Category: birth control

Desiring God 2.18.13 – reprint

The Day Luther Died

By Jonathan Parnell | Feb 18, 2013 12:00 am

OriginalIn Germany 467 years ago, in a small, backwater town called Eisleben, the shaking hand of a dying man scribbled this simple line: We are beggars. This is true.

Martin Luther died on February 18, 1546. These last words of weakness echoed the life-changing truth he’d unearthed in the Scriptures: we don’t bring anything to the table of our justification. Jesus truly died for the ungodly.

Luther came to understand that if we are to be accepted by God, we need a perfect righteousness we can’t produce — we need an alien righteousness given to us by Another.

But this discovery didn’t just happen. It came after hours of the painstaking study of Scripture. Luther gave himself to the Book, which he later explained as the primary actor in the Protestant Reformation. And a great movement of God in our day won’t happen apart from that same ingredient. Pastors and Christian leaders must be devoted to God’s word.

So we have much to learn from Luther, says John Piper.

Luther was the subject of Piper’s biographical message at the 1995 Conference for Pastors. We’ve since reformatted that message into a five-chapter ebook, which presents a sketch of Luther’s life and distills relevant lessons for not only pastors and leaders, but all Christians.

Get a free download of Martin Luther: Lessons from His Life and Labor (available in PDF, MOBI, or EPUB).

The Truth (About Abortion) Will Set You Free

By John Piper | Feb 17, 2013 12:00 am

Facts help us grasp abortion in our communities. With the internet no one is innocently ignorant. Here are some facts from the Twin Cities to San Antonio. There are no grizzly pictures here. But there are some miracles. I won’t show you what the babies look like after they are killed, but before.

Start with the on-the-ground facts. There are five places to get elective abortions in the Twin Cities, Planned Parenthood (671 Vandalia St.,
 St. Paul), Robbinsdale Clinic (3819 West Broadway, Minneapolis), Mildred Hanson (710 East 24th St., Minneapolis) and two locations of the Whole Woman’s Health (33 South 5th St, Minneapolis, and 825 S. 8th St. #1018 Minneapolis). I encourage you to visit them and pray, or perhaps see if any of the workers will talk with you.

All of them do abortions up to 13 weeks gestation. Here is what the baby looks like at 13 weeks.

Mildred Hanson advertises that she does abortions to twenty weeks. Two pictures show the babies she is willing to dismember.

Whole Woman’s Health advertises that they do abortions to 22 weeks. This little fellow, at 22 weeks, is ready to fight for his life.

In addition, Whole Woman’s Health advertises that their San Antonio facility will do surgical abortions through 24 weeks.

But at 24 weeks babies are being born and thriving. Here are a few examples. (If you want to see the 23 week babies when born and then years later go here.) If you want names and ages check out the L’il Aussie Prems Foundation.

These pictures are of babies born at the age when they are being legally killed. The irrationality of our legal system is that we are expected to believe that a seven inch movement down the birth canal transforms a child from one with no right to life into a person under law with full rights of protection. This is the kind of reasoning that creates Gulags and death camps. Whatever else may be said of these children, if they had been dismembered and evacuated one hour before they were born at 24 weeks, it would not have been tissue that was lost.

I encourage you to do your part by putting the facts before as many people as you can. You will know the truth and the truth will set you free.

Related resources from John Piper:

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Abandoning Convictions

Time was when people could hold to some basic principles or live by personal convictions — decisions that may or may not be or may not’ve been popular — and yet they could sort of remain unspoken or undeclared.  Publicly, anyway.  Time was when people could hold to convictions and only a small circle of community would’ve been aware of the person’s or couple’s personal convictions.  Now… not so.

With the advent of email, internet chat-rooms and bulletin boards in the 90’s… e-groups list mail and then the explosion of “social media” such “personal convictions” become public declarations.  Write an article about it or write a book about it and, well, there’s the personal conviction in black and white for the whole world to read.  And comment on.

Not lost on me is the fact that our personal convictions can, in many ways, be seen and read of all men.  So, whether we say it or write it,  whether social media publicizes it or not, others can view what we believe or see what our personal convictions are by the decisions we make or the lives we live (this is especially true when our walk doesn’t match our talk).

The influence of our decisions or personal convictions isn’t limited to our circle of “friends” bcz our sphere of influence is much greater than our sphere of acquaintance. It’s amazing how reputation (good! or bad!) spreads.

