FINDING NEW LIFE

#1 · January 28, 2010, 2:45 pm

Quote from Forum Archives on January 28, 2010, 2:45 pm
Posted by: bhfbc <bhfbc@...>

FINDING NEW LIFE

JANUARY 24, 2010

Text: John 10:7-18

I want to take you back a couple of months to early November when I introduced to you a woman named Gianna Jessen. I was introduced to the testimony of Gianna through a video presentation played during Beccas senior project, a pro-life rally. To remind everyone, Gianna is a survivor of a very late term saline abortion attempt. Besides not surviving, she should have been born, if she was born at all, blind and terribly burned. She is neither, although she does have cerebral palsy as a result of the disruption of oxygen to her brain during her struggle to survive in the womb. And this is one of the important parts of many in her testimony: this little baby girl, described as nothing more than a blob of tissue by some, actually fought to survive. Abortions kill helpless human life. Because of all this, Gianna has a testimony of heroic proportions. This young woman certainly does not back down from proclaiming the glorious name of Christ in any setting. It may cause some to be uncomfortable, she says, but she did not survive an abortion attempt and overcome the effects of cerebral palsy just to make everyone feel comfortable.

I remind everyone of Gianna and her testimony this morning because last Friday, January 22^nd, marked the 37^th anniversary of the Roe v Wade decision which is considered the turning point of legalized abortion in America. It is celebrated as a great day by pro-abortion supporters and hailed as a sad day for life by pro-life supporters. As unfortunate as it is that pro-life advocates have had to challenge and fight this culture of death for 37 years, there are testimonies of hope and victory that continue to mount. The pro-life advocacy of Gianna Jessen is one of those testimonies.

It is completely right for born-again Christians to oppose abortion and advocate life because our Lord is pro-life. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. (John 10:10) Feel free to correct me if you think that I am wrong, but nowhere in Gods Word do I get the impression that Jesus Christ is an advocate for the taking of innocent life. Unfortunately, there are some who claim to worship Jesus and call him Lord, yet turn their backs on the call to be pro-life. They claim that, as a matter of justice for women, Jesus would be pro-choice. They are disastrously wrong. Unfortunately, even our own national leadership in the American Baptist Churches refuses to create and distribute material supporting pro-life advocates. I have suggested and requested this, but have been ignored. Yet, I do receive a fair amount of resources declaring and suggesting how members in American Baptist churches can be involved in a variety of social justice issues such as peace movements, anti-poverty and anti-hunger campaigns, illiteracy, and human trafficking. Those are all worthy issues, but as the organization Stand True, another pro-life advocacy resource I learned about at Beccas project, has put it: Social justice begins in the womb. The well-known John 3:16 reminds us all of Gods intent for His entire creation: For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. Eternal what? Yes, life! Again, followers of the Lord Jesus Christ are instructed to be advocates for life.

As I shared earlier, testimonies of hope and victory continue to increase. For the first time in the fourteen years that the Gallup poll has been asking the question, a majority of Americans fifty-one percent identify themselves as pro-life. Just a year ago, that number was forty-four percent. One of the positive elements of this poll is the number of young adults who are expressing their support for pro-life issues. About seventy percent of white young evangelicals favor making it more difficult for women to get abortions, compared with fifty-five percent of older white evangelicals. Im not quite sure where my generation and the generation before me thought it was OK to leave Biblical truth behind, but I am glad that those younger than us are rejecting that falsehood. One reason, cited in a recent issue of World magazine, is that our improved ultrasound technology is convincing reasonable men and women that the fetus they see is not just a blob of protoplasmic cells, but a real live human baby from the start. (Alisa Harris, Eyewitnesses, World magazine, January 30, 2010, pp. 46-48) God made His human creations with some absolutely great characteristics, and one of those characteristics is to be able to make correct choices when given truthful facts and evidence.

