Isaiah 55

1
Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.

2
Wherefore do ye spend money for [that which is] not bread? and your labour for [that which] satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye [that which is] good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.


3
Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, [even] the sure mercies of David.


4
Behold, I have given him [for] a witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people.


5
Behold, thou shalt call a nation [that] thou knowest not, and nations [that] knew not thee shall run unto thee because of the LORD thy God, and for the Holy One of Israel; for he hath glorified thee.


6
Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near:


7
Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.


8
For my thoughts [are] not your thoughts, neither [are] your ways my ways, saith the LORD.


9
For [as] the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.


10
For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:


11
So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper [in the thing] whereto I sent it.


12
For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap [their] hands.


13
Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree: and it shall be to the LORD for a name, for an everlasting sign [that] shall not be cut off.

Why Pro Life? Part IV

This is the second part of my mom's story about her first pregnancy and why she chose life for her child instead of an abortion.

Where There's Life, There's Hope (Part 2)

"Is this okay?" the nurse looked at me cautiously, knowing my medical history. "I can give you a referral for a doctor in the city." What was she saying to me? Is she offering to set up an abortion for my baby? I have a baby?! My mind was racing and immediately I was filled with joy indescribable, and a little fear. "I'm going to have a baby!" my soul cried out on the inside, while a smile formed on my face. The nurse was concerned, and tried to gently remind me of my diabetes and how hard a pregnancy would be with it. All I could think about was this tiny baby growing inside. I had an immediate reassurance in my heart that God was going to take care of me and the baby, regardless of whether I had a husband or not, like the pastor had told me. "I'm going to keep my baby," I told the nurse with a smile.

"I'm going to have a baby!" my soul cried out on the
inside, while a smile formed on my face.

After I left the appointment I started praying fervently to know what to do next. I needed to tell my boyfriend, so I called him and we met at his apartment. I told him the news and also told him I was trusting God to take care of me and that I wasn't pressuring him to marry me. He immediately told me he wanted to marry me and we got married in the Fall of that year.

As I read more of the Bible I was filled with a sense of responsibility to protect the life of my child, and that meant to stop hurting my body with the eating disorder I struggled with. As soon as I read a verse in the book of 1st Corinthians, I immediately had no desire to hurt my body, and especially my baby's body. The pregnancy was considered high-risk with the diabetes and I ended up in the hospital a couple of times for low-blood sugars as well as pre-eclampsia, and our son was born at around 37 weeks. He was beautiful and healthy with strong lungs. He just was a little guy, weighing in at only 2 1/2 pounds. It took him over 40 days to gain 2 pounds in the NICU, but was the cutest baby I had ever seen. God had protected my baby from any serious complications, despite all the medical issues I had dealt with during the pregnancy. My son is now 20 years old and is serving in the military.

My hope is that if some woman who is considering an abortion because she thinks it will be too difficult to handle, or she's too afraid of raising a child alone or is just not aware of the facts of the baby's humanity in the womb, that she would hear this account of my hope in the midst of a desperate situation and decide to carry her baby to term. There is hope for those who feel afraid and alone. You are not alone; there is help and hope for you and your baby.

Kathleen

________

If you or someone you know is pregnant and considering abortion and needs help, please visit the Pregnancy Resource Center in your local area.

Resources for information and help:

Pregnancy Facts

Stand Up Girl

Post-Abortion Support

Information and Support

Why Pro-Life? (Randy Alcorn)

Read Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV

Why Pro Life? Part III

In this post, I have asked my mom to share her story about her first pregnancy and why she chose life for her child instead of an abortion.

Where There's Life, There's Hope


"You're not only pregnant, you're about 3 months along," the county health nurse told me as I sat in the exam room, not fully comprehending what she told me. I was 19-years-old, in a job that barely paid enough to live on, and I had just broken up with my boyfriend. These things were only compounded by the fact that I had insulin-dependent diabetes and an eating disorder that I had struggled with for years. This was my second pregnancy test in the last 3 months. I had taken one that showed negative at the same clinic just about 3 months earlier, but had missed my cycles all those months. Something had definitely changed in my life since then and I knew in my heart God had His Hand in the midst of all those details.

