What does the pregnancy center in YOUR city tell their clients?

What does the pregnancy center in YOUR city tell their clients?

by Patte Smith on Wednesday, December 12, 2012 at 4:32pm ·

Many pregnancy center signs, brochures and websites look a lot like abortuary signs, brochures & websites. Why is this?
Do you support a local pregnancy center with donations?
How about your church? Is there anything openly Christian about the center?
Do you know how they counsel the abortion-vulnerable women?
Do you know what they say to the abortion-minded mothers who come to them?

Sally was a counselor at a "Christian" crisis pregnancy center for 3 years. I asked her a series of questions about the counseling method at the center. The answers are disturbing, to say the least.

Me: Do the counselors use the word 'option' to offer murdering a baby by abortion as one of her 'choices' (without explaining that murdering an innocent person is a SIN)?

Sally: YES!!! They are not allowed to refer to it as sin, murder, or killing etc.

Me: Do they tell the women that they are commanded by God to REPENT of their fornication & live a chaste life until such a time as they are covenanted to one man in marriage?

Sally: No.

Me: Do the counselors use the 6th commandment with mothers who are abortion-vulnerable/minded?

Sally: I used to but got reprimanded for it. They are not allowed to use verbiage such as "kill" or "murder" at all.
In fact, they aren't allowed anymore to call their baby a baby. They are now instructed to call it a "viable pregnancy."

Me: Do the counselors warn their clients from the Bible, telling them that God will cast all of the sexually immoral & murderers into the lake of fire? (Rev 21:8)

Sally: No, in fact they don't want you to refer to Hell either. I was called into the office for that.

Me: Do the counselors treat the clients as if they are 'basically good at heart', or do they explain to the women that their heart is desperately wicked?

Sally: No, they absolutely treat them as "good at heart", and if they say they are a "Christian" they automatically believe and treat them as if they are.

Me: Do they tell the women who are professing Christians to go to their pastors to confess their sin of fornication & murder?

Sally: Absolutely not.

Me: Does the center offer 'post-abortion support' even though Proverbs 28:17 forbids it?

Sally: Yes, and they want you to offer it to the abortion-minded girls when they tell you they still plan to abort! I refused.

Me: Do they make any attempt to share the gospel?

Sally: They don't want you to share the gospel on the first visit unless you feel "led". They prefer that you wait until the 2nd or 3rd visit, which is preposterous! They don't want references to "Christianity" used, they don't want the "baby" called a "baby", they don't want words like "murder" or "kill" or saying that God says you shouldn't murder. They don't want us telling the client they shouldn't have an abortion.
They don't want the Law of God used, which is perfect converting the soul.

Me: Would you say that the 'gospel' that they do 'share' is what is described in this article?http://www.9marks.org/journal/therapeutic-gospel 

Sally: Absolutely!

In Praise of Godly Singleness

There is difference also between a wife and a virgin.
The unmarried woman careth for the things of the Lord,
that she may be holy both in body and in spirit:
but she that is married careth for the things of the world,
how she may please her husband.
~ I Corinthians 7:34

The apostle here intends, undoubtedly, to intimate that there were dangers to personal piety in the married life, which would not occur in a state of celibacy; and that the unmarried female would have greater opportunities for devotion and usefulness than if married. And he intimates that the married female would be in danger of losing her zeal and marring her piety, by attention to her husband, and by a constant effort to please him. Some of the ways in which this might be done are the following:

(1) As in the former case 1 Corinthians 7:33, her affections might be transferred from God to the partner of her life.

(2) her time will be occupied by an attention to him [her husband] and to his will; and there would be danger that that attention would be allowed to interfere with her hours of secret retirement and communion with God.

(3) her time will be necessarily broken in upon by the cares of a family, and she should therefore guard with special vigilance, that she may redeem time for secret communion with God.

(4) the time which she before gave to benevolent objects, may now be given to please her husband. Before her marriage she may have been distinguished for zeal, and for active efforts in every plan of doing good; subsequently, she may lay aside this zeal, and withdraw from these plans, and be as little distinguished as others.

(5) her piety may be greatly injured by false notions of what should be done to please her husband. If he is a worldly and fashionable man, she may seek to please him by "gold, and pearls, and costly array." Instead of cultivating the ornament of "a meek and quiet spirit," her main wish may be to decorate her person, and render herself attractive by the adorning of her person rather than of her mind.

(6) if he is opposed to religion, or if he has lax opinions on the subject, or if he is sceptical and worldly, she will be in danger of relaxing in her views in regard to the strictness of Christianity, and of becoming conformed to his. She will insensibly become less strict in regard to Sunday, the Bible, the prayer meeting, the Sunday School, the plans of Christian benevolence, the doctrines of the gospel.

