Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Can I Live? video

I received the link to this video from a friend. It is truly a different kind of pro life video. In the video, the young man is talking to his mother as she is planning to abort him. Powerful. I also include the words here because the way he is singing makes it hard to understand some of what he is saying.

[Talking]
Talking Ma
I know the Situation is Personal
But it something that has to be told
As I was making this beat
You was all I could think about you heard my voice

[Verse 1]
Yeah Just think Just Think
What if you could Just
Just blink yourself away..
Just Just wait just pause for a second
Let me plead my case
It's the late 70's Huh
You Seventeen huh
And having me that will ruin everything huh
It's a lot of angels waiting on their wings
You see me in your sleep so you can’t kill your dreams
300 dollars that’s the price of living what?
Mommy I don’t like this clinic
Hopefully you'll make the right decision
And don’t go through with the knife incision
But it's hard to make the right move
When you in high school
How you have to work all day and take night school
Hopping off da bus when the rain is pouring
What you want morning sickness or the sickness of mourning

[Chorus]
I'll Always Be a part of you
Trust Your Soul Know it's always true
If I Could Talk I'd Say To You
CAN I LIVE
CAN I LIVE
I'll Always Be a part of you
Trust Your Soul Know it's always true
If I Could Talk I'd Say To You
CAN I LIVE
CAN I LIVE

[Verse 2]
I am a child of the King
Ain't no need to go fear me
And I see the flowing tears so know that you hear me
When I move in your womb that's me being scary
Cause who knows what my future holds
Yo the truth be told you ain't told a soul
Yo you ain't even showing I'm just 2 months old
Through your clothes try to hide me deny me
Went up 3 sizes
Your pride got you lying saying ain't nothing but a migraine
It ain't surprising you not trying to be in Wic food lines
Your friends will look at you funny but look at you mommy
That's a life inside you look at your tummy
What is becoming ma I am Oprah bound
You can tell he's a star from the ultrasound
Our Spirits connected doors open now
Nothing But Love And Respect Thanks For Holding Me Down She Let Me Live...

[Chorus]
I'll Always Be a part of you
Trust Your Soul Know it's always true
If I Could Talk I'd Say To You
CAN I LIVE
CAN I LIVE
I'll Always Be apart of you
Trust Your Soul Know it's always true
If I Could Talk I'd Say To You
CAN I LIVE
CAN I LIVE
[Repeat 2]

[Nick Talking]
It's uplifting for real ya’ll
I ain't passing no judgment
Ain't making no decisions
I am just telling ya'll my story
I love life
I love my mother for giving me life
We all need to appreciate life
A strong woman that had to make a sacrifice
Thanks for listening
Thanks for listening
Mama thanks for listening

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Pro Life and Pro Choice

I saw this video on the Preserving a Generation blog and so loved the song and the pictures that I had to post it here too.

A couple of months ago, one of my relatives told me she was pro choice and pro life. We were having some great conversations about abortion, life, and choice. At that time, I couldn’t see how a person could be both pro life and pro choice. Recently, I understood how I could say a similar thing about myself. Even though, I’m not sure my relative’s statement carried the same meaning of what I will say about myself. I’ll explain exactly what I mean from my perspective.

I believe that from the moment of conception a baby is a human being. And I absolutely believe in choosing LIFE for that baby. So I am Pro Life. I also believe that women do and should have a choice to make when they become pregnant— to choose to keep their baby, take care of it, and be its mother OR to choose to give their baby up for adoption to someone else who will care for it and be its mom. In this statement life is promoted regardless of the choice made. But there is a choice still made.

However, I do not believe that the choice to end the life of any human being, whether in the womb or outside the womb, should be encouraged or endorsed by the laws of any country. What Pro Choice has really come to mean in today’s lingo is Pro Death. Taking the life of a human being is just that—the taking of a life. No matter what label it is hidden under.

Women should have the freedom to make a choice—the choice whether to be mother to their child or to allow someone else to be mother to their child. The choices should never include ending the life of her child just because she doesn’t want it or is afraid of having it. The laws of this country have only given women an opportunity to make a choice that does not truly lead to freedom of choice but instead leads to bondage of guilt and sorrow over ending the life of a baby whom they felt they could not carry to term.

