Interview of a Fetus

“Don’t be nervous. I just have a few questions for you before you go back to...uh...developing into a human.”

“Ok...but just for the record...I AM human from the get go.”

“Sure. Whatever. So first, I know you don’t usually have the opportunity to speak.”

“No. Mostly I just swim around in here, invisible to most folks. But I am here. Growing fast too. Millions of cells a day.”

“That’s remarkable. So let’s get going, so you can get back to growing.”

“That’s a good one!”

“So Fetus...you don’t mind if I call you Fetus, do you?”

“Not at all. It is just Latin for ‘little one’. I AM little. But man, am I amazing or what? Like within just 17 days of conception my little heart is beating like a metronome!”

“Right. But it’s not like you have a brain or anything.”

“Well, actually I do. And brain waves are detectable at the end of 6 weeks. For such a little tyke it is hard to believe all that is packed into each centimeter. I mean I have all my organs in place, respond to touch, and even have completely unique fingerprints, all by eight weeks.”

“Well not completely unique fingerprints...I mean what if you are an identical twin?”

“I kinda wish I were...it is a little lonely in here at times. But even if I had an identical twin, he would have different fingerprints from me.”

“What???NO way. You share the same DNA. That’s impossible. How can that be?”

“Beats me. Ask God.”

“Well...uh...Fetus, let’s get right to it. If you could speak to the world, what would you say?”

“I’m glad you asked. I hear sounds at 18 weeks, and I can tell you, what I am hearing rocks my womb. I am sure it is just that my hearing isn’t yet super acute but I hear my own mom talking about sucking me out of her piece by piece. And as if that is not bad enough, I hear people telling her it is her choice since it is her body. Like, hello!!!”

“Well Fetus, surely you do understand that you are freeloading off of her...like a leech...for 9 months. She has the right to determine who resides in her body or not.”

“Is there a question in there for me?”

“Er...yes. Doesn’t your mother have the right to determine what happens with her own body?”

“Well, let me answer that with asking you a question. Can she guzzle a quart of whiskey and then get in a car and drive down the busy highway?”

“No...not legally.”

“OK, and how about morally?”

“Well no. Not legally or morally.”

“Why not?”

“She’d be drunk as a skunk and endanger others.”

“So the rights to what she does with her own body are limited by the needs of others...by the rights of others.”

“Look Fetus, I know where you are going with this, but you are not an ‘other.’ You are a fetus.”

“Which means little one. I am a little other. Fetus is Latin for offspring, child.”

“Regardless, you have no rights till you are born.”

“How about the second before I am born? An hour before? A day before? What changed in me, fundamentally changed in me, that suddenly produced that right?”

“Taking a breath of air on your own.”

“So someone on a ventilator is no longer a human being with the right to life?”

“That’s different.”

“Where do your rights come from, Newspaper? You don’t mind if I call you Newspaper, do you?”

“Well...I guess not, but my name is Tom.”

“OK Tom. And God says before one day of mine came to be, He called me by name.”

“How do you know?”

“We fetuses have our sources, just like you newsboys. The Bible also says: Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations. That’s pretty amazing evidence that God cares about me and knows me, and named me even while I was still ‘leeching’ off my mom. God also says this in the book of Isaiah: The Lord called me from the womb, from the body of my mother he named my name. So if God formed me, knew me, consecrated me, appointed me to my life’s calling, and named me in the womb....do you think He wanted me to be regarded as a freeloader, a leech, with no more rights than your appendix?”

“Well I don’t believe in God so your argument holds no water with me.”

“I don’t believe in gravity, yet its effects are everywhere. We can’t see it, and we have trouble defining it...but it clearly exists whether I believe in it or not. But OK, let’s leave God out of it, as if we could. Go back to my question. Where do your rights come from?”

“Which rights?”

“I’ll keep it simple, Tom. The right to life. Who gave you that right?”

“Government.”

“Not according to our founding documents. The right to life is upheld by the government, and in fact, one of the most basic duties of government is to protect our right to life. But the right to life is fundamental, intrinsic, and according to our Declaration of Independence, inalienable. That means cannot be taken away. The government does not grant this right and cannot take it away. So who DID grant you the right to life?”

“I will ask the questions, Fetus.”

“Fine. I hear other voices...maybe Mommy is changing her mind about this sucking my little body limb by limb to be tossed into the trash! Hey Tom, here is what I would like to say since you have a voice that can be heard outside the womb! Mommy, mommy, I hear your heart and I love and know you already. Please, love me too. Don’t take away my first breath, my first step, my first bicycle ride, my first view of the clouds and the flowers and the rainbow...Mommy, please. I want to live.”

“Sorry Fetus, we are out of time for this interview.”