(7) to please him, she will be found in the frivilous circle, perhaps in the assembly room, or even the theater, or amidst companies of gaiety and amusement, and will forget that she is professedly devoted only to God. And,

(8) She is in danger, as the result of all this, of forsaking her old religious friends, the companions of purer, brighter days, the humble and devoted friends of Jesus; and of seeking society among the frivolous, the rich, the proud, the worldly. Her piety thus is injured; she becomes worldly and vain, and less and less like Christ; until heaven, perhaps, in mercy smites her idol, and he dies and leaves her again to the blessedness of single-hearted devotion to God. O! how many a Christian female has thus been injured by an unhappy marriage with a frivolous and worldly man! How often has the church occasion to mourn over piety that is dimmed, benevolence that is quenched, zeal that is extinguished by devotion to a frivolous and worldly husband! How often does humble piety weep over such a scene! How often does the cause of sacred charity sigh! How often is the Redeemer wounded in the house of His friends! And O how often does it become necessary for God to interpose, and to remove by death the object of the affection of His wandering child, and to clothe her in the habiliments of mourning, and to bathe her cheeks in tears, that "by the sadness of the countenance her heart may be made better." Who can tell how many a widow is made such from this cause; who can tell how much religion is injured by thus stealing away the affections from God?

~ Albert Barnes

And this I speak for your own profit;
not that I may cast a snare upon you,
but for that which is comely,
and that ye may attend upon the Lord
without distraction.~ I Corinthians 7:35

Brethren: Beware of fault-finding!

Guard your heart from the insidious temptation of fault-finding!

I have been struck by how much the enemy wants us to find flaws in our brethren,
bringing accusations,
dividing us
by having us "fail" each other's expectations.

Flee to Jesus for His holy help against this often besetting sin!
Do not allow the devil to get a foothold,
blackening your heart against your brothers & sisters in Christ.

Let us take heed to the instructions of the Lord:

For you were called to freedom, brothers.
Only do not use your freedom
as an opportunity for the flesh,
but through love serve one another.
For the whole law is fulfilled in one word:
“You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”


But if you bite and devour one another,
watch out that you are not consumed
by one another.


But I say, walk by the Spirit,
and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit,
and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh,
for these are opposed to each other...
Now the works of the flesh are evident:
...enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger,
rivalries, dissensions, divisions...
and things like these.
I warn you, as I warned you before,
that those who do such things
will not inherit the kingdom of God.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control...
And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.
Let us not become conceited, provoking one another,
envying one another.

~ Galatians 5:13-26

When prayers are not answered: WAIT patiently upon the Lord

When prayers are not answered: WAIT patiently upon the Lord

by Patte Smith on Sunday, December 9, 2012 at 7:42am ·

Therefore will the Lord wait
that He may be gracious unto you.

~ Isaiah 30:18

God often delays in answering prayer. We have several instances of this in sacred Scripture.
Jacob did not get the blessing from the angel until near the dawn of day-
he had to wrestle all night for it.
The poor woman of Syrophoenicia was answered not a word for a long while.
Paul besought the Lord thrice that "the thorn in the flesh" might be taken from him,
and he received no assurance that it should be taken away,
but instead thereof a promise that God's grace should be sufficient for him.
If thou hast been knocking at the gate of mercy, and hast received no answer,
shall I tell thee why the mighty Maker hath not opened the door and let thee in?
Our Father has reasons peculiar to Himself for thus keeping us waiting.
Sometimes it is to show His power and His sovereignty,
that men may know that Jehovah has a right to give or to withhold.
More frequently the delay is for our profit.
Thou art perhaps kept waiting in order that thy desires may be more fervent.
God knows that delay will quicken and increase desire,
and that if He keeps thee waiting thou wilt see thy necessity more clearly,
and wilt seek more earnestly;
and that thou wilt prize the mercy all the more for its long tarrying.
There may also be something wrong in thee which has need to be removed,
before the joy of the Lord is given.
Perhaps thy views of the Gospel plan are confused,
or thou mayest be placing some little reliance on thyself,
instead of trusting simply and entirely to the Lord Jesus.
Or,
God makes thee tarry awhile
that He may the more fully display the riches of His grace to thee at last.
Thy prayers are all filed in heaven,
and if not immediately answered
they are certainly not forgotten,
but in a little while shall be fulfilled to thy delight and satisfaction.
Let not despair make thee silent,
but continue instant in earnest supplication.

~ Charles H. Spurgeon

In spite of puzzles

We should not abandon faith in anything that God has taught us
merely because we cannot solve all the problems which it raises.