Awareness or visibility of a personal conviction doesn’t assure accuracy though… other people’s opinions of us or their evaluation of what they think we think or what they think we believe is usually skewed by their personal experience or their convictions.

Their assessment may be further skewed because sometimes our children don’t hold to the same convictions as they mature  — thus, our convictions or beliefs are more critically scrutinized.

I read an article yesterday — didn’t have time to tweet about it, link it on FB or write something here — actually,  it’s probably a good thing, too.

The article is a NYT article written about a couple who once held to (and wrote a book about)  a particular belief  they’ve since abandoned —   conviction(s) they once embraced — they now denounce.

My mind immediately jumped to several conclusions: maybe they never really believed what they said they believed.  Maybe they got all caught up in the literary experience — I mean, we’re all so eloquent, so much cooler online.  Maybe they were following “a man” and not the Spirit of the Lord.  Maybe they were deceived on purpose (a few will catch that one).  Maybe they gave up too soon.  Maybe  they allowed little foxes to spoil the vine.  Maybe they…

I could easily get caught up in all that… maybe it was this, maybe it was that…

And then I stop and think that my concern for this couple is more for another decision they abandoned: the decision to abandon their vows.

Their children will pay a steep price for it.

 

Edit 4.21.2018
An article at Women of Grace [now formerly] Bethany & Sam Torode

 

“It’s life… it’s alive.”

“I saw the baby… and it was over… what am I doing? … what am I doing here? … there was life in here and now, there’s not… they don’t want people to see what’s really happening in a woman’s womb… this is it, I’m leaving… Planned Parenthood put a restraining order on me now that they know what I am working with the pro-life movement…” — Abby Johnson

Two Killers – Two Tragedies.

teacuppamela.pngA career is ended.  During that infamous career, tens of thousands of innocent people were killed.

A tragedy to be sure.  I think of this all day today; what a shame — what a tragic end.  A man responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of innocent children.  I consider these things all day.  I decided to refrain from reading editorials about the man… the man who was shot while attending & ushering at ‘church’ yesterday.  I wonder why he went to church.  I wonder how he could do what he did tens of thousands of times and not only ‘attend church’ but hold the office of usher in that congregation.  I wonder, how could his conscience be so seared that he was past feeling or past personal responsibility?  How could he be so depraved he didn’t recognize his work was beyond reprehensible?  For a little bit, I get tripped up in the thought:  how could he do that?  He was totally given over to a reprobate mind.

But then I go back to my initial reaction when I first read the article in the paper this morning… killing that killer was not the answer (other attempts to take his life, bombings, etc., were also not the answer — for the record).

Tonight I mull over… was this such a tragedy bcz his actions so horrifically despicable and now there is no possible opportunity for him to express remorse for knowingly, willingly, murdering tens of thousands of viable human beings?  Or, was it so heinous bcz he lied to all those mothers and profited from all those deaths?  Or, that now, someone else will imprisoned and will likely be lawfully executed for killing that killer? I can see why he did it – or, rather, I can imagine why — but there is no excuse for it.

But in all of this, I imagine the point of focus will not be on the abortionist, George Tiller, and will perhaps, eventually, not even really be on the gunman who entered that church and committed the murder — but the focus will likely be shifted to anti-abortion extremists (read: right-wing extremists), anyone who vocalizes opposition to abortion or who peacefully protest abortion (or anything else).

I do pray this event will make people stop and consider abortion for what it is — and not allow this tragic event to draw attention away from the heinous atrocity of abortion in this country (and around the world). I pray that people will wake up to the fact that abortion is a sin — a national tragedy — a judgment on society.  I pray that people will see that abortions not only happen at the hands of so-called doctors, like Tiller, but by abortifacients such as birth-control pills and IUD’s and medications given to women who want to kill their babies.  I pray this tragic event will cause people to take another look at the lie of abortion — that people will see abortion is not a choice — it’s murder; and that abortion is not ‘family planning’ but death in a family.  Abortion is not a right; abortion is a wrong.

So this day’s nearly over.  Lives have been forever changed, lost or destroyed.  Truly sad, truly tragic.

Again, I am not thankful George Tiller is dead.  But I am thankful he will never have another opportunity kill another baby and will never cause more pain, death, grief or tragedy.

