A Love Letter For Life

Caution: This is POWERFUL!


Planned Parenthood and their ilk would have everyone believe that abortion is no big deal. They fool women into believing that abortion is just an outpatient medical procedure and they will be back to normal later that afternoon with their life set free. The reality is far different. The reality is that these women(and sometimes men) struggle deeply with what they have done.

A few weeks ago I was priveleged to be a part of a memorial service. This funeral was for 3 aborted children. The local pregnancy center counsels women who are struggling with the abortions that they have had. One thing they recommend and organize is to have a memorial service for the aborted children. At this particular service the woman stood up and read a letter to her children that she had aborted.

This is one of the most powerful things I have heard. Here is her letter.


Meet JOSHUA
Womb life (December 1997 - March 1998)
That’s how I imagine you:
Hair: Fine and Brown
Eyes: Blue
Character: Handsome and quiet
Name: Means “God Saves” because He did!
Created: around the holidays of 1997
Aborted: Around March 1998
Joshua would have been born around September 1998. At the time of his memorial on April 6, 2009, Joshua would have been 11 years old.

From your mother (maman):
Dear precious son, we named you Joshua. You would be 11 years old! We named you that because we are so glad that God saved you and kept you safe. God gave you life and I (your mother) took it. You were in my womb only asking for nothing more than a chance to live and be loved. I was so selfish and stupid.

I am so deeply sorry for taking your precious life. I will forever regret it. I am in deep pain and extremely sadden. My pain is so great, my grief so immense that I can’t even describe it. I am only encouraged that God can help me.

I imagine your pain, ,little one; how great yours was, too. I think of you when you felt your little body being torn in pieces… I think about you often. How can a mother inflict such pain to her own baby? How can I have done such a thing? What a catastrophe, a monstrosity? You only got to know a cruel mother.

I am so thankful for God for He has been there for you all that time. He has been taking care of you. I am forever thankful. I am sorry it took me so long to face my sin. I am so sad; I never got to feel you moving inside my tummy. I never had the immense pleasure to hold you in my arms. I know it’s hard to believe but I love little babies. It hurts to know and it’s hard to accept that I will never have the chance to cajole you, to rock you to sleep, to see you smile, to see you and love you. You will never get to know Zi Lin, Jacob, and Evelina. They are your brothers and sisters. They would have loved you! Jacob would have been so proud to have a brother and to follow up and look up to. We will never know who you are until we meet you in Heaven.

But by the grace of God, you are in Heaven! I pray that I will see you one day. I have no idea if you will be a baby or a grown up but whoever you are I will be so delighted and feel so privileged to be reunited with you, Joshua. I will finally feel so complete and filled with intense joy.

It is my deep desire for you to know how much I am regretful of my choice of aborting you. I love you, Joshua. I love you with all of my heart. I feel deep sorrow but I am reminded that God is with you and that you are well.

I imagine you happy in Heaven with our dear Savior, in perfect health, radiant and joyful. What a joy to know that because of our loving God I will see you one day. I will keep preciously the hope in my heart to meet with you that day when it’s time and to hug you and whisper to you the words, “I love you, Joshua; I always did.”
Until then, I am asking you to please forgive me for hurting you so badly … for not loving you the way I should have … and most importantly for taking your precious life.


PS - I did ask and receive permission to share this letter.

His Blood Be On Us And Our Children

Matthew 27:24-26
24 So when Pilate saw that he was gaining nothing, but rather that a riot was beginning, he took water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, “I am innocent of this man’s blood; see to it yourselves.” 25 And all the people answered, “His blood be on us and on our children!” 26 Then he released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, delivered him to be crucified.
The Holy Bible : English standard version. 2001 (Mt 27:24). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.


Leading up to each Easter Sunday I like to read all four of the gospel accounts of Christ's crucifixion and resurrection. It is so filled with the details of my Lord's will, love, power, mercy, compassion, holiness, justice, and grace -- it staggers me.

In Matthew 27:24-26 we have one of the most ironic statements in all of scripture. It is a pivotal point leading up to the crucifixion. Pilate is doing everything he can do to try and release Jesus. He doesn't see any reason to have him killed. But, this angry mob of people is out for Jesus' blood, and Pilate is a politician. He won't let righteousness come before his political position. The Jewish religious authorities know that they have Pilate over the proverbial "barrel".

So, Pilate caves in. He is the most powerful man in town, and yet what is on display is his incredible weakness. In fact, what scripture clearly shows is that the least likely person in the entire account is the one with the most power - Jesus. He is arrested, bound, and at the hands of angry men who have his life in their hands -- or do they? No, scripture makes it clear- Jesus is in complete control of this situation. It is His will, His purpose, His power that is at work.

Back to the irony of the crowd...In an act of defiance before this crowd, Pilate brings out a basin of water and washes his hands. He tells the crowd, that they will be held accountable for the death of this innocent man, not him. The crowd responds to Pilate's defiant act of hand washing and declare, "Let his blood be on us and our children!"

You can't hear the tone in that passage, but the language is clear. This is a statement of utter arrogance and derision. But, the content is exactly what Jesus was coming to do!

I always seem to pause at this statement, because I too want to say it. But not in derision, as a humble plea.

This is exactly why Jesus came. This is precisely what He was about to do. Shed his blood for me and my children. He was going to bleed for you and I. For our sins He was going to suffer and die.

Thank You Jesus!

Do you realize how hopeless we would be without the shed blood of Jesus Christ?! It is hard to even describe. We take our sin too lightly to fully appreciate the sacrifice Christ made. He did not take our sin lightly. He freely gave His blood and His life to pay the penalty of my sin.