Sucking noise. Unbearable pain. Silence.

***************

My prayer for the coming year is that every heart would be changed to regard the precious, sacred nature of every human being, born and unborn.

So What Does God Tell Us is Our Job Here on Earth?

I know if you follow my blog you are breathlessly awaiting the verdict on the proper attire for a prolife sidewalk counselor in the frigid winter. Did my heated gloves and heated coat work? Was I warm? More importantly, was that warmth conveyed to the women who were streaming in to abort their children in time for New Year’s Celebrations?

The answer is uncertain. To be determined. An unequivocal maybe.

First, on the warming of hearts that had turned so cold to their babies that they were willing to kill them to avoid the struggle of raising them... One woman chose life and one might have. She was smiling and nodded to me as she left, but she did not stop or answer me when I offered her our literature that could help with all kinds of resources for moms who are struggling. Usually, moms who aborted either flip us the middle finger, or are sobbing. Some ignore us altogether, and we are never certain of their choice. The smiling ones who are pleasant to us are probably ones who have chosen life, but we won’t know till we get to heaven. There were nineteen women there to abort their kids yesterday, so if two did choose life, then ten percent of the babies doomed to die were saved yesterday. Praise God for those two...despair for the other seventeen. Any way about it, it was worth standing in the cold, not because of the numbers of lives saved, but because God has commanded us to be there as a voice to the voiceless, a defense for the defenseless, a harbinger of strength to the weak.

Jeremiah 22:3 Thus says the Lord: Do justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place. 

If we know the good we are to do and do not do it, we are not being all that God has called us to be.

This is not an easy lesson, but there is no doubt that it is what God asks of us.

God has taken his place in the divine council; in the midst of the gods he holds judgment: “How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked?  Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute. Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.” They have neither knowledge nor understanding, they walk about in darkness; all the foundations of the earth are shaken. ... Psalm 82:1-8

Moving on to less convicting issues...

Regarding the heated coat and heated gloves. This was the coldest day thus far, probably in the high twenties. That is not as cold as it will get. My heated apparel was not bad. I was not freezing for sure. My fingertips did not go numb as they usually do. However, I was not toasty warm either. Finally, I put my warmest down coat which was waiting in the car JUST IN CASE over my heated jacket and then my body was warm. I looked like the Stay-Puff Marshmallow Man. That was at the three hour mark of standing in the cold, at which point, the glove batteries had reached their limit and were done for the day of heating. My hands were cold from that point on. (I was numb for another hour...3 hour battery life is one hour too short...I am usually there at least four hours.)

Standing on the sidewalks and enduring the slings and arrows of the enemy of our souls is not easy in the best of circumstances. In the bitter cold, it is even less easy. However, there is no place I feel the pleasure of God more completely. His pleasure seems to be adversely related at times to the ease and comfort of my circumstances. I am not saying that God does not wish to bless us with joy and happiness, but I do not believe that is where we are meant to dwell. I believe it is a place of rest and strengthening for our real work. Self-pampering is not our job here on earth. I feel pretty certain of that.

Speaking of our job here on earth....

One couple pulled out of the abortion center lot and rolled down their car window. The driver, a man, said to my counselor friend Chrissy, “Don’t you have a job?”

“This IS our job,” I answered.

Chrissy offered him our information telling him the somber woman sitting next to him might need it.

“God bless,” he said, in a mocking voice. He refused the literature and drove away.

I am not sure four heated coats piled on him could thaw his heart towards God and truth, but you just never know how or whom God will reach. So we pile on the layers and my team and I head out with the warmth of the Son which lasts way more than three hours.

***************

Join us! Click HERE to volunteer and for information on Cities4Life ministry to uphold those who cannot protect themselves.

Something God Hates

I usually put the Christmas decorations away the day after Christmas. I love the beauty of Christmas, but the stuff has been up a whole month. I like to start the New Year with a fresh, clean, uncluttered house. However, this year, here I sit, with the tree still up two days after Christmas. I am getting so lax in my old age.

But I do have another excuse as well. I spent the morning after Christmas on the freezing sidewalk in front of the SE’s busiest abortion center and will do so again today. I did have my new heated jacket, but it is a little too bulky to fit beneath my down jacket as I had planned. It is warm...but only lasts 3 hours on the highest setting. I was out there almost four hours. There are limitations to the heated jacket’s usefulness. I may need a new strategy. I can purchase an extra battery and may have to. This is called MISSION CREEP and there could be no end to where the hunt for perfection will lead.

