Tag Archives: pro-life

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I hope you have a great Saturday! There are a few good reads here if you have time.

Four Prayer Responses to the Murder of Charlie Kirk, HT to Tim Challies, who has curated several posts on different aspects of Kirk’s murder here.

I don’t often link to Facebook posts, but this one shared by a friend from author Tricia White Priebe points out how rejoicing over Charlie Kirk’s murder shows society’s lack of value of human dignity.

O Lord, Heal Our Land. “Anyone who lived through the late 1960s and early 1970s, as I did, can see the parallels between then and now. And yesterday’s assassination of Charlie Kirk on a college campus in Utah has left us all stunned, wondering about our own future as a nation.”

Bible Reading as a Blessing, Not a Burden, HT to Challies. “I loathe the times I’m distracted by a screen, or a crick in the neck, or an overly groggy eye. Or even worse, when the pillow seems more pleasing. I suspect I’m not alone in my laments and loathes. And I bet you want to hang on the word of God, too.”

How to Rightly Train Your Affections, HT to Challies. “While human preferences for food or favorite football teams may be value neutral, preferences are not always so. We are commanded by God to prefer certain things. Or to shift again to the language of affections, God calls his people to rejoice in, love, and desire certain things and to despise other things. Our affections, in other words, are not always value neutral. We are responsible for training them according to the revealed will of God.”

Making Space for Others, HT to the Story Warren. “Let’s scoot over.  Make room. Here, take this spot and sit by us. If you are walking into a space as a new student, neighbor, or church visitor, those can be some of the kindest words ever spoken. As a woman in my mid-fifties, I’m shocked that the awkwardness of junior high floods back so quickly when I am in a new situation. And, as a ministry leader who usually runs the room, I can forget how it feels to walk into an unfamiliar one.”

Go Ahead, Bring a Knife to a Gunfight. “God calls each one of us to battle for the right and against the wrong, and it’s a simple fact that many of us are not equipped with the kind of weapon we would prefer to carry into such a conflict. Many of us look at the weapons wielded by others and wish we had theirs instead of ours. Yet in the battle for God’s cause, he always means for us to put to use the weapon we have on hand with the conviction that he will bless our efforts, no matter how weak or paltry those weapons may seem.”

The Good Always the Enemy of the Best. “Somewhere along the way, despite our desire to give our children the best, we can find ourselves spending vast amounts of time, energy, and money pursuing the good instead. How does this happen? We become deceived. Deceived by culture. Deceived by our well-meaning friends. Deceived, sometimes, even by Christians.”

The Most Exasperating and Least Rewarding. I’ve been pondering similar thoughts recently. “If you move to a new town and search for a new church, it’s unlikely you will find one that offers everything you’d prefer a church to offer—every doctrine, every emphasis, every association, every ministry, every preference. You may love the music, but wish there was a greater emphasis on liturgy. You may appreciate the effort that goes into evangelism, but lament the lack of effort that goes into youth ministry. The preaching may be just what you are after, but the small-group ministry is sputtering. Yet churches are bundled—you have to weigh the weaknesses against the strengths and the desirable qualities against the undesirable. Perfection isn’t an option.”

Journaling God’s Faithfulness: 10 Questions to Develop This Faith-Building Habit. If you’d like to keep a spiritual journal, this post has a lot of good suggestions for what to write about.

Is Being Pro-Life Really Just “Pro-Forced Birth?” HT to Challies. No, and this article explains why. “When it comes to moral issues, like abortion, we must always be alert for the word games, rhetorical ploys, and manipulative language that distort the truth and make something evil look good.”

Don’t Do Everything for Your Kids, HT to Challies. It’s interesting that I have seen this theme in a number of blog posts lately. “What I’d like to suggest today is that just as important as giving your kids opportunities to play soccer or violin or go to that birthday party or go to the park or do that activity or play that game with them is to allow yourself time to read the Bible or a book or to spend time with your spouse. It’s possible to give too much to your children, sacrificially, at the expense of your wellbeing and the relationship with your spouse (if you have one). And that will not serve your children, yourself, or your marriage well.”

