tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18953078609266115862024-03-13T10:34:36.591-07:00The Church for LifePulpit Ministry - Bible Exposition & Sanctity of Human Life Messages (See right side bar indexes)
Jim McGarveyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09559934703130337359noreply@blogger.comBlogger144125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1895307860926611586.post-87380225645607294382024-01-21T13:16:00.000-08:002024-01-21T13:50:49.646-08:00 <div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"> <span style="font-family: arial;">Why March for Life?</span> </span> </div><div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifJ_W5l6tBBy83sREApR4tk16UtkX71q0AikLSaafEYAfuTeRJjA1Ao9uQPw_CfGMfH21VUVWuwgZQzzqOJDxfyOjj3neWD7S2jYdo-OSQHGZnQ3L_epPE8mfz8htuq74a-nW6e8k4HSN3jwbhtNKnmB8kD4QSED9FeQ4AyWI95UngXxboSF6V5EoO3ieN/s2016/Banner%20PCFL%20March%20for%20Life%20lg%201-20-24.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1512" data-original-width="2016" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifJ_W5l6tBBy83sREApR4tk16UtkX71q0AikLSaafEYAfuTeRJjA1Ao9uQPw_CfGMfH21VUVWuwgZQzzqOJDxfyOjj3neWD7S2jYdo-OSQHGZnQ3L_epPE8mfz8htuq74a-nW6e8k4HSN3jwbhtNKnmB8kD4QSED9FeQ4AyWI95UngXxboSF6V5EoO3ieN/s320/Banner%20PCFL%20March%20for%20Life%20lg%201-20-24.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">(I gave </span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">this</span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"> message on January 20, 2024 at the Polk County March for Life Lakeland Florida City Hall.)</span></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">Abortion was legalized in America by the U.S. Supreme Court on January 22, 1973. That ruling was finally overturned over 49 years later, on June 24, 2022, allowing the battle for life to continue in each of the 50 states. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: #0f243e; font-size: 14pt;">As followers of Jesus Christ, we must be willing to address the subject of abortion from the authority of Scripture but do so </span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: #0f243e; font-size: 14pt; text-align: left;">in the context of two very important Biblical truths. Let me illustrate it this way. There are two things a train must have to safely arrive at its destination. Two tracks. Two tracks that run parallel to each other all the way to its destination. A train will go nowhere without riding on both tracks at the same time all the way to the end of the rail line.</span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: #0f243e; font-size: 14pt; text-align: left;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: #0f243e; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: #0f243e; font-size: 14pt;">In the same way we must communicate what God says about abortion in the context of God's grace and God's truth. You see, theologically grace and truth always go together. In fact, they are theologically inseparable. They are like the two sides of the same coin. You cannot have one without the other. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: #0f243e; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: #0f243e; font-size: 14pt;">And here's why this is important. Pastor Randy Alcorn has written, "Grace without truth deceives people, Truth without grace, crushes people." We will never understand God's grace apart from God's truth. But God's truth will always lead us to God's grace. If your life has been touched by abortion, please know that there is forgiveness, healing and restoration in the Gospel of truth and grace found in Jesus Christ. </span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">Please remember this truth as we consider this subject. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">It is estimated that over 65 million unborn children have lost their lives in America to abortion since it was legalized in1973. </span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">In his pamphlet <i>Field Manual for Abortion Ministry ,</i>Pastor Rusty Lee Thomas poses these two penetrating questions, "What does Christianity look like in a nation that murders its own children? Has the church failed to be prolife or have we failed to be Christian when it comes to rescuing our neighbors scheduled to be dismembered?" Troubling questions, aren’t they? <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">Why do we March for Life? I want to begin by looking at the sanctity of the unborn. What value does God place on human life? To answer that question, we begin with creation. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">Man was created by God, in His image and likeness. Genesis 1:17, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created them.” Genesis 2:7 (ESV) "...then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.” <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">It should be clear from the Biblical creation account that man is not the product of a random, meaningless evolutionary process over billions of years. Man is not the result of a cosmic accident. God intentionally created man with capacities reflective of Himself. In other words, in His image. As God said in Isaiah 43:7, man was “created for my glory.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">Pediatrician, Dr. </span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">John Rendle-Short, M.D. in his book, <i>Man: The Image of God, </i>points out </span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">Godlike qualities man shares with God.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><b><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">Languag</span></b><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">e – humans can communicate. My dog Maggie could bark, whine, and growl, but I never heard her utter a single word, no less speak a sentence.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><b><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">Intelligence</span></b><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> – man can think. Not only is he a rational being, but he can also think in the abstract. For example, he can compute complex mathematical, chemical and engineering formulas. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><b><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">Creativity </span></b><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">– man’s intelligence allows him to create sophisticated products. He can send a man to the moon and back. He can speak instantly around the world from a cell phone or on the internet.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><b><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">Love</span></b><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> – Man is a social creature. He can live in relationships, living in fellowship and community, with the ability to love and be loved; to live in committed lifelong relationships, like marriage.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><b><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">Holiness </span></b><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">- man has a moral conscience with the ability to tell right from wrong. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><b><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">Immortality</span></b><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> – man is an eternal being who will live forever. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><b><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">Freedom</span></b><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> – man can make choices. All of this “because he is made in the image of God."<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">Notice the Personhood of the unborn. This is what God said to Jeremiah, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.(” Jeremiah 1:5) </span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">Before there was any physical manifestation of Jeremiah in the womb of his mother, God knew Him.</span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">Listen to this incredible incident. These words were spoken by Elizabeth who was six months pregnant with John the Baptist, when Mary, just days pregnant with Jesus Christ, visited her. Luke 1:41-44 , "When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she exclaimed: 'Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.’"<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">Do you realize what took place? The text says that John the Baptist, leaped for joy in his mother's womb when he came into the presence of Jesus Christ, God incarnate, who was but days old in the womb of his mother Mary. This is the first recorded worship of the Messiah and it took place in the womb. I call it intra-uterine worship. Do you see the personhood of the unborn in these narratives? <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">You see, the Biblical evidence is clear. The unborn are created by God and for God. They are created in His image and likeness. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">They are recognized by God as distinct and unique persons even in the womb from the moment of conception, if not before. Life begins at conception. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">The scientific evidence leads us to the same conclusion. Douglas Erlandson writes, “When the fertilized egg (or zygote) is first formed, it already possesses its <i>full</i> complement of DNA or genetic information. That information never changes. A person’s sex, blood type hair and skin color, and future height are all determined in that first cell. From that moment on, unless its life is terminated, it will develop until it becomes an adult human being.” <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">Professor Micheline Matthews-Roth, M.D. of Harvard University Medical School, agrees writing, “…It is scientifically correct to say that an individual human life begins at conception…”.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">Who is behind abortion? Who is the driving force behind this holocaust? The Biblical evidence would indicate that abortion is a Satanic enterprise. The stage was set thousands of years ago as recorded in Genesis 3:15 (NIV). After Satan deceived Adam and Eve and man was plunged into sin, God said to Satan, “...I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel." <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">And with that the epoch struggle - between good and evil began. And Satan has been involved in an unrelenting attempt to kill the offspring of Eve ever since. Abortion is a Satanic enterprise! J</span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">esus, Himself, said as much. </span><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">"The devil…was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies." John 8:44 (NIV). H</span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">ere Jesus identifies two roles of Satan: A murderer from the beginning and a liar and the father of lies. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">Has he been successful? </span><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">The World Health Organization reports that there are roughly 73 million abortions worldwide each year. </span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">The Florida Agency for Health Care Administration reports that last year, 2023, there were 78,250 abortions in Florida, 2,152 of those here in Polk County. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">John Powell has written, </span><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">“In the United States it is statistically confirmed that the most dangerous place for anyone to be, with regard to the preservation of one’s life, is in the womb of one’s mother.”</span><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> (<i>Abortion: The Silent Holocaust</i>) <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">The words of Jesus regarding Satan according to John 10:10, "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy." The Devil has been very successful in carrying out his agenda. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">Satan is also a liar and the father of lies. Deception proliferates in the abortion industry. In fact, one can accurately say that deception </span><b><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">ch</span></b><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">aracterizes the abortion industry. N</span><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">otice that deception involves telling lies. These were the words of an abortion counselor: "Although the test is positive, you shouldn't consider yourself pregnant,” she explained, "It's really just cells <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">dividing at this point. We can take care of the problem quickly and easily, and you'll never have to think about it again.” She made four statements. Each statement was a lie. This is the mantra of the abortion industry. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">Deception leads to moral schizophrenia. Pastor Randy Alcorn has noted, "In America it is illegal to<b> </b>harm your pre-born child, but it is perfectly legal to<b> </b>kill him.” <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">The Devil is “a murderer" "a liar and father of all lies.” These two “attributes” expose him as the<b> </b>architect of abortion.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">The ancient origin of child killing is traced back to the worship of the Ammonite fertility god Molech whose worship included child sacrifice. King Solomon built the first high place in Israel for the worship of Molech. King Ahaz and King Manasseh sacrificed their own children as they led their nation in the worship of this demon god Molech. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">Ezekiel 16:20-21 records God's response to Israel’s involvement in the sacrifice of their children to Moloch, “And you took your sons and daughters whom you bore to me and sacrificed them as food to the idols…You slaughtered my children and sacrificed them to the idols.” <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">Notice the parallels with abortion. In Molech worship a child was sacrificed to gain Molech's favor. In other words, the parents sacrificed something of value, their child, to gain something at a given point in time they considered to be of even greater value. For example, seeking Molech’s favor for a good harvest, victory in battle, or financial well-being. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">Notice the similarity with abortion. In abortion the mother sacrifices the life of her child for something which at that time is of greater value to her than the child. Her education, avoiding personal shame, finances, personal convenience, her career, birth control. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">Sacrifice for what? Pastor John Piper, “Abortion in America is not done consciously with any desire to get blessing from a deity. But it is done to gain something 'better' than the baby—he life of a child is being sacrificed for something. What that ‘something’ is defines the barbarity of our culture.” <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">Do you see the deception? The Scriptures identify the demonic nature of this child sacrifice in Psalm 106:37-38."They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons. They shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, and the land was desecrated by their blood."<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">There are distinct parallels between Molech worship and modern abortion.<b> </b>Abortion is the sacrifice of the unborn.” They sacrificed their sons and their daughters.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">The unborn are family – our sons & daughters. They sacrificed their sons and their daughters.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">Abortion sheds innocent blood. “They shed innocent blood.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">The innocent blood of the aborted is sacrificed to demons. “They sacrificed…to demons.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">Eric Holmberg and Jay Rogers, in their work, <i>Massacre of Innocence, </i>summarize, “The spiritual heritage of the Moabites and the Ammonites is passed down to our own day through abortion. Today the church is fighting against those same spiritual forces for the very survival of our nation.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">Lest you think that abortion and the demonic is just ancient history, let me bring you up to date. Modern feminism, witchcraft & abortion. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">In December of 1985, an article, entitled, "Feminist Spiritualism and Abortion" appeared in the feminist <i>Ms. Magazine</i>, and I emphasize written by feminists about themselves. "The feminist spirituality movement began to emerge in the mid-1970s and has become one of the largest sub-movements within feminism...to the women in feminist spirituality, witchcraft had even a more fundamental meaning. It is a woman's religion, vilified by patriarchal Christianity, and now, finally, reclaimed.” <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">Eric Holmberg and Jay Rogers write this about what was in the article, “Much space was given to goddess worship or adulation of the various demons associated with child sacrifice (including Isis and Aphrodite).” (<i>Massacre<b> </b>of Innocence</i>) <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">Listen to these astounding words. “It’s rare for a woman to choose abortion because in some way she dislikes the fetus. She sacrifices it for the sake of something she judges at this moment to be more important, whether it be her existing children… or her own physical, economic, or psychological survival or the fate of the planet." <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">Do you remember what I just shared, comparing child sacrifice to Molech and abortion? Psychologist Dr. Ginnette Paris wrote those words in her book, <i>The Sacrament of Abortion. </i>She continues,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">“When abortion is necessary, not only should there be no shame but there should be a new consensus that to have a child who cannot adequately be cared for is shameful… It is not immoral to choose abortion; it is simply another kind of morality, a pagan one.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">Frank Pavone, commenting on her book writes, “The fact that some defend abortion as a sacred act should alert us to the depth of the spiritual warfare that is going on. Abortion has never been merely or even primarily a political issue. It is a <i>false religion</i>."<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">He writes of a former abortion clinic security guard who "...after being converted, admitted why he was angry at pro-life sidewalk counselors ‘You were coming to protest in front of our church. That clinic was where we conducted our worship.’”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">I hope you have seen some of the reasons that abortion is first and foremost a gospel issue! There are two conclusions I have been sharing with the Church for well over a decade.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">The Body of Christ, the church, is the <b><i>only </i></b>organism(institution) spiritually equipped to engage the Satanic forces behind abortion. Therefore, the Church <b><i>must take the lead</i> </b>in the effort to end abortion. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">When the church sees abortion as a Gospel issue, we will win the battle for life! Christ has already won the victory! <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">“For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority.” (Colossians 2:9-10) And in verse 15, the Apostle Paul continues, “...having disarmed the powers and authorities, he [God]made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross." <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">Pastor John</span><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> Ensor has written, "The commands of Scripture exist that we might be compelled to do what does not come naturally." </span><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;">(</span><i><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">Innocent Blood - Challenging the Powers of Death With the Gospel of Life</span></i><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">In Luke chapter ten Jesus tells the story of a man on his way to Jericho from Jerusalem who was robbed and beaten and left half dead alongside the road. Three different individuals had the opportunity to come to his rescue, in all likelihood save his life. Two of the three did not respond to the needs of the man bleeding by the side of the road. Those two were the church leaders of their day, a priest and a Levite, responsible for the spiritual care of their nation.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">And Jesus points out that not only did they fail to respond, but they "passed by on the other side." In other words, they consciously and deliberately distanced themselves from the needs of the man dying by the side of the road. Jesus then pointed out that the one who proved to be the neighbor to the dying man was the one who showed mercy to the badly beaten traveler. Jesus then said, "Go and do likewise."<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">John Ensor, in his book <i>Innocent Blood</i>, defines </span><b><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">"</span></b><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">Samaritan compassion"<b> </b>this way, "Doing right in the sight of the Lord means acting to stop the shedding of innocent blood. The only person in Jesus’ parable who is pro-life according to the demands of love is the Samaritan. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in 0in 16pt;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">Only he was willing to make the nearly dead man’s problem his own. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in 0in 16pt;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">Only he was willing to see the victim’s suffering as his own. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in 0in 16pt;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">Only he was willing to act according to what <i>he </i>would cry out for if their positions had been reversed."</span><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.847)" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in 0in 16pt;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">May I suggest to you that according to Jesus' parable, our salvation has a moral imperative built into it with regards to the needs of those around us, our neighbors. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in 0in 16pt;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">Last year 2,152 unborn children lost their lives to abortion here in Polk County. That is an average of almost six children every day. They were our neighbors! Children will die unless someone intervenes on their behalf. In other words, we have an opportunity to obey Jesus’ command and “go and do likewise."<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in 0in 16pt;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">Again, Pastor John Ensor, "Loving my neighbor will occasionally arrest me and maybe even require me to help prevent someone from being murdered."<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in 0in 16pt;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">The writer of Proverbs said something very similar. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in 0in 16pt;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">“Rescue those who are unjustly sentenced to death; Don’t stand back and let them die. Don’t try to avoid responsibility by saying you didn’t know about it." (Proverbs 24:10-12) <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in 0in 16pt;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">In January of 2011, Flip Benham of Operation Save America, on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, issued the following statement in a press release,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in 0in 16pt;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">"...the time is now, for the Church to rise up and not wait for political parties, or the president, or Congress, or the Supreme Court to take care of the issue. It is our responsibility. The gates of hell will not prevail against the Church of Jesus Christ. Abortion will come to an end when the church of Jesus Christ makes up her mind it will come to an end not a second sooner. The responsibility for ending abortion rests squarely upon the shoulders of the Church of Jesus Christ."</span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in 0in 16pt;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">I </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">think he's right. </span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in 0in 16pt;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">© James P McGarvey , All Rights Reserved<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in 0in 16pt;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiETO8dnY4e6GVxHz8EQuABp2g-ciIgT2g8zFVi_K3f7WqT69GNQsKnZ5d3Vsf9HBO4I4J3a_7jEsxIWRrI355plrwZgeAMmC25OiS8woYs3CpxOsgHY_WA1L9WG4fZ7F93OVnbzJVRHOSSv4jJ6rCFikBm_iYz658nBasFmoX8IFoYvzgaj2pMjFNgXCJc/s640/JPM%20speaking%20PCFL%20March%20for%20Life%201-20-24.JPEG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="480" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiETO8dnY4e6GVxHz8EQuABp2g-ciIgT2g8zFVi_K3f7WqT69GNQsKnZ5d3Vsf9HBO4I4J3a_7jEsxIWRrI355plrwZgeAMmC25OiS8woYs3CpxOsgHY_WA1L9WG4fZ7F93OVnbzJVRHOSSv4jJ6rCFikBm_iYz658nBasFmoX8IFoYvzgaj2pMjFNgXCJc/s320/JPM%20speaking%20PCFL%20March%20for%20Life%201-20-24.JPEG" width="240" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in 0in 16pt;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in 0in 16pt;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in 0in 16pt;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> <br /><br /> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in 0in 16pt;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in 0in 16pt;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.25in;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in 0in 16pt 0.25in;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in 0in 16pt 0.25in;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in 0in 16pt 0.25in;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in 0in 16pt;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in 0in 16pt;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in 0in 16pt;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in 0in 16pt;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in 0in 16pt;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in 0in 16pt;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in 0in 16pt;"><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in 0in 16pt;"><b><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></b></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in 0in 16pt;"><b><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></b></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in 0in 16pt;"><b><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></b></p><p class="FreeFormA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in 0in 16pt;"><b><span color="windowtext" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p></div>Jim McGarveyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09559934703130337359noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1895307860926611586.post-86944403874047666952023-11-27T13:03:00.000-08:002024-01-06T11:24:52.246-08:00Sanctity of Human Life Resources - Rev. Jim McGarvey<div style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">I have listed below some of the messages I have written that might be of value in writing the statement:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<a href="http://churchforlife.blogspot.com/2019/02/abortion-devil-church-exposing.html" style="color: purple;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Abortion, the Devil & the Church - Exposing the Spiritual Forces Behind Abortion</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">This message is foundational to forming a Biblical doctrine of the sanctity of human life and the necessity of a gospel-centered response. The message covers creation, image of God and personhood. It acknowledges the Biblical evidence that abortion is a satanic enterprise (John 8:44; 10:10). It looks at modern feminism, </span><span style="font-family: calibri;">witchcraft and abortion and unmasks a "woman's right to choose" and "reproductive rights" (Genesis 3:1-5). It calls for the church to respond in compassionate ministry to the post-abortive and those at risk for abortion.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">A summary statement:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: "calibri";">"The Body of Christ, the Church, is the only organism (institution) spiritual equipped to engage the satanic forces behind abortion, therefore the church must take the lead in the efforts to end abortion"<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">(Ephesians 6:12; 1 John 3:8, Proverbs 24:10-12)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<a href="http://churchforlife.blogspot.com/2017/02/created-in-image-of-god-genesis-126-28.html" style="color: purple;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Created in the Image of God</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">An in depth look at the Biblical doctrine - man created in the image and likeness of God.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<a href="http://churchforlife.blogspot.com/2015/01/how-should-i-respond-to-shedding-of.html" style="color: purple;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">How Should I Respond to the Shedding of Innocent Blood?</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Abortion and the Biblical doctrine of blood guilt. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<a href="https://churchforlife.blogspot.com/2018/05/how-valuable-are-unborn-to-god.html" style="color: purple;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">How Valuable Are the Unborn To God?</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">The two worldviews underlying the two sides of the abortion debate. Romans 1:25<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<a href="http://churchforlife.blogspot.com/2015/05/the-preborn-scientific-philosophical.html" style="color: purple;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">The Preborn - The Scientific, Philosophical & Metaphysical Case For Life</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">The case for life presented to a group of mostly medical students at Nova Southeastern University.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Additional information about my ministry:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<a href="https://churchforlife.blogspot.com/2017/11/jim-mcgarvey-biography-and-ministry.html" style="color: purple;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Jim McGarvey - Biography & Ministry Credentials</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<a href="https://churchforlife.blogspot.com/2017/11/sanctity-of-human-life-ministry-record.html" style="color: purple;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Sanctity of Human Life Ministry Record</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Note: All of the above message and information hyperlinks are available at my website: <a href="http://churchforlife.blogspot.com/" style="color: purple;">http://churchforlife.blogspot.com</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Additional recommended resources:<i><o:p></o:p></i></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Innocent Blood - Challenging the Powers of Death With the Gospel of Life</span></i><span style="font-family: "calibri";">, John Ensor, Cruciform Press<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Answering The Call - Saving innocent lives, One Woman at a Time, </span></i><span style="font-family: "calibri";">John Ensor, Focus on the Family<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span style="font-family: "calibri";">The Case for Life - Equipping Christians to Engage the Culture</span></i><span style="font-family: "calibri";">, Scott Klusendorf, Crossway<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">DVD available on YouTube -</span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL043C89CDC997A8B2" style="color: purple;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">The Abortion Matrix - Defeating Child Sacrifice And The Culture Of Death</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Google <b>"Study of Women Who Have Had an Abortion and Their Views on Church"</b> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"> for free .pdf download of a Lifeway Research/Care Net survey - <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<a href="http://churchforlife.blogspot.com/2015/11/pro-life-websites-and-bibliography.html" style="color: purple;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Pro-Life Websites and Bibliography</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";">- resources I have complied available online<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />Jim McGarveyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09559934703130337359noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1895307860926611586.post-13834010457280290272023-09-12T11:30:00.001-07:002023-09-12T11:36:57.883-07:00<p> <b style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 22pt;">The Church for Life</span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> </span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: 18pt;">Forming a Gospel-centered Response to Abortion</span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> </span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: 14pt;">The challenge we face</span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">82,581 abortions in Florida (2022) 51,253 in 2023 (as of 9-2-23)</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><a href="http://ahca.myflorida.com/MCHQ/Central_Services/Training_Support/Reports.shtml" style="color: #954f72;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">State of Florida Abortion Data - Induced Terminations of Pregnancy [ITOP] Reports</span></a><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> 44 million abortions world-wide in 2022 </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><a href="https://www.worldometers.info/" style="color: #954f72;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">worldometers.info</span></a><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> </span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">"What does Christianity look like in a nation that murders its own children?"<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">~ Pastor Rusty Lee Thomas -<span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><a href="http://www.operationsaveamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Field-Manual-for-Abortion-Ministry.pdf" style="color: #954f72;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Rusty Thomas, <i>Field Manual for Abortion Ministry</i> </span></a><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Sharing the truth of the sanctity of human life <o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><i>76% of women indicate local churches had no influence on their decision to terminate their pregnancy<o:p></o:p></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><a href="https://www.slideshare.net/CareNetHQ/lifeway-research-on-abortion-in-church" style="color: #954f72;">Lifeway Research on Abortion in Church</a><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><i><span style="font-size: 8pt;"> </span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Messages available online:<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></b><b><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><b><i>Abortion the Devil & the Church-Exposing the Spiritual Forces Behind Abortion</i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><i> - </i>John 8:44; 10:10; Psalm 106:37-38<i> -</i> The spiritual battle behind abortion </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">– Read, watch of listen <a href="http://churchforlife.blogspot.com/2019/02/abortion-devil-church-exposing.html" style="color: #954f72;">Here</a><span class="MsoHyperlink" style="color: #0563c1; text-decoration: underline;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">This message is foundational to forming a Biblical doctrine of the sanctity of human life and the necessity of a Gospel-centered response. The message covers creation, image of God and personhood. It acknowledges the Biblical evidence that abortion is a satanic enterprise (John 8:44; 10:10). It looks at modern feminism, witchcraft and abortion and unmasks a "woman's right to choose" and "reproductive rights" (Genesis 3:1-5). It calls for the church to respond in a compassionate Gospel centered ministry to the post-abortive and those at risk for abortion.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">A summary statement:<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">"The Body of Christ, the Church, is the only organism (institution) spiritual equipped to engage the satanic forces behind abortion, therefore the church must take the lead in the efforts to end abortion" (Ephesians 6:12; 1 John 3:8, Proverbs 24:10-12)</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0in 9pt;"><u><span style="font-size: 8pt;"> </span></u></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><b><i>Created in the Image of God </i></b><i>- </i><span style="color: #333333;">Genesis 1:26-28; 2:7; Romans 1:18-25<b> </b></span>- Read or listen<b><span style="color: #333333;"> </span></b><a href="http://churchforlife.blogspot.com/2017/02/created-in-image-of-god-genesis-126-28.html" style="color: #954f72;">Here</a><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><b><i>The Sanctity of the Unborn </i></b>- Genesis 1:26-28; Psalm 139:13-16<i><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> - </span></i>The Biblical case for life<b><i> </i></b>(creation, image of God, dominion, personhood) <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"> Read or watch<span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span><a href="http://churchforlife.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-sanctity-of-unborn.html" style="color: #954f72;">Here</a><span class="MsoHyperlink" style="color: #0563c1; text-decoration: underline;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><b><i> </i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><b><i>How Should I Respond to the Shedding of Innocent Blood?</i></b><i> - </i>Genesis 3:15; 4:8-10; 9:5-6; Deuteronomy 21:1-9 - Abortion and the doctrine of blood guilt <i>- </i>Read <a href="http://churchforlife.blogspot.com/2015/01/how-should-i-respond-to-shedding-of.html" style="color: #954f72;">Here</a></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><b><i>How Valuable Are the Unborn to God?</i></b><i> - </i>Romans 1:25 - The clash of two worldviews behind the abortion debate -<i> </i>Read <a href="https://churchforlife.blogspot.com/2018/05/how-valuable-are-unborn-to-god.html" style="color: #954f72;">Here</a><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><b><i> </i></b></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><b><i>The Scientific, Philosophical & Metaphysical Case for Life</i></b><i> - Pro</i>-Life Apologetics - defending life in a secular culture - Read <a href="http://churchforlife.blogspot.com/2016/02/the-scientific-philosophical.html" style="color: #954f72;">Here</a><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Ministering forgiveness, healing and hope to the post-abortive</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><i><span style="font-size: 8pt;"> </span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><i>52% of churchgoers who have had an abortion have no one at church who knows they have had a pregnancy terminated <o:p></o:p></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><a href="https://www.slideshare.net/CareNetHQ/lifeway-research-on-abortion-in-church" style="color: #954f72;">Lifeway Research on Abortion in Church</a><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><i><span style="font-size: 8pt;"> </span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><i>35% of Christian women who have had an abortion indicate they currently attend church once a week or more <o:p></o:p></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><a href="https://www.slideshare.net/CareNetHQ/lifeway-research-on-abortion-in-church" style="color: #954f72;">Lifeway Research on Abortion in Church</a><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><i><span style="font-size: 8pt;"> </span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><i>13% of abortion patients identified themselves as evangelical Protestants </i><a href="https://www.guttmacher.org/fact-sheet/induced-abortion-united-states" style="color: #954f72;"><i>Guttmacher Institute Sept. 2019 Fact Sheet</i></a><i> <o:p></o:p></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><i><span style="font-size: 8pt;"> </span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 12pt;"><i>65% report symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder they attribute to their abortions. – </i>(Rue VM, et al)<i> <o:p></o:p></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 12pt;"><u><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Post Abortive<b> </b>emotional problems</span></u><b><span style="font-size: 14pt;">:</span></b> anxiety/panic; grief/Loss; fear of losing your child; guilt; self-hatred; depression; anger/rage<b> </b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 12pt;"><u><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Post Abortive</span></u><b><u> </u></b><u><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Behavioral problems:</span></u><b> </b>drug/alcohol/child abuse; promiscuity; eating disorders; protective parenting; inability to bond with children<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Responding with practical Gospel centered compassion </span></b><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">Luke 10 - "Love the Lord your God...and love your neighbor as yourself." The lawyer asked, "Who is my neighbor?" Jesus replied, the traveler left for dead by the side of the road. What is love? Jesus, it is "Samaritan compassion." "Go and do likewise." According to Jesus our salvation has a moral imperative built into it regarding the needs of those around us, our neighbors - those vulnerable to choose abortion, the 80,000+ unborn murdered by abortion each year in Florida and the plight of the post-abortive. <span style="color: #0f243e;">"Loving my neighbor will occasionally arrest me, and maybe even require me to help prevent someone from being murdered." </span> ~ Pastor John Ensor (<i>Innocent Blood)<span style="color: #0f243e;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="color: #0f243e; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></b></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><b>Pro-life websites and bibliography</b> available on <b>The Church for Life</b> website <a href="http://churchforlife.blogspot.com/2015/11/pro-life-websites-and-bibliography.html" style="color: #954f72;">Here</a><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><i><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><i><span style="color: #333333;">Pro-Choice or Pro-Life - Examining 15 Pro-Choice Claims,<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span></i><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 13.5pt;">Randy Alcorn,</span><i><span style="color: #333333;"> </span></i><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 13.5pt;">EPM 2020 - FREE download<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><a href="https://www.epm.org/static/uploads/downloads/prochoice-or-prolife.pdf" style="color: #954f72;"><span style="color: #771100;">Here</span></a><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">A list of churches and other venues where I have brought Sanctity of Human Life messages is available <a href="http://churchforlife.blogspot.com/2022/07/sanctity-of-human-life-ministry-record.html" style="color: #954f72;">Here</a><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 12pt;"><b><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> </span></b><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><i> </i><b><o:p></o:p></b></p>Jim McGarveyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09559934703130337359noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1895307860926611586.post-88640949140309567192022-12-08T10:00:00.022-08:002022-12-08T10:16:54.581-08:00<p> </p><h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; position: relative; text-align: left;">Christ Our Healer - Online Bibliography</h3><h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; position: relative; text-align: left;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></h3><h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; position: relative; text-align: left;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">Books on divine healing available free online:</span></h3><div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-8835148157918408013" itemprop="description articleBody" style="font-size: 14.850000381469727px; line-height: 1.4; position: relative; width: 578px;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">The following books by Dr. A. B. Simpson are available <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">to download from the C&MA website.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">'<o:p></o:p></span><i><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">The Fourfold Gospel</span></i><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">, A. B. Simpson (Chapter three - "Christ Our Healer")</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">The Gospel of Healing</span></i><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">, A. B. Simpson<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">The Lord for the Body</span></i><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">, A. B. Simpson</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">Scroll down to the list of Simpson books at:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><a href="https://cmalliance.org/archives/history/simpson">https://cmalliance.org/archives/history/simpson</a><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">Dr. Simpson's </span><i style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">Present Truths or the Supernatural</i><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">,</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">chapter five, "The Supernatural Body" can be downloaded free at<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">The Hope Faith Prayer website at:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><a href="http://hopefaithprayer.com/a-b-simpson-1844-1919" style="color: #771100; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">http://hopefaithprayer.com/a-b-simpson-1844-1919</span></a><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">/ <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">The Ministry of Healing, or Miracles of Cure in All Ages</span></i><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">, by Dr. A. J. Gordon <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">See book index and download at: <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.gordon.edu/page.cfm?iPageID=1805&About&Books,_Hymns_and_Sermons_of_A._J._Gordon" style="color: #771100; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">http://www.gordon.edu/page.cfm?iPageID=1805&About&Books,_Hymns_and_Sermons_of_A._J._Gordon</span></a><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">Bodily Healing and The Atonement</span></i><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> , T. J. McCrossan, BA, B.D, 1930<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">(Formerly Instructor in Geek at Manitoba University) Download at: </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"><a href="http://gracechurchrolla.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Bodily-Healing-and-the-Atonement-1.pdf">http://gracechurchrolla.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Bodily-Healing-and-the-Atonement-1.pdf</a><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 16pt;"><i><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">Divine Healing</span></i><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">, Andrew Murray (1828-1917) Download or read online at: </span><a href="http://whatsaiththescripture.com/Voice/Murray.Divine.Healing.html" style="color: #771100; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">http://whatsaiththescripture.com/Voice/Murray.Divine.Healing.html</span></a><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">"The Psycho-Spiritual Dynamics of Physical Healing in Alliance Spirituality" </span><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">by Rev. David John Smith. Read at: </span><a href="https://online.ambrose.edu/alliancestudies/dsmith/djs_healing.html#116" style="color: #771100; text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">https://online.ambrose.edu/alliancestudies/dsmith/djs_healing.html - 116</span></a><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #1c1c1c; font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">Ambrose University - Alliance Studies Resources at: </span><a href="https://online.ambrose.edu/alliancestudies/" style="color: #771100; text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">https://online.ambrose.edu/alliancestudies/</span></a><span style="color: #1c1c1c; font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #1c1c1c; font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">Click left sidebar "Subject Index" then click "Healing" under "Subject List"<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #1c1c1c; font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #1c1c1c; font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">Note: Ambrose University is the official Canadian school of both the Christian & Missionary A</span><span style="color: #1c1c1c; font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">lliance and the Church of the Nazarene. The </span><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">Alliance University College merged with Nazarene University College in 2007 to form Ambrose University.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">Ambrose University - Alliance Studies Resources at: </span><a href="https://online.ambrose.edu/alliancestudies/" style="color: #771100; text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">https://online.ambrose.edu/alliancestudies/</span></a><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">Click left side bar "Author Index" then click "Simpson" under "Author List" </span><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">for healing resources by Dr. A. B. Simpson.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">Ambrose University - Alliance Studies Resources at: </span><a href="https://online.ambrose.edu/alliancestudies/" style="color: #771100; text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">https://online.ambrose.edu/alliancestudies/</span></a><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">Click left side bar "Author Index" then click "B" under "Author List"<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">for two healing resources by Dr. Keith M. Bailey<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament - Isaiah </span></i><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">online at:</span><b><i><span style="font-family: times; font-size: 24pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"><a href="http://www.studylight.org/commentaries/kdo/view.cgi?bk=22" style="color: #771100; text-decoration: none;">http://www.studylight.org/commentaries/kdo/view.cgi?bk=22</a></span><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span><br /><br /><span face=""Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="https://churchforlife.blogspot.com/2019/04/christ-our-healer-isaiah-534-matthew.html" style="color: #771100; text-decoration: none;">"Christ Our Healer - Isaiah 53:4, Matthew 8:17, James 5:13-16</a>, a message by Rev. Jim McGarvey, April, 2019.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">Excellent book - purchase online</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><i><span style="color: #1c1c1c; font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">Divine Healing - The Children's Bread</span></i><span style="color: #1c1c1c; font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">, Keith M. Bailey, Christian Publications, Inc.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #1c1c1c; font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">Compiled by Rev. Jim McGarvey</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">The Church for Life </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">Updated December 2022 <o:p></o:p></span></div></div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />Jim McGarveyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09559934703130337359noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1895307860926611586.post-12189143445845272192022-07-28T13:16:00.009-07:002022-09-22T19:08:18.705-07:00Sanctity of Human Life Ministry Record - Rev. Jim McGarvey<p> <b style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;">Sanctity of Human Life messages given at the following:</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><b><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;">Church Ministry</span></b><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;">Over the past fifteen years I have ministered in several denominational and independent churches in Florida and one in Michigan and Kentucky. I can provide you references upon request. Below is a list of over 50 churches where I have given messages on the sanctity of human life on Sunday mornings, evenings, Wednesday nights and other church groups and pro-life training venues (see below).</span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;"><br /><b>Churches</b></span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;">Black’s Memorial Church of God in Christ, Pompano Beach FL (COGIC area church youth event)</span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;">Calvary Chapel Coral Springs FL</span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;">Calvary Chapel Deerfield Beach FL</span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;">Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale (Faith Forum)</span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;">Calvary Chapel Pompano Beach FL</span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;">Calvary Fellowship Free Will Baptist Church Hollywood, FL</span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;">Cathedral Church of God (COG Cleveland TN), Deerfield Beach FL</span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;">Christ the Rock Community Church, Cooper City FL (HWC Volunteer Training)</span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;">Church By The Glades (SBC), Coral Springs FL (Women on Mission)</span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;">Community Baptist Church (Independent), Stuart FL</span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;">Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church (PCA), Fort Lauderdale, FL (see Pro-Life events page below)</span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;">Daytona Beach Alliance Church, Daytona Beach FL<br />Eglise Haïtienne Bethanie De L'Alliance, Port St. Lucie FL</span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;">Evangelical Church of the Christian & Missionary Alliance, Hialeah FL</span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;">Faith Bible Church, Deltona FL</span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;">Family Worship Center, Miramar FL<br />First Baptist Church (SBC) Oakland Park FL</span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;">First Baptist Church (SBC)Pompano Beach FL (Men's group and BRTL Seminar)</span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;">First Baptist Church (SBC) of Stuart FL</span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;">First Baptist Weston, FL (SBC) (Women's Group & HWC volunteer training) </span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;">First Christian Church Wilton Manors FL<br />First Presbyterian Church (PCA), Coral Springs, FL (Men's Fellowship League)<br />Fellowship Alliance Church, Palmetto FL<br />Fort Lauderdale New Testament Church of God (COG Cleveland TN)<br />Friendship Baptist Church (Independent), Hixson TN<br />Grace Baptist Church (Independent), Pompano Beach FL<br />Harvest Preparation Ministries, Tamarac FL<br />Hollywood Hills Alliance Church, Hollywood FL<br />Hopewell Missionary Baptist Church, Pompano Beach FL <br />Jesus Is Lord Worship Center, North Miami FL<br />Jesus Supernatural Life Center,Pompano Beach FL <br />Lauderdale Community Church Lauderhill FL<br />Lighthouse Chapel (C&MA), Port Saint Lucie FL<br />Lighthouse Covenant Church, Tamarac FL<br />Moorepark Community Church, Three Rivers MI<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;">Mount Antioch Missionary Baptist Church, Pompano Beach FL<br />New Hope Community Church (C&MA), North Port FL<br />New Hope Fellowship (Nazarene), Palm City FL <br />New Life Baptist Church (SBC), Davie FL<br />New Life Church of the C&MA (Brazilian), Hollywood FL<br />New Life Lutheran Church (LCMS), Pembroke Pines, FL<br />New Life Romanian Baptist Church, Hollywood, FL<br />New River Wesleyan Church, Fort Lauderdale, FL<br />Parkway Christian Church, Davie, FL<br />Piedmont Park Alliance Church, Tallahassee, FL<br />Pines Baptist Church (SBC), Pembroke Pines, FL<br />Plantation Baptist Church Plantation (Independent), FL (Adult SS class & Wednesday night))<br />Restoration Outreach Church & Ministries Davie, FL<br />Riverside Church, North Lauderdale FL<br />Sheridan Hills Baptist Church (SBC), Hollywood FL (HWC Volunteer Training)<br />Solera Community Church Sunrise (HWC Volunteer Training)<br />St. James Missionary Baptist Church, Pompano Beach FL (Deacons meeting)<br />The Harbour Church, Pompano Beach FL <br />Tropical Farms Baptist Church (SBC), Stuart FL<br />True Gospel Ministries Tamarac, FL<br />Victory in Grace Church of the C&MA Fort Lauderdale, FL<br />Victory Life Church (SBC), Plantation FL<br />Westgate Baptist Church (Independent)(now Grace Bible Church) ,Plantation FL<br />Westwood Church (C&MA), Orlando FL<br />Worldwide Christian Center, Pompano Beach FL<br /><b><br />Pregnancy Resource Center Fund Raising Banquets</b><br />LifeChoice Pregnancy Center, Winter Haven FL, April 2014 - Keynote Speaker<br />Three Rivers Pregnancy Helpline Center, Three Rivers MI, April 2015 - Keynote Speaker<br /><b><br />Pregnancy Resource Center Trainings</b><br />Hope Women's Centers Volunteer Trainings - September 2007; February, March, May, September, November 2008; February, April, June, 2009.<br />Florida Baptist Children's Home Sanctity of Human Life Regional Training, Miami, June 2014.</span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;">Hope Women's Centers Volunteer Appreciation, April 2008</span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;">South Florida Care Net Coalition Regional Meeting, First Baptist Church (SBC), Fort Lauderdale, FL May 2008.</span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;">Hope Women's Centers' Abortion Recovery Workshop, Gloria Dei Lutheran Church (LCMS), Jan. 2009</span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;"><b>Pro-Life Events</b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;">Pro-Life 101 - Broward County Right to Life (BRTL) Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale, May 2010 </span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;">Pro-Life 101 (BRTL) Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church (PCA), Ft. Lauderdale, October 2010</span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;">Rally for Life, (BRTL) Federal Court House, Fort Lauderdale, January 21, 2011</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;">U</span><span style="color: #333333;">nderstanding God's Heart for the Unborn Seminar, (BRTL), First Baptist Pompano Beach, May 4,5, 2011</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">Unde</span><span style="color: #333333;">rstanding God's Heart for the Unborn Seminar, (BRTL) Calvary Chapel Ft. Lauderdale, June 2011</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;"> Understanding God's Heart for the Unborn Seminar, (BRTL) Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church (PCA), September 2011</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">Flor</span><span style="color: #333333;">ida Right to Life 2013 Pro-Life Leaders Forum, Orlando, October 2013</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">15th Annual Pregnancy Care Center Conference (Sound the Call) Florida Baptist Children's Homes, Lake Yale, FL October 2014</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">Tampa Pro-Life Alliance, Calvary Chapel St. Petersburg, FL, October 2014</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">R</span><span style="color: #333333;">oe v. Wade: 42 Years of Injustice Seminar (BRTL), Broward City Main Library Auditorium, January 2015 </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">Flourish Conference 2016, Catholic Witnesses, Fort Lauderdale, April 2016 </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><b><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;"> </span></b><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><b><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;">40 Days for Life Prayer & Fasting Campaigns </span></b><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><b><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;"> </span></b><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;">Cast the Vision Rally, 40 Days for Life Fort Lauderdale, September 2012. W<i>hy PRAY to End Abortion? </i>Kick Off Rally, 40 Days for Life Fort Lauderdale, September 2012, <i>Strategic Prayer </i></span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;">Midway Rally, 40 Days for Life Fort Lauderdale, October 2012, <i>Why FAST to End Abortion? </i></span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;">Kick Off Rally, 40 Days for Life Oakland Park (Fort Lauderdale), February 2020, <i>Strategic Prayer </i></span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;">Midway Rally, 40 Days for Life for Oakland Park (Fort Lauderdale), March 2020, <i>Spiritual Warfare and the Battle for Life</i></span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><b><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;"> </span></b><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><b><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;">Pastor Events </span></b><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;">Pastor's Luncheon - sponsored by Hope Women's Centers of Broward County, hosted by Coral Springs Calvary Chapel, Coral Springs, FL, November 2008.</span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;">Regional Leaders Network, C&MA Pastors, June 2009 at First Alliance Church, Hialeah FL</span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;">Leadership Summit - with Rev. Arnold Culbreath, Protecting Black Life, hosted by Restoration </span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;">Outreach Church & Ministries, Davie FL, May 2010</span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;">Pastor's Breakfast - sponsored by Care Net Pregnancy Services of the Treasure Coast, Stuart FL, January 2013</span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><b><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;"><br />University - College - High School </span></b><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;">Westminster Academy, Fort Lauderdale, FL, High School Chapel, September 2018<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;">Trinity International University, Davie FL - guest lecturer Human Sexuality, Doctrine & Evidence, Human Sexuality (Counseling) and Marriage/Family classes, September - November 2008<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;">Noles4Life of Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, January 2014<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;">Trinity Baptist College, Jacksonville, FL, Chapel - January 2014<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;">Trinity College, Trinity Florida, Chapel - February 2014<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;">Nova Southeastern University, Students for Life, Davie FL - March 2015<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;">South Florida Bible College & Theological Seminary, Deerfield Beach FL, Chapel, November 2016</span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;"><br /><b>Other Events</b><br />Women's Bible Study, First Baptist Church (SBC) Weston FL, January 2007<br />Women on Mission, Church by the Glades (SBC), Coral Springs, March 2007<br />South Florida Keswick Conference Leadership Breakfast - Fountainside Christian Fellowship, Miramar, FL, May 2008</span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;">Board of Director's Advance, Hope Women's Centers of Broward County FL, August 2008<br />Memorial Service (Shanice Osborne), Worldwide Christian Center, Pompano Beach FL October 2008</span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;">Alliance Men's Retreat, Lake Swan Camp, Melrose FL, November 2008<br />Keenagers (Sr. Citizens) Group, Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church (PCA), Fort Lauderdale FL, January 2009</span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;">Faith Forum at Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale FL, January 2009<br />Men's Group, First Baptist Church (SBC) Pompano Beach FL, June 2009<br />Alliance Men's Retreat, Lake Swan Camp, Melrose, FL, November 2009<br />Faith Forum at Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale, FL, January 2011<br />Bass Underwriter Luncheons, Plantation FL, March 11, 12, 13, 2011<br />Men's Fellowship League, First Presbyterian Church (PCA) Coral Springs FL, May 2013</span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif"> </span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="-webkit-standard, serif"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="-webkit-standard, serif"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p>Jim McGarveyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09559934703130337359noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1895307860926611586.post-20243566328553817582021-08-25T18:46:00.016-07:002021-08-26T08:35:04.577-07:00Living In The Power Of The Cross - Matthew 16:24-25; 11:28-30; Galatians 2:20; Romans 6:3-7<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OOQPGmydKLI/YSe0lhQ-m7I/AAAAAAAABHk/6pu0vvyePJIcdw04DXdYWLCyOfejw8qxwCLcBGAsYHQ/s720/Slide1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="405" data-original-width="720" height="180" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OOQPGmydKLI/YSe0lhQ-m7I/AAAAAAAABHk/6pu0vvyePJIcdw04DXdYWLCyOfejw8qxwCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Slide1.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>(<span style="font-family: arial;">I gave this message at Pines Baptist Church in Pembroke Pines Florida on Sunday August 22, 2021. You may view the PowerPoint Slides of this message on Microsoft One Drive <a href="https://onedrive.live.com/edit.aspx?cid=f5cf8663937126ce&page=view&resid=F5CF8663937126CE!428&parId=F5CF8663937126CE!134&app=PowerPoint">Here</a>.)</span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">The cross is probably the most prominent symbol of Christianity and for good reason. You find it on church buildings, signs, literature, jewelry, clothes and so forth. A survey by the Pew Research Center taken in 2020 found that 65% of adults in the United States identified themselves a Christian. The sad thing is that much of what the cross represents in Scripture is absent in the experience of many professing Christians. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Many years ago, a pastor of mine told us that one of his former students, now serving as an associate pastor in a church of another denomination, called him to lament that after a service the Senior Pastor told him that the Scripture, he had read at the beginning of the service that spoke of the blood of Christ, was inappropriate because it might offend some of the people who were visiting. You see even some Christian leaders don’t grasp the centrality of the cross to the Christian message. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">The reality is that if there is no cross there is no salvation. If there is no cross, there is no Christianity. The cross is both central to the Gospel message and our response to the Gospel message as we shall see. Theologically, or doctrinally, the cross lies at the core of the Gospel message, the message of Good News and salvation. We are justified, that is declared righteous in God’s sight, only through the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ on the cross where He shed His blood and paid the penalty for our sin so that we could be forgiven and given the gift of eternal life. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">But the cross is also used as a metaphor or a word picture, figure of speech, to describe a person’s response to Jesus Christ and the Gospel. The cross is used as a word picture to describe both our experience in coming to Christ and then following Christ. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">I want to notice first of all something that is so very important and fundamental to our understanding of what the cross means to us as we live in the power of the cross. This should be so self-evident that I risk insulting you by stating what is perhaps already obvious to you. But if we miss this point, we will miss all that follows.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">We need to understand that the cross is first and foremost an instrument of death. The Romans, or whoever else invented the cross, had no other purpose in mind. The cross was designed as an instrument of execution or death. It was designed to kill the person who was nailed to it. In this regard there was no compromise. No one ever climbed down from a cross. For anyone who was hung on a cross life came to an agonizing end. It was a ruthless instrument of death. No one ever won an argument with a cross. It was totally effective as an instrument of death. Death on a cross was irrevocable. Remember this as we continue.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">In God’s plan to save sinners He had to punish sin with the death of the sinner or a substitute. Jesus became our substitute by dying on the cross. God judged our sin in Jesus’ death on the cross. You’re familiar with Romans 3:23, “…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (NIV) and verse 25, “God presented him”, that is Jesus Christ, “as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood…”. A sacrifice of atonement can also be translated “propitiation”. So, the Apostle Paul writes, “He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised for our justification.” (Romans 4:15 NIV) And continuing in chapter five verse one, <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">“Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Christ.” In other words, God had to punish sin with death, and in His great love for each of us He punished our sin when His Son Jesus Christ voluntarily and obediently died on the cross for the sins of the world.</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">That is at the center of Biblical Christianity. Jesus’ death on the cross paid the penalty for our sin, and God accepted His substitutionary death on the cross when He raised Him from the dead. And by faith in Jesus’ death on our behalf we receive forgiveness of sin, deliverance from the penalty and power of sin and the gift of eternal life. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">But the truth of the cross as an instrument of death is also essential in our response to the Good News God offers us. In other words, the cross as an instrument of death is descriptive throughout the New Testament of how we are to respond to the Gospel. It is used a metaphor a word picture, that describes how we respond to the Good News that Jesus offers us. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Notice secondly that the cross is an instrument of surrender. The cross, as an instrument of death, pictures the capitulation, the surrender of our will and heart to God. Jesus used the cross as a metaphor </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">or figure of speech in this sense. Matthew 16:24-25 (NIV),</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">“…’If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.’”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">This is what I call one of Jesus’ “iron clad metaphors”. He leaves no wiggle room. It’s an “all or nothing” proposition. You have all probably seen a person shackled after being arrested or after being convicted in a court of law. Their hands are rendered useless by handcuffs. Sometimes the handcuffs are attached to a chain around the waist so that they cannot even scratch their nose. And their feet are put in ankle cuffs or shackles so that they can barely walk no less run or attempt to escape.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">That is what some of Jesus’ words are like. Matthew 16:24 is an example. To follow me, Jesus says you must, figuratively speaking die to yourself. That is how he defines “taking up your cross”. It means to deny yourself. In other words, you give up once and for all your right to rule your own life. It’s a radical commitment. Jesus is ruthless in His demand, isn’t He? As Dietrich Bonhoeffer says, “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.” <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Jesus goes on in verse 25 to explain further what He means by “taking up your cross”. He speaks about giving up your life, “whoever loses his life for me”. There it is the significance of the cross in the life of the believer. To follow Christ, we give up our right to our own life. To follow Christ, we give up our right </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">to live for ourselves! Do you see why I began by making sure we understand the nature of the cross? This is the surrender Jesus is talking about. When you choose to follow Jesus, you can only come on His terms and His terms are defined by death on a cross or losing your life.</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Let us not be confused here. We are not saying that someone coming to Christ must become something </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">before God will save him. Christ is not asking you to “clean yourself up” before He will save you. We are not talking about salvation by works here. Rather Jesus is saying, “You come as you are, acknowledge your sin and bondage, and I will clean you up. I’ll give you a new life.” But you must surrender your life to Me before I can do that. There must be a capitulation, a yielding to me, that is as drastic and complete as pictured by death on a cross. There must be an end to what you were before I can make you what I want you to be. You don’t save any part of your life for yourself, verse 25. You lose it all giving it to me.</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">A.W. Tozer, writes in <i>Root of Righteous</i>, <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">“We must do something about the cross, and one of two things only we can do – flee it or die upon it. And if we should be so foolhardy as to flee we shall by that act put away the faith of our fathers and make Christianity something other than what it is. Then we shall have left only the empty language of salvation; the power will depart with our departure from the true cross.” (page 63) <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">This is the danger of the Church in any age. Making the cost of following Christ too cheap. Downplaying the cost of following Christ. Making a profession of faith while holding on to your own life. Ignoring Jesus’ words “he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me”. This can prevent one’s heart </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">from being regenerated by a work of the Holy Spirit. Perhaps a person being more religiously informed </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">but living no different than a non-believer.</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">There is another metaphor used by Jesus that speaks of surrender and the benefits of surrender. </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Matthew 11:28-30 (NIV),</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">“Come to me, all you are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">The image of two oxen yoked together were very familiar to those in Jesus day. Two oxen were used to pull a plough or a heavy load. Using this metaphor Jesus is giving us further insights into the believer’s relationship to Him. You will notice it begins with an invitation, “Come to me”. We have a choice to make. The invitation to be “yoked” to Jesus requires a voluntary response on our part. We choose to be yoked. We are not forced or coerced into being yoked with Him. It is a voluntary response on our part to His invitation. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">But this voluntary yoking is a surrender on our part to Jesus Christ. That is implicit in the metaphor of a yoke which was a wooden cross piece that was fastened around the necks of the two animals holding them together as they pulled the load. To be “yoked” implies a surrender in this case to the Son of God, </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">to the One who created us, to the One who loved us and died to save us from our sin. In other words</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">someone far greater than us. The metaphor also implies an intimate relationship with Christ. We are being “yoked” to Him, connected to Jesus. We are surrendering to God receiving all the benefits that come with that decision.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Then you will note we are yoked to Jesus who is characterized as being “gentle and humble in heart.” </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Is there anyone who would not like to be in a relationship with someone described by those words?</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Then notice the benefits of being “yoked” to Jesus, “and you will find rest for your souls.” Someone has written, “To be yoked to Christ is the turning of our heart towards His heart. It is aligning our mind with the mind of Christ. He does not call us to bear the problems of life, carry the weight of the day, and take on the distresses of the heart or the trials we face – alone. He comes alongside to help and heal, to encourage and provide the sufficient grace we need for all life and godliness. Let us harness our heart <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">to our loving Saviour, take up our cross, die to self and live for Him.” (“What Does Matthew 11:30 Mean? dailyverse.kowing-jesus.com)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">The blessings that are ours in Christ come by way of surrender, “take up you cross and follow me”, - “take my yoke upon you and learn from me”. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Thirdly, the cross is an instrument of transformation. Galatians 2:20. (NIV). Paul’s personal testimony,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Paul said something similar </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">in writing the Romans, (6:3-4) “Or don’t’ you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” (NIV)</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Death is an instrument of transformation. “I have been crucified with Christ – Christ lives in me”. We were “baptized into his death…in order that… we too may live a new life”. These both speak of transformation. When we come to Christ in repentant faith and are born again, we die with Him. And our old life comes to an end. Just as death on a cross brings life to an abrupt end as we have noted, death is pictured in our spiritual experience at conversion. The old life we lived for ourselves comes to a decisive end. That is why when we baptize someone we ask, “Is it your earnest desire to follow Christ in death to self and to walk with Him in newness of life?” <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Paul goes on to describe the results of that death with Christ, Romans 6:5-7, <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">“If we have been united with him in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be rendered powerless, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.” (NIV)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">He writes, “our old self was crucified with him”. This phrase describes something that “happened to us” (John Stott). We did not crucify the old self. It is not something we have done. Rather our old self </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">“was crucified with him”. The word translated “old self” is literally the “old man”. The term refers to</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">the unregenerate man, who we were in Adam. New English Bible ,“man as we once were”. Who we were before we were saved. The “old self” was crucified with Christ, was put to death on the cross, says Paul resulting in a spiritual transformation. A. B. Simpson writes,</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">“When He was offered up on Calvary, it was not only for our sins, but for out sinfulness. In Him we were recognized by God as hanging on that cross with Him and dying when He died, so that His death represents our death, and when we recognize it, appropriate it and identify ourselves with it, it becomes the same as if we had been crucified, and our old life had gone out with His.” <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Dr. A. W. Tozer, <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">“So the cross not only brings Christ’s life to an end, it ends also the first life, the old life, of every one of His true followers. It destroys the old pattern, the Adam pattern, in the believers life, and it brings it to an end. Then the God who raised Christ from the dead raises the believer and a new life begins.” (A.W. Tozer, <i>The Root of Righteousness</i>, page 62) <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">The cross is an instrument of transformation. You see, our sanctification is rooted in this metaphor of the cross. My guess is that most, if not all of us who are born again Christians, have areas of our lives where we struggle. Maybe even some of us struggle with a besetting sin. Our victory not only lies in the work of Christ on the cross and His resurrection from the dead, but in our willingness to take our weakness and sin to the cross. By that I mean deal with it as the cross deals with any of its victims, PUT IT TO DEATH! <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">That involves a conscious, deliberate, decisive decision to turn it over to God; to break with it; to kill it figuratively speaking. When we act in such a way by faith, all the power available through the death and resurrection of Jesus that Paul declared in Romans 6 transforms us. I like the New Living Translation </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">of Romans 6:5-7,</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">“Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised to life as he was. We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. For when we died with Christ, we were set free from the power of sin.” <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Friends that is a bold and unambiguous description of transformation. And it comes by way of the cross. </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">In light of this truth, Paul could give these instructions to the Colossian believers, Colossians 3:5-6, “Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature [or sinful nature] sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming.” </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">(NIV) And to the Galatians, he wrote of God’s provision through the power of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer giving us victory over the sins of our sinful nature. Galatians 5:16, 22-24 (NIV),</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">“So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature…the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Do you see why Paul could write, Gal. 6:14 (NIV) “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">A.W.Tozer, who died nearly 60 years ago wrote,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">“In every Christian’s heart there is a cross and a throne, and the Christian is on the throne til he puts himself on the cross; if he refused the cross he remains on the throne. Perhaps this is at the bottom </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">of the backsliding and worldliness among gospel believers today.”</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">(</span><i style="font-size: 14pt;">The Root of Righteousness</i><span style="font-size: 14pt;">, pg. 66)</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Perhaps you are here today and have never made a decisive, deliberate, conscious decision to follow Jesus Christ or at least not in the way you understand it today in light of God’s Word. Think back with me to Jesus’ words in Matthew 11. His invitation to come to Him and be yoked to Him. He is asking for you to give Him control of your life, nothing less. If you are yoked to Him, He rules your life. You are giving Him that right. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">If you respond to his invitation, I want you to notice His promises. There are two of them. First, He said that yoked to Him, “you will find rest for your souls.” Literally it reads, “I will rest you.” Jesus is our “rest”. That implies an intimacy with Jesus Christ that nothing else can rival. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">It reminds me of His words, John 10:10. Speaking of the devil he said, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy…”. Friend that describes the only thing the devil and the world ultimately have to offer us. In contrast, Jesus continued, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” or “have it more abundantly”. (NIV) The New Living Translation reads, “My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.” There could not be two alternatives more opposite than those two choices. Accepting Jesus Christ’s offer comes at a cost…death to self comes first, then the gift of eternal life He alone offers. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Secondly, He will treat you gently. His motive is love and compassion. You will never regret your decision to follow Him on His terms. That is why He can say to each of us, “…my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” The New Living Translation, “…my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.” <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">If you are a believer today, is there any area where you are in a struggle with sin? Paul provided the early church with quite a comprehensive list of sins to get rid of in Galatians 5, Ephesians 4 & 5 and Colossians 3. If you are in a battle remember that the death and resurrection of Jesus not only paid the penalty for our sin but delivered us from the power of sin in our lives. Whatever the area of need you or I are facing the solution comes by way of the cross. If we will bring the conflict with sin to the feet of Jesus and surrender, give up and let go, Jesus will meet us at the point of our need. As we have seen </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">He has made every provision for victory over sin that any believer faces if we die to self and yield ourselves to God.</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Watchman Nee tells of a man who came down with a leg cramp while swimming in the river at a resort. </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">The expert swimmer called to intervene remained calm, collected and unwilling to rescue the struggling swimmer until he was sinking in the water. Later someone said to the rescuer, “I have never seen any Christian who loved his life quite as much as you do.” The man who came to the rescue of the drowning man replied, “If I had gone earlier, the drowning man would have clutched me so tightly that both of us would have gone under. A drowning man cannot be saved until he is utterly exhausted and no longer makes the slightest effort to save himself.”</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">“When we give up the case, then God will take it up. God is waiting until we are at the end of our resources and can do nothing more. If we try to do anything in the flesh we are virtually repudiating </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">the Cross of Christ. God has declared us to be fit only for death When we truly believe that, then we</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">give up our fleshly efforts to please Him.”</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">(</span><i style="font-size: 14pt;">Normal Christian Life</i><span style="font-size: 14pt;">)</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">You see Jesus Christ wants to live His life through us, but He can’t until we’re dead. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.” Jesus has come to rescue us. The cross has provided us with every resource necessary to know Him and walk with Him in obedience. Rescue comes through surrender. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Never forget the imagery of the father of the prodigal son, day after day waiting for the return of his wayward son. Longing to wrap His arms around the son he loved and restore him to fellowship and provide for his every need. But of course, the son had to return in order to feel the warm embrace and the forgiveness of his father. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">It’s our move this morning. He is waiting with open and compassionate arms whether it be for salvation or victory over the struggle with sin in our lives. Why prolong the struggle? Come to the cross this morning. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">© James P McGarvey All Rights Reserved<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></p>Jim McGarveyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09559934703130337359noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1895307860926611586.post-48853629431283830192021-05-03T14:02:00.007-07:002021-05-03T14:14:55.217-07:00The Grace of Giving - Part Two - 2 Corinthians 8:16-9:15 - Outline<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: left;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">(This is an outline of a message last given at Hollywood Hill Alliance Church on October 17, 2009. You can read the manuscript of "The Grace of Giving" (Part One) - 2 Corinthians 8:1-15 </span><a href="http://churchforlife.blogspot.com/2018/08/the-grace-of-giving-2-corinthians-81-15.html" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">HERE</a><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"> )</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><br /><span style="font-size: large;">2 Corinthians 8:16 - 9:15</span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"> </span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">“The theological basis for stewardship is the doctrine of grace.” Keith Bailey<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">1. In collecting funds - a need for <u>propriety</u> 2 Cor. 8:16-24<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"> a. the standard – <u>integrity</u> 2 Cor. 8:20-21<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"> b. the method – <u>accountability</u> 2 Cor. 8:17-19; 22-24 <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">2. Grace giving involves the “law of the <u>harvest”</u> or principle of sowing 2 Cor. 9:6<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"> - sowing always determines the harvest<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"> - sow generously – reap generously. Prov. 3:9-10; 11:24-25; Luke 6:38<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">3. Grace giving is <u>deliberate</u> 2 Cor. 9:2,5,7<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"> vs. 2 “ready to give <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"> vs. 5 “had promised”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"> vs. 7 “what he has decided in his heart”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">4. Grace giving is <u>voluntary</u> 2 Cor. 9:5,7<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"> vs. 5 “not as one grudgingly given”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"> vs. 7 “not reluctantly or under compulsion”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">5. Grace giving is <u>cheerful</u> 2 Cor. 9:7<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">6. Grace giving is by <u>faith </u> 2 Cor. 9:8-11<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"> a. God is the <u>source</u> of our giving 2 Cor. 9:8-9<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"> God is the source of our resources.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">“As regularly as the resource of the cheerful giver are taxed by his generous giving, they are </span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">re</span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">plenished b</span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">y</span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"> </span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">divine grace. This gives him a complete sufficiency.”</span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"> </span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"> </span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">(Murray J. Harris)</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"> b. God <u>multiplies</u> our giving 2 Cor. 9:10-11<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"> “Grace is what God can do, not what we can do.” (Dr. A. B. Simpson)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"> Law of the harvest: sowing generously pays rich dividends<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"> God <b>supplies</b> the seed (for sowing)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"> God <b>multiplies </b>seed (for sowing)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"> God <b>enlarges (</b>increases) the harvest<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"> </span> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">“God will supply, God will increase, God will enlarge. God will make us rich so that we can be gen<span face="Calibri, sans-serif">erous on </span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">every occasion. Rather than giving once and being out of resources, the person whose </span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">heart represents the </span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">biblical pattern of giving in generosity and cheerfulness will discover that he </span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">ha</span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">s more and more to give and </span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">the more he gives the more he has, and the more he has the more </span>he wants to give.” </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">(Kenneth Gangel)</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">7. The results of grace giving. 2 Cor. 9:12-15</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"> a. <u>Needs</u> are met. 2 Cor. 9:12<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"> b. God is <u>glorified</u> 2 Cor. 9:11,12b,13<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"> vs. 11b, 12b – thanksgiving to God<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"> vs. 13 – praise to God<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"> c. Our faith is <u>confirmed</u> 2Cor. 9:13<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"> James 2:14-17<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"> Sea of Galilee – it receives water and gives out water<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"> Dead Sea – it keeps everything it takes in<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">“To give is to live. To restrain, to hold, to guard, to hoard, is to die. The same rive of life in the power </span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"> of</span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"> the </span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">Spirit of God comes into your heart and into mine, and I would leave the parable with you. </span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">F</span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">reely you have</span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"> </span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">received; The Lord help us to freely give.”</span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"> </span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"> </span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">(Dr. Alan Redpath)</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">© James P McGarvey, All Rights reserved </p>Jim McGarveyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09559934703130337359noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1895307860926611586.post-55352243454181391112021-04-04T14:18:00.060-07:002021-04-05T20:50:03.474-07:00The Valley of Slaughter - Jeremiah 19:6 - America's Abortion Crisis<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ms6flQyLAqk/YGorWcL2FJI/AAAAAAAABFU/xcC-667foYcE_GFuGa75eQofPa2XfnkSQCLcBGAsYHQ/s720/Slide1.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="720" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ms6flQyLAqk/YGorWcL2FJI/AAAAAAAABFU/xcC-667foYcE_GFuGa75eQofPa2XfnkSQCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Slide1.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p>I gave this message at Hollywood Hills Alliance Church on January 17, 2010. View the the PowerPoint presentation of this message "The Valley of Slaughter - Jeremiah 19:6 - America's Abortion Crisis" on Microsoft OneDrive click <a href="https://1drv.ms/p/s!As4mcZNjhs_1gyAY4i7WgsEY8LeE?e=qstvqu">HERE</a>. Download FREE Microsoft OneDrive <a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/onedrive/download">HERE</a></p><p style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-top: 7.68pt; text-indent: 0in; unicode-bidi: embed; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">“</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">…the ultimate sin that brought judgment upon nations was the sin of child sacrifice.</span><span style="font-family: Arial;">” </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-indent: 0in;">Christian Newswire </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-indent: 0in;">September,</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-indent: 0in;"> 2008</span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Child sacrifice to the idol Molech- </span><span style="font-family: Arial; text-indent: -0.38in;">“</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-indent: -0.38in;">…they have filled this place with the blood of innocent children. They have built pagan shrines to Baal, and there they burn their sons as sacrifices to Baal. I have never commanded such a horrible deed; it never even crossed my mind to command such a thing!" Jeremiah 19:4-5</span></p><p style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-top: 6.72pt; text-indent: 0in; unicode-bidi: embed; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Jeremiah 19:6-8 (NLT)</span></p><p style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-top: 7.68pt; text-indent: 0in; unicode-bidi: embed; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">“</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">So beware, for the time is coming, says the Lord, when this place will no longer be called </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Topheth</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> or the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-weight: bold;">Valley of Slaughter</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">. For I will upset the battle plans of Judah and Jerusalem and let invading armies slaughter them. The enemy will leave the dead bodies as food for the vultures and wild animals. I will wipe Jerusalem from the face of the earth, making it a monument to their </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">stupidity.All</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> who pass by will be appalled and will gasp at the destruction they see there.</span><span style="font-family: Arial;">”</span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">God Judged Israel for Child Sacrifice - </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Psalms 106:34-42</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 36pt;"><br /></span></p><p style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 0in; unicode-bidi: embed; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">“</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">They did not destroy the peoples as the Lord </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-indent: 0in;">had commanded them, but they mingled with the</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-indent: 0in;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-indent: 0in;">nations and adopted their customs. They worshiped their idols, which became a snare to them. </span><u style="text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons</span></u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; text-indent: 0in;">. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-indent: 0in;"> They shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, and the land was desecrated by their blood. They defiled themselves by what they did; by their deeds they prostituted themselves.</span><span style="text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Therefore</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> the Lord was angry with his people and abhorred his inheritance. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">He handed them over to the nations,</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-indent: 0in;">and their foes ruled over them. Their enemies oppressed them and</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-indent: 0in;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-indent: 0in;">subjected them to their power.</span><span style="font-family: Arial; text-indent: 0in;">”</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-indent: 0in;"> </span></p><p style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 0in; unicode-bidi: embed; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-indent: 0in;"><br /></span></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">America is Warned!</span></div><p style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-top: 7.68pt; text-indent: 0in; unicode-bidi: embed; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">“</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Since you have refused to obey laws and regulations and have behaved even worse than your neighbors, I myself the Sovereign Lord, am now your enemy. I will punish you publicly while all the nations watch… </span></p><p style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-top: 7.68pt; text-indent: 0in; unicode-bidi: embed; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">You will be a </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-weight: bold;">warning to all the nations around you</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">. They will see what happens when the Lord turns against a nation in furious rebuke. I, the Lord have spoken!</span><span style="font-family: Arial;">”</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Ezekiel 5:7-8; 15 (NLT)</span></p><p style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-top: 7.68pt; text-indent: 0in; unicode-bidi: embed; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><b>View all 54 PowerPoint slides of this message on Microsoft OneDrive </b></span> <a href="https://1drv.ms/p/s!As4mcZNjhs_1gyAY4i7WgsEY8LeE?e=qstvqu">HERE</a>.</p><p style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 0in; unicode-bidi: embed; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p> <p></p>Jim McGarveyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09559934703130337359noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1895307860926611586.post-58680531589769844762021-01-07T07:29:00.020-08:002021-01-07T12:14:30.743-08:00A Call to Fast <p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-W7baDg49jBs/X_cnu2XY2cI/AAAAAAAABDg/jAb9tGldtxU3Lbsr7_WQCtB5xpZorJQmwCLcBGAsYHQ/s720/Slide01.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="720" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-W7baDg49jBs/X_cnu2XY2cI/AAAAAAAABDg/jAb9tGldtxU3Lbsr7_WQCtB5xpZorJQmwCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Slide01.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">(I gave the latest version of this message at The Lighthouse Chapel on Sunday January 3, 2021. You can view the Facebook livestream of that service <a href="https://www.facebook.com/tlcpsl/videos/238498914464829">Here</a>. The message begins at the 37 minute mark.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-size: 14.850000381469727px; text-align: left;">You may view the PowerPoint slides of this message on Microsoft OneDrive <a href="https://1drv.ms/p/s!As4mcZNjhs_1gxrgBaCr60Au-wM5?e=SuZBPc">Here</a></span><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-size: 14.850000381469727px; text-align: left;">)</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">In his book,</span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span><i style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">The Happen Stance How To Make Things Happen in Your Christian Life </i><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">Pastor K. Neill Foster includes a chapter on fasting. Here is the opening paragraph of that