My new heated gloves showed up yesterday afternoon on my doorstep. So today, I will put on not ONLY the full armor of God for the spiritual battle waged each day at the abortion center, but also the full armor of heated clothing. Not only do I dress myself for all possible scenarios, but I had two pairs of extra mittens in the car which came in handy for the two volunteers who forgot mittens yesterday. There is almost NOTHING I could possibly need that cannot be found stored somewhere in my van.

“Prepared” is my middle name. 

I also was prepared with the scripture I wanted to speak to the women. I read a passage in Isaiah during my morning Bible study and felt certain someone needed to hear it. Here it is in case that someone is YOU:

Isaiah 58:3-10 NIV
[3] 'Why have we fasted,' they say, 'and you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed?' “Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers. [4] Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife, and in striking each other with wicked fists. You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high. [5] Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for people to humble themselves? Is it only for bowing one's head like a reed and for lying in sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord? [6] “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? [7] Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter---when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? [8] Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. [9] Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I. “If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, [10] and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.

I thought the message was for the abortion minded women, who clearly are turning away from their own flesh and blood. However, perhaps it was not only for them. While on the microphone, the police came as usual to check our sound permit. As I handed him the permit, I asked if he had Christmas off.

“No,” he told me, “I had to work.”

“I'm sorry...was it a light day? Do the criminals take Christmas off?”

“It was busy, but not really with criminals...with domestic cases. You know, the relatives who only see each other once a year...with good reason.”

....To turn away from your own flesh and blood....

God hates this. He hates those who claim to love Him and yet treat those He created in His image as if they have no worth. The criminals take Christmas off, but families are apparently still at each others’ throats.

So I didn’t feel like taking down my Christmas tree. Not yet. I wanted to sit and dwell a little longer on the babe who was born to redeem this wretched world. 

Fortunately, one mother at the abortion center decided to turn back to her own flesh and blood and a little baby left that day alive.

*********

Warmed by the Love of the Lord

Merry Christmas! I love this incredible holiday and celebrating the awesome truth of God with us, Emmanuel, a baby born in a manger who laid aside His crown to willingly instead bear the sin of the world. Impossible, mind boggling love of our Creator who relentlessly pursues and woos us.

This photo is me stepping out in my Christmas gift to myself, a heated jacket. It is amazing, though not even close to as amazing as the love of God who sent His only begotten son to die in my stead, paying the penalty I deserved.

Grace. Incomparable grace.

My prayer for all of you is that you would be warmed by the love of the Savior, whose birthday we celebrate today. 

Matthew 1:23 

“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).

Isaiah 9:6 

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

1 Corinthians 3:16 

Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?

John 1:14 

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Spiritual Lessons From My Damaged Achilles Tendon About Limping to Destruction

As the fourth year closes of my work as a sidewalk counselor at the Southeast’s busiest abortion center, I rejoice in the near 500 babies saved from abortion at that clinic, but mourn the many who lost their lives. I have heard so many stories from so many men and women who stop to talk with us. They are often twisted and tangled rationalizations to help them feel better about a decision they know is wrong and they know God would not have them do. 

Friday, I spoke at length with a young couple who agreed with every point I made: the being inside their womb is a little human baby, the baby’s heart is already beating, they do believe in God, they agreed with the scriptures I shared that God would not have them do this and that God does indeed love the baby in the womb, this would harm the woman and likely the couple’s relationship, we could offer all kinds of help in every situation they named. 

Sounds like a slam dunk for them to turn away and go home, right?

“We understand and respect everything you are saying and doing,” the woman told me, “But I have an appointment. We are going to be late so I have to go now. I already made my choice.”

What? The choice for death made because she didn’t want to be late for her appointment and her mind was made up before she talked to me and agreed to every point for why she should not make the choice for death? What kind of tangled, twisted thinking is this!!!??

Later, I went on a long walk, replaying the discussion in my head. What more could I have said or done? The pain in my soul was almost as strong as the pain in my heel. Sadly I am ‘blessed’ with weak Achilles’ tendons.  When pregnant with my middle son, I completely severed my right Achilles tendon. I was in some sort of cast or boot for nearly a year. The doctor warned me that the left Achilles tendon could also snap at any time. It was a thin, tight strand and nearly always in some level of pain.

I have lived with this for the past 30 years without too much struggle, but in the past couple of months, it has become very painful, swollen, and tight. This is not wonderful. I love to walk and run, both of which strain the Achilles’ tendon. I gave up running to let it heal. It is a little better but not healed. I know therapy, rest, and perhaps surgery are in my future and none of that amuses me at all. 

So I googled: home remedies for Achilles tendon in deep doo-doo. I found a runners’ internet site whose headline made me leap  for joy (which incidentally, hurts a lot with an injured Achilles): Curing Achilles strain without surgery or giving up walking. (This is a paraphrase of the title but that was the gist of it.)