No one could illustrate this better than Abby Johnson, whose testimony indicates that she found new life. Abby worked at the Planned Parenthood clinic in Bryan, Texas, for nine year, first as a volunteer and then as the director. Her duties included running the family planning and abortion programs. The clinic performed abortions two days a month. Although she had seen ultrasounds before, including during her own pregnancy, Johnson said she had never seen an ultrasound image during an abortion. She is unclear why, as the director of the clinic, she was asked to be in the procedure room on that day, because it was not a normal part of her duties. Still, Johnson said, the experience changed her forever.

I had never seen an abortion happen on an ultrasound, she said. My job during the procedure was to hold the probe on the womans abdomen. I could see the whole profile of the baby at 13 weeks, head-to-foot. I could see the whole side profile. I could see the probe. I could see the baby try to move away from the probe. Abby Johnson knew it was time to leave after she watched the baby crumple as it was vacuumed out of a patients uterus. I just thought, What am I doing?, she said. And then I thought, Never again. I looked out the window and saw a couple of women praying and I thought, Thats where I need to go. Abby Johnson made national news in the summer of 2009 when she quit her job at the abortion clinic. (Former Planned Parenthood Abortion Clinic Director to Address Fort Wayne Rally, Indiana Right to Life Lifeline Report, January 2010, p. 1) The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. (John 10:10)

There are certainly many times when we wonder if anyone hears the voice of God or the testimonies of His faithful followers. This is certainly one situation where Christian witness and testimony resulted in finding new life. Abby found that the fetus in the womb is new life and that, through Jesus, she, too, is given new life. Yes, there is still a long way to go on this issue. There are many obstacles that pro-abortion advocates will continue to place in the way of life. As long as judges continue to issue rulings that make it difficult for pro-life advocates to express their views in public, we will have tough going. But one thing is certain: no law of man can overturn the righteous, life-giving love of God. As witnesses like Abby Johnson and Gianna Jessen and numerous other men and women give voice to their experiences, we can be assured that others will likewise take up the call of God to find new life. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. (John 10:10)

Rev. Charles A. Layne

First Baptist Church

PO Box 515

179 W. Broadway

Bunker Hill, IN 46914

765-689-7987

bhfbc@bhfirstbaptist.com

www.bhfirstbaptist.com

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Posted by: bhfbc <bhfbc@...>

FINDING NEW LIFE

JANUARY 24, 2010

Text: John 10:7-18

I want to take you back a couple of months to early November when I introduced to you a woman named Gianna Jessen. I was introduced to the testimony of Gianna through a video presentation played during Beccas senior project, a pro-life rally. To remind everyone, Gianna is a survivor of a very late term saline abortion attempt. Besides not surviving, she should have been born, if she was born at all, blind and terribly burned. She is neither, although she does have cerebral palsy as a result of the disruption of oxygen to her brain during her struggle to survive in the womb. And this is one of the important parts of many in her testimony: this little baby girl, described as nothing more than a blob of tissue by some, actually fought to survive. Abortions kill helpless human life. Because of all this, Gianna has a testimony of heroic proportions. This young woman certainly does not back down from proclaiming the glorious name of Christ in any setting. It may cause some to be uncomfortable, she says, but she did not survive an abortion attempt and overcome the effects of cerebral palsy just to make everyone feel comfortable.

I remind everyone of Gianna and her testimony this morning because last Friday, January 22^nd, marked the 37^th anniversary of the Roe v Wade decision which is considered the turning point of legalized abortion in America. It is celebrated as a great day by pro-abortion supporters and hailed as a sad day for life by pro-life supporters. As unfortunate as it is that pro-life advocates have had to challenge and fight this culture of death for 37 years, there are testimonies of hope and victory that continue to mount. The pro-life advocacy of Gianna Jessen is one of those testimonies.

