The problem is Not That We Don't Know the Truth

My fellow sidewalk counselor calls me the rainmaker. Whenever I am at the abortion center sidewalk, it rains. Torrential storms. I bring the rain. Check out the deluge of water rushing around my rainboots. That is RAIN, folks.

There were few encounters. I spent nearly the entire (rainy) three hours on the microphone. I missed the wonderful news that one person went on the RV, chose life, and drove away. Yay. One baby saved! The only face to face encounter I had was when Flip (fiery preacher) was on the mic, and a woman came storming over to him.

I hurried over. First of all, I LOVE personal contact, and secondly, I know the men counselors feel most women will respond better to another woman. I am the one in blue, wearing an umbrella hat in the picture above. We are huddled under Flip's umbrella.

This woman quickly told us she was here supporting her friend. She was Catholic and opposed to abortion herself. I quickly handed her our literature and pointed out my name and number.
"Please bring this to your friend," I said.


She was very angry with Flip for speaking from the Bible as it made it "harder on her friend."
Flip didn't love that comment at all.

In a huff, she took the pamphlet, and disappeared into the abortion center. She was clearly angry with our suggestion that friends don't support friends in disastrous choices that defy their moral and spiritual code. That was the last we saw of her. I doubt she ever brought her friend our literature.

Frankly, the Bible makes it harder on ALL of us. We cannot deny the truth, when we have the truth so easily available. We can make excuses for not living as though the truth were clear, but we cannot claim to not know what the God of the Bible says. It is written clearly, in multiple versions, in over 500 languages. The problem is not that we don't know the truth.

It is an inconvenient truth for those at the abortion center. In fact, it is an inconvenient truth everywhere, whenever we sin, because it brings that sin to an uncomfortable light.  Listen to the list of sins in Mark 7: evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. And that is not even a comprehensive list...

Do you know a single person who doesn't commit at least one of these on a regular basis? How about yourself? How about me?

I understand the young woman's concern that Biblical truth made the act of aborting her child "harder on her friend." I also would feel better about myself if I didn't have that list convicting me of the times when I veer from God's clearly designated path.

But it is not hopeless. In fact, recognizing how NOT good we are is the best first step. That hopefully propels us to godly sorrow, repentance, and acceptance of Jesus' propitiation for our sin. However, as long as we maintain we would prefer to live without God, He will continue to oblige.


And that is far harder in the big picture of eternity. We are doing our friends no favors by shielding them from the truth when they are on a path of destruction.

Better that the young woman's friend suffers the conviction of sin before she commits an irreversible act against God. Unfortunately, as far as we know, the friend never brought her our literature, in the misguided desire not to cause upset.

James 4:7 

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

Galatians 5:16 

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

1 John 3:4 

Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.

John 3:16-17 

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

Galatians 5:19-21 

Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.