Posted on 02/25/2009 9:35:05 PM PST by Salvation
In San Mateo, California, 40 Days for Life is front-page news -- much to the amazement of the volunteers taking part!
The local leaders of this first-time campaign thought they would never read a word about 40 Days for Life in the San Mateo County Times, but there it was: "Abortion protesters hold vigil outside San Mateo Planned Parenthood."
You can see for yourself at:
The headline calls it a protest, but it's a fair article that recognizes 40 Days for Life for what it is -- peaceful and prayerful.
The story contains the usual Planned Parenthood comment about "extremists," but the pictures in the paper show people standing quietly in prayer. Great job, San Mateo!
Other campaigns have seen their efforts portrayed -- favorably! -- on local TV newscasts.
In Sioux Falls, South Dakota, KELO-TV made a point of reporting "that this isn't a protest; instead, they're calling it a prayer service." As vigil participant Jerry Mootz told the station, "I think there's a spiritual significance to it. That's why we pray. We're not demonstrating or pacing back and forth, that kind of thing." Planned Parenthood only got a token mention at the end of the story!
You can read the article and watch the video at:
Kudos to 40 Days for Life in Wausau, Wisconsin, whose story was aired on WSAU-TV. In this story the abortion clinic spokesman said he was worried about the people standing so close to the street!
The people outside are safe -- it's the little people inside who are in danger of death by abortion. But nice of them to care...
This story and video are also online at
In Jacksonville, Florida the campaign leaders were surprised to see they ended up as front-page news -- on the home page of Planned Parenthood of Northeast Florida! "They even gave the dates and that it will be 24/7," said Pat in Jacksonville. "We appreciate the widespread coverage that will get for us."
The web site http://www.plannedparenthoodnefl.org
refers to 40 Days for Life as an "anti-choice group." The abortion group asks for money, of course, and begs for volunteer escorts "to send a message to the anti-choice protesters."
Most amusing of all, the Planned Parenthood web site then offers a $20 coupon in an attempt to lure in new customers!
Finally today, I'd like to share a quick report I received from Tom in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Before 8:00am on the first day of their campaign, there were already two dozen people at the vigil!
Soon, however, one more person arrived -- a policeman. And he was almost apologetic for being there, since the disturbance call he'd received was obviously bogus. But he had to check it out.
"Someone called to complain," Tom said. "40 Days for Life is making an impact on Day 1... Praise God!"
Whatever you're doing, keep it up. It's working!
Today's devotional was prepared for you by Carmen Pate, a 40 Days for Life board member and the co-host of the nationally syndicated Point of View radio talk program.
Amen....
We pray for a renewal of our zeal to offer generous help to the unborn and their families.
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SCRIPTURE
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If I have despised the cause of my male or female servant when they complained against me, what then shall I do when God rises up? When He punishes, how shall I answer Him? Did not He who made me in the womb make them? Did not the same One fashion us in the womb?
-- Job 31:13-15
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REFLECTION by Rev. Rob Schenck, Faith and Action
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The ground is level as we stand before God.
Job lived with an awe provoking sense of God's expectation of him, particularly regarding his obligation to care for the weak and needy.
He knew that in God's economy everyone stands on level ground when it comes to our status as God's creatures. Because of that central truth, we must take care of each other.
Job also knew that he didn't deserve any of the good things God gave to him. Instead, those blessings came to Job from God's benevolent heart.
As an extension of that knowledge, Job instinctively linked his obligation to be generous to others to God's kindness toward him.
As in Jesus' parable of the unmerciful servant (Matthew 18:23-35), Job knew that it is an egregious sin to deny to others what we enjoy ourselves.
He actually calls down on his own head severe condemnation and even punishment should he fail to share with others out of his own abundance (see verses 16-23).
Proverbs 3:27 reads, "Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of your hand to do so." Some things are so obvious that we don't even need to pray except to ask of God forgiveness and the power to do what so obviously needs doing.
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PRAYER
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God, forgive us when we try to explain away the obligation we have to help others who need help.
Enable us to not devalue them because they are in the circumstance that they are in, but to see them for what they are, those, who like us, were formed by your hand in their mother's womb. Amen.
Morning Prayer BUMP!
Thank you....I had been waiting for this....
;-)
Amen.
Pray that the post-abortive woman would be repentant, accept forgiveness, be healed and restored, and bring glory to God with her new life.
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SCRIPTURE
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I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the Lord," and You forgave the iniquity of my sin.
-- Psalm 32:5
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REFLECTION by Carmen Pate, Point of View
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Because abortion is legal in America, many have justified their choice. "If it's legal, it can't be wrong, right?"
We now have an entire generation of men and women who have never known abortion to be illegal; a generation of people who have never been broken over their sin of abortion.
As a result, the consequences of unconfessed sin weigh on their souls, yet they have never connected the dots as to why their hearts are heavy. No wonder we have millions of women who are struggling with depression, addictions, eating disorders and more.
Post abortion syndrome is very real but recovery begins when the individual agrees with God as David confessed in Psalm 51:3-4, 14, "Against You, You only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Your sight -- that You may be found just when You speak, and blameless when you Judge. Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, the God of my salvation."
Brokenness is the key to accessing God's glorious mercy and healing. Christ came to heal the broken hearted and He is waiting with open arms to take the post-abortive woman on a glorious journey of healing and restoration if she will only run to Him.
God will not waste any sin we lay at His feet. Imagine millions of healed and restored post-abortive women like myself singing aloud of His righteousness and giving testimony of His love and forgiveness.
What a day of rejoicing that will be!
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PRAYER
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Heavenly Father, we have turned our backs on you and your principles in your Word. We have allowed man to usurp Your role as God over life and the number of our days.
But we come to you in brokenness and repentance over our sin.
We cry out for Your mercy and ask you to remove the scourge of abortion from our land. Use us as your vessels, Lord, to bring the light of Your Truth to our nation once again. Because of Christ we pray, Amen.
May those who hold life as trivial realize that we live because God wills it so.
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SCRIPTURE
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Who among all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this, in His hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind.
-- Job 12:9-10
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REFLECTION by Georgette Forney, Anglicans for Life
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Job was a man acquainted with grief, trials and tribulation. He had everything taken from him, including his family. He endured sickness, ridicule and judgment from his friends.
Everyone gave him advice about his situation, questioning his spirituality and his God. Job's circumstances were bad but he never loses faith. Why? Because "the hand of the Lord has made all life." Created by God, he knows his life has meaning and purpose, regardless of the circumstances.
In our present culture, we've lost that basic truth; every life is made and allowed to live by God's sovereign authority. As people who pride ourselves on our independence, we have a hard time acknowledging our dependence on God.
From our creation, when we were knit together in our mother's womb to our last breath, God's word is clear that"in His hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind."
It's time for us as individuals, and as a society, to recognize that we exist by God's grace and turn back to Him, honoring His word and His teachings. Why? Because our world is full of Jobs, people who are dealing with trials and tribulations and hurting desperately.
Job's response should be ours as well. Regardless of what we face (even an unplanned pregnancy) God in His wisdom and mercy will redeem it.
How do I know? Job's friends who doubted God's sovereignty cry out to God asking for help, God instructs Job to pray for his friends and after he does, God restores all that Job had lost.
In other words, because Job never lost faith and knew and trusted His Creator, the Lord blessed Job.
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PRAYER
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Thank you Father God for being the Creator of my life and every life. Please give me, and the society in which I live, an appreciation for your gift of life.
Please help us set aside our pride and acknowledge that we need you. Show me how I can honor you today in response to all the blessings you bestow freely. In the name of Jesus, Amen.
Amen...
Pray that people of faith will have their strength renewed even in the face of the violence of abortion.
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SCRIPTURE
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The favors of the Lord are not exhausted, his mercies are not spent. They are renewed each morning, so great is his faithfulness. I say to myself, "The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him."
The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait in silence for the saving help of the Lord.
-- Lamentations 3:22-26
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REFLECTION by Fr. Frank Pavone, Priests for Life
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The Book of Lamentations, a short book of only five chapters, contains some of the most poignant expressions of human grief.
These verses are used in many Churches on Good Friday, since they can be seen to express a prophecy of the suffering of the Lord and the lamentation of his followers on that dark day.
But in the midst of his grief, Jeremiah writes the verses quoted above. "The favors of the Lord are not exhausted."It is a call to hope that no matter how much violence there is, life will prevail in the end.
Why does he say, however, that God's mercies are renewed each morning?
Because early in the morning, on the first day of the week, the women came to the tomb -- and they found that the events of that morning changed everything.
Christ's victory over death came in the morning, and therefore each day we can renew our confidence that life has the final victory.
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PRAYER
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Lord, look kindly on your people who weep and mourn amidst the vast devastation that abortion has brought upon our land. We cannot even count the children killed, and the mothers and fathers wounded.
We cannot measure the devastation and corruption abortion has brought upon the very fabric of our society. But we declare today that your favors have not been exhausted, your mercies have not been spent. They are renewed each morning.
Give us new strength today in the resurrection of Christ your Son, that we may bear effective witness to the victory of life! In His name we pray, Amen.
Pray to God who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, to end abortion in America.
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SCRIPTURE
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Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
-- Ephesians 3:20-21
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REFLECTION by Carmen Pate, Point of View
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God's power working in and through His people is unlimited and far beyond our comprehension when we submit to God's Word and Spirit. He receives glory when we are obedient to His calling and faithfully serve Him in His strength.