The article explained that with a swollen, painful Achilles, it is likely there are micro tears in the fibers. Left to their own devices, they might repair themselves but in a clumpy, tangled mess. However there are exercises the injured party (yours truly) can do that can straighten the tendon fibers as they heal. It is basically three sets of 15 eccentric stretches, or heel dips, and then toe raises twice daily for twelve weeks.  (Word to the wise: that really hurts when your Achilles is sore.) The article promised there would be pain (yippee!) though if excruciating pain is present, backing off is advised. And here is the best part, it is encouraged that the victim continue exercising, reducing if necessary to control pain.

As I am likely headed for surgery anyway, I decided to give this treatment a shot. The thought of giving up walking to let it heal was deeply depressing to my hyperactive spirit. This was a possible way out!

They were right about it hurting. The first day was really hard and the next day I was very sore, not so much in my achilles but in my calf muscles. Nonetheless, I persevered and by day three, my tendon was still sore and stiff after resting a while, but limbered up quickly and was pain-free on walks. If I went too fast or up a steep hill, there was pain, but otherwise, almost no pain while walking.

I am encouraged! While on a long walk yesterday, I realized that there is a spiritual parallel to my dilemma and to the women I work with as they struggle with the choice of abortion.

We all are broken in God’s eyes. All of us fall short of His glory and all of us stray from the straight and narrow path of Holiness. We all need healing. If left to our own devices, it is not likely we will heal straight and true to his Divine plan and design. Most of us will make gnarled messes of our lives. We may be able to keep walking, but only in pain with the promise of terrible consequences down the road.

But if we spend each day in the sometimes painful exercise of submitting to God’s direction regularly, something new and wonderful begins to evolve.  We may indeed experience suffering and pain in the process, especially as we exercise heretofore unused spiritual muscles. However, ultimately God will strengthen our walk, straighten our moral and spiritual path, and we will be healed.

Even the Bible explicitly supports the  little spiritual lesson my tangled and painful Achilles’ tendon was teaching me:

Proverbs 3:6 

In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. 

Hebrews 12:13 

And make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. 

Could God be any clearer? Gives my painful achilles a whole new purpose and nobility, doesn’t it? 

And reminds me again of the discussions I have had for the past four years with the women who come to abort their children. Those who believe that they can muddle on with the same crippled attempts to manage their lives with tangled, twisted thinking based on the same world-view that brought them to this desperate place choose abortion. Those who realize their thoughts are NOT higher than God’s thoughts and they will never heal their lives walking a twisted, corrupted, tangled path of sin upon sin choose life.

Lord, my prayer is you will guide me and others to speak your truth in love to a world that is stumbling to destruction. Straighten our paths, make the lame walk with the strength and hope found only in you, and heal us, Lord.

*********

Please consider volunteering and/or donating to Cities4Life, a ministry devoted to helping change the path of destruction to a path of life.

If God is Good, Why Did He Create Such an Evil World?

Ephesians 2:8 

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God

Sitting in front of my Christmas tree in the wee hours of the morning, I am reflecting upon a conversation I had yesterday on the sidewalk of the abortion center with someone who hates me and most of what I stand for. When the conversation started, the usual anger and accusations were spewing from her mouth, and I turned to her and said, “If you want to have a monologue, then you can do so. If you want to have a real conversation, ask me questions and then hear my response, I am happy to do so. But not with screaming, swearing, and interruptions.”

To my surprise, she agreed.

The crux of her litany of questions was this: why do you worship a God who causes infant mortality, child abuse, children born to poverty, and so much cruelty? God is cruel. How can you follow a cruel God?

The first thing I told her was those were good questions. I remember very clearly before I knew God, before I came to Jesus and asked Him to forgive me of my sins and submitted my life to His Lordship, I asked the same exact things.

If you look at the depravity and horror of the world of which there is plenty AND you believe God is in absolute control, it is a logical question. Why, God, why? God clearly could stop every single one of those terrible things. Why doesn’t He?

She was making one of the clearest arguments FOR God, I believe. Every fiber of her being was railing against a standard of goodness that she KNEW was being violated. This begs the question — if there is a violation of a standard, who set the standard? I asked her that and she said she did. I asked her what about a psychopath who sets the standards for himself and has no sense or care of right from wrong? Does it make sense that each of us with varying standards is THE standard by which we determine good and evil? If she calls God evil, on what basis does she call Him evil? There were cultures who practiced child sacrifice. Is their standard “good”? 

If there is a law, a moral code, a standard of good and evil...there must logically be a law giver, a moral governor, a standard developer. If we each develop our own standard, good and evil is relative and she has no right to call God evil or ANYTHING evil.

Which is ludicrous. 