It is a tragedy he is dead, but the real tragedy is that this man will never have the opportunity to repent of his sin and turn to the LORD and give God glory for what could have been an honourable life.  George Tiller will never have the opportunity to repent and express genuine sorrow to all those he misled, for all the lies he lived and all the precious lives he destroyed.  Another sad case of two wrongs never equalling right.  Now, two killers, two tragedies.

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Abortion’s ugly lie

teacuppamela.pngEvery now and then it happens.  I wonder how many of times this has to happen before this civilized society sees abortion as the heinous atrocity it is.  When will pro-aborts see the truth that abortion is the destruction and death of precious baby – a human life.  Abortion destroys a baby.

Sycloria Williams knows that.   Now.  But she didn’t grasp that before she underwent the procedure that would kill her growing and thriving baby — her baby born alive.  The baby was thriving alive within her womb, was thriving alive outside her womb and then that baby was killed.  That’s what happened.  That’s the truth of abortion and it is just that gruesome. Whether that baby was killed before —or after— it was beheld by its mother — nothing was different about the baby.  It was living, moving, growing, thriving — alive.

It’s odd, really — but not surprising — that Miss Williams would now want to fight what happened to her baby.  O, sure she wanted to end that situation she was facing… sure she might have thought it was a problem to be pregnant at her age and socioeconomic situation.  But her reaction betrays the fact that she mustn’t have thought she was really pregnant with a real b-a-b-y — a real, live human-being.

This is why the sanctity of human life must be cherished and proclaimed and this is why morality matters.   The reality of the preciousness of life matters.

And every now and then reality assaults the senses and causes someone to personally come to grips with the fact that a murder or more happens in every abortion.   Abortion isn’t about the “choice” of a woman or “a woman’s right to choose.”   Abortion is about the death of a baby — a human being.   The account of that article is shocking — but really — consider that abortions are happening every day all across America and if more women were actually educated about the so-called ‘choice’ they were about to make, very few – I’d hazard to say – would make that sickening decision.  Very few.   

It’s as if Miss Williams was shocked by the reality of Abortion’s Ugly LIE.   

O……….. no.  It was a baby — what have I done!?!?!?!  And then, the instinctive mothering nature captures her heart and thoughts and she instantly reacts and hollowly screams:  Noooooooo… what have you done to my baby?!?!?!?!

And for one more baby… it was too late.

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Psalm 128.3

teacuppamela.pngI’ve received emails with the following article a few times since yesterday afternoon… and each time I receive it I’m once again encouraged and reminded of the great blessing of motherhood and childbearing specifically. I’m encouraged bcz the ones who have sent it are mothers who not only love their children but also love being mothers — mothers who have borne many children and whose bodies have been made comfortable… for babies… and adored by husbands who appreciate and marvel at the handiwork and blessing of the Lord.

Article by Jeff (The Public Undressing of America) Pollard

The True Meaning of Beauty:
A Pastoral Letter to Fruitful Vines

 quotebegin.gifDear Fruitful Vines,

One never knows in God’s mercy and kindness what a simple appeal to a Biblical passage can produce. As I was pondering my last encouragement to you all, I pondered Psalm 128. Verse 3 says, “Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house.” I thought, “You know, instead of saying, ‘Dear pregnant moms,’ maybe, ‘Fruitful Vines,’ instead.” Now “pregnant moms” is a lovely term to me. Nevertheless, from the encouraging replies I received regarding the term Fruitful Vines, it will now be the address of choice!

This also pointed out to me again the importance of words and, especially in our society, of image. You dear sisters have to stand in the checkout lines of Wal-Mart and other stores all the time. Glaring at you are rows of magazines that virtually shout at you, “The Hollywood Harlots are the standard of beauty. You have to look like this, and display that, or you are not beautiful.”

Don’t listen to this. Reject it. Replace this lie with God’s truth.

Some of you mentioned waddling. Some of you mentioned that vines are thin. I was amused. Yet, I was also pierced to my very soul. Our society has made body-sculpting surgeons rich and constantly shoves its artificial, nip-and-tuck, silicone and Botox standard of beauty in your face. Let me tell you something: waddling, as your body bears the children God gave you, is holy. The changes, the aches, the pains, the swelling, the stretch marks, and all the rest-these are all beautiful in the eyes of the Lord and to any man who has his biblical wits about him. It is stunning beauty to see women submitting to the often painful changes that bearing the Lord’s children brings. Being fruitful and multiplying brings glory to the Lord Jesus Christ and is the holy act of bringing God’s elect into this world. Through virgin’s womb, our beloved Savior entered this world. Mary did the most holy waddling that has ever graced the planet. It was not the sultry, sensual sashay of seduction. It was the humble, load-bearing, groaning, aching waddle of the salvation of all God’s elect for all eternity.