Our own intellectual competence
is not the test and measure of divine truth.
It is not for us to stop believing
because we lack understanding,
or to postpone believing
till we can get understanding,
but to believe
in order that we may understand;
as Augustine said,
“unless you believe, you will not understand.”
Faith first,
sight afterwards,
is God’s order,
not vice versa;
and the proof of the sincerity of our faith
is our willingness to have it so.
Therefore,
just as we should not hesitate to commit ourselves to faith in the Trinity
although we do not know how one God can be three Persons,
nor to faith in the incarnation,
although we do not know how the divine and human natures combined in the Person of Christ,
so we should not hesitate to commit ourselves to faith in Scripture
as the infallible Word of the infallible God,
even though we cannot solve all the puzzles,
nor reconcile all the apparent contradictions,
..in our present state of knowledge..
On all these articles of faith we have God’s positive assurance;
and that should be
enough.

 - J.I. Packer

Be not afraid, only believe.~ Jesus
Mark 5:36

Marks of the Modern False 'Therapeutic' Gospel

The devil has infiltrated much of the modern church
and ministries to such a great extent
that they are disseminating and promulgating
a false man-centered, therapeutic 'gospel',
which is no gospel at all.
In essence, the misguided church says to Jesus:
"We have corrected Your work".

I agree with David Powlison who writes:

"The church has shifted course.
It has decided to meet instinctual human cravings

rather than CALLING MEN to REPENTANCE.
It has decided to BEND its message to felt needs,
rather than calling forth the high, holy, and difficult freedom of faith working through love.
Jesus’ biblical example and message
are deemed too hard for weak souls,
and the church has decided to make it easy."

Powlison describes the 'therapeutic gospel' as:
"...structured to give people what they want,
not to change what they want.
It centers exclusively around the welfare of man
and temporal happiness.
It discards the glory of God in Christ.
It forfeits the narrow, difficult road
that brings deep human flourishing and eternal joy.
This therapeutic gospel accepts and covers
for human weaknesses,
seeking to ameliorate
the most obvious symptoms of distress.
It makes people FEEL better."

The modern, middle-class version of therapeutic gospel takes its its cues from this particular family of desires...

 * I want to feel loved for who I am,
   to be pitied for what I’ve gone through,
   to feel intimately understood,
   to be accepted unconditionally;

   * I want to experience a sense of personal significance
     & meaningfulness,
     to be successful in my career,
     to know my life matters,
     to have an impact;

* I want to gain self-esteem,
  to affirm that I am okay,
  to be able to assert my opinions and desires;

* I want to be entertained,
  to feel pleasure
  in the endless stream of performances
  that delight my eyes and tickle my ears;

* I want a sense of adventure, excitement, action,
  and passion
  so that I experience life as thrilling and moving.

These are today’s significant felt needs that the gospel is BENT to serve. Jesus and the church exist to make you feel loved, significant, validated, entertained, and charged up.

...today’s therapeutic gospel...bypasses the sinful human heart. You are not the AGENT of your deepest problems, but merely a SUFFERER and VICTIM of unmet needs. The offer of a cure skips over the sin-bearing Savior. Repentance from unbelief, willfulness, and wickedness is not the issue. Sinners are not called to a U-turn and to a new life that is life indeed. Such a gospel massages SELF-LOVE. There is nothing in its inner logic to make you love God and love any other person besides yourself. This therapeutic gospel may often mention the word "Jesus," but He has morphed into the meeter-of-your-needs, not the Savior from your sins.
It corrects Jesus’ work.
The therapeutic gospel unhinges the gospel.

Powlison contrasts the false therapeutic gospel with:

THE ONCE-FOR-ALL GOSPEL

The REAL gospel is good news of the Word made flesh,
the sin-bearing Savior,
the resurrected Lord of lords:
"I am the living One,
I was dead,
and behold,
I am alive forevermore"
~ Revelation 1:18

This Christ turns the world upside down.
The Holy Spirit rewires our sense of FELT need
as one prime effect of His inworking presence and power.
Because
THE FEAR OF THE LORD IS THE BEGINNING OF WISDOM,
we keenly feel a different set of needs
when God comes into view
and when we understand that we stand or fall in His gaze. My instinctual cravings are replaced...by the growing awareness of true, life-and-death needs:

 * I need mercy above all else:
   "Lord, have mercy upon me";
   "For Your name’s sake, pardon my iniquity
    for it is very great"

 * I want to learn WISDOM,
    and UNlearn willful self-preoccupation..

* I need to learn to love both God and neighbor:
  "The goal of our instruction is love
   that comes from a pure heart,
   a good conscience,
   and a sincere faith";

* I long for God’s Name to be honored,
  for His kingdom to come,
  for His will to be done on earth;

* I want Christ’s glory, lovingkindness,
   and goodness to be seen on earth,
   to fill the earth as obviously as water fills the ocean;

* I need God to change me from who I am by instinct,
  choice, and practice;

* I want Him to deliver me from my obsessive
  self-righteousness,
  to slay my lust for self-vindication,
  so that I feel my need for the mercies of Christ,
  so that I learn to treat others gently;

* I need God’s mighty and intimate help
   in order to will and to do
   those things that last unto eternal life,
   rather than squandering my life on vanities;

* I want to learn how to endure hardship and suffering
  in hope,
  having my faith simplified, deepened, and purified;

* I need to learn to worship, to delight, to trust,
  to give thanks, to cry out, to take refuge, to hope;

* I want the resurrection to eternal life:
  "We groan within ourselves,
  waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons,
  the redemption of our body";

* I need God Himself:
  "Show me Your glory";
  "Maranatha. Come, Lord Jesus."

Make it so, Father of mercies.
Make it so, Redeemer of all that is dark and broken.

Which gospel will you live? Which gospel will you preach? Which needs will you awaken and address in others? Which Christ will be your people’s Christ? Will it be the christette who massages felt need? Or the Christ who turns the world upside down and makes all things new?

The Grand Inquisitor [of Dostoevsky's 'The Brothers Karamazov')] was very tender-hearted towards human felt need—very sympathetic to the things that all people everywhere seek with all their heart, very sensitive to the difficulty of changing anyone. But he proved to be a monster in the end... It is ultimately cruel to leave people in their sins, captive to their instinctive desires, in despair, under curse. The current therapeutic gospel sounds tender-hearted at first. It is so sensitive to pressure points of ache and disappointment. But in the end it is cruel and Christ-less.

~ David Powlison

The Spirit warns the church!

 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.



 Unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write:

These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness,

the beginning of the creation of God;

I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot:

I would thou wert cold or hot.

So then because thou art lukewarm,

and neither cold nor hot,

I will spue thee out of my mouth.

Because thou sayest, 'I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing';

and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:

I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich;

and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and [that] the shame of thy nakedness do not appear;

and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.

As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten...

—Rev. 2:29;3:14-19

The condition described is one of mournful indifference and carelessness.
They were not cold, but they were not hot;
they were not infidels, yet they were not earnest believers;
they did not oppose the gospel, neither did they defend it;
they were not working mischief, neither were they doing any great good;
they were not disreputable in moral character, but they were not distinguished for holiness;
they were not irreligious, but they were not enthusiastic in piety nor eminent for zeal:
they were what the world calls "Moderates,"
they were of the Broad-church school,
they were neither bigots nor Puritans,
they were prudent and avoided fanaticism,
respectable and averse to excitement...

Alas, this state of lukewarmness is so congenial with human nature
that it is hard to fetch men from it.
Cold makes us shiver,
and great heat causes us pain,
but a tepid bath is comfort itself.
Such a temperature suits human nature.
The world is always at peace with a lukewarm church,
and such a church is always pleased with itself.
Not too worldly,—no! We have our limits!
There are certain amusements which of course a Christian must give up,
but we will go quite up to the line,
for why are we to be miserable?

... Compromise is the order of the day.
Thousands try to hold with the hare
and run with the hounds,
they are for God and Mammon,
Christ and Belial, truth and error,
and so are "neither hot nor cold."

Many a church has fallen into a condition of indifference,
and when it does so it generally becomes the haunt of worldly professors,
a refuge for people who want an easy religion,
which enables them to enjoy the pleasures of sin
and the honours of piety at the same time;
where things are free and easy,
where you are not expected to do much,
or give much,
or pray much,
or to be very religious;
where the minister is not so precise as the old school divines,
a more liberal people, of broad views,
free-thinking and free-acting,
where there is full tolerance for sin,
and no demand for vital godliness.
Such churches applaud cleverness in a preacher;
as for his doctrine, that is of small consequence,
and his love to Christ and zeal for souls are very secondary.
He is a clever fellow, and can speak well,
and that suffices.
This style of things is all too common,
yet we are expected to hold our tongue,
for the people are very respectable.
The Lord grant that we may be kept clear of such respectability!


Give me a dozen earnest spirits and put me down anywhere..
and by God's good help we will soon cause the wilderness and the solitary place to rejoice;
but give me the whole lot of you,
half-hearted,
undecided,
and unconcerned, what can I do?
You will only be a drag upon a man's zeal and earnestness.

Excerpted from
An Earnest Warning about Lukewarmness
by Charles Spurgeon
http://www.spurgeon.org/sermons/1185.htm