She is correct in her anger against evil in the world. There is evil and we all know it at the core of our being.

The evil person abuses the innocent child. God could stop the consequence. He could prevent all evil from having any consequence. Every parent on earth knows that to remove the consequences of our own children’s actions results in spoiled children who never mature. How much more so is the problem of humanity that God encounters.

From the moment humanity was created, Adam and Eve were given a choice to choose God or to choose not God. To create humans without the capacity for choice would be to create robots. Human freedom of will was more important to God than forced obedience. He knew what would result. He knew the self-serving desire of all mankind would result in every one of us rebelling against God’s standards. He COULD remove all consequences of our rebellion, but then what would ever turn us from our rebellion back to the one we should be worshipping, should be following, should be loving above all else? 

It is always through struggle and suffering that we recognize how imperfect we are, how imperfect the world is. It is through the intensity of my worst struggles that I finally began to understand why I so desperately needed and WANTED God. I cannot reach the standard of goodness I know in my heart exists, and I cannot find it in the world around me. I can find it in God who created the standard, and alone can uphold it.

The question of evil in the world is resolved by the Cross. God knew how far we would stray. He knew from the beginning of creation that the answer to the problem of evil was to let man see where evil leads and then give man a way back to the only GOOD available, back to God.

A good God must punish evil, in the same way the woman on the sidewalk knew the world’s evil should be punished, should be ended. God has no choice but to condemn each one of us if it is based on a standard of absolute Good. All of us fall short.

So God sent His innocent son to earth to bear the full penalty of the punishment the world deserved. And once again, as at the beginning, offers a choice. Do you choose to accept what God has offered as a path to return to Him, to return to the source of All Goodness...or do you choose to continue to rebel against Him? He will not force you, but like my friend on the sidewalk, we see that the choice to rebel against goodness, against God, has not led her any closer to the world she longs for.

So I sit in front of my Christmas tree praying for that woman I spoke with, and for all of us whose struggles and choices lead us away from God rather than to Him.

******

John 15:1-27 

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. ...

Psalm 37:39 

The salvation of the righteous is from the Lord; he is their stronghold in the time of trouble.

Carolers Sing of Christ’s Birth While Fifty Babies Die In the Building Before Them

Carolers in hoop skirts and top hats came to sing in front of the abortion center yesterday. Their sweet voices earnestly singing of the birth and hope of the savior of the world was in sharp contrast to the violent scene we knew was taking place inside the building. At the end of the morning, a fight nearly broke out and the nurses came rushing from the side door calling for security. An enraged woman burst out the front door swearing and swinging, eager to pummel the abortion workers.

We could not make out what had infuriated her but it had something to do with the ultrasound. She had apparently erupted in her anger, “breaking glass.” We suspect she was told that she was further along than she thought she was and would have to cough up more money to kill her baby. Terrible news right before Christmas.

Both sides, workers and woman were swearing at each other, using vile words and had to be restrained by friends and security from an outright brawl.

As the woman drove out of the parking lot, I tried to offer her our literature. I mean, really, if anyone needed the hope and help of Jesus at that moment it was her, and my guess is she had not aborted. I smiled and approached the car as it raced down the driveway.

“Will you take our information?” I asked.

“Shut up, b****!!!”

I guess that would be a “no.”

Those sweet carolers with their beautiful voices and words full of mercy and grace were juxtaposed in my mind with the harsh violent words and actions of those connected to the abortion industry. 

There could be no doubt why Jesus had to come to bear the penalty for our sins. The world is being crushed by the weight of our guilt and only God Himself can bear that burden.

Three women chose life in the midst of the days’ tragedies. If you count the furious woman who likely didn’t have the money to abort that day, four babies that were to be aborted left that place alive. And one baby, whose mother loved her and wanted her, had been sent by her doctor to have an ultrasound in the clinic. We cannot fathom why any doctor would send a woman who was overjoyed by the miracle of life in her womb to a place where fifty women were there to kill their babies.

The happy mother stopped and showed us the picture of her baby on the ultrasound. She was overjoyed. She smiled at the carolers as she drove away.

**************

Romans 12:2 

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

I Aborted the Only Baby I Would Ever Have

The so-called pro-choice worker pushed me away from the car and from the woman who was reaching out to take my literature. The pro-choice worker demanded the woman drive on and not speak to us. Fortunately, the woman was determined enough to see ALL her choices, and reached again for my literature, which I handed her.

Despite the pro-choice people‘s best efforts, two people did choose life for their babies and left that terrible place with the babies still in their wombs. My prayer, of course, is there were others we don’t know about who chose life.

While I was standing on the sidewalk, preparing to leave, a woman stopped her car in the middle of the street. I walked up to her. She looked a little old for someone contemplating an abortion. 

“Are you lost?” I asked her.

“No,“ she said, “I had an abortion about 15 years ago right here. It was the only baby I would ever have.”

“I am very sorry. You look sad,“ I said, “Do you regret that abortion?”

The woman’s eyes glistened with tears. “Yes. I cannot forgive myself.”

I asked her if she knew God, and I shared the gospel with her. She said she did know God and she understood that Jesus had died to pay the penalty for the sins she had committed.

“If Jesus died that horrific death to forgive you, do you think you should not forgive yourself?” I asked.

She looked down, shaking her head.

“I understand your pain,” I said. “I have found that the best thing to do with our pain is to help others. You have a testimony that can help other young women considering abortion. God can use you in your community. He has an uncanny ability to use our sinful past and transform our lives to be used for good.”

I shared some abortion-healing resources and classes, and gave her my name and number to call at anytime. Then I prayed with her. She thanked me and drove away. I praise God that His spirit moves people to seek out the help they need to heal and to help them leave lives of sin. But I grieve for that woman, and for the pro-choice workers who have no idea of the devastation left in the wake of abortion which they so angrily defend.

Fortunately, right afterwards, I had the joy of visiting a mom Cities4Life and LoveLife Charlotte and Truth and Mercy Prolife Ministries has helped tremendously. I have a dear friend, Brian, who refurbished my old laptop so I could give it to this wonderful new mom. She left her devastating struggles and past through our help and God’s strength and is in a completely redeemed life now. She wanted the computer so she could write her life’s story and maybe help other women inclined to give up.

As she held the precious baby she had once considered aborting, she thanked me for the computer and showed me the tree and gifts with which LoveLife Charlotte had filled her living room.    

“This is a whole new life for you now, isn’t it?” I said.

“You got that right, Miss Vicky.”

    

If this amazing story encourages you to be a part of the ministry changing our city to a culture of LIFE, click here to donate, and Here to volunteer.

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Ephesians 4:22-24 

To put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

   

    

          

Remember Not the Former Things

I work with so many women who have done things they are deeply ashamed of in their past. When I meet them and we begin to talk about God and where they believe they will spend eternity, many of them tell me tearfully they are bound for hell. They know they have had a lifetime of sinning against God and ignoring His clear commands. 

I can relate.

Maybe some of you have not done anything shameful, but I am not one of that crowd. There are many memories that make me cringe. Who was that person doing all those terrible things? Was that really me? 

It was me, but it was me before I knew Jesus. It was me before I became a new creation in Christ. It was me before the Holy Spirit indwelt me and guided me to a path of righteousness.

It was me. But it is not me anymore.

The greatest testimony I have for the truth of Jesus is how He transformed me. My whole world view did a 180 when I finally asked Jesus to be Lord of my life. I could not believe what I could see that I had not seen before. Shame was what led me to the Cross, and it was at the Cross that I was set free from a life of sin and shame. At the Cross, Jesus paid the penalty I deserved, and I was released.

I share with those women on the verge of abortion the truth of who God designed us to be: a friend of God. When we submit to the authority and Lordship of Christ in our lives, He calls us friend. He LOVES us. It is totally unfathomable, but the Bible is filled with verses reminding us of that.

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Galatians 2:20

But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.  Isaiah 53:5

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 2 Corinthians 5:17

Invariably, when I share the truth of who we are in Christ, the women cry, but it is tears of joy now instead of despair. When we ask Jesus to be Lord of our lives and trust our future to Him, we feel immense relief. It is a terrible burden to carry the weight of our failures on our own. God longs to carry that burden for us.

Trust Him. This Christmas. Now. That is His gift to you.

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He Who Began a Good Work in You...

Here I am before heading out for my morning hike. I passed a woman who said, “Are you training to hike Yosemite?”

“No...I am training to hike my neighborhood.”

Go ahead. Laugh. I am used to it. I have reasons for every bit of wacky gear in the picture. Starting at the bottom: 

1. Hiking boots with ankle support to give firm circumferential support to my Achilles’ tendon which is unfortunately giving me a lot of trouble lately. 

2. Hiking stick- dual purpose. Purpose one is to help with push off in my walking stride especially with the injured Achilles’ tendon. Purpose two is to whack any creature that comes near with intent to harm, especially intent to bite already damaged Achilles’ tendon

3. Belly pack: holds my phone to call ER if my damaged Achilles’ tendon snaps during my hike and I am unable to belly crawl all the way home

4. Exceedingly warm hat: because if I ever climb Mount Everest I will need it and I like to be pro-active.

Other than my long hike in my full mountaineering gear, I spent the entire day working on my next book. I have been so busy that I have been unable to work on a new book at all. The break was probably a good thing since it gave me time to think about the ideas for my next project and decide which I wanted to tackle next. I spent several hours writing, and finally called it a day after 5,000 words. That is a good start and eliminates the “empty canvas” syndrome that is the biggest deterrent to starting a new project.