Waddle on,groan on, swell up to the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ: you are displaying a true and holy beauty to your God and to anyone who has eyes to see.

My beloved wife used to say in her last trimester, “I feel like a beached whale.” I wish I had told her a million times and more, “But you are beautiful to me and to the Lord.” She was then and she is now the delight of my eyes. Dear Vines, there is a beauty in your fulfilling the eternal purpose of God to which all the airbrushed, surgically enhanced bodies on this planet will never compare. Your self-effacing sacrifice displays the glory of your Lord.

Waddle, swell, and groan to glory of your Savior. He knows true beauty when he sees it…”

The above article by Jeff Pollard posted at Vision Forum | Doug Phillips Blog Permalink

with love and thanks to the LORD for the inestimable gift of motherhood and opportunity for life…
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vasectomies.

I thought I’d just start this post off with a bang: vasectomies. Writing the rest of it will be easier now, comparatively speaking.  Well, with the exception of replies to comments – but that’s probably the good thing about not receiving lots of daily comments here.

I don’t know of an elective surgery that is more emotionally charged than vasectomies – with the exception of tubal ligation. Every week I receive letters from women — men and women — couples — who ask for prayer for conception and pregnancy – most requests are posted on our site. In addition to those, we receive letters inquiring about birth control and vasectomy or tubal ligation reversal. So many aches. So many questions.  So much regret and disappointment. So many broken hearts and marriages. Week after week, couples plead for prayer on their behalf that God would be merciful and grant them conception… that God would provide a way for a vasectomy reversal… that God would forgive a bad or foolish decision.

If you’ve visited our site or have known me any length of time you will readily know my strong opposition to the big fix. It’s a lie… the big fix is no fix at all – for breaking things that work just fine isn’t a solution or a fix-all. Very, very rarely do I ever talk with a person for whom pregnancy is or would be fatal or detrimental health wise. Very rarely do I read of situations where a woman should not — must not — get pregnant.  And most of the time, my estimation of birth-control is this: it is for people who should not get pregnant. And who should not? People who are not married. to. each. other.  Sincere or Medical cases of necessary abstinence are rare – much rarer than are cited.

Responsibility is a marvelous gift to men and to women.  Responsibility requires necessary restraint and composure, resolve and commitment.  Vasectomies remove a substantial restraining factor in men’s lives and behaviour.  That’s something that’s probably not mentioned when men seek a vasectomy.  It’s not like the doc sits there and says, now, brother, you do realize that you now have total sexual freedom, don’t you?  Are you sure you can handle this?

Of course not.

Instead, docs ignorantly praise a man for the decision he’s making (the great financial benefit, notwithstanding) and how now he’ll be free to enjoy secs completely and his wife will never have to be burdened again, blah, blah, blah.   Based on the number of women who’ve written to us, and we’re nobody!, and I will tell you, women cry over the foolish decision and men ache with shame and regret for making a decision based on convenience. and doubt. and fear.

Page two, Local Section of this morning’s Seattle Times has an article about a doc in Oregon who is offering “premium vasectomy appointments” to men who want to time their vasectomy just right to enable them to watch March Madness college basketball… “It’s snip city.” the ad in the article proclaims.

Another sad consequence: older men acting on impulse; younger men instructed.  Older men paving the way for younger men to neglect God.

The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard. Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun, Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race. His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it: and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof.

The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Moreover by them is thy servant warned: and in keeping of them there is great reward. Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults. Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression. Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer.  — Psalm 19

Problems?  Headaches?  Tired of being tied down?  Kids interrupting your game or game-plan? Make an appointment to cut them off today.  You’re in charge of your life – why be bogged down with children and family, why bother?

So light and so cavalier is the view of the great gift of life.   Pragmatism makes many foolish decisions.  For which man could know what God has in store for him?  Who can know the great mind of God on matters of life, offspring and posterity – except that He says children are a blessing and a great heritage to the man who has them.  Decisions with eternal implications made in a moment of frustration or despair… based on a most convenient scenario.