May more of us be encouragers and helpers to those who find themselves unexpectedly pregnant. Encouraging them to know they can make a choice and that the choice will always include LIFE for the tiny and helpless baby growing within them. May we also be encouragers and helpers to those who have already terminated the life of their babies and carry that painful scar on their hearts. There is no place here for crass judgment of either position.

"You can't really understand another person's experience

until you've walked a mile in their shoes."

For unconditional love and life…

By Your Side

I posted the link to this song on my Facebook profile back on April 10th. Somehow I didn’t get it posted here on my blog also, although it had been my intent to do so because I truly love the words to this song and the power and truth of them.

When I posted the song on my Facebook back in April I said the following:

Funny, how one can hear something over and over again and not really listen to it. I've heard this song on the radio many times before, but not until last night when we were at the concert and Tenth Avenue North sang this song of theirs did I really pay attention to the words...POWERFUL words that they are...so glad I could pause long enough last night to really LISTEN to them...JESUS is by our side...He is always there...

Now, I can’t hear this song without thinking of Aaron. On April 9th, just four days before Aaron’s death, our family had attended that Christian concert where the band that sings this song, Tenth Avenue North, performed the song, and I “really listened to it” for the first time. Braden had wanted Aaron to come along with him and a couple of other friends to that concert, but somehow we didn’t get that all worked out with the driving and Aaron didn’t get to come along with us.

Anyway, I really wanted to go ahead and post the video link to the song on this blog, as it does have a most powerful message.

God is holding us and ever with us…

Friday, June 12, 2009

Chinese Ambassador Covers Up Kidnapping of Gao Zhisheng

I just received this email from ChinaAid:

With the increased pressure from people of justice around the world requiring the truth about kidnapped Christian attorney Gao Zhisheng, the Chinese government has been forced to respond. Ambassador Zhou Wenzhong recently issued the first official letter about Gao, in reply to a letter from Senator Byron Dorgan, Chairman of Congressional-Executive Commission on China.

According to the Ambassador, Gao is "currently serving probation" and "the public security authority has not taken any mandatory action against him." Obviously, this is a misdirect of information as Gao was last seen being hauled away by Chinese security officials.

We are very concerned about Gao's whereabouts and his condition. In the past, Gao has been repeatedly kidnapped and tortured by Chinese officials for his work defending house church Christians and others persecuted for their beliefs. There is no reason to believe that this has stopped now.

Prior to his first kidnapping, Gao told his wife that if he should be persecuted for speaking the truth, he believed that people of justice throughout the world would stand with him.

Our friends in Washington, DC, have strongly encouraged us to increase the pressure on the Chinese government, and we need your help. Please help us by flooding Chinese embassies around the world with phone calls on behalf of Gao Zhisheng's wife and children to urge that the Chinese government immediately reveal Gao's whereabouts and condition.

» Go to www.FreeGao.com now for contact numbers for the Chinese Embassy

in your region and a sample script for your phone call.

Please continue to spread the word to family and friends about www.FreeGao.com and encourage them to watch the video and sign the petition. We continue to push toward 100,000 signatures on behalf of Gao Zhisheng which we will deliver to Chinese and U.S. officials to give voice for justice on Gao's behalf.

ChinaAid appreciates the continued support of all of our friends. Your financial support enables a sustained cry for freedom for Gao Zhisheng and many others persecuted in China. We are committed to pressure the Chinese government until justice is brought to victory. Thank you for your partnership to free Gao Zhisheng and to expose, to the world, the truth regarding his case.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Gianna - Abortion Survivor

What a treat I got today as I “accidentally” stumbled upon a blog that had two videos of a speech Gianna Jessen gave to an audience at Queen’s Hall in Melbourne last year. I’ve had Gianna’s book for a few years, but not until recently did I pull it out of its place among my many other books and began to read it. Today, I thoroughly enjoyed listening to these two videos posted on YouTube of her speech in Melbourne.

For life...

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Imperfections Are Leading Us to Perfection

Last night I was praying fervently for God’s help with regards to our human frailties and failures and how they affect the people who are a daily part of our lives. My heart was broken and sorrowful over some things that currently stare so ugly in my face.

