A Mother's Ponderings

This from my wife:

"I have been thinking about our little baby boy that entered the glories of heaven before his mama and da. 

Our sweet William was loved with much affection and we mourn his loss to this day.  I carried his little body inside of mine for 21 full weeks and then held his little body in my hands for only 24 hours.  O the pain, the sorrow, the grief, the tears that flowed down our cheeks, and the emptiness that filled our family for the first time...that fills our family still.  What a gift he was.

We anticipated his appearance with great excitement during those months, but he went to be with his Maker before I was privileged to kiss him, to nurse him, to sing to him through sleepless nights.  He would have turned 7 this year...February 9th was his due date.

As I ponder all of this afresh in my heart, I am struck anew with the reality that in these last 7 years--3 more pregnancies, 4 more precious children that bring joy and loudness to our home--over 7 million of William's peers have been brutally murdered in the same (and only) place he lived: the womb.

Over 7 million have been rejected and hated by the ones who carried them the closest, their mothers.

The one person specifically designed to nourish them fully as her womb brings the greatest protection and whose own bodily sacrifice is to bring her the great blessing!

The one who was given the ability to love with the fiercest love has loved herself more.

"Choice" is a simple word used cunningly by the devil to replace the word murder!  We must be very careful and truthful in how we speak about the act of murder by abortion!  A mother pays a hitman to kill and then discard her precious child as waste--and as Christians we have no business taking any sting out of that violent act.

Rejected.  Hated.  Forgotten.

My heart is overwhelmed It is broken.  I am repenting anew of the apathy that can fill it and so easily crowd out:

--The needed horror that would drive me to go to the places they are being slaughtered and plead for their lives to be spared (Psalm 119:53). 

--The needed compassion that would drive me to speak truth to mothers who have scheduled their child's killing with boldness, unashamed of how I must appear, taking care to never mince my words, or allow he fear of man to silence my mouth (Proverbs 31:8-9).

--And the needed zeal to address our elected officials and leaders, demanding the total and immediate abolition of human abortion, to do as God instructed (Ezekiel 22:2; Psalm 82). 

Abortion must be abolished and criminalized.  Repent with me."

Call Her Blessed

Proverbs 31:28 "Her children arise up, and call her blessed..."

I wanted to do this, to rise up and call my mother blessed.  I love my mama.  I have known her all my life.  I could say many things about her, but here is one significant thing.  She and Dad raised us to know Jesus, to love Truth, to value human lives and souls.  She taught us at home and brought us out into the culture to engage for the kingdom of God.

Even now, as an adult myself, when I head down to hand out tracts in the open air, preach outside a strip club, call on leaders to abolish abortion, or engage at child sacrifice centers (abortion mills), things my mother taught me come to mind.  I recall how she brought her children up, taking us with her to share the Gospel with the lost.

She led us up to drug houses, to give Gospel tracts to the men there, to invite their children to Bible clubs in our backyard. She encouraged my siblings and me to share the Gospel, and put us in front of groups, with things to teach, while we were still children.  She took us and other youth in the church to teach Bible clubs all over the Kansas City area, including some of the roughest parts.

At one club, on the last day, a gang threatened to beat up anyone who came to club.  Throughout the club time, a man on drugs up in a second story window had a gun trained on our group sitting in the playground of the apartment project with rock music blaring in his ears.  In the middle of the club time, a gang fight broke out in the parking lot next to us.

My mom calmly led the example and we teens of the teaching crew followed, so that the ones who were not teaching at any given time would sit on the perimeter of the club, positioning ourselves between the violence and the children and adults who sat listening.  That way, anything that may be thrown or such, would be more likely to hit us rather than the clubbers.  I remember hearing roars of anger and screams of fear and pain from those involved in the fighting, but kept my eyes steady on the club, knowing that if I looked back, that the children would too.  If I saw a little one's eyes turn toward the hostility, I would catch their gaze, smile reassuringly, and motion with my eyes towards the teacher.  It was as if the Lord brought a peace to our hearts in the middle of the danger and tumult.

While the fighting behind me continued to rage, my little mother stood up and taught the Bible lesson of the day on the life of Timothy, declaring passionately the truth of God's word concerning the way of salvation in Jesus Christ alone, in living devoted to Him and His word, and challenged the hearers to be ready to stand for Jesus, willing to suffer and die for the name of Jesus, if necessary.

The Lord preserved the lives of everyone in that gathering that day, and I remember afterward seeing at least twenty clubbers of various ages, sitting in the grass, talking to counselors about the way of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ, and how to live courageously in Him, even as the lights of squad cars flashed in the lot, and police officers were questioning and arresting participants in the violence.

Yes, she and my father taught us children to stand for the truth, and to love people, no matter the cost.

So grateful for the mother that God used in my life and also so thankful for my virtuous wife who is mother in the lives of our children!

Abortion must be abolished.