1 Corinthians 15:12-20
Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?
13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14 And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.
15 We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised.
16 For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised.
17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.
18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.
19 If in Christ we have hope in this life only,
we are of all people most to be pitied.
20 But in fact
Christ has been raised from the dead,
the firstfruits of those
who have fallen asleep.
Why am I Pro Life! As a pre-teen and early teen, I followed what the TV shows would show. And when I was 16 years old, I joined a youth group, everyone seemed far more happy and shining than the angst I saw in a large city High School.
And one night in Granbury, Texas at Camp Crusis, the lights were put out but the Light of The Presence of The Holy Spirit. I was asked, did I believe? Did I believe in the Goodness of God? What about Heaven, did I believe in the beauty of Heaven? Who could create Heaven but a Loving Father. Did a good Father let His Children exist without Him? That's Deism, God is apart. Did I believe the Bible told the truth about Jesus Christ? Is Jesus the Christ of God?
This was a Red Letter discussion. Suddenly, to my core, marrow and soul, I realized I fully believed God. In the candle, I was filled with His Light and never did the darkness overcome.
The Tenderness, Love, Mercy and Joy of Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior. Of the world. And me!
A couple of years later, a cousin, such a dear, good woman about 25 years older than me, a wonderful and precious woman. An elementary school teacher for about 20 years had a total catastrophic nervous breakdown. My cousin never really recovered. She was afraid of everything. Would bolt. Wouldn't speak. If she did speak, Pandora's box opened. She suddenly was a conversation about nothing but the two abortions her mother had asked her to have in college. One abortion was met with such dire coldness, the second pregnancy was to keep. But she was overpowered. Forever. Eventually, after 20 years, and a divorce, her barrenness was not going to let go of her. She was a very loving teacher. And the small, happy lives were an echo of what would never occur for her.
The whole family tried. People far-flung in our family tried to help. I tried. And she scared me. I was about 17 or 18 years old. My cousin, who was always fun, and 40 years older than me, tried with me. My fun cousin said she had such hope we would see a miracle. It only got worse. Cousins states away helped. Her only sibling has passed on, but her sister was not help with her distaste. The bottom fell out when her parents passed on.
Now I said states away, family tried to help. With doctors, lawyers and researched facilities. When I say help, I am saying they tried to move the mountain. Suddenly, our ill cousin would appear in a front yard of family and the reaction was fear and calling family for backup. Am I exaggerating? No, it was awful. If our ill cousin heard the phone being dialed, she bolted again. Leaving everyone skittish, she would not appear or appear.
In the middle of our ill cousin's hoped for improvement, this family of 12 siblings, who were all very, very elderly, had several things happen.
One cousin, my fun cousin, well, her cousin by her dad, not our DNA, he is a radiologist, and his wife is an RN, Sue. Sue decided our family situation spanned states, had sorrow, heartbreak and dedication; Sue was given an inspiration and a Decision. Sue would run the sonogram for Pro Life for the next 40 years. There would be a place for frightened women expecting babies. And Sue would help. 40 years. Imagine the number of expectant women who had their lives change from this RN nurse showing them a sonogram of their unborn child. The baby scooting around. Sometimes mothers say, "He waved at me!"
The helpers. The Glory of God in the Helpers.
Now, I said we had several things happen.
My extended family runs the whole staircase and back for generations of multiple ages. My Grandmother Anita had siblings in High School and married with children when she was born. Of Grandmother's 12 living siblings (and the eldest died of strep throat in ancient, ancient history(Anita Lucille Grandmother had her first name as her middle name. We had the majority live to by 94 years old. One of Grandmother's brothers was named Walton. He never had children and, instead, helped his mother, who lived to be 100.) 6 girls and 6 boys. 6 became Methodists and always teased, "We have 6 girls, 6 boys, 6 are Baptists and 6 are Christian." (Please don't fuss, they ate lunch together for 62 years, daily. It's a funny family thing.) Well, this family supported a reading Library, a Library, The Fisher Methodist Church and the Baptist Church. There has always been a strong belief and love in The Lord.
So, as things go in life, two generations down the road, two Christians married, had strong faith and our family tends not to skip to the other Church. We had several sets of family who stayed with the denomination born into and just wave at their spouse. And this created a debacle of Baptism or Christening and who would take this son to Church next Sunday. And the Believers couldn't decide how the son would be baptized. (Baptists get a pass here because this family wasn't Baptist.) And their beloved son went on to be an Attorney, ride a Harley, dabble in Politics and generally get annoyed with sweet souls inflicting Christianity on the helpless. Far more forthright, he would say, is bringing Democracy to the unwilling! He sometimes suggested we should all have bumper stickers that read, "Never mind the idea of 'Be nice to me, I will bring you Democracy', instead we say, 'I will bring you Jesus." Yeah, yeah. Famous last words, pal. So, this robust and slightly Harley leaner, looked at all the anguish of these many states, many souls and much sorrow for our gentle, school teacher cousin, and he decided to show up and stand up. Make the calls, get to the court, find the place and lecture the sibling he could out filibuster with more elocution. Before she bolted for decades. And it wasn't good or pretty.