Before I had taken the negative pregnancy test 3 months earlier, my boyfriend and I discussed what we should do if it turned up positive and he suggested that we should go to the city and have an abortion. My heart sank then, and I just felt that he didn't love me enough to marry me and raise a child together. I agreed, very sadly, though I had never formed an opinion on abortion before. Of course a pregnancy meant a baby, but the actual implications of "aborting" a pregnancy never entered my mind as being equal to "killing a baby."

My boyfriend and I were invited to attend a small rural church with one of his co-workers. When Sunday came, he was unable to attend and encouraged me to go. When I got there I was greeted by silver-haired men and women who genuinely took an interest in me and the following Sunday I brought my boyfriend with me. There, we learned the Bible, struggled with our sin and met with the pastor who began teaching us the Bible. I wanted to be married and raise a family, but my boyfriend was not ready yet. So, during those 3 months our relationship became more and more strained, we broke up and eventually I moved out and got my own small apartment. My pastor encouraged me to place my faith in Jesus Christ and that God would care for my needs, like a husband. I cried out to God and knew that I needed Him to help me in every aspect of my life. I started trusting Him the day my boyfriend and I broke up. Little did I know the times of trusting God were just beginning.


If you or someone you know is pregnant and considering abortion and needs help, please visit the Pregnancy Resource Center

Coming up: Why Pro Life Part IV

Read Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV

Why Pro Life? Part II

This last month, I read the book Why Pro Life? by Randy Alcorn. This is the second Randy Alcorn book that I have read. It has helped me see so much that I never knew about abortion. I was so amazed at all of the scientific information he provided and his Godly insight.

Using incredible sources of information, including abortionists’ own words, he reveals the significance of human life and how it begins at conception. The italicized parts are from his book:

Dr. Alfred M. Bongioanni, professor of obstetrics at the University of Pennsylvania, stated, “I have learned from my earliest medical education that human life begins at the time of conception…human life is present throughout this entire sequence from conception to adulthood…any interruption at any point throughout this time constitutes a termination of human life.”
Page 26

He explains how a Fetus is a human being and how that human being is not a part of his mother’s body. Like how a car parked in the garage doesn’t mean that it’s a part of the garage. This illustration is so simple to understand, yet so many women (and men) are blinded to this fact.
For example, since many people think that a Fetus is a part of the woman’s body, why would they destroy it? Why would they eliminate a part of their body?

Pro-choice advocates argue,
“Every woman has the right to choose what she does with her own body.”
Ironically, the choice of abortion assures that at least 650,000 females in the U.S. each year don’t have the right to choose what they do with their bodies. (That number is roughly half of aborted children, the other half being males.) A female killed by abortion no longer has a life, a choice, or a body to exercise control over.
More girls than boys are now being killed by abortion [because of sex-selected abortions]. To kill an unborn female is to kill a young woman. There can be no equal rights for all women until there are equal rights for unborn women.
Page 61

Mr. Alcorn wrote,
Peter Singer, the Princeton ethics professor, wrote,
“The life of a fetus is of no greater value than the life of a nonhuman animal at a similar level of rationality, self-consciousness, awareness, capacity to feel, ect.”
(… he also believes there’s a moral justification for killing the elderly.)
Page 48

I was astounded when I read this. I thought,
“He believes it is right to murder a human being just because he or she hasn’t yet reached a certain level of development? And he’s an ethics professor?”
Then that would mean that it’s all right for an eight year-old to be murdered just because he hasn’t reached the level of development as the eighteen year-old standing next to him.

Does abortion harm a woman’s physical and mental health? I was somewhat surprised to learn that yes, it most definitely does.

In her testimony before a Senate subcommittee in 2004, Dr. Elizabeth Shadigan testified that “abortion increases rates of breast cancer, placenta previa, preterm births, and maternal suicide… Statistically, all types of deaths are higher with women who have induced abortions.
Page 69

If that is the case, why don’t abortionists inform women of the risks of abortion? Why do they think that abortion is the only way?

In surveys of women who experienced post abortion complications:
1. Over 90 percent said they weren’t given enough information to make an informed choice.
2. Over 80 percent said it was very unlikely they would have aborted if they had not been so strongly encouraged to abort by others, including their abortion counselors.
3. Eighty-three percent said they would have carried to term if they had received support from boyfriends, families, or other important people in their lives.

Every woman deserves better than abortion.
Page 74-75

Coming up: Why Pro Life? Part III

Read Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV