Abortion: When women love death

Mothers waiting to kill their babies at Orlando Women's Center. Over 10,000 mothers and fathers line up, carrying their babies to slaughter at Central Florida abortuaries every year.

There is a way which seems right to a man,
but its end is the way of death.
Proverbs 14:12

A way ... - The way of the fool, the way of self-indulgence and self-will.
Albert Barnes

Cruelty and murder are the short road, the near way, to eternal perdition.
~ Adam Clarke

There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, as the way of sin and wickedness does, promising much carnal pleasure and mirth..It is a broad road, and is pleasant, and seems right, but it leads to destruction..
The end thereof are the ways of death; which lead unto eternal death; for that is the wages of sin.
~ John Gill

This is literally repeated in Proverbs 16:25. The rightness is present only as a phantom, for it arises wholly from a terrible self-deception; the man judges falsely and goes astray. Without regard to God and His Word, he follows only his own opinions. It is the way of estrangement from God, of fleshly security; the way of vice, in which the blinded thinks to spend his life, to set himself to fulfil his purposes; but the end thereof are the ways of death. He who thus deceives himself regarding his course of life, sees himself at last arrived at a point from which every way which now further remains to him leads only down to death. The self-delusion of one ends in death by the sentence of the judge, that of another in self-murder; of one in loathsome disease, of another in a slow decay under the agony of conscience, or in sorrow over a henceforth dishonoured and distracted life.
~ Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

A woman who has no fear of God, who is wilful and wasteful, and indulges her ease, will as certainly ruin her family, as if she plucked her house down. Those that despise God's precepts and promises, despise God and all His power and mercy. The root must be plucked up, or we cannot conquer this branch. Foolish and profane men consider sin a mere trifle, to be made light of rather than mourned over. Sin ruins many great families..The ways of carelessness, of worldliness, and of sensuality, seem right to those that walk in them; but self-deceivers prove self-destroyers.
~ Matthew Henry

But he who sins against me injures himself;
all those who hate Me love death.
Proverbs 8:36




It is not Satan, it is not sin, properly speaking, that hurts him; it is himself. If he received the teaching of God, sin would have no dominion over him; if he resisted the devil, the devil would flee from him.
Love death - They do it in effect, if not in fact, for as they love sin, that leads to death, so they may be justly said to love death, the wages of sin. He that works in this case, works for wages; and he must love the wages, seeing he labors so hard in the work.
Adam Clarke

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Wherefore everyone that sins, sins against Christ. 
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Wrongeth his own soul; is injurious to it, and to the spiritual and eternal welfare of it; all sin is hurtful to the souls of men, especially sins against Christ; since there is no other Saviour but Him, no other sacrifice for sin but His; and therefore to such there can be no other than a fearful looking for of judgment, that trample Him under foot, and treat His blood, righteousness, and sacrifice, in a contemptuous manner, Hebrews 10:26;

All they that hate Me; as do the seed of the serpent, the whole world that lies in wickedness, all unregenerate persons, and even many professors of religion; they hate Him privately, being without love to him, or loving others more than Him; and positively and practically, by despising His Gospel, or not walking worthy of it; by disclaiming doctrines, casting off His yoke, and maltreating His people; all which arise from the corruption of their nature; for this hatred or enmity is original and natural; it is deeply rooted in their minds, and irreconcilable without the grace of God, and is always undeserved. Wherefore such are said to

love death; not formally and intentionally, for death in any shape cannot be desirable; not a corporeal death, and much less an eternal one; but interpretatively and consequentially, as they love that which brings death upon them both in body and soul, and so are reckoned to love death itself.
~ John Gill
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Whoever misses Wisdom by taking some other way than that which leads to her, acts suicidally: all they who wilfully hate  wisdom love death, for wisdom is the tree of life, Proverbs 3:18; wisdom and life are one, as the Incarnate Wisdom saith, John 8:51, "If a man keep My sayings, he shall never see death."
In the Logos (Christ), Wisdom has her self-existence; in Him she has her personification, her justification, and her truth.

~ Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament
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Those who offend Christ deceive themselves; sin is a wrong to the soul.
Sinners die because they will die, which justifies God when he judges.
~ Matthew Henry

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 Who, first, are those who hate Him? We are, by nature children of wrath. Those who hate Him are not merely the flamboyant sinners, but all those as yet untouched by His redeeming grace. All those who fit in this category not only are due death, not only face death, not only will live in eternal death unless reborn, but, as the text tells us, love death. They love it, embrace it, bath in it and dine on it.

In the end, all they can do is destroy. In the end they cannot replace life with false life, but must replace it with death.

This love of death drives the world around us to the fruitless madness ...It causes them to devour their young through abortion... It is why they embrace their soma (intoxicant) of choice.

This is how we fight our war, by digging our trenches, and there in faith planting the seed.
We fight death with life, knowing with joy that death will indeed be swallowed up in victory.

~ R.C. Sproul Jr.
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Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out My hand, and no man regarded;
But ye have set at nought all My counsel, and would none of My reproof:
I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh;
When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind;
when distress and anguish cometh upon you.
Then shall they call upon Me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find Me:
For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD:
They would none of My counsel: they despised all My reproof.
Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.
For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.

But whoso hearkeneth unto Me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil.
Proverbs 1:24-33

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He that refuseth instruction despiseth his own soul:
but he that heareth reproof getteth understanding.
Proverbs 15:32

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There are many moments in everybody's life when you have a clear sense that the right way to go is to choose good, but you want to choose evil because the short term benefits will be greater and there would be a cost for choosing what's right. When people make choices like that they are moving toward Christ and heaven or or Christ-lessness and hell.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_4CvAVh1aw&feature=share

If you would be the wife of the Lamb

Christ the Best Husband:
An Earnest Invitation to Young Women to come and See Christ
by George Whitefield

The Lord Jesus Christ, my dear sisters, doth choose you merely by His free grace; it is freely of His own mercy, that He brings you into the marriage covenant: You, who have so grievously offended Him, yet, the Lord Jesus Christ hath chosen you; you did not, you would not have chosen Him; but when once, my dear sisters, He hath chosen you, then, and not till then, you make choice of Him for your Lord and Husband.

The Lord Jesus Christ when He first comes to you, finds you full of sin and pollution; you are deformed, defiled, enslaved, poor, miserable and wretched, very despicable and loathsome, by reason of sin; and He maketh choice of you, not because of your holiness, nor of your beauty, nor of your being qualified for them; no, the Lord Jesus Christ puts these qualifications upon you, as may make you meet for His embrace; and you are drawn to make choice of the Lord Jesus Christ because He first chose you.

By this Espousal your hearts are drawn out after Christ; your souls pant and long for Him; you cannot be at rest until you are engaged to this Jesus: You are ready to cry out continually, none but Christ, none but Christ: this is the language of your hearts, if you are truly sensible of your need of Him. The more acquaintance you have of this Lord Jesus, the more pleased you are with your choice, and the more your affections are drawn towards Him. And where can you place your affections better than upon that Jesus who shed His blood for your sakes? Surely He deserves both your loves and affections: Go on, go on, my dear sisters, that your affections may grow stronger and stronger.

And here doth the marriage lie chiefly, in this union; Christ and souls are contracted, and the knot is tied so fast, that neither men on earth, how great soever they be, nor devils in hell, though they should combine all their wrath and rage together, still they cannot dissolve, they cannot untie it; no, my dear sisters, it is indissolvable, for the union is, by the spirit, on Christ's part, and by faith on yours: By the spirit, Christ doth lay hold on you; and by faith, you do lay hold on Him; and thus the match is made; Christ becomes yours, His person, portion, and all His benefits are yours. You become Christ's, your person, your hearts, and all that you have is resigned up unto Him, and O that they may be so more and more.


There is a MUTUAL OBLIGATION between Christ and His spouse. Christ obliges Himself to love you here, He will not, indeed He never will leave you. He will protect you from the malice of the Pharisees of this generation. He will provide for you in all difficulties. He will live with you here, and at last He will take you to Himself, to live with Him forever. And you are engaged to Him to be loving, loyal, faithful, obedient; and you are to stick close to Him as long as you live; and then you will find yourselves to be married to the best advantage, both for soul and body, for time and for eternity.

Christ doth invite all of you to be His spouse.


And it on this account that He sends forth His ministers to preach. It is this, that makes me thus come among you; that you would accept of this invitation, to which, in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I do call and entreat you to take Him, on His own terms. He calls all of you, my sisters, whether elder or younger, whether married or unmarried, of higher degree, or of the meanest quality, the poorest servants, yea, the rabble of this world, as the world calls you, who are willing to be espoused unto the Lord Jesus Christ. I say, the poor are as welcome to be Christ's spouse as those that are rich. He regardeth not the rich more than the poor; He chose a mean virgin, espoused to a carpenter, to be His mother; and He chooseth and calleth all such to be His spouse; then be not discouraged at your being despised in the world; for if you are but loved by Christ, and espoused to Him, it will be an over-sufficiency for all the trouble that you have met with here.

Those who would be espoused unto Christ, must hearken, consider, and incline to His invitation, and forget even their father's house.


Such as would be espoused unto Christ must hearken. "Hearken, O daughter." Many amongst you, my sisters, stop their ears against the calls of the gospel; they shut their ears like the deaf adder, which will not hearken unto the voice of the charmer, though he charm never so wisely. You will not hearken unto the invitations of Christ; you can hearken unto the vanities of the world, and be delighted with the espousals of the world, but never think or are delighted with the espousals of Christ.


It was by the ear, that the temptation of sin was received by the first man, when he departed from God; and by the ear, the invitation to be Christ's spouse must be received, before the heart will be opened to receive Jesus Christ in this conjugal relation.


If you would, my dear sisters, be espoused to Christ, you must consider Christ's invitation. It is not a slight or bare hearing of Christ's invitation, which will be of any service to you, or make up the match between Christ and your souls; no, you must receive Christ in the heart; you must consider the thing itself, the advantages of it, the difference between Christ's invitations and the devil's temptations, or any of the world's proffers.


Those who would be espoused to Christ, must be inclined to accept of Christ's invitation. "Hearken, O daughter, consider and incline thine ear." This is to incline your hearts: You must consent with your wills; there must be a compliance to the motion of Christ, and you must have desires after Christ, and then your hearts will say, "Lord, let us be Thy spouse, and be Thou our Beloved."


You must likewise forget your father's house. "Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and forget thy father's house." You are not here to cast off all affections unto natural relations; but you must forget all relations, so as to be ready to forgo all their favor, when it standeth in competition with that of the Lord Jesus Christ: and do not let your carnal friends and relations hinder you from closing with, and espousing the Lord Jesus. I earnestly beseech you to suffer the loss of any thing, rather than to lose His favors; you must indeed forget your own people, that is, you must forget all your evil customs which you have learned in your father's house, and forsake all your vain conversation, your reading of plays, novels, or romances; and you must keep from learning to sing the songs of the drunkard; for Christ, if you are His spouse, hath redeem you.


Such of you, my dear sisters, as are espoused to the Lord Jesus Christ are very beautiful. I do not mean in respect of your bodies; you may have less of external comeliness than others, in respect of your bodies, but as to your souls you will exceed in beauty, not so much in the eyes of man, as in the eyes of God; such have the most beautiful image of God stamped upon them; none in the world beside them, have the least spark of spiritual beauty. Such as are not married to Christ, are unregenerated, they are not born again, nor brought from sin unto God, which must be done before you be espoused to Christ.


And the Lord Jesus Christ desireth to see this beauty in His spouse, for He cries out, "O my dove, thou are in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs, let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice, for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely." He calleth His spouse His love, being the dear object of His love; and He admireth her loveliness; He repeats it twice in one verse, "Behold thou art fair, my love, behold thou art fair." Thus you see He describes their beauty. And then, my sisters, we have wonderful expression of Christ to His spouse, "Thou hast ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse, thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes, with one chain of thy neck." Thus you see how pleased the Lord Jesus Christ is with His spouse; and will not you, therefore, be espoused unto the Lord Jesus?

I offer Jesus Christ to all of you; if you have been never so notorious for sin, if you have been as great a harlot as Mary Magdalen was, when once you are espoused to Christ, you shall be forgiven. Therefore be not discouraged, at whatever slights and contempts the world may pass upon you, but come and join yourselves to the Lord Jesus Christ, and all your sins shall be washed away in his blood; and when once you are espoused to Jesus, you are disjoined from sin, you are born again. You are now, as it were, espoused unto sin; sin is your husband, and you are too fond of it, but when once you are married to Christ, when you are born again, then you may be said to die unto sin; but till then, sin liveth in your affections; therefore, my sisters, give sin its death-wound in your hearts; you have been called by the Word time after time, and it has had no effect upon you; but when you are espoused unto the Lord Jesus Christ, then you will be brought to Him by His Spirit: You will then lay hold on Him by faith, His Spirit will draw you unto Himself; He will make you to be willing in the day of His power; He will give you faith in Him. Faith is the hand of the soul which layeth hold on Christ; therefore do not rest contented till you have this grace of faith wrought in you with power; do not be contented till you have received the Lord Jesus Christ.


Embrace Christ in the arms of your dearest love; then you love the Lord Jesus Christ with sincerity, when you love and esteem Him before father, mother, or all the delights and pleasures of this life, but if you do delight in any thing that this world can produce, more than in the Lord Jesus Christ, you have not true love to Him.


If you are espoused to Christ, you have acquaintance and converse with Him; you will endeavor to promote His interest, and advance His name in the world. When others are going to the polite and fashionable diversions of life, you will be laboring to bring honor to the Lord Jesus Christ; you will commend your Beloved above all other beloveds, and endeavor to bring others into love to Him. Can you, my dear sisters, who are now assembled to worship God, show such evidence of your espousals unto the Lord Jesus Christ? O! how joyful, how comfortable an estate is this! Surely this is a marriage worth seeking after; this is the only desirable marriage, and the Lord Jesus Christ is the only Lover that is worth seeking after.


Now, my dear sisters, I shall speak a few words to those of you who have not yet espoused yourselves to the Lord Jesus. It is a great sin, and surely you highly affront the Lord that bought you. It is likewise your folly to refuse and neglect the gracious proffers of being the spouse of Christ; hereby you forfeit all that love which He would bestow upon you; hereby you choose rags before robes, dross before gold, pebbles before jewels, guilt before a pardon, wounds before healing, defilement before cleansing, deformity before comeliness, trouble before peace, slavery before liberty, the service of the devil before the service of Christ. Hereby you choose dishonor before a crown, death before life, hell before heaven, eternal misery and torment before everlasting joy and glory. And need there a further evidence of your folly and madness, in refusing and neglecting Christ to be your spouse.


My dear sisters, I particularize all the advantages which you would obtain by being espoused to the Lord Jesus. This is your wisdom; they are foolish virgins who refuse; but you are the wise virgins who have accepted of the Lord Jesus Christ, and have disposed of yourselves to Him. You have made the wisest choice; and however the blind world may deem you fools, and despise you as being methodically mad, yet you are wise in the esteem of God, and will, one day, appear so in the esteem of them that now despise you. It is your glory that you are espoused unto the Lord Jesus; and therefore glory is your espousal; glory not in yourselves, but in the Lord who hath thus freely and graciously bestowed these favors upon you. It is your safety to be espoused unto the Lord Jesus Christ, He will protect and defend you even from sin and Satan, and eternal ruin; and therefore thus far you are safe; He hath a regard for you in times of danger from men, and these times of danger seem to be hastening; it is now arising as a black cloud no bigger than a man's hand, and by and by it will overspread the heavens, and when it is full it will burst; but if you are espoused to Christ, you are safe.


Now, my dear sisters, I shall conclude with an earnest exhortation to high and low, rich and poor, one with another, to be espoused unto Christ.


Let me speak unto you, young women, who are not yet espoused unto Christ, in an especial manner. It may be to satisfy your curiosity, has brought many of you here; though, perhaps, this may be the time when you shall be brought home to embrace the Lord Jesus, and be espoused to him. And O, that I may persuade you, by His Spirit, to espouse yourselves unto the Lord of life. And if you are but brought to close with the Lord Jesus Christ, I shall attain my end, and then both you and I shall rejoice that I preached this sermon to you.

Come virgins, will you give me leave to be a suitor unto you, not in my own name, but in the name of the Lord? O! that I may prevail with you for your affections, and persuade you to give them unto Christ! May I be instrumental of bringing your souls unto Christ! May I be instrumental to join you and Christ together this day!


Be not coy (bashful, shy; showing reluctance to make a definite commitment), as some of you possibly are in other loves: modesty and the virgin blush may very well come you, when proposals of another kind are made unto you; but here coyness is silly, and backwardness to accept of this motion, is shame. You have ten thousand times more reason to blush at the refusal of Christ for your beloved, than at the acceptance; when otherwise the devil and sin would ravish your virgin affections. Never had you a better motion made to you; never was such a match proffered to you as this, of being matched and espoused unto the Lord Jesus Christ.
Consider who the Lord Jesus is, whom you are invited to espouse yourselves unto; He is the best husband; there is none comparable to Jesus Christ.


Do you desire one that is great? He is of the highest dignity, He is the glory of heaven, the darling of eternity, admired by angels, dreaded by devils, and adored by saints. For you to be espoused to so great a king, what honor will you have by this espousal?


Do you desire one that is rich? None is comparable to Christ, the fullness of the earth belongs to Him. If you be espoused to Christ, you shall share in His unsearchable riches; you shall receive of His fullness, even grace for grace here, and you shall hereafter be admitted to glory, and shall live with this Jesus to all eternity.


Do you desire one that is wise? There is none comparable to Christ for wisdom. His knowledge is infinite, and His wisdom is correspondent thereto. And if you are espoused to Christ, He will guide and counsel you, and make you wise unto salvation.


Do you desire one that is potent, who may defend you against your enemies, and all the insults and reproaches of the Pharisees of this generation? There is none that can equal Christ in power; for the Lord Jesus Christ hath all power.


Do you desire one that is good? There is none like unto Christ in this regard; others may have some goodness, but it is imperfect; Christ's goodness is complete and perfect, He is full of goodness and in Him dwelleth no evil.


Do you desire one that is beautiful? His eyes are most sparkling, His looks and glances of love are ravishing, His smiles are most delightful and refreshing unto the soul: Christ is the most lovely person of all others in the world.


Do you desire one that can love you? None can love you like Christ: His love, my dear sisters, is incomprehensible; His love passeth all other loves: The love of the Lord Jesus is first, without beginning. His love is free without any motive. His love is great without any measure. His love is constant without any change, and His love is everlasting.


It was the love of the Lord Jesus Christ, my dear sisters, which brought Him down from heaven; and which veiled His divinity in a human soul and body; for he is God over all blessed for ever: It was love that made Him subject to hunger, thirst and sorrow; He was humbled, even unto death for you. For you who are espoused to Him, he underwent the painful, shameful and ignominious death of the cross. Can you, my sisters, hear this, and not be concerned to think that the blessed Jesus underwent all this for such sinful creatures as you and I are? And when out of love He had finished the redemption on earth, as to what was needful for satisfaction; it was his love that carried Him back to heaven, where He was before, that He might make application of what He had purchased, that there He might make intercession for those whom He had redeemed, and prepare a place for them, even glorious mansions with Himself, in the house not made with hands, which is eternal in the heavens. It is out of love that he sendeth such tokens to His people from heaven to earth, which He conveyeth through His ordinances, by His Spirit unto them. Surely then none is so deserving as the Lord Jesus Christ for you to espouse yourselves unto: if you be espoused unto Christ He is yours, all that He is, all that He hath; you shall have His heart, and share in the choicest expressions of His dearest love.


The Lord Jesus Christ, my dear sisters, doth beseech you to be His spouse. We ministers have a commission from the Lord Jesus Christ to invite you, in His name, unto this very thing; and Christ's invitations are real; general; frequent; earnest; free.


Christ's invitations of you, to be His spouse, are REAL: and as the thing is real, so you, my dear sisters, are really invited unto it. The Lord doth not mock and dissemble with you, as some pretending lovers, who dissemble love unto virgins, until they have gained their affections, and then falsely and basely relinquish them, never really intending either to espouse, or marry them. The Lord doth really intend the thing, in His invitations of you; He never cast off any whose consent and affections He had gained.

Again, Christ's invitations of you, my dear sisters, are GENERAL. All of you are invited, none of you are excluded; all sorts of sinners are invited; the most vile and abominable sinners, the most notorious transgressors are invited to be Christ's spouse, and shall be as welcome as any unto the embraces of His love.


Christ's invitations of you are FREQUENT: Jesus Christ calls on you frequently; He hath waited on you time after time, one year after another; and He doth now invite you, by me this day, to come unto Him. Do not slight this invitation, but receive it with joy and thankfulness. Come, I beseech you, to this Jesus, who thus, invites you to be His spouse.

Again, Christ's invitations to be His spouse are EARNEST: he doth call upon you, and not only call, but call earnestly too; yea, He useth many arguments with you; He will press you to come unto Him; He is loth (loathe) to take any denial from you. He knocks, and knocks hard at the door of your hearts for entertainment; and surely you will not deny the Lord of life and glory who died for you, and gave Himself for you: O my dear sisters, let this be the evening of your espousals to the Lord Jesus Christ.


He invites you FREELY to be His spouse, for all His invitations are free; He doth not expect a portion with you, as worldly lovers do; He wants nothing of you: nay, you must have nothing, if you be espoused unto the Lord Jesus Christ. If you be poor, miserable, blind, naked, Jesus Christ will supply all these defects of His own free mercy; He will fill and supply you with all things out of His treasury; He will make you meet for Himself; He will prepare you to live with Him for ever.


Consider, if you be once espoused unto Christ, if once joined in this relation, you shall never be separated from Him; neither men nor devils shall be able to separate you. None, none, shall disjoin you; and when death doth break all other bonds, it shall not break the conjugal bond between you and Christ, but bring you unto the most full and everlasting possession of your Beloved.


And what do you now say, young women? Shall I have a grant for My Master, or be sent away with a repulse and refusal; no, I cannot carry such a message to My Master; I hope better things of you, my sisters, and things which accompany salvation: methinks by this time ye should begin to have a mind unto Jesus Christ; you look as if you did desire; you hearken as if you would consent. What do you say? Shall the match be made up this evening between Christ and your souls? O that I may be instrumental in joining your hands, or rather your hearts together: O that I may be instrumental to tie that knot, which never can be unloosed.
Some marry in haste, and repent at leisure; but if you were once espoused unto Jesus Christ, you would never repent; nothing would grieve you, but that you were not joined to Him sooner; and you would not be disjoined again for all the world.


Shall this be the day of your espousals? Some of you have stayed a long time; and will you defer any longer? If you will not now, perhaps you may never have another opportunity; this may be the last time of asking; and therefore it is dangerous to refuse; some of you are very young, too young for other espousals; but none of you, by dear sisters, are too young to be espoused unto the Lord Jesus Christ: in other espousals, you must have the consent of your parents; but in this you are at your own disposal; you may give, and ought to match yourselves to Christ, whether parents do consent or not.


But if any of you should ask, what you must do that you may be espoused unto Christ? You must be sensible of your need of being espoused to Him, and until you are sensible of your need of the Lord Jesus Christ, you cannot be espoused to Him: You must have desires after this Jesus, and seek unto Him for an interest in Him, you must cry nightly unto him to espouse you to Himself; put off the filthiness of sin and all its defilements; and then, my sisters, put on the white raiment, and clean garments, which Christ hath provided for you, the robes of His righteousness; in these garments you shall be beautiful; and in these garments you shall be accepted: you must have the wedding garment on; you must put off all your own good works, for they will be but a means to keep you from Christ; no, you must come as not having your own righteousness, which is of the Law, but you must have the righteousness of Christ. Therefore, come unto the Lord Jesus Christ, and He will give it to you; He will not send you away without it. Receive Him upon His own terms, and He is yours forever: O devote yourselves to Him, soul and body, and all, to be His for ever; and Christ will be yours and then happy, happy you, that ever you were born! But if any of you die before this espousal unto the Lord Jesus Christ, then woe, woe, unto you, that ever you had a being in life; but if you go to Christ you shall be espoused unto the Lord Jesus: though your sins have been never so great, yea, the blood of Christ will cleanse you from them; the marriage covenant between Christ and your souls will dissolve all your sins; you will then be weary of your old ways, for all things will become new in your souls.

Now, my dear sisters, to those of you, who are already espoused unto the Lord Jesus Christ.

O admire, admire the rich and free grace, which hath brought you to this relation: Is not this an instance of the greatest of love, that you should be the spouse of the Lord Jesus Christ? You that had no beauty, you that had no comeliness, that was full of sin, that He should embrace such as you and I are; that we should be taken into the embrace of this Lord Jesus. O infinite condescending kindness! O amazing love! Reverence, reverence, I beseech you, this Lord Jesus Christ.


He is Your Lord, and you must reverence Him, love and be faithful unto Him, be subject to Him, and careful to please Him in every thing; endeavor to keep up a daily communion with Him; look, long and prepare for Christ's second appearance, when the nuptials between you shall be solemnized, and you live with Him in mansions of everlasting joys, where you shall love and live with this king of glory for ever and ever.

Indeed, my sisters, I am resolved, by the grace of God, to use all methods I can, to pluck you from Satan, that you may be as brands plucked from the burning fire: this shall be my method, which I hope will be the means of effectually having your precious and immortal souls.


And if I am the instrument of this, I shall rejoice, yea, and I will rejoice in spite of what men, or devils, can say or do to the contrary: and may the Lord Jesus Christ direct, and assist me at all times, to act what will be most for His glory, and the welfare of your souls: and may you all say a hearty Amen thereto.


"Now the Lord Jesus Christ, who is God over all, blessed for ever, assist and watch over you, keep you from all evil and sin here, and present you before His Father faultless at the great day of account! To this Lord Jesus Christ, the Father, and the blessed Spirit, three persons and but one eternal and invisible God, be ascribed all honor, power, glory, might, majesty and dominion, now, henceforth, and for ever more. Amen, Amen."


"The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost be with you all, to comfort under, and deliver you from tribulation; to preserve you to your respective place of abode; and when there, to keep you in His fear, that you may live to His glory; that to live may be Christ, and to die be your eternal gain; so that you may live with Him through eternal ages, and sing Hallelujahs to Him for ever. Amen."

http://www.jesus-is-lord.com/whitefie.htm

What is happening to mothers? Why are they devouring their young?

Can a woman forget her infant, so as not to have pity on the son of her womb?
Isaiah 49:15

A 20 year old student named Wanda came over to us at Appalachian State as we held a sign with a photo of an 11 week gestation child who had been dismembered by her mother through abortion. She pointed to the image and asked: "Is that the intestines? Is that the tongue?" We answered her that yes, indeed, she was identifying the parts of the poor dead baby's body correctly. We asked Wanda: "Does this bother you?" She smiled and said: "Not at all. I plan on having an abortion myself someday."  Denise is another college student we met at the University of North Carolina in Greensboro. She looked at the dismembered infant on our sign and said: "It's OUR choice. My boyfriend and I are having sex and if I get pregnant I'm having an abortion." Others women chimed in saying: "Me too!" Women have made signs and T-shirts that say "I Outside the killing place we have heard abortion-bound mothers say: "I don't want it and I'm going to kill it", "I'm going to have it sucked out and there's nothing you can do about it", "I'm not having this baby and I don't care that they have to kill it". Even the mothers who have to go through labor-and-delivery to kill their late term babies dismiss the suffering of their infants. These are women who can feel their babies moving inside them. Many of these ladies have seen their little ones on ultrasound and they know the gender of their child. When we tell these women that their baby will be delivered into the toilet, possibly alive like Baby Rowan (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfnNzIzvT-k), we have heard them say: "Yeah, well, that's too bad, but I'm not gonna have this kid", "So what? We all have to die sometime", & "I've done this before. I know all about it". It is always shocking to see them laughing and joking, kissing their lovers and even dancing on the stoop of the murder mill.

As we minister at abortuaries and on college campuses we are finding that more and more women appear to be sexually immoral and lack natural affection for their own children. We are meeting mothers who murder their babies through all nine months of pregnancy, caring nothing for the sons of their womb. Many of these women are accompanied by their OWN mothers, who have no affection for their very own grandbabies. While we are reminded that Jesus taught that evil thoughts, sexual immorality and murder come from within, proceeding out of the human heart (Matt 15:19;Mark 7:21) it is still chilling seeing and hearing how cruelly and dismissively women speak of innocent little babies. The women hurry into the killing places, having "a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil" (Pr 6:18) Truly the Spirit's words Jeremiah 17:9) are dead on: "The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who can know it?" 

We read of the progression of sin in the life of sinners in the first chapter of the book of Romans. The judgement of God reveals how low the human heart will take a woman. It will lead them to be what we see:

"Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful"
~Romans 1:31

Henry Morris explains: 
This phrase "without natural affection" is the translation of one Greek word, astergeo. It was a characteristic of many pagans of the ancient world. Significantly, it is also prophesied to be a characteristic of the humanistic pagans of the end-times. "In the last days . . . men shall be . . . without natural affection" (II Timothy 3:1-3). These are the only two occurrences of this word in the New Testament.
The word stergeo ("natural affection") is one of four Greek words for "love," but it is never used at all in the New Testament. It refers to the natural love that members of the same family have for each other. It is such a common characteristic of all peoples that there was apparently no occasion to refer to it at all -- except when it is not present, when people lose their instinctive love for their own parents and children, and thus are "without natural affection." One thinks of the widespread abortionism of these last days, as well as the modern breakdown of the family in general.
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Perhaps one of the most shocking, tragic and shameful aspects of the modern holocaust is the fact that over 80% of the fornicating women who murder their babies are professing "Christians"! These sexually immoral church ladies sin presumptuously, casually counting on the grace of the Lord for their promiscuous, bloody, violent acts. They say: "I've already asked Jesus to forgive me", "My God is a forgiving God", "I've worked it out with God". They kill their poor baby on Saturday and sing songs and take the Lord's supper at church on Sunday! They have no shame!  Beloved, "There is no fear of God in their eyes" (Romans 3:18)!

While we are obviously watching the fulfillment of this terrible prophecy of mothers having no natural affection for their children in our day, may the love that is shed abroad in our hearts through the new birth impel us to be like our Savior, who gave His life for us, His children. May the Spirit lead us to sacrifice our own interests for the benefit of the lost mothers and their poor, helpless infants. For "the fruit of the Spirit is love . . ." (Galatians 5:22), Amen? Pure and undefiled religion involves visiting the orphans in their affliction. How can say we truly love these abortion-imperiled orphans and have mercy on them, if we do nothing to save them from being slaughtered in the shadow of our homes and our church steeples? The Savior taught us what genuine love looked like and what religious apathy looked like, in the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10. Heaven help us to be true to Jesus and to our perishing neighbors and go to the killing places in the Name of the Lord of life and eternity. For the glory of Christ and the good of all the infants who are being led to slaughter on our watch, let us be like the Good Samaritan to the babies, and "Go and do likewise."

Love is often not what we have been led by our heart to believe...

Love is often not what we have been led by our heart to believe

by Patte Smith on Saturday, October 15, 2011 at 11:20am

I do not trust my own heart,
but I can trust it to Him whose Name is True and Faithful.
~ Meshell Sirearl

We should be wary of trusting our 'heart' since God makes it clear that it can and will lead us away from the love of the Truth.  Jeremiah 17:9 declares: "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?"  John Gill explains the evil of men's hearts in his thought-provoking commentary of this passage:

The heart is deceitful above all things. This is the source of idolatry and creature confidence of the Jews and the sins which were the cause of their ruin. Though what is here said is particularly applicable to their hearts, yet is in general true of the heart of every man; which is "deceitful", and deceiving; and puts a cheat upon the man himself. It deceives him with respect to sin. It proposes it to him under the notion of pleasure. It promises him a great deal in it, but does not yield... It is all fancy and imagination; a mere illusion and a dream; and what it gives is very short lived. It is but for a season, and ends in bitterness and death. It proposes it under the notion of profit. It promises him riches, by such and such sinful ways it suggests; but, when he has got them, he is the loser by them. These deceitful riches choke the Word, cause him to err from the faith, pierce him through with many sorrows, and endanger the loss of his soul. It promises honour and preferment in the world, but promotes him to shame. It promises him liberty, but brings him into bondage.It promises him impunity, peace, and security, when sudden destruction comes. It persuades him that he is a very knowing person, when he is blind and ignorant, and knows nothing as he ought to know; and only deceives himself; for there is no true knowledge but of God in Christ, and of a crucified Christ, and salvation by Him. (See 1 Corinthians 3:18) It deceives in the business of religion. It makes a man believe that he is a very holy and righteous man, and in a fair way for heaven, when he is far from that. It suggests to him that concupiscence or lust, or the inward workings of the mind, are not sin. It represents other sins as mere peccadillos, as little sins, and not to be regarded; and even puts the name of virtue on vices; profuseness and prodigality it calls liberality, and doing public good. Covetousness has the name of frugality and good economy. It buoys up with the purity of human nature and it puts the profane sinner upon trusting to the absolute mercy of God, and hides from him Jis justice and holiness. It puts others upon depending upon the outward acts of religion, or upon speculative notions, to the neglect of real godliness. (See James 1:22). The man of a deceitful heart, the hypocrite, tries to deceive God, but he cannot. He oftentimes deceives men, and always himself. So do the profane sinner, the self-righteous man, and the false teacher; who attempts to deceive the very elect, but cannot. Yea, a good man may be deceived by his own heart, of which Peter is a sad instance, Matthew 26:33.

The heart is deceitful to a very great degree, it is superlatively so; "above all". Yea, it is more deceitful to a man than the devil, the great deceiver himself; because it is nearer to a man, and can come at him, and work upon him, when Satan cannot. It is an abyss, a bottomless one; there is no fathoming of it; the depths of sin are in it. (See Psalm 64:6) Seeing it is so deceitful, it should not be trusted. A man should neither trust in his own heart, nor in another's (Proverbs 28:26). It is "desperately wicked". Everything in it is wicked. The thoughts of it are evil. Every imagination, and that only, and always (Genesis 6:5). The affections are inordinate. The mind and conscience are defiled. The understanding darkened, so dark as to call evil good, and good evil. The will is obstinate and perverse: all manner of sin and wickedness is in it; it is the cage of every unclean bird, and the hold of every foul spirit. All sin is forged and framed in it; and all manner of evil comes out of it (Revelation 18:1). Yea, it is wickedness itself (Psalm 5:9) even to desperation. It is "incurably wicked". It is so without the grace of God, and blood of Christ.

---


And so, when the world (and the worldly 'church') clamors for 'love', it most often is clamoring for tolerance of their heart of wickedness and profligacy, which is not love at all.

But God, in His mercy and kindness, promised and provided a NEW heart for His people:
And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them.
I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh...
And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you.
And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
Ezekiel 11:19;36:26

And, by His grace we are given the ability, through obedience to the truth and the new birth, to love, truly LOVE, from a pure heart!

Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love,
love one another fervently, earnestly, from a pure heart.
Being born again, not of corruptible seed,
but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever...
And this is the Word which by the gospel is preached unto you.
I Peter 1:22-23,25

Albert Barnes gives us a biblical definition of this kind of love:

The phrase "with a pure heart fervently," means:

(1) that it should be genuine love proceeding from a heart in which there is no guile or hypocrisy; and,
(2) that it should be intense affection, (ἐκτενῶς ektenōs;) not cold and formal, but ardent and strong.

Religion is always of the nature of obedience. It consists in yielding to what is true and right; in laying aside the feelings of opposition, and in allowing the mind to follow where truth and duty lead.
This would always take place when the truth is presented to the mind, if there were no voluntary resistance. If all people were ready to yield to the truth, they would become Christians. The only reason why all people do not love and serve God is that they refuse to yield to what they know to be true and right.

(3) the agency by which this was accomplished was that of the Holy Spirit. Truth is adapted in itself to a certain end or result, as seed is adapted to produce a harvest. But it will no more of itself produce its appropriate effects on the soul, than seed will produce a harvest without rains, and dews, and suns. In all cases, therefore, the proper effect of truth on the soul is to be traced to the influence of the Holy Spirit, as the germination of the seed in the earth is to the foreign cause that acts on it. No man was ever converted by the mere effect of truth without the agency of the Holy Spirit, any more than seed germinates when laid upon a hard rock.
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May the Lord help us to recognize the counterfeit of love, which is a worldly sentimentality from a fallen heart, disguised as love, but which is actually the OPPOSITE. Let us seek Jesus' gracious renewing, sanctifying power to love from a pure heart. May we learn to discern and develop genuine, unfeigned love from a heart made clean by the Blood of the Lamb and made fervent by the work of the Holy Spirit.

The Auschwitz Within

"Let us not stand by idly and let the enemy continue this holocaust...I am not a political man..I do not have a political ambition. I do not have a political agenda. I have a spiritual agenda. I want to see Jesus Christ gain His due. As a man of God I am responsible when I see someone weak and vulnerable...to risk my blood & my body to preserve them. That's the model of Jesus Christ...There are those that do not have a voice to even scream out & we as the Church do not have ears tuned to it. And the reason is because its been politicized in our generation. This is a spiritual issue, first and foremost, and not a political one.. I say we remove this ridiculous veil that stands in the way. Everyone knows it's life. When the cattle cars of Jews were being carted off to concentration camps and they were passing by that one church in Germany and they were reaching out through the slats, screaming "Help us!" the church turned up the pipe organ's volume to drown out the sounds. And I submit that is exactly what we are doing today... We have lost our heart...
The Auschwitz within...

~ Eric Ludy
http://www.ellerslie.com/Eric_Ludy_Sermons/Entries/2011/1/16_The_Auschwitz_Within.html


"The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly."
~ Jesus
John 10:10

Satan takes. God gives.

The mission of the devil: DEATH. The mission of the Savior: LIFE.

The mission of the Church is the mission of life and eternity.

Approximately 3,700 infants are being slaughtered by abortion in America. TODAY.

What's stopping us, Christians, the Body of Jesus Christ, from rescuing the children being led to slaughter?


1389.4 Holocaust A Auschwitz 30

We, too, are lepers...

"Behold, if the leprosy have covered all his flesh,
He shall pronounce him clean that hath the plague."
~ Leviticus 13:13

Strange enough this regulation appears, yet there was wisdom in it, for
the throwing out of the disease proved that the constitution was sound.
This morning it may be well for us to see the typical teaching of so
singular a rule. We, too, are lepers, and may read the law of the leper
as applicable to ourselves. When a man sees himself to be altogether
lost and ruined, covered all over with the defilement of sin, and no
part free from pollution; when he disclaims all righteousness of his
own, and pleads guilty before the Lord, then is he clean through the
blood of Jesus, and the grace of God. Hidden, unfelt, unconfessed
iniquity is the true leprosy, but when sin is seen and felt it has
received its death blow, and the Lord looks with eyes of mercy upon the
soul afflicted with it. Nothing is more deadly than self-righteousness,
or more hopeful than contrition. We must confess that we are
"nothing else but sin," for no confession short of this will be the whole truth,
and if the Holy Spirit be at work with us, convincing us of sin, there
will be no difficulty about making such an acknowledgment-it will
spring spontaneously from our lips. What comfort does the text afford
to those under a deep sense of sin! Sin mourned and confessed, however
black and foul, shall never shut a man out from the Lord Jesus.
Whosoever cometh unto Him, He will in no wise cast out. Though
dishonest as the thief, though unchaste as the woman who was a sinner,
though fierce as Saul of Tarsus, though cruel as Manasseh, though
rebellious as the prodigal, the Great Heart of love will look upon the
man who feels himself to have no soundness in him, and will pronounce
him clean, when he trusts in Jesus crucified.
Come to Him, then, poor, heavy-laden sinner,

Come needy, come guilty, come loathsome and bare;
You can't come too filthy - come just as you are.

~  Charles Spurgeon

The Ugly Truth about Planned Parenthood

FACT: Planned Parenthood is the number one provider of child-sacrifice (abortion) in the United States. FACT: Margaret Sanger is the FOUNDER of Planned Parenthood. Listen to the heart of this depraved woman:



"[Our objective is] unlimited sexual gratification without the burden of unwanted children..."   Margaret Sanger, Founder of Planned Parenthood

“Our failure to segregate morons who are increasing and multiplying … demonstrates our foolhardy and extravagant sentimentalism … [Philanthropists] encourage the healthier and more normal sections of the world to shoulder the burden of unthinking and indiscriminate fecundity of others; which brings with it, as I think the reader must agree, a dead weight of human waste. Instead of decreasing and aiming to eliminate the stocks that are most detrimental to the future of the race and the world, it tends to render them to a menacing degree dominant … We are paying for, and even submitting to, the dictates of an ever-increasing, unceasingly spawning class of human beings who never should have been born at all.”
  ~ Margaret Sanger. The Pivot of Civilization, 1922. Chapter on “The Cruelty of Charity,”

“The most merciful thing that a family does to one of its infant members is to kill it.”
 Margaret Sanger (editor). The Woman Rebel, Volume I, Number 1.