My gentle schoolteacher cousin had made herself a risk to herself for several years, prompting this attention and who she was in her heart. She's not the only woman I know who was slammed by abortion. We had a woman at work, where I worked for a decade, who aborted her son and felt she needed to confess this to everyone at least once. She was Suffering.
No one in my family hurt or condemned her, her anguish was great. And things kept happening. Texas cousins copies what was done out of state. Help was researched by physicians and RN and cousins. Flowers were carried. Hugs and tears were given. Visits were made from parking lots far, far away. And the beat goes on. Her sibling had no idea where she was. No one did. Total, complete difference in one person.
My schoolteacher cousin would never know her first cousin married in late life. He was a wonderful, laughing, professional, many organizations, Church going bachelor. In his 50s, he met a divorced woman with a High School son and a blazing sense of humor and her own forthright ways and willing, quick conversation. And this Yankee woman, RN, wandered into the deep South to find an alien tribe and nation. In no way, was she going to meld into this new thing. They had never burned bras and were Pro Life. In the vigor of her opinions, she quietly got a job, for the first time with an abortionist. And within the hour she was handed a fully formed human, baby, female, arm, cut off. Handed one pound of cut apart baby and told to clean it up. The little girl had a tear on her cheek. My cousin-in-law said the smell was unbelievable. And the young woman in shock, was repeating, "No one told me. No one told me. No one told me. The smell. The smell." The young woman was not shown her child's dead body.
Our cousin-in-law arrived to vacation with my mother, brother and me with our cousin. It was a great visit. Then, on Sunday afternoon, she said she needed to tell Christian people about her last job. We cried, she cried. And she was for Babies living to be born the rest of her life - to old age. Our new cousin-in-law said she needed to confess to family she wouldn't be living with. Keep her secret. We did. Both of our cousins have passed to Jesus now. She never returned and never was present when we visited the rest of the family. This is a difficult and hard situation to have endured for her.
Pro Life, I volunteered for a number of years, is about Life. Mothers. Women. Dads. Yes, babies being born. Children having supplies and help. Counseling. Fun. Joy. Confessional type honesty with open and loving hearts. And there are numerous mothers and some fathers who said I didn't know until I had children, Pro Life offers healing and wholeness in group therapy.
I have seen over 500 women, who like Joseph, wanted out of the situation that could result in death. Women who are paralyzed with fear. The women who decide to parent their child sometimes weep with Joy. And mostly look like Life never gave them such a precious and forever path of Life.
I rejoice to be Pro Life. And hope you will be too!
Pro Life is for all women
and fathers, who want to provide for their
young children and pre born children!
Psalm 139
The message of Jesus is Love, Mercy, Steadfast Love to Eternity
Forgiveness and Hope.
O Lord, you have searched me and known me!
2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from afar.
3 You search out my path and my lying down
and are acquainted with all my ways.
4 Even before a word is on my tongue,
behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.
5 You hem me in, behind and before,
and lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
it is high; I cannot attain it.
7 Where shall I go from your Spirit?
Or where shall I flee from your presence?
8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
9 If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
10 even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,
and the light about me be night,”
12 even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is bright as the day,
for darkness is as light with you.
13 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 was none of them.
17 How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
18 If I would count them, they are more than the sand.
I awake, and I am still with you.
And the angel said to them, “Fear not!
For behold!
I bring you good news
of great joy
that will be
for all the people!"
Our Father God is Astonishing.
All of the Scripture points to Jesus the Lord.
He reveals the depth of His Love for you. This Reveals God's Heart.
God begins by telling you, "FEAR NOT!"
If we met God of All, we might say, "Oh Woe is me, I am a man of unclean lips.!"
God says Fear Not. We will believe God. We will not fear our God of Love.
.
The Good News is told to us, by God's Message and Messenger, to be
"Great Joy!:"
For? All People.
This completely explains God.
and 'that' makes our Father God ASTONISHING!!!
This commitment to this goodness is the vast nature of God.
And the beauty of GOD is beyond compare.
The Requirement of our response, is expected.
Our Father,
Who art in Heaven,
Hallowed be Thy Name.
Thy Kingdom Come,
Thy Will be done, on earth as in Heaven.
Give us this day,
our daily bread.
Forgive me my sins
as I forgive those who sin against me.
Lead me not into temptation,
Deliver me from evil.
For Thine is
the Kingdom, the Power and the Glory.
In the Highest Name of Jesus.
Amen.
Hebrews 13:2
Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers,
for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels
without knowing it.
Romans 8:14
For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.
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