[Salvation]

Today's email stories:

The headline on the brand new Pew Research Center
report reads: "Support for abortion slips."

Interesting finding ... especially DURING a 40 Days
for Life campaign!

Specifically, the Pew survey revealed that support
for legal abortion plummeted from 54% in 2007 to only
47% in 2009.

Then the study reports: "No single reason for the
shift in opinions is apparent..."

With tens of thousands of faithful people praying and
fasting together for an end to abortion, I can think
of one possible reason... :-)

Whatever the cause, we praise God for this shift --
and for all of you who have been praying and fasting
for an end to abortion.

I've noticed that the YouTube video of 40 Days for
Life vigil participants in New York City being
heckled by abortion advocates has spread far and wide
through blogs and e-mail. If you haven't seen it yet,
it's definitely worth a look:

http://40daysforlife.com/blog/?p=321

Such counter-demonstrations seem to be more heavily
concentrated in larger cities. And even there, the
opposition effort isn't quite what the abortion
advocates might have you believe.

A "pro-choice" blogger in New York City urged more
like-minded people to "stand up and fight back"
against 40 Days for Life. So how do they counter 40
Days for Life's all-day, 40-day prayer effort? By
inviting people to show up for a mere four hours on
Saturday.

Jim in Los Angeles said people praying at an abortion
center there had a similar "welcoming committee." But
the prayer continued through all the noise.

"Under such conditions, the sound and feel of
taunting and intimidation were ever in the air," Jim
said, "but I so experienced the peace of God, which
he freely gave. For all the hate and insults we
endured today, there was a victory from the Lord."

The victory? A baby was saved from abortion!

Here's a story that hits close to home for me...

This past weekend, abortion supporters targeted the
40 Days for Life vigil in Manassas, Virginia -- not
far from Washington, D.C.

On Saturday -- the morning my home church was signed
up to cover the vigil -- the abortion advocates got a
permit to conduct a demonstration against 40 Days for
Life at the place the vigil usually takes place.

But when the day came, there were 197 pro-life people
praying at the clinic -- and only THREE abortion
demonstrators. Demoralized, they didn't stay long.

To see a photo of just a few of the faithful people
who came to stand up for life in Manassas, go here:

http://40daysforlife.com/blog/?p=321

And here's "the rest of the story"...

While all those people were out there praying, a
woman walked towards the clinic for an abortion
appointment. After people on the sidewalk spoke to
her, she entered the nearby pro-life pregnancy center
instead.

"The lady who was about to have the abortion told the
counselor she started to shiver when she saw so many
people praying," said Ken Groves of the Manassas
40 Days for Life campaign. "At that moment she said
she felt God wanted her to have her baby. A precious
baby was saved! It was an amazing Saturday in
Manassas."

In New Jersey, a newspaper report on the 40 Days for
Life vigil in Woodbridge contained a shocking
revelation showing that the abortion industry even
knows they're losing.

The manager of the clinic where the vigil is in
progress told a reporter that the sight of people
praying outside makes an impact on women arriving for
abortions. "To a lot of patients, it changed their
mind right away and they never come back," she said.
"It happens a lot."

People KNOW abortion is wrong; we just need to get
them to think about it.

And that's exactly the thing 40 Days for Life
prayerfully, peacefully insists that people do.

[Salvation]

Day 15 - October 7

 

Intention:

May God's people awaken to the fact that we are our brothers' keepers.

Scripture:

Now Cain talked with Abel his brother; and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him. Then the Lord said to Cain, "Where is Abel your brother?" He said, "I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper?" And He said, "What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground."

-- Genesis 4:8-10

Reflection:

"Methinks he doth protest too much ..."

The Bible is filled with passages that speak to our obligation to care for our fellow human beings. From the many commands in the books of Moses enjoining love of family, neighbors and even strangers, to Jesus' parable of the Good Samaritan, the injunction to care for others is inescapable.

In this account, the guilt-stricken Cain tries to shrug off his obligation to his own kin by dismissing it as an unreasonable duty. A la Shakespeare, though, "methinks he doth protest too much." Cain's objection doesn't stem from his sense of proper boundaries of responsibility, but from his own self-centered sense of self-preservation.

Christ said, "Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends" (John 15:13). This is the standard of divine love. It required God to sacrifice what was most precious to Him for the temporal and eternal well being of all humankind (see John 3:16). Though on a much-reduced scale, he expects us to do the same.

Trying to duck our obligation to others is futile. We can't get away with simply dismissing others, especially the most vulnerable among us: the pre-born, the disabled, the sick and the aged. As with Cain, God sees and hears their suffering and will call us to account for what we do -- or do not do -- for them.

Prayer:

Father, help us to embrace the fact that we are our "brother's keeper." When, due to selfish motives, we try to cast off this responsibility please call to us to account. We would be pleasing to you and to our "brother." Through the help and grace of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Rev. Rob Schenck
President, Faith and Action