This morning, I casually picked up a few weeks old Intercessor newsletter that has been lying around my house. As I flipped through the pages, some words caught my attention and led me to go to the first page of the article those words belonged to. As I began to read, God began to speak through the words and reassure me that He had been listening to my every word last night and that, of course, He was still in control of all and would work things out according to His will and purpose.

[Before I go on, I would like to give credit where credit is due regarding the article from the newsletter. The Intercessor is published by Zerubbabel Press and the article I quote from was written by Norman Grubb. The article is called “Imperfection Points to Perfection” and is printed in The Intercessor newsletter Volume 25, No. 1. Zerubbabel Press has some of the newsletters online, but I don’t see this one on there yet. All Scriptures quoted are from the Concordant Translation.]

The article begins:

“Looking from heaven downwards rather than earth upwards, and realizing that God has always been nothing but the God of perfection, working all things after the counsel of His own will, we can see the whole problem of our chaotic world from a totally different point of view. The fact that God foreknew Satan’s and man’s disobedience and the resulting chaos, and had prepared the perfect remedy for it before it ever happened, gives us our key…but He only ever predestined One to feel the full weight of His wrath, His only begotten Son. For all mankind He had only one purpose, to restore them in His Son… and with them the whole fallen creation.”

Most definitely, God is operating all in accord with the counsel of His will. Let us not forget that

“In Him Whom our lot was cast also, being designated beforehand according to the purpose of the One Who is operating all in accord with the counsel of His will.” (Ephesians 1:11)

Neither this world nor our lives are out of the control of God’s hands and plans. No matter that it may seem that way to us.

“All, therefore, that happens to man in his present fallen condition has its own definite purpose—not of judgment, but of restoration…Imperfection in all forms is God’s finger pointing to perfection. It makes a tremendous difference to our outlook and actions when we realize this, for we learn to recognize that weakness, shortages, failures, disappointments, all that is short of the ideal, which are in God’s order for this age, are for one purpose only: as parables, as figures, as signposts, pointing to the hidden sufficiency…”

Every human situation of need with which we are faced is a voice from God saying to us: ‘That points to My fullness: that imperfection to My perfection: that need to My supply: that perplexity to My solution.’” The whole of life in its fallen state is a great finger-post pointing the way from the imperfect human to the perfect divine…Jesus incarnate, crucified, resurrected and ascended…has bridged the gulf: from heaven to earth and back from earth to heaven. The result is that God permits needs in our lives that He may now supply them in Christ…Needs, shortages, problems are summonses to faith. That is why they are God’s will. They are His necessary way of compelling us flesh-bound humans to recognize our earthly limitations, to be dissatisfied with them, to seek the way to transcend them, and to become agents of redemptive faith. There He stands just the other side of the barrier, beckoning us and saying, ‘I am the answer, I am the supply. I have come to you in Christ. Receive me in this situation’. For need is a shadow…”

on which the light of God shines upon.

Grubb goes on to say that the situation may or may not be changed, but that we must look at all situations with God’s eyesight. Of course, only God can grant us that sight. When He does,

“We see that in reality they are His situations, into which He has deliberately put us that He might be glorified in them. Therefore before we call, He is already answering, because HE Himself has instigated this actual situation with His answer all prepared. Our calling is His stirring of us to feel the need and recognize that here is a situation in which God is going to do something.”

Yes, He has already made the plans to do something way before we ever called upon Him to help us in our need.

“Our action then is to call on Him, in other words, to take the attitude of faith. Faith means that we turn our attention from the need to the Supplier who is already supplying that need, and who allowed the need because He intends to supply it to His glory. Therefore our calling on Him is our seeing Him and praising Him and confessing Him before men, and awaiting the manifestation of the supply.”

“Our trials are God’s trials, given us for a purpose, exactly suited to us. Our lacks are God’s lacks, our perplexities are God’s perplexities. Before the trials, God has already prepared the deliverance and sends us the trials that He may manifest Himself through them.”

“No trial has taken you except what is human. Now, faithful is God, Who will not be leaving you to be tried above what you are able, but, together with the trial, will be making the sequel also, to enable you to undergo it.” (1 Corinthians 10:13)

“The trial is to stimulate faith, and faith is seeing Him who is invisible. As we do this, in praise and expectation, He gives the answer. It may or may not be the kind of deliverance (or answer) we anticipate. But it will be what we can recognize and receive with joy as His answer, and to which we can testify. There need will have been wholly met by His supply in His way…”

Our faith is not about seeking the answer we desire and getting it. It is about trusting His answer even when it doesn’t make sense to us.

Towards the end of this very lengthy article Grubb summarizes with the following:

“Long before there was a condition of need God had completed His work of perfect creation. The fall and its consequences have been an apparently tragic interlude, but that was foreseen and provided for…”

“…with the precious blood of Christ, as of a flawless and unspotted lamb, foreknown, indeed, before the disruption of the world…” (1 Peter 1:19-20)

“Therefore; as we have already said, God has always had His fullness in readiness to replace our emptiness, His perfection our imperfections, His light our darkness, His life our death. He has always intended, planned and provided totally supply for every human need, and the supply has always been there. It is not that our need initiates the demand for its supply and must somehow call the attention of the Father to it and persuade Him to supply. No indeed HE initiated the needs so that we might find all our supply already there in His and our Christ!”

“Now my God shall be filling your every need in accord with His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Now to our God and Father be glory for the eons! Amen!” (Philippians 4:19-20)

As I thought about my heart’s cry last night and God reassuringly speaking today, the following song came to mind that appropriately goes along with God speaking to us in all our circumstances.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZI2gOBvBHk

He’ll get our attention and He will prove He is enough…

Sunday, June 7, 2009

God's Eonian Purpose - Chapter I



God’s Eonian Purpose was written by Adlai Loudy. The book is published by the Concordant Publishing Concern, 15570 Knochhaven Road, Santa Clarita, California 91350. The first edition was published in 1929, with a second edition printed in 1974, and a second printing in 1991.

Chapter I is titled “The Sacred Scriptures”.

In beginning this chapter, Loudy ventures to answer the question “Are the Scriptures of God or man?” and to address the question whether God truly inspired their writing or if they are merely collections of man’s own efforts.
“If they are simply a collection of man’s writings, without divine guidance, then they are no more reliable than fallible man. But if God wrote them, they must be true and we can depend on their admonitions and teachings, prophecies and promises.” (pg.9)

God's Eonian Purpose - Introduction


God’s Eonian Purpose was written by Adlai Loudy. The book is published by the Concordant Publishing Concern, 15570 Knochhaven Road, Santa Clarita, California 91350. The first edition was published in 1929, with a second edition printed in 1974, and a second printing in 1991.
The introduction to the book is a basically a foreword written by the author in October 1929 when the first edition was published. Loudy states in his first sentence that he will offer no apologies for the book. He calls it:
“…an earnest heart response to the vast number of appeals from truth-lovers to correlate and progressively present a concordantly constructive series of expositions unfolding God’s Eonian Purpose as revealed in the Scriptures. The work is designed for and will appeal to the thoughtful man or woman who has met difficulties in the study of the “Bible” according to the conventional ideas of Christendom. The controverted questions of creation, sin and evil, salvation, baptism, the new birth, death and hell, immortality, eternal torment, and others, have been dealt with frankly and clearly out of the spirit of love, energized by a strong conviction coming from a fresh concordant translation of the Sacred Scriptures conforming to a pattern of sound words at all times.”

Chapter Summaries on God's Eonian Purpose

In the year 2005 God began to take me on an incredible and deep journey into the depths of His character. That time of my life can be described as something extraordinarily similar to Neo’s decision regarding taking the blue or red pill in the movie The Matrix.
The following two links are the first two entries I posted on this blog when I first created it.

Friday, June 5, 2009

Where I've Come To

Yesterday, various factors had come together causing me to feel depressed.  I knew that the best thing to do was to pour out my heart to God over the different state of affairs so that He may walk and help me through them all.  I shared my heart with God and spoke to Him about all the different things that were making me sad, disappointing me, and in which I was losing hope.  None of this came as a shock to God.  He knew it all before I was able to form the words to express myself.

