Abortion: Are You At Least Holding the Rope?
There is an article floating around Facebook called 12 Unborn Animals In The Womb You Have To See To Believe. I read it before dinner this evening and I think it is a fantastic article. Beautiful images and a good message.
Then For family devotions after dinner we read Ephesians 5…and all this got me thinking about an article I wrote a couple years ago about our involvement in this issue of abortion.
As Christians we hate abortion…supposedly.
As orthodox evangelical Christians we all agree that God is the author of life and that life starts at conception. We agree that every human life bears the image of God and is a gift from God whether it is a life that is wanted or not by the mother, whether this life will have a disability or not. We hate abortion so much that most of us do entirely nothing at all. Wait…no that can’t be right… well, wait…ok some of us post articles about it on Facebook. I blog about it on occasion…so is it really true that we do nothing? Yep. That is the truth. Most of us Christians who “hate” abortion do nothing about it, nor do we give it much thought at all. That really makes a lot of sense doesn’t it?
Ephesians 5:11 says:
Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.
Take a moment to read the text above. Now let’s take a moment to read it and apply it to ourselves with regard to abortion. I can hear some of you… “I don’t have abortions nor do I approve of them! I am prolife!” But what about the second part? “But instead expose them.” Let’s read the verse in context now. Eph. 5:6-12
Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not become partners with them; for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible,
Can you grasp the magnitude of what this verse is saying? It is the polar opposite to how passive most Christians are today – myself included! Sadly, we have been heavily influenced by the world, taking upon ourselves the “don’t rock the boat,” tolerant to everything attitude so prevalent in the world. We would rather sit at home watch our TV, sip our wine, and thank God for the comforts we have in our own little world. I admit that I have struggled with this. I used to think that if I avoid the works of darkness, and don’t actually sin myself, then I am doing my Christian duty.
Wait…
hang on…
“Take no part in the fruitless works of darkness” is only half of what I am supposed to be doing! It says also, “Rather even expose them!” Don’t just avoid the works of darkness, EXPOSE them as well! Does this sound passive to you?
I have been a passive Christian for most of my adult life. I can hear the call to action in this verse. Can you hear it? Do you hear a call to do something to expose the darkness and the fruitlessness of abortion? A Christian call to pro-life action, like what we have seen through weneedalaw.ca and numerous other Christian-based pro-life groups is simply, but profoundly, a call to be the children of light that we are called to be in Christ as it states in Ephesians 5.
God is calling us to action. No longer can we be passive, inactive, indifferent Christians! Will you join me and others in this? Let me clarify, I am not saying that you have to do a “choice chain,” not all of us are gifted in that way.
Not all of us need to climb down into the well, some us need to hold the rope for those climbing in. But whether we are the ones in the well or the ones holding the rope – all of us should bear the scars. People like Mike Schouten, Nick & Maaike Rosendal, Jonathon VanMaren, Rachel Slootweg, Stephanie Gray and many more are climbing into the well and need us to hold the rope for them.
How can we “hold the rope?”
we can help hold the rope from home by writing our government officials, or giving of our time and finances to help aid the cause. If you are Canadian please visit http://weneedalaw.ca/ to find out how you can make a difference today – even from the comfort of your own living room. And finally, please pray. Prayer is powerful.
Let us no longer be content with simply avoiding the unfruitful works of darkness, let us also EXPOSE them to the glory of God. Let us heed the call to action and grab hold of that rope!
Well said!
Thanks Garry!
This is an excellent article…I must reblog it!
Thanks Tom! Reblog as you see fit!
Reblogged this on Tom Huff's and commented:
Reblogging this from onchristiandad’s Blog. I hope you follow the link and read the entire article. Good stuff 🙂
Thanks Ryan. This post reminds me of LD’s 40 where we confess:
“Q.Is it enough, then, that we do not kill our neighbour in any such way?
A. No. When God condemns envy, hatred, and anger, He commands us to love our neighbour as ourselves, to show patience, peace, gentleness, mercy, and friendliness toward him, to protect him from harm as much as we can, and to do good even to our enemies.”
“To protect him from harm as much as we can.” It’s so true that we all to often forget about sins of ‘omission’ in our struggle to not ‘commit’ sin.
Thanks Mike, very true, I should have worked that in! I appreciate what you are doing. It was good to see you at UFV as well. Keep up the good work. I am holding the rope as best I can 🙂
I totally agree with what you have written, however I find there is a lot of irony going on especially in our homes and churches regarding abortion. Abortion is wrong, we all agree on this… or do we? I have done a lot of research mostly on the internet as it is the most convenient method of research and am not saying I know all the answers or maybe haven’t discovered the full truth yet. Anyways my point how many Christians use birth control? Is birth control wrong? Maybe. Maybe not. But do people know what it does? The pill – yes prevents you from conceiving but it also destroys cells that become implanted, meaning if you do conceive before you even are aware the pill destroys the baby from developing past a couple of days. IUD – these work in much the same way as the pill on very rare occasions you can become pregnant with one inserted but often times the pregnancy miscarries, other times the baby has no room to continue development as the uterus is full of this device so again you miscarry, which most people aren’t aware of as very early miscarriages just appear to be a menstrual cycle. I am no expert on the topic but I know when I was engaged and starting researching there is a lot of scary facts out there regarding invasive birth control that we don’t know or rather don’t take the time to investigate. My caution is we all need to be aware of what we do to our bodies and the effects it may or may not have on us and the lives of our future children.
Thanks for the comment Dana. Personally I believe most forms of birth control are not looked kindly upon by our Father in heaven. Many Christians do not realize what they actually do when they take BC. That is not an excuse of course, but there is room for grace. We should be faithful to educate and faithful to encourage. We should be careful whom we declare to be a murderer as well, but we should always and recklessly point to the grace found in Jesus. As A young married couple my wife and I unintentionally used Abortifacient contraceptives, I have no idea if they caused deaths or not, but what I do know is that Christ paid my sin debt and my wife’s sin debt as well. If we are to preach against contraceptives, we must in equal portion preach the gospel of grace. Repent, believe…because ultimately, that is all that matters.