For Such A Time As This

Yesterday, I sat in total awe as two of my young children boldly and unashamedly proclaimed the Gospel of Jesus Christ while asking the Raleigh City Council to make Raleigh a sanctuary city for the unborn. One of these children, named after the prophetess Miriam, was born in adversity and adopted near starvation, and yet in God’s providence, she stood publicly before our government and called for the release of “her people”, citing Exodus 1 and 2.  And like Pharoah’s response to Moses, I watched in horror as two hard-hearted council members LAUGHED at our appeals for the preborn.

As the mother of 8 children, some adopted, some with disabilities – one who would be called “incompatible with life” in prenatal scans and recommended for abortion – I have never been more convicted regarding the murder of children in this country. In an era where the culture DARES to use adopted, fostered, and special needs children as EXCUSES for abortion, saying they would be better off dead, we can no longer remain silent. Additionally, we have to think and discern closely what sort of victories we are celebrating, and even be willing to change our OWN minds about how we view this issue.

The time for incremental pragmatism, which is the current national strategy, is over. Abortion is PROHIBITED in the Fourteenth Amendment, within the historical context of the word “person” at the time it was written. Roe is unconstitutional.  Please realize that we do not need to wait for Roe to be overturned – nor should we – while babies are being torn limb from limb and tossed into garbage cans just feet from where we drive to work and raise our families. We have the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and we are Ambassadors of Christ (2 Cor. 5:20). We have, literally, everything we need.

My family and I minister to women entering the abortion clinics and I am saddened to tell you, Church, that the women we are imaging are walking into the abortion clinic – the helpless victim that we are afraid to offend with our ministry or our laws – she rarely exists at the actual abortion clinic, where the ACTUAL killing is taking place.  Because at the abortion clinic, the baby is the one who is the victim of bloody murder.

Let me be perfectly clear that all people, including abortion doctors and all assortments of sinners, and regardless of the level of the hardness of their hearts, need the Gospel of Jesus Christ to pour into their lives, and they need our compassion. But for the grace of GOD go I (Titus 3:3)!

That being said, the women we encounter who are walking into the actual abortion clinics are abortion-DECIDED.  They are informed, educated, and they are not the victims of murder.  Blinded by sin, yes.  Victims, no. I have to wonder if we have also become blinded, in a way.  Or numbed.  Or unaware.  Do you know what goes on at the abortion clinics?

Our family stands outside at the local abortion clinic and we offer to help women with resources, to adopt their babies, or to take them out to lunch to talk. In response, women tell us that they would rather deliver the baby at term and strangle him or her with their own hands than put it up for adoption where a Christian might raise their baby. They dance, they curse at our children, they point to my disabled children and call them “an argument for abortion”, they spit at me, and they say abortion makes them feel empowered.

Some mothers and fathers push past us, thanking us for being there, telling us they are members of a local church and that they know Jesus will forgive them for what they are doing – they ask us to “stop judging them” and to go pray quietly for them like the Catholics on the other side of the street.

Sometimes, we are able to catch a tender woman walking in who has an unseared conscience and chooses mercy for their baby, or a heroic father who hears our words and runs in to pull his family out of the clinic. Later on, they send us pictures of their cherished children – and those are joyous days – but we must wake up to the reality of our times.

The days are EVIL (Rom. 1: 18-32). And the victims are the BABIES. Say it with me: In the crime of abortion, the victims are the babies. It never ceases to amaze me that modern feminism wants to be empowered and answer to absolutely no one, and yet wants you to believe that THEY are the victims when it comes to abortion and abortion law. YES, many people in the chain of events that leads to an abortion can be victimized, but not one of those events or victimizations justifies the killing of an innocent baby in the womb.

Yesterday at the council meeting I watched as two council members LAUGHED while were begging for the lives of the preborn. I sit here today and know of several Godly men who would be willing to unseat those council-members and abolish abortion in Raleigh. But here is the sad reality: many of you would likely not vote for them, because they would stand rightly on the issue and allow for NO EXCEPTIONS and for the criminalization of abortion.