I wonder how many will be grieved five minutes or six months later when the gravity of the decision is realized.  It is a grievous thing to cut off the possibility of children – the heritage of the Lord.  The big fix is a lie.
We know many who have sought forgiveness for the hasty or ill advised action and have joined in prayer and have sought reversal: “Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults.  Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me…”

God help us.

More on Mars Hill

I thought it appropriate to clarify something in regard to my previous entry: Birthcontrol at Mars Hill.  First, I’d be remiss if I didn’t quickly say that I think Mark Driscoll is a good teacher and sound in doctrine.   I think he handles societal issues well — though differently than I might.  But so what.  I don’t live in Seattle anymore.  Near, but not in.

I also want to clarify that my entry was in regards only to that particular sermon on birthcontrol and his personal views and teaching on that particular matter (though I tend to believe that his teaching and personal application are not necessarily exactly the same).  I believe he must, as a compassionate teacher, feel the need to be lenient – or compassionate to reach those for whom there are no easy answers.  And… I’ll give him that – bcz, face it, we’re all lenient at times regardless of what we think we resolutely believe or think we’d say or do in a given situation.  Faced with it, we might not necessarily do what we resolutely say we would do.   So — given more time to mull over what he said, I understand why he takes the broader lane of the narrow path.  Okay… so… Mars Hill.  In my previous blog entry, I was just alluding to some of his comments on birthcontrol and the biblical rational or mandate regarding its use or practice or prohibition.  Those are some things I might question.  But as for the general teaching and theology of Mars Hill.  Fine; just fine.  I think what one might glean by listening to his teaching would be profitable and insightful.  So, yeah — hope that doesn’t make things clear a mud.

And, by the way,  the Seattle Mars Hill Church is in no way affiliated with Rob Bell’s Mars Hill in Michigan.

Birthcontrol at Mars Hill

In our area lots of folks are drawn to the Mars Hill church in Seattle and ‘tens of thousands’ more who listen on line. I began to watch this lengthy video – it is a sermon, after all, and listened to his take on birth control and what the Bible says about  marriage, procreation and principles of birth control. So after listening for awhile I realized that he, as we all do I suppose, interprets according to his conviction or his interpretations or reactions to what he’s read, heard or seen. I notice this throughout life, when we like someone or want to like someone, then we tend to accept what they say or teach – but if not, and especially when it comes to ‘religious’ people with views counter to our own, we tend to discount, exaggerate or mock what they say, do or think. We might even dare to call them legalists or legalistic. That label used to be bandied about by people outside the church, but now it’s increasingly common within the church to divide from legalists. Interestingly, though, legalism has been redefined to include much more than it ever did before recent times. Now, legalism is anything that holds to what’s considered a ‘narrow view’ of the Word of God and moral absolutes. Before the paradigm shift of much of the modern church, what’s now called legalism was simply adherence to high morals based on what’s clearly defined and taught in the Word.

When Mark Driscoll started his sermon, I thought… hmmm… I think he just might have something here. But the longer I listened, the more I realized he had an agenda (again, as most of us do when talking about things we’re passionate about) and his preconceived notions or his biases were evident. If you like (follow, subscribe to, admire, agree with, etc., etc.) Christian teachers such as Nancy Leigh DeMoss, Nancy Campbell, Doug Phillips and/or Mary Pride, then his comments and interpretations of their teachings, Biblical understanding or positions will likely cause a reaction. And it won’t be cheerful. Well, that’s what I thought, anyway. But I always react pretty strongly when people trot out the Andrea Yates argument and start dumping conservative homeschooling, homebirthing, yada, yada, yada mothers into her bathtub.

Further, you’ll likely have some strong reactions if you’re attempting to live in accordance with God’s Word and are asking His blessing on your marriage and especially if you understand that to mean: one, some, none, many or however many children “blessing” means. And if, with that mindset, you are “quiverful minded” and/or are a homeschooling mom in a dress with a wide collar (snipe, snipe) or if you take the verse, “And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it…,” to mean what it says and you don’t reinterpret it to fit your agenda, then you will likely react to Mark Driscoll’s condescending remarks.
But… if you’ve been taught to believe otherwise, then… you’ll find his sermon and his assumptions — well, just what you want to hear. Bcz whatever you think is what’s best.