It is completely right for born-again Christians to oppose abortion and advocate life because our Lord is pro-life. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. (John 10:10) Feel free to correct me if you think that I am wrong, but nowhere in Gods Word do I get the impression that Jesus Christ is an advocate for the taking of innocent life. Unfortunately, there are some who claim to worship Jesus and call him Lord, yet turn their backs on the call to be pro-life. They claim that, as a matter of justice for women, Jesus would be pro-choice. They are disastrously wrong. Unfortunately, even our own national leadership in the American Baptist Churches refuses to create and distribute material supporting pro-life advocates. I have suggested and requested this, but have been ignored. Yet, I do receive a fair amount of resources declaring and suggesting how members in American Baptist churches can be involved in a variety of social justice issues such as peace movements, anti-poverty and anti-hunger campaigns, illiteracy, and human trafficking. Those are all worthy issues, but as the organization Stand True, another pro-life advocacy resource I learned about at Beccas project, has put it: Social justice begins in the womb. The well-known John 3:16 reminds us all of Gods intent for His entire creation: For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. Eternal what? Yes, life! Again, followers of the Lord Jesus Christ are instructed to be advocates for life.

As I shared earlier, testimonies of hope and victory continue to increase. For the first time in the fourteen years that the Gallup poll has been asking the question, a majority of Americans fifty-one percent identify themselves as pro-life. Just a year ago, that number was forty-four percent. One of the positive elements of this poll is the number of young adults who are expressing their support for pro-life issues. About seventy percent of white young evangelicals favor making it more difficult for women to get abortions, compared with fifty-five percent of older white evangelicals. Im not quite sure where my generation and the generation before me thought it was OK to leave Biblical truth behind, but I am glad that those younger than us are rejecting that falsehood. One reason, cited in a recent issue of World magazine, is that our improved ultrasound technology is convincing reasonable men and women that the fetus they see is not just a blob of protoplasmic cells, but a real live human baby from the start. (Alisa Harris, Eyewitnesses, World magazine, January 30, 2010, pp. 46-48) God made His human creations with some absolutely great characteristics, and one of those characteristics is to be able to make correct choices when given truthful facts and evidence.

No one could illustrate this better than Abby Johnson, whose testimony indicates that she found new life. Abby worked at the Planned Parenthood clinic in Bryan, Texas, for nine year, first as a volunteer and then as the director. Her duties included running the family planning and abortion programs. The clinic performed abortions two days a month. Although she had seen ultrasounds before, including during her own pregnancy, Johnson said she had never seen an ultrasound image during an abortion. She is unclear why, as the director of the clinic, she was asked to be in the procedure room on that day, because it was not a normal part of her duties. Still, Johnson said, the experience changed her forever.

I had never seen an abortion happen on an ultrasound, she said. My job during the procedure was to hold the probe on the womans abdomen. I could see the whole profile of the baby at 13 weeks, head-to-foot. I could see the whole side profile. I could see the probe. I could see the baby try to move away from the probe. Abby Johnson knew it was time to leave after she watched the baby crumple as it was vacuumed out of a patients uterus. I just thought, What am I doing?, she said. And then I thought, Never again. I looked out the window and saw a couple of women praying and I thought, Thats where I need to go. Abby Johnson made national news in the summer of 2009 when she quit her job at the abortion clinic. (Former Planned Parenthood Abortion Clinic Director to Address Fort Wayne Rally, Indiana Right to Life Lifeline Report, January 2010, p. 1) The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. (John 10:10)

There are certainly many times when we wonder if anyone hears the voice of God or the testimonies of His faithful followers. This is certainly one situation where Christian witness and testimony resulted in finding new life. Abby found that the fetus in the womb is new life and that, through Jesus, she, too, is given new life. Yes, there is still a long way to go on this issue. There are many obstacles that pro-abortion advocates will continue to place in the way of life. As long as judges continue to issue rulings that make it difficult for pro-life advocates to express their views in public, we will have tough going. But one thing is certain: no law of man can overturn the righteous, life-giving love of God. As witnesses like Abby Johnson and Gianna Jessen and numerous other men and women give voice to their experiences, we can be assured that others will likewise take up the call of God to find new life. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. (John 10:10)

Rev. Charles A. Layne

First Baptist Church

PO Box 515

179 W. Broadway

Bunker Hill, IN 46914

765-689-7987

bhfbc@bhfirstbaptist.com

http://www.bhfirstbaptist.com

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