Close to Shepherd

The closer we are to the Shepherd,
the safer we are from wolves.
Unknown

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Here’s another list of good reads found this week:

A Mother’s Day Message for the Childless Woman. “You probably won’t be publicly honored this Mother’s Day. You likely won’t get a card. But you are a spiritual mother and you are making an eternal difference. So here’s what I’d share with you if I was given the chance to write a Mother’s Day message to you, my Christian sisters without children of your own.”

For the Ones We Were Told to Abort. “On behalf of parents everywhere who did not receive the perfectly healthy baby they prayed for but did welcome into their arms a bundle of joy given by a generous God, here’s my letter to the doctor who told me to choose differently.”

A Response to Dr. John McArthur’s Statement on Mental Health, HT to Challies. “To be clear, this article is not an attack on the person or character of Dr. MacArthur, a Christian brother for whom I have much respect and who has been a bulwark of solid reformed theology for many decades. Nevertheless, there are several things within the statement that, as a professional working in Christian psychiatry I would like to address.”

Fear of Missing Out, HT to Challies. “FOMO gets a bad rap because it is often caused by envy—the feeling that others are enjoying things you are missing. My FOMO is less about envy and more about growth and opportunity. I fear becoming comfortable and complacent and missing out on what God has in store outside my comfort zone.”

Study the Bible in 5, 15, or 30 Minutes, HT to Knowable Word. “God isn’t prescriptive about this in his Word (Deut. 6:5–6; Phil. 2:16; John 15:4). He wants us to prioritize meeting with him through Scripture, however it looks. He wants us to hunger for him, the Bread of Life, not a formula. He wants us to pursue our perfect Savior Jesus, not a perfect quiet time, as if there were such a thing (John 5:39–40).” I love this, but I’d disagree with a bit at the end concerning church being our main spiritual meal in God’s Word. I agree that it’s vital, but I wouldn’t say it’s more important than regular time alone with the Lord.

Am I Out of Asks? HT to Challies. “‘Oh, but God,’ I muttered, ‘Please hear this one.’ I have experienced the Lord not answering my prayer in the way I hoped, so fear unexpectedly gripped my heart as I prayed, pleaded, doubted, and as I wondered whether I had used up my asks of God. But this is not the way our Father works.”

The Beauty of Intergenerational Friendship, HT to Challies. “We’re naturally drawn to people with whom we have much in common. Moms with young ones cluster together, sharing parenting tips. The silver-haired saints seek out the similarly crowned. And single women seek companionship among the unattached. Commonality eases connection. But when we step outside our comfort zone, we often find beauty, wisdom, and a connection that can be forged only by the work of the Holy Spirit.”

Lincoln quote about mother's prayers.

I remember my mother’s prayers, and they have always followed me.
They have clung to me all my life.
–Abraham Lincoln

Happy Mother’s Day tomorow to the Moms out there!
Never forget that your ministry as a mother is a vital one.

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Here are a handful of thought-provoking reads found this week:

A Life-Giving Brain Cancer, HT to Challies. “In July of 2022, I was diagnosed with a tumour in the left frontal lobe of my brain; what doctors termed the eloquent, dominant brain. … Six months later, I am glad to have completed active treatment, and excited for a second future. In fact, I’ve never been happier or felt more blessed than I do right now, and I’m eager to share with you why.”

Is It God’s Will to Always Heal Us? “Instead of assuming God wants us healthy, we need to realize that He may accomplish higher purposes through our sickness rather than our health.”

Not at Odds: Revival and Routine Faithfulness. “A true revival therefore will never diminish the necessity of routine faithfulness. Sadly, many Christians unintentionally pit revival fruitfulness against ordinary faithfulness. We celebrate one and downplay the other. Revival and routine, however, are not mutually exclusive. We should pursue and value both.”

