do the last, as statistics suggest that one in every six, or more than 200,000 of the mothers who commit the dark art of in-utero infanticide every year, are professing evangelical Christians, members in good standing at our churches. More evangelicals today will visit abortion mills as clients than as ambassadors of Jesus Christ.
Is there ever a more vulnerable widow than the woman whose husband/ father/ boyfriend fails to protect her, but instead brings her to the gates of hell? Is there ever a more vulnerable orphan than a baby whose mother and father are alive and well, but seeking to commit murder? In short, your local abortion mill is not only among the most potent manifestations of the gates of hell in the world today, but it is also the very locus of where we can, and must, practice true religion. It is exactly where the church must be, if it would be the church.
I don’t go, however, only to repent. I visit our local abortion mills because I rejoice and delight to see the power of the gospel at work in those places.
If we want to see the Holy Spirit move in power, we have to go to the front lines. Where we are safe, the power is muted. Where the stakes are highest, that’s where He moves. No one is closer to understanding her own depravity than a mom about to murder her own baby. I go to watch the demons move from dancing to mourning, because the Word has come with power. I go to see moms move from weeping in their guilt to weeping in their forgiveness. I go to see babies move from flailing for their lives to jumping for joy.
But there is still more. I go to have my own heart melted. I go so that I will come home a little less stuffy, a little less crusty, a little less safe. I come home changed.
The church needs a broken heart, a contrite spirit. That is why the church needs to be at every mill, every day, repenting and proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ.
That is why you need to go. You don’t need a program; you already have one—“Go into all the world.” You don’t need a leader; you already have one—Jesus the Christ. You don’t need a calling; you already have one—take up your cross and follow Him. You don’t need a message; you already have one—“Repent and believe.”
Ping
This is where he lost me, because the romantic idea of blaming abortion on the man is not in keeping with the facts in our culture. Surveys show men are over-whelmingly pro-life and it is women who are pro-abortion. By and lage, abortion is legal and easily accessible because women want to abort their children, not because men want their children aborted. Legally speaking, men don't even have a say in it.
Good stuff.
“If my people who are called by my name, will humble themselves.....”
I am of the opinion that the “humble” part is very hard for most Americans.
He speaks to an important reality. Many women would keep those babies if not pressured by the men in their lives. I have seen this first hand. Repeatedly. It is almost the predictable pattern for a given set of circumstances. Make no mistake. Many children would be alive today, but for certain heartless men who do not want to live with the real world consequences of their fantasy life.
Peace,
SR
True humility is very hard for everyone. I would even say it's impossible but for the grace of God and the work of the Holy Spirit. Even then we can only approach it but never achieve it.
Especially important given today’s latest news about the eugenicists at Planned Parenthood.
Amen!
I don’t understand your objection. He didn’t make an absolute statement, nor was it romanticized in any way. While it may be true men are more pro-life, it is equally true that certain men—boyfriends, husbands, and even fathers—drive expectant mothers to abortion centers all the time. Anyone who does sidewalk ministry can tell you this. It is common to see men pacing about outside while a girlfriend, wife, or daughter is inside having a child murdered.
I have known boyfriends who insisted upon abortions and thought highly of themselves for their willingness to foot the entire bill. I have also seen grown men cry over the haunting memory of a former girlfriend’s abortion that they had helped secure.
Early in my legal career I knew a wealthy married politician who bought a home for his mistress in exchange for agreeing to abort his child and remain silent.
Several months ago I happened to talk to John Barros, a man who has dedicated his life to sidewalk ministry at an abortion clinic in Florida, and he specifically mentioned R.C. Sproul, Jr. He talked about how R.C. personally visits the same clinic and personally witnesses to young women and men. Some of his older children also visit to witness and pray with them. R.C. knows what he is writing of and he has invested his own time to help save babies.
Wow! While false religion is as the gates of Hell spiritually, abortion, and the taking of innocent life by those who are not the authors of it, manifests Hell at work, for as the Lord who said to allow the little ones to come to Him stated,
The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. (John 10:10)
And as saith the Wisdom of God,
But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul: all they that hate me love death. (Proverbs 8:36)
Excellent verses.
I was utterly appalled by that undercover video of that planned parenthood abortion doctor. I thought maybe that wasn’t a real woman, but a demon who looks human, and that really goes for all of them.
Caucus threads are closed to any poster who is not currently and actively a member of the caucus group. (IOW, ALL Protestants are welcome to participate
.......The power of the Gospel....”the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matt. 16:18).....
God’s church IS the assembly of people who have been called out of the world by the power of the gospel of Christ.....Satan has the power of death, and he will always use that power to try to destroy the body of believers in Christ..... But we have this promise from Jesus that His church, the “called out” will prevail:...
Romans 1:16 tells us..... For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is ‘the power of God unto salvation to every one that believes’....
It is Jesus that said in Luke 4:18.... The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised...
We do not therefore do this in our own ability or in our own power but by ‘the power that has been sent to live and dwell in us’....for Jesus tells us in John 15:5 “ for without me ye can do nothing”.
Furthermore,...2 Corinthians 10:4 tells us ...”For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but ‘mighty through God’... to the pulling down of strong holds”.....It is by the Spirit dwelling in us, through us and through the use of his name, that this power becomes operative to bring down false teachings, and everything which sets itself up against God.
We cannot stand unless we are standing on the Gospel before we can stand against the attacks of the Enemy!....
....therefore... we, as the body of believers with Jesus Christ as the Head... are his Church and the gates of hell will not prevail against us!
The second video released now...and another of satans followers speaks clearly............... She says..."I Want a Lamborghini".... ......Planned Parenthood Employee Laughs While Negotiating 'Sale of Baby Body Parts' which are 'older' than this wee born baby.
I was appalled as well. I had heard for years that the fetal parts were sold but the denials were always yelled louder!
....”While it may be true men are more pro-life, it is equally true that certain men—boyfriends, husbands, and even fathers—drive expectant mothers to abortion centers all the time”.....
My first battle with this killing of the unborn ....the Pastor of the Methodist church, which the family attended drove the young mother to the Abortion Mill...and who interjected himself once he learned the family had decided NOT to abort the child.......I would learn of this after the Pastor had done his deed........Two weeks later the young mother was killed while crossing the street.
The adults, from the mother and father, to the Pastor all which had walked this young mother to take her babies life....then faced the unimaginable guilt and torture.
I cannot express the depth of grief I experienced in fighting for the life of this young mothers child, convinced they had chosen to let this child live.......to only learn that a Pastor had persuaded the family otherwise, and further to take them to the abortion clinic himself and the child was aborted.......
It still affects me to this very day.....
Very good stuff.
Always a pleasure to read some RCS.
Thanks.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.