In fact, the hardest part of almost any endeavor in life is just getting started.

I know you have heard this but it is so apt: How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.

How do you walk several miles a day? One step at a time.

How do you write a book? One word at a time

How do you clean a house? That one I can’t answer...

But you get the idea.

It is biblical too.

Philippians 1:6 

And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

We are a work in progress, and while our progress may seem slow, God began the good work in us when we became a new creation in Christ. We need to keep moving forward in Him, towards Him, and He will bring us to completion in Christ.

So what’s the first step? 

Become a new creation in Christ. Repent of your sins, proclaim Jesus as Lord, believe He was raised from the dead, and you will be saved. The journey begins. 

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Isaiah 43:18-19 

  

“Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.

Worth Seeing This at the Abortion Center

It was in the mid 20s when I first stepped out on the sidewalk of the abortion center yesterday. I am here to report that my new hat kept me toasty warm. I do not think it was exactly a compliment when the director of Cities4Life told me, “Not everyone could pull off wearing that hat,” but I will run with it. He mentioned it in the same breath as he talked about my umbrella hat and my 5-gallon belly pack. Honestly, I think this hat is a cut above those items.

My new heated jacket and heated gloves do not arrive for another week. When they do, I am going to be the queeen of hot.

However, it is not for fashion’s sake that I indulge in any of this, in case you are confused.  I do not want to let the frigid winter weather keep me from the place I am certain God has called me. Standing for hours in freezing cold is not for the under-dressed. And I have to stand there. Where else could I meet a man, like I did yesterday, who decided to come talk with me while his girlfriend aborted their child and told me he doesn’t believe in death?  

“Do you believe in God?” I asked.

“Not like you do probably,” he said.

“What is the God you believe in?” I asked.

“A higher power.”

“OK, well my God is a higher power. Who created life?”

He thought a moment, and then said, “That higher power.”

“We are in agreement again!” I said. “And who created the universe?”

At this point the man began walking away. “I don’t want to get into all that. I will tell you, death is not real. I don’t believe in death.”

Well, that was convenient since his baby was about to meet her death. It probably did make it more palatable for him to kill her if he didn’t believe in death. A few minutes later, his girlfriend came out and it was clear she was upset. He hugged her and she looked mournful as she clung to him.

My fellow counselor, Delanie, asked me, “If they don’t believe in death, why are they so sad right now?”

So I will scour the world for warm things to allow me to stand in the cold as long as possible. As the sad women leave, I want to be there to pray with them, offer the hope of Jesus, and offer intervention that may prevent them from returning with the inevitable next pregnancy.

And I want to be there to see what I had the privilege of seeing after a few tearful women drove away.

A woman with a baby in a car seat in the back of her car paused as she drove out of the abortion center.  She was smiling. HUGE smile. Beaming at us and waving.

“Did you change your mind?” I called, as she pulled onto the road.

She could not have smiled any wider as she pointed to the baby in the back seat, then raised two fingers in the air, and repeated the gesture several times. Her excited, overwhelming joy was a blessed contrast to the mournful couple who “didn’t believe in death.”

 Jennifer, the only other counselor still there with me, stared at me as the happy mother drove away.

“She chose life!” I said.

“Twins!” Jennifer said, “She was telling us she has twins!!”

That was worth standing in the cold for hours to see.

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Three babies were saved yesterday that we knew of. Want to be a part of the solution to abortion? Currently, Cities4Life has matching donations from a businessman who loves life. It is the perfect time to give to this incredible life saving ministry. Click HERE to donate.

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Psalm 127:3-5 

Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one's youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them! He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.

To the Young Woman Who Claims Jesus and is About to Abort

My beautiful daughter and I have a Christmas tradition I cherish. Despite all the drama that inevitably surfaces in life, we have not yet missed a year when we go together to find a clear crystal ornament for my tree. My tree is decorated as my mother always decorated her tree (and in fact, I have her ornaments as she doesn’t decorate a tree anymore.) All white lights and clear crystal. A little white or silver is allowed if necessary, but the goal is a clear crystal ornament and a unique one. You would be surprised how hard it is to find that! It almost always takes two or three stores to find the perfect ornament. We both know it when we see it. 

Each year as I decorate my Christmas tree and hang the unique ornaments, each one reminds me of my daughter and brings back memories of her at the age when that particular ornament was discovered. Precious, precious each clear shining ornament is and the path of motherhood and love of my daughter each one evokes.