Revival and Bad Theology, HT to Challies. “I would expect revival to be a bit of a mess because it will be a place under tremendous spiritual warfare. If God is moving, so is the enemy, but this is not my point. My point is that I would never expect a place where revival or reformation is breaking out to have all their theology perfect. Theological maturity comes in time through the study of the Scripture.”

Rethinking the Value of Potential. “I’ve noticed that a common pro-life talking point needs reforming. Often we’ll hear Christians say things like, ‘We probably aborted the person who would have found the cure for cancer’ or ‘You don’t know–you could be aborting the next great world leader’ or ‘the next great artist/musician/preacher.’ You get the point. Theologically, there are a couple of issues with this type of talk, but I’m going to focus in on what these statements say about the value of life.”

The Lost Art of Handing Out Gospel Tracts, HT to Challies. “I still get scared. It’s still awkward almost every time. And yet, I continue to feel compelled, even privileged, to do this uncomfortable, scary work of handing out tracts. If you’ve been terrified to share the gospel or have hesitated to use tracts to do so, here are a few reasons that may cause you to reconsider.”

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Though still not caught up with the blogs I usually read, I got to a lot of them this week—as you can tell by my long list of links to share. Perhaps one or two will be as thought-provoking to you as they were to me.

January’s for Reflecting, not Resolving, HT to Challies. “Maybe part of the reason why so many resolutions fail by February is that they were early. Maybe the resolutions weren’t wrong; they were just underdeveloped. Maybe, they needed an extra month or two in the oven.”

Holy Prayers from Rocking Chairs, HT to the Story Warren. A lovely poem about mothers’ middle of the night sessions.

A Legacy of Love: Passing Down the Gift of Spiritual Discipline to Your Children. “Because of the legacy my mom passed to me, I have a vision that goes beyond serenity and candles. I want my children to see a mother desperate for Jesus, willing to do whatever it takes to be at His feet.”

Make Christianity Hard Again, HT to Challies. “The way of Jesus is the way of the cross. So don’t talk about it like we just need to be nice people. Here are three commands that have challenged me, with practical trails we can follow.”

“I Must Decrease” . . . But How? HT to Challies. “It’s pretty clear: the world’s loud, incessant voice tells me that in order to be happy, I need to spend more of my time, money, and attention on myself. You’ve probably heard the same message about your need for this, as well.”

Wasn’t My Body, but It Was My Baby, HT to Challies. “Abortion isn’t just about a mother’s choice. It’s also about a father’s responsibility. Perpetuating the lie that men need to stay out of the abortion debate isn’t just untrue—it’s catastrophic for the generations to come.”

Don’t Women Need Access to Abortion for Rape? “‘You don’t have the right to tell my fourteen-year-old daughter she has to carry her rapist’s baby.’ That’s what Joe Rogan, the most popular podcaster in the world, recently argued when he interviewed Seth Dillon, owner and CEO of the satire website The Babylon Bee. How would you respond to that argument? Here are three arguments to consider.”

The Murderer Who Crushed a Worm. “We get hard through the steps of an unperceived process.” This is a different kind of hardness from the article above.

C. S. Lewis an Mrs. Moore: Relationship of Sin or Sanctification? HT to Challies. “Every biographer of C. S. Lewis must face ‘the Mrs. Moore question’ and decide what to make of the relationship the beloved writer had with a woman more than 25 years his senior who remained a major part of his life from the time he returned from the trenches of the Great War until her death in 1951.” I especially like the concluding paragraphs of how God uses difficult people in our lives.

God Plans Your Stops, HT to Challies. “If God plans our steps, it means He plans our stops as well. And if you sit with it for a minute, there’s comfort in that.”

Unraveling the Riddle of Rejoicing Always, HT to Challies. “Several years ago, while meditating on Philippians 4:4, the Lord helped me glimpse why it makes sense to always rejoice—even in hard times—and how it is possible to give thanks in everything.”

A Family Vacation, a Broken Transmission, and a God Who Is With Us, HT to Challies. A neat story about God’s provision in a crisis.