For someone to get elected these days, they need to play pragmatic and make compromises on these key elements, and without a hard line on those key elements we WILL continue on in the bloody, 46-year march of incrementalism and compromise that IS the national pro-life movement. We will celebrate small victories that, in reality, only regulate abortion. We will cheer these “small steps” while babies are crushed underfoot.

I ask you, if we went back to the days of slavery, would we play it this way? Would we “play the long game” and compromise because we were unwilling to offend commerce and culture?  Would we drive past plantations on our way to work, offering up laws that simply regulate slavery instead of rising up and demanding abolition? Would we pool our resources to promote laws that would ban slavery of SOME slaves –  for example, those who were over the age of 18 –  but allow child slavery, citing a “long game” approach and waiting on the Supreme Court?

This is what we are doing, friends. Offering up laws that PERMIT babies to be killed by exception or up to a certain age or milestone, like a heartbeat. This is called PRAGMATISM and POLITICKING and it has no place in matters of life and death.

As for exceptions, can you be anti-rape, but with exceptions? Can you be anti-pedophilia, but with exceptions? Which begs the question, what IS the exception for murder?  And can you stop murder without criminalizing offenders?

What is the appropriate answer to a culture demanding “NO LIMITS” and the killing of babies up to the moment of BIRTH?  The APPROPRIATE and uncompromising answer is NO EXCEPTIONS. Because Abortion IS murder. FROM CONCEPTION. The literal hands of God are “knitting together” image bearers from “unknown substance” (Ps.139) and yet, we are compromising and making deals with those who are reaching into the womb and ripping children from their umbilical cords.

Rise up, Church!!! Set aside political idolatry (Col. 2:8)! Come out to the abortion mill with us and meet the Holocaust head-on. Stop relying on/partnering with heretical denominations in ecumenicalism, allowing a false gospel to be preached to the women in the counseling rooms, and justifying it by saying “well, so many babies are being saved.” We cannot compromise on the Gospel. God is ever so clear on this in Galatians 1:9-11 and Ephesians 5:11!

Would you even BELIEVE there were flocks of activists there yesterday to show support for speakers who were appealing against rock quarrying? That’s right, people…rocks and the status of VRBOs are the BIG issues for Raleigh while babies are being murdered every single day! We need to bring the Gospel to the forefront!  Here is what you can do today:

First, REPENT: Everyone from the abortion doctor to the choir director needs a Savior, and that Savior can only be found in Jesus Christ. ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23), and that sin separates us from God and requires hell (Matthew 13:42).  Jesus Christ, the Creator and Sustainer of all things, the Living God, the Alpha and Omega, humbled himself and came to earth in human form, lived a sinless life, died a selfless death, and defeated the death we deserve by rising from the dead – paying for the sins of those who will repent and believe on Him alone for Salvation (1 Cor. 15:3-4). Jesus says to you that you MUST be born again (John 3:3). This means to repent from your sins (agree with God about them and turn from them) and believe on Jesus alone for your eternal salvation! (Mat. 4:17, Luke 5:32)

There is NO SIN too big for this Cross. If you have had an abortion, paid for an abortion, encouraged an abortion, or have not repented and turned to Jesus, He stands ready to fully, freely, and immediately forgive you. Isaiah 1:18 says, “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.”

PRAY: Ask for the Spirit to lead you in what Jesus would have you do. Talk to your those you trust for Godly guidance.

EVANGELIZE: Ask your church to partner with Gospel of God Ministries https://gospelgm.wpengine.com and learn more about abolishing abortion, preaching the Gospel, and evangelizing your city. The Gospel going forth is the answer to all human evils. Every single last one (Rev. 21:4). Jesus is the answer – praise you, Jesus. And evangelism is the COMMAND given to ALL believers in the Great Commission (Matt. 28:16-20)!

LEARN: Check out this podcast explaining incrementalism vs. immediatism/abolitionism and the implications of the state and federal laws regulating abortion. Podcast On Ending Abortion 

DISCERN: Be discerning with your support! You would be SHOCKED and amazed to learn that many big-name, pro-life Christian ministries partner ecumenically in ministry, or purposefully AVOID sharing the Gospel at any point because it is “offensive”.