On our yearly ornament hunt, as we narrow down our choices, we each nix ideas that don’t quite make the cut. It is not an easy task to find a unique completely clear ornament, and we are willing to compromise on very minor deviations if we must. In past years, Asherel has suggested I relax my standard for pure clear crystal. Live a little! Add bright color to the clear crystal.

This year she did not. This year she willingly and stringintly applied my standards to the hunt. She knew I would not bend.

During my day out with Asherel on our ornament hunt, I received some disturbing texts. A young woman I counseled a few days ago appears to be wavering on abortion. She had made a choice for life, but now I am not sure she will remain steadfast. She claims to love God and even told me Jesus was Lord of her life. 

I reminded her of how deeply God loves that baby in the womb.

For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. 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. Psalm 139:13-16

Then I exhorted her to consider this verse: Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you? (Luke 6:46)

If we claim Jesus is Lord, then we do what He says. Not only when it is easy, and not only when it aligns with our plans. We do what He says. Period.

I was reading my study for the morning by Charles Spurgeon and it relates so beautifully to this important point. Spurgeon was describing the choice by Ruth to remain with her God-fearing mother-in-law, Naomi, when Ruth’s husband died. Her sister-in-law returned to her pagan country, but Ruth left her homeland of idols and false Gods and instead clung to Naomi and the one true God she worshipped. 

Spurgeon summarizes the importance of that choice:

Blessed among women shall those be who for Christ's sake can renounce all; but forgotten and worse than forgotten shall those be who in the hour of temptation do violence to conscience and turn back unto the world. 

To the young woman considering abortion, do not in the hour of temptation do violence to your conscience. Turn from the false allure of the world to the truth and promise and commands of a Holy God who loves you and loves that baby within you. Do not relax His standards to meet your needs. It will only lead to further corruption and mar the clarity of your walk and your conscience before Him.

Asherel held the ornament up for me to see. A perfectly clear crystal shark. Unique, clear, and small enough for my tree. It fit all my standards perfectly. I didn’t need to compromise on a single aspect! 

“Yes!” we both cried.

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John 3:16 

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

1 John 2:4 

Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him,

The Heart’s Continual Feast

I was introduced to a new, spry resident of the nursing home who wanted to attend my art class. 

“Guess how old she is?” the activities director asked me. Then she turned to the resident. “How old are you?”

“I don’t know,” she said with a wink and smile.

“102!”

“I’m that old?”she asked. “Am I the oldest one here?”

“You’re probably the oldest person in North Carolina,” I said, “Maybe the whole world.”

She laughed and glanced at the model I had passed out for the picture we would draw.

“Oh, I can’t draw!”she said.

“That’s what everyone says,” I told her. “I promise you, you will be able to draw the horse.”

She was 102...what did she have to lose? 

Throughout the class, she chuckled. The people at her table would then begin chuckling, and soon the table next to them would begin chuckling. It was more contagious than swine flu. I was in front of the classroom and by the time the wave of chuckling reached and enveloped me, people in the hallway were passing by and chuckling.

I hurried over to see what the 102-year-old was drawing that was so funny. 

Nothing. She was drawing a very nice horse.

“Do you think people are born with talent to draw?” She asked me, still a little bubbly with mirth.

“Yes,” I said, “But I also think people can be taught to draw. Like you. You are 102 years old. Have you ever drawn a horse in all those years?”

“No.”

“Does your picture look like a horse?”

“Well yes, yes it does! I am kind of surprised.”

More chuckles.

I returned to my easel to continue instructing. Every few minutes, new rounds of chuckling would erupt from the 102 year old lady. It was the most cheerful class I have ever taught. And everyone produced horses that looked like horses.

At the end of the class, I sat down next to the 102-year-old-lady. 

“Now I know the secret of your long life,” I said.

“What is it?”she asked, her face crinkled in merriment.

“Laughter,” I said.

Laughter is good medicine. God thinks so too. The Bible says: A glad heart makes a cheerful face, but by sorrow of heart the spirit is crushed (Proverbs 15:13) and in verse 15:  All the days of the oppressed are wretched, but the cheerful heart has a continual feast.

She went on to tell me about her life working with Salvation Army as a pastor. She said the key to her success as a pastor was listening. 

“I don’t believe in ramming anything down anyone’s throat,” she said.

“Well that doesn’t work with the Gospel anyway,” I offered, “God has to change someone’s heart.”

She gazed at her picture. “Some people are born with a talent to draw,” she said.

“And you were born with a talent to share the Gospel...and to laugh. That sounds like the better talent,” I said.

She chuckled again. “Yes.”

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Psalm 100:2 

Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into his presence with singing!