Caregiving As a Calling and Ministry, HT to Challies. “At the time I didn’t see it as a ministry, and I didn’t understand that I had been called. I saw caregiving as a giant disruption to everything in my life and a burden that was forcing me to ‘step out of ministry’ to do this caregiving thing that I hadn’t signed up for. Over time, God has shown me  that caregiving wasn’t a disruption; it was God’s plan for me all along.”

How Should I Dispose of an Old Bible, HT to Challies. Though the sacredness of the Bible comes from what it says and Who gave it to us, not the pages and ink, we still want to treat it with respect. This has a good suggestion.

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Here are some of the good reads found this week.

Four Compelling Reasons I Am Pro-Life, HT to Challies. I can echo just about all this. I’d add to the science section that the DNA of an embryo or fetus is separate from its mother’s. So an unborn baby is not just part of the mother’s body.

Life Is Precious, HT to Challies. “Are children a limit on personal autonomy? Yes. There’s no getting around it. They take resources. They need help, care, support, food, time, energy, and the list goes on and on. They need everything supplied to them for a long time. And is there a better way to use autonomy than this?”

Whose Choice? HT to Challies. “In 1973 I was 19 years old and a sophomore in college when the Supreme Court decided the Roe vs Wade case and legalized abortion. Honestly, however, I never expected the Court’s landmark decision to affect me personally.”

Tell God the Unvarnished Story. “Though we profess that God is all-seeing and all-knowing, that he understands not merely the actions of our hands and the thoughts of our minds but even the intentions of our hearts, still we sometimes feel as if we need to hold back from telling him all that we have thought, all that we have done, all that we have desired. Yet if we are to confess our sins before him, we need to confess them all, for he knows them anyway.”

Finding Family, HT to Challies. “God’s family is a precious thing, bound by wine and bread instead of blood and resemblance. Its members don’t dress alike, share a uniform culture or a common language. But whether it be in a building or a living room, whether through candles and liturgy or guitars and blue jeans, whenever believers gather, we belong to each other. And wherever two or more of us come together, Jesus is there.”

When the Mob Shows Up the Monday After Roe, HT to Challies. “Using umbrellas and masks to shield their identities from security cameras, they smashed almost every ground-floor window on the side of the building that hadn’t yet been boarded up and covered the building in vile graffiti aimed specifically at Christians.”

These posts are a few years old, but they were just shared on the Elisabeth Elliot Quotes Facebook page recently: Lar’s and Elisabeth’s Love Story and Elisabeth Elliot’s Final Days.

If You Find Listening to Sermons Boring, Try This, HT to Challies. “During my lifetime I reckon I’ve heard about 4,000 sermons. Often I have been challenged, uplifted, provoked, transformed. Sadly, other times, I have been bored.”

On the Supreme Court Decision to Overturn Roe v. Wade. A look at the legal arguments.

Happy 4th to my fellow Americans! It’s nice that it made for a long weekend this year.

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Here’s my latest collection of good online reads:

No Matter How Painful the Situation, Ending a Disabled Child’s Life Through Abortion Is Never Right, HT to Challies. From one who has been in a difficult pregnancy situation.

Devaluing the Disabled Body. This post from a few years ago was referenced in the post above. “The ablebodied, who control much of society, need to break themselves of the beliefs that life with a disability is tragic, not worth living, and inherently lesser than that of our own lives . . . It is not for us to decide when life is and is not worth living, nor should we pat ourselves on the back when someone society has thrown away decides to die rather than enduring a restricted and grim existence.”

A New Calling, HT to Challies. A former abortion doctor has a change of heart.

A Call to Be the Brave One. “I faced a choice to feel unloved or make someone else feel loved. I could live with the regret of a missed chance or extend an invitation to someone else. Oh, how I wish I never missed those opportunities to give someone else what I’m hoping to receive. But too often I focus on what I’m lacking instead of on what I have the opportunity to give.”