My prayer is that the Lord would continue to teach me and open my eyes to the depths of my sin and the magnitude of His love displayed on that cross. My prayer is that His blood would be on me and my children. That I would live a life that honors and glorifies Jesus Christ crucified and resurrected!

(this is a repost from April 2007)

The Purity Laws - What In the World?!

Come Out And Be Clean

“If a woman conceives and bears a male child she shall be unclean seven days.” Leviticus 12:2

If a person has a swelling on their skin and it is leprosy, “When the priest has examined him, he shall pronounce him unclean.” Leviticus 13:3
“When any man has a discharge from his body, his discharge in unclean.” Leviticus 15:1

Leviticus chapters 11-15 are commonly referred to as the Purity Laws. What in the world is this all about? This has to be the strangest portion of scripture around? Could there really be a point?

Of course, and it is a powerful one, and one that is applicable for us today.

I must be getting older because I remember things in my childhood that are so different from today. My parents used to just let me and my brother roam the neighborhood. They would tell us when to be home and if we weren’t back by then, it was trouble. But, then we did what we wanted. Most of the time it involved sports.
One Saturday we were out with a bunch of friends and made it to the local soccer field. It started pouring down rain, and we happened to have a football. We had all the ingredients for a great time. We played football for a little while in the mud, but that quickly changed to a sliding match in the mud. It ended when one of our friends slid on a rock and sliced up his knee.

So it was time to go home and we made it back to the house and were about to go inside when mom saw us. We were covered head to toe with mud. We were absolutely filthy. There was no way my mom was going to allow us dirty boys into her clean house.

Clean and unclean. That is what this section of Leviticus is about. There are a lot of details in these chapters but they are all pointing to this vivid lesson of clean and unclean. It is about separation. They were to be a clean people, not unclean. They were to separate themselves from the unclean, they were to separate themselves from the world around them.

That Saturday afternoon as me and my brother were walking home, anyone who saw us knew that we were dirty. It was plain to see, there was no mistake, the mud was clearly visible. The point of this distinction in Leviticus is similar. . If you are one of God’s people, if you belong to the Lord Jesus Christ, if He is your Lord, you will display a distinction from the world around you. He has made us clean, and we need to display that in our lives.

"For I am the Lord your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy. You shall not defile yourselves with any swarming thing that crawls on the ground. For I am the Lord who brought you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.”" (Leviticus 11:44-45, ESV)

OMG=Bme Addendum

My friend Bryan left a very insightful comment on my previous post about blasphemy. I felt like it was so "right on" that I would post it here for all to see.

Bryan writes:

Careless invocations of divinity in one’s daily prose can certainly qualify as gross violations of the third commandment.

Thankfully, I am not like other men in this regard.

Ouch!

I think that there is also another important facet to this commandment. As I understand it, the “name” of our God also connotes the concept of “authority.”

Another significant way we can take God’s name in vain is when we - like the seven sons of Sceva - presume to invoke spiritual authority that we do not, in fact, possess.

Have you ever heard a prophet, priest, or pastor invoke God’s name, saying, “God showed me this”, or “God told me that”, when God’s private “communication” turned out to be nothing more than frivolous human efforts at church empire building, ministry justification, blatant solicitation, false prophesy, personal agenda, or even words of comfort to people living in open rebellion?

I have, many times.

Have I ever said, “God told me” or “God showed me”, when He probably really didn’t?


Bryan, excellent and truthful. Thanks for your insight and candor.

OMG=BMe

Blasphemy appears to be fashionable. That is what is on this shirt. It is short hand for a phrase of blasphemy.
Our culture has created a new way to communicate. It seems that everyone has a caught on to the text message way of communication. Everything is communicated in micro text.
"U r my bff" If I wrote this on an English paper my teacher would have no idea what I was saying. But sent as a text message most people know that those characters translate into "you are my best friend forever".
People have also found a way to micro text blasphemy. And, they think it is cute.
Most of the time people don't think about blasphemy at all. And if they do, they reserve their definition for those really big, bad words.
It is true that those foul curse words associate with God's name is blasphemy. Let me remind everyone that blasphemy is a sin. "You shall not take the Lord's Name in vain." (Exodus 20)
But, blasphemy is more than just saying curse words. It is anytime you take God's Name in vain.
OMG clearly fits into that category. That is the most common blasphemy that I hear today. People say it like it means absolutely nothing. It rolls of the lips of people all around me all the time. And that is exactly why it is blasphemy.
Saying, "oh my God" is not necessarily blasphemy. It is the context in which it is used. If I am in earnest prayer and crying out for the help of my Lord and say what the psalmist said, "Oh God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you." (Psalm 63:1) That is a completely appropriate usage.
That is not how people use that phrase in common parlance. It is simply an expression of excitement, surprise, or even disgust. The phrase can actually be used to represent a variety of emotional outbursts.
That by definition is taking God's Name in vain. It's not cute.
Do not think that I am some sheltered prude. I have been around profanity and blasphemy plenty. I have used my fair share in my younger years. I did live for four years in the Moore Hall Dorm which was a breeding ground for all kinds of vulgar language. I have worked jobs in warehouses in which it must have been a prerequisite to gainful employment to have a foul mouth. I know that foul language is a part of our culture.
That should not and is not a reason for me to become desensitized to the sound of my God's Name being dragged through the mud.
It will also not be something that my daughters will use in our house. There are lots of words I don't want them saying. The most serious will be any careless use of God's Name.
I not only detest the flippant use of OMG, but when people use the name Jesus as profanity it is like a punch in the gut. How did that become so popular? It pains me to hear the Name of the One who shed his blood for my sin used as a filthy expression of profanity.

As for me and my house, we will bless the Name of God.

By the way, the micro text in the title translates to this, "Oh my god equals blasphemy".