Today, as I glanced over my journal writings of yesterday, I thought of how much they were like one of David’s psalms.  All the crying and complaining and sorrow expressed but ending with my eyes looking up to the great YHWH Who is over all and still trusting Him with my life and that of my whole family.

“Here’s where I’ve come to…that even though I know God IS good and perfect and has a perfect plan and will and will see it all through…He does not always shield us from the evil that He has also created and left in this world alongside us…” 

What we see and feel as tragedy and difficulty can come at any time and usually when we least expect it.  It is part of the world that we live in. 

“…My faith will not change God’s plan.  My prayers will not be what move God’s hands.  My faith is about believing that no matter what God puts before me or allows me to face or endure, He will work it all out in conjunction with so many other things I cannot see and bring forth a beautiful masterpiece at the very end.  My faith is about trusting that He WILL carry us through, never leave us or forsake us, and that He loves all of us more than I can comprehend.  My prayers are about talking with Him and sharing my heart and saying “Your will be done, great YHWH, whether I like it or not; whether I agree with it or not, Your will be done”.    Ouch! and Amen.”

“I am weary today, the sunshine is being covered again by clouds, and sadness has overcome my heart regarding many things.  I don’t feel like doing anything, thinking about anything.  Maybe I just need to embrace the pain and sorrow and not assume it is a bad thing to run from.  I can’t help but wonder how many things that I see as bad, terrible, or evil does God see as very good (and necessary for the fulfillment of the future)?” 

“All I can cry out is “Oh Lord, cover us, help us, draw and keep us near and close, encircle us with Your love and grace…”

As I listened to music on my IPOD later in the day, the following song came on and I found it so appropriate for my day.  The song wasn’t just for me, though…there are many others whom I know, and countless others whom I don’t know, who also cry out this prayer to God for one reason or another…This is for all of us…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmxkzKlw-jM

How long must I pray, must I pray to You?
How long must I wait, must I wait for You?
How long 'til I see Your face, see You shining through?
I'm on my knees, begging You to notice me.
I'm on my knees, Father will you turn to me?

One tear in the driving rain,
One voice in a sea of pain
Could the maker of the stars
Hear the sound of my breakin' heart?
One light, that's all I am
Right now I can barely stand
If You're everything You say You are
Won't You come close and hold my heart

I've been so afraid, afraid to close my eyes
So much can slip away before I say goodbye.
But if there's no other way, I'm done asking why.
Cuz I'm on my knees, begging You to turn to me
I'm on my knees, Father will you run to me?

One tear in the driving rain,
One voice in a sea of pain...

So many questions without answers, Your promises remain
I can't sleep but I'll take my chances to hear You call my name
To hear You call my name

One tear in the driving rain,
One voice in a sea of pain…

Hold my heart, could you hold my heart?
Hold my heart.

 

He hears the sound of our breaking hearts, He run to us, and He holds our hearts…

A Tree and Stone Memorial of Aaron

This past week Braden and Madison’s youth group, along with Aaron’s parents, planted a beautiful maple tree in the courtyard of the church where Aaron’s family attended.  I went along with Braden and Madison to this special event this past Monday afternoon.  

The weather over the past few weeks has been totally uncharacteristic of our typical weather; it has been raining and raining and we’ve had mostly cloudy days every day.  Monday was more of that same stuff.  Rain was coming down and there was some occasional thunder and lightning going on. 

Braden eagerly volunteered to be one of the first people to begin digging the hole for the tree.  He put a lot of passion and fervor into digging that hole in the ground as he turned his deep sorrow of losing his friend into a powerful digging force.  The whole group of us stood around in the chilly temperature and rain, some getting wet and some under umbrellas, all hoping that at least the lightning would stay away.  As the digging went on, Braden did not want to give up his shovel or his turn and reluctantly did so after a while.  The hole was eventually completed, not taking too terribly long since there were plenty of strong diggers to work at it, and so the tree was planted.  Aaron’s parents carried the inscribed stone and set it down by the tree.  The work outside all finished, we went inside the building. 

Gathered together inside, there were a few more stories of Aaron told, some smiles and laughter and tears, along with prayers offered up to God.  We gathered there together audibly sharing joys and thoughts of Aaron and sharing silently the pain of his loss.  So much healing of broken hearts that still needs to take place…God is able…