Your Unfulfilled Desires are a Treasury, Not a Tragedy, HT to Challies. “Perhaps God wants to do something similar through your unfulfilled desires. Maybe that’s why He’s not answering your prayers the way you’d like. Could it be that He wants to use the tension you feel to prepare you for His purpose in a specific way?”

The Fondue Pot Principle, HT to the Story Warren. Although the main application the author makes concerns writing, it’s true in other avenues as well: “You can only give what you have—but that’s just fine.”

A Literary Christmas 2019. If you like to read Christmas books in November and December, and you’d like to do so in company, Tarissa hosts a Literary Christmas where we can share with each other what we’re reading, Christmas book reviews, etc. I’ve enjoyed participating the last few years. I make myself wait til after Thanksgiving to read Christmas books, so I’ll link up then. But I wanted to let any potential early birds know.

And finally, I loved this! Such pure fun! HT to Steve Laube.

Happy Saturday!

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It’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve been able to share the interesting reads I’ve come across, so I have quite a list accumulated.

Love Is More Than a Choice.

How I Process the Moral Failures of My Historical Heroes. I’ve been pondering this for some time, with the thought of possibly writing a post about it, so I was glad to see some thoughts very similar to my own.

Pray Them Home: Three Prayers to Pray for Prodigal Children.

The Father Who Eliminates Shame.

Ecumenical vs. Evangelical, HT to Challies. A good, concise summary of the history and the issues involved.

The Not So Simple Life. “No matter where you land on this simplicity spectrum, all of these endeavors don’t satisfy the peace we hope to gain from the ‘simple life’…Even simplification is a vain pursuit when it takes up so much room in our minds and our hearts.”

Don’t Take This Personally. “We each cast ourselves as the star (and director and producer) in our own movie. All our life’s plots revolve around us. And all the people in our relationships are supporting actors. But here’s the catch: The supporting actors in our movies are actually busy starring in their own movies.”

Dear Girl: Please Don’t Marry Him. “Your fear of breaking off the relationship should be obliterated by the fear of making a foolish marital choice which is far, far worse.” I don’t know anything about this author, but thought this was a good article.

Teens Who Choose Life in Unplanned Pregnancies Need Support and Respect, Not Shame, HT to Challies. Being pro-life is not just a matter of being anti-abortion.

The Art of Days. Seeing beauty in the everyday tasks.

Let Your Kids In On Your Ministry.

Desire, Choice, Consequence: Building Character Through Stories, HT to Story Warren.

Member of the Family.

As You Grow, So Should Your Dresses.

Is the ESV Literal and the NIV Gender Neutral? HT to Challies. Very little, if any, translation from one language to another is literally word for word the same, due to differences in sentence construction, words for which there are no equals, etc.

6 Keys to Help You Be the Boss of Your Blog.

The Numbers Trap, HT to True Woman.

Is Screen Time the Enemy of Reading? I almost didn’t read this, figuring I knew where it was going to go, but I was pleasantly surprised.

To a Schoolgirl in America: Writing Advice From C. S. Lewis.

Free ebooks, HT to Worthwhile Books.

I saw this on a friend of a friend’s Facebook, and I don’t know who originated it, but I think it’s great. The OT is so much more than moralistic stories.

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Here’s some interesting reading discovered recently:

What Is Inductive Bible Study?

How To Be a Friend to Someone Who Has Breast Cancer. The tips here are great for a friend with almost any illness.

I Got Pregnant. I Chose to Keep My Baby. And My Christian School Humiliated Me. “My school could have made an example of how to treat a student who made a mistake, owned up to it, accepted the consequences, and is now being supported in her decision to choose life. But they didn’t.” This is a difficult situation. I understand Christian schools not wanting to appear to be condoning certain behaviors, but I think a girl in this situation needs to be affirmed for doing the right thing in having her baby rather than having an abortion.

A Theology of the Home, HT to Challies.

Check Your Privilege, HT to Challies.

A Patient Perseverance: a mother’s prayers for a wayward son.

And finally, this is me. 🙂

Or this is even more my style, minus the spa.

Happy Saturday!