Consider God's hand of providence on this nation because of the faithfulness of a few who were totally committed to God and His truths.
It is interesting to note the words of Mother Teresa of Calcutta: "Yours is the one great nation in all history which was founded on the precept of equal rights and respect for all humankind, for the poorest and weakest of us as well as the richest and strongest."
Mother Teresa, in addressing the Supreme Court of the United States said, "Human rights are not a privilege conferred by government. They are every human being's entitlement by virtue of his humanity. I have no new teaching for America. I seek only to recall you to faithfulness to what you once taught the world.
She continued, "Your nation was founded on the proposition very old as a moral precept, but startling and innovative as a political insight that human life is a gift of immeasurable worth, and that it deserves, always and everywhere, to be treated with the utmost dignity and respect."
It is time to restore that dignity and respect. Our God is able. Are we willing to remain faithful until His work through us is done?
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PRAYER
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God Almighty, Who is powerful and willing to supply, our hearts cry in unison for You to restore dignity and respect to human life, not only in America, but around the world.
Lord, may our hearts remain faithful to your calling, and may You begin Your transforming work with me.
Keep me ever mindful that with You Lord, nothing is impossible; without You, I can do nothing. To You be glory forever and ever, Amen.
Since this initiative began just 13 days ago in 135 cities across 43 states, Canada, Australia, and Northern Ireland, the number of confirmed reports of lives saved from abortion has already climbed to...
...92!!
(And those are just the ones we know about!)
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DAY 13 INTENTION
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We pray for the strength to love those who do not love us.
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SCRIPTURE
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But the Lord said "You have had pity on the plant for which you have not labored, nor made it grow, which came up in the night and perished in the night. And should I not pity Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than one hundred and twenty thousand persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left, and much livestock? Should I not be concerned about that great city?"
-- Jonah 4:10-11
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REFLECTION by Dennis DiMauro, Lutherans for Life
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God doesn't value people and things like we do.
Jonah loved a shade tree more than an entire city of sinful people. We love our dogs more than a terrorist. We love our cars more than a beggar on the side of the road. And sometimes, we love our money more than a child growing in a desperate teenager's womb.
But God isn't like us. Genesis 1 tells us that humans were the capstone of God's creation.
We were created on the sixth day after God had completed the land, the stars, the plants and the animals. Therefore, His love for us is greater than His love for a plant, an animal, or any other created thing.
And the book of Jonah tells us that He loves even the most sinful people and seeks to bring them into His merciful arms. And it's a love that seeks to touch all of his created children: that desperate teenager, the baby growing in her womb, even tyrants and terrorists.
So it's up to us to imitate God's merciful love by helping and praying for those who persecute us, and those who don't love us back.
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PRAYER
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Gracious God, loving our enemies seems like one of most difficult things you could ask of us.
Please remind us that this is how you love and that if you ask it of us then you will give us the grace to do it. This we ask through Christ our Lord, Amen.
Beyond my ability to put into words how I feel about his decisions . . . May God deal with him.
AMEN!
Pray that we will have faith to realize that even now our Lord can bring an end to abortion.
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SCRIPTURE
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On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem, and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother.
When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home. "Lord," Martha said to Jesus, "if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask."
-- John 11:17-22
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REFLECTION by Fr. Frank Pavone, Priests for Life
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Martha was right. Jesus is Lord of life and death.
She knew that, which is why she was able to make this statement, yet at the same time she had to wrestle with the fact that Lazarus died anyway.
Jesus indeed is Lord over life and death, but here the power of death was still displayed right in front of her.
Yet in this clash between the conviction of faith and the evidence of human experience, Martha allowed hope to shine through. "Even now, God will give you whatever you ask."
Even now. Those words show the power of hope, born of faith. Even now, when death has already done its work, life can be victorious.
Even now, when the last word seems to have been spoken, we can hope that a word will be spoken again to restore life.
Even now, when Lazarus has already been laid in the tomb and it seems impossible to do anything about it, things can change. And things did change. The Lord raised Lazarus from the dead.
We live in a society where many believe the abortion issue has been settled, and its practice so deeply ingrained in our policies and attitudes that it is unrealistic to think we can stop it.
Yet we are the people who say to Jesus, "Even now..."
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PRAYER
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Lord Jesus, even now, you are master of life and death. I come before you as Martha did after Lazarus has died. I come before you after countless brothers and sisters of mine have died from abortion.
And I pray to you: even now, you can stop the forces of death. Even now, you can bring us into a culture of life. Come, Lord Jesus. Speak your word yet again, and free our nation from the shackles of death. Amen.
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