“Birth control must lead ultimately to a cleaner race.”
 Margaret Sanger. Woman, Morality, and Birth Control. New York: New York Publishing Company, 1922. Page 12.

“Eugenics is … the most adequate and thorough avenue to the solution of racial, political and social problems.Margaret Sanger. “
The Eugenic Value of Birth Control Propaganda.

"The marriage bed is the most degenerative influence in the social order..." 
~ Margaret Sanger

----------------------
FACT: GOD knows us even BEFORE He forms us in the womb (Jer 1:5)
FACT: Children are a GIFT OF THE LORD (Psalm 127:3)FACT: The Bible commands us to LOVE OUR NEIGHBOR.
FACT: The Word of God commands us to PROTECT OUR NEIGHBOR FROM HARM. (Sixth Commandment)


The Lord Jesus Christ taught "Love your neighbor as yourself" (Mt. 22:37-40), and Scripture declares "Deliver those who are drawn toward death, and hold back those stumbling to the slaughter" (Prov. 24:11-12)

Scripture declares "have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them" (Eph. 5:8-14) , and "show her (the bloody city) all her abominations" (Ez. 22:1-5),

Preborn children are "oppressed," Isaiah 1:17&58:6.
Preborn children are "weak and needy," Psalm 82:4.
Preborn children are "the least of these," Matthew 25:40.
Preborn children are "your neighbor," Luke 10:25-37.


Keepin' it real. Passin' it on. Won't you do the same?

Thou wilt light my candle

For Thou wilt light my candle.
Psalm 18:28


It may be that my soul sits in darkness; and if this be of a spiritual kind, no human power can bring me light. Blessed be God! He can enlighten my darkness, and at once light my candle. Even though I may be surrounded by a 'darkness which might be felt,' yet He can break the gloom, and immediately make it bright around me. The mercy is, that if He lights the candle none can blow it out, neither will it go out for lack of substance, nor burn out of itself through the lapse of hours. The lights which the Lord kindled in the beginning are shining still. The Lord's lamps may need trimming, but He does not put them out. Let me, then, like the nightingale, sing in the dark. Expectation shall furnish me with music, and hope shall pitch the tune. Soon I shall rejoice in a candle of God's lighting. I am dull and dreary just now. Perhaps it is the weather, or bodily weakness, or the surprise of a sudden trouble; but whatever has made the darkness, it is God alone who will bring the light. My eyes are unto Him alone. I shall soon have the candle of the Lord shining about me; and, further on in His own good time, I shall be where they need no candle, neither light of sun. Hallelujah!

C.H. Spurgeon



Let me, then, like the nightingale, sing in the dark.

Where are the David's?

David didn't have to pray about dealing with Goliath, that's what everybody else was standing around doing. Goliath needed to be addressed!
~ Kevin Shell

We need more Davids who are willing to stand up against the Goliath of child-killing in America. Daring men who are unafraid of the taunts of genocidal maniacs.

The Philistine said, “I defy the ranks of Israel this day. Give me a man, that we may fight together.” The King and all the people of Israel were dismayed and afraid. They were faithless cowards. Young David, the shepherd boy, comes along and wonders why everyone is standing around shaking in their boots. David asks: "For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?”And this young man did not walk, he RAN to battle the Giant! He took his staff in his hand and chose five smooth stones from the brook and put them in his shepherd’s pouch. His sling was in his hand, and he approached the Philistine.

And the Philistine moved forward and came near to David, with his shield-bearer in front of him. And when the Philistine looked and saw David, he disdained him, for he was but a youth... And the Philistine said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?” And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. The Philistine said to David, “Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the field.” Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the Name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head. And I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that the Lord saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the Lord’s, and He will give you into our hand.”

When the Philistine arose and came and drew near to meet David, David RAN QUICKLY TOWARD THE BATTLE LINE to meet the Philistine. And David put his hand in his bag and took out a stone and slung it and struck the Philistine on his forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell on his face to the ground.

So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and struck the Philistine and killed him. There was no sword in the hand of David. Then David ran and stood over the Philistine and took his sword and drew it out of its sheath and killed him and cut off his head with it. When the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled.
I Samuel 17:40-51

Where are the Davids? Are they sipping coffee at men's breakfasts? Are they sitting quietly listening to speaker after speaker at conferences? Are they attending retreats? Playing golf? Going to sporting events? How many goofy vanities are being organized through churches? When will the men rise up and make war against the enemies of God? When will they advance in the Name of the Lord?

Christians are to 'have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose & reprove them.' (Ephesians 5:11)


The devising of folly is sin,
and the scoffer is an abomination to mankind.

If you faint in the day of adversity,
your strength is small.
Rescue those who are being taken away to death;
hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter.
If you say, “Behold, we did not know this,”
does not He who weighs the heart perceive it?
Does not He who keeps watch over your soul know it,
and will He not repay man according to his work?
Proverbs 24:9-12



Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute, of all such as are appointed to destruction.. Proverbs 31:8Oh for mighty men of valor who have a vision from God to protect the women and children in their cities.

Raise them up, O Lord, we pray. Raise up warriors to fight the battle against abortion and rescue the orphans being led to slaughter. We trust You to accomplish the gathering of Your army but we wonder why so few men care about the slaughter of babies in their communities. We know that the battle belongs to You, Lord. Move, we pray, amongst Your people. Revive Thy men and deliver them from cowardice. Make them strong and courageous. For Your glory and the saving of many children alive. Amen.

Willing

Lord, I am willing
To receive what You give,
To lack what You withhold,
To relinquish what You take,
To suffer what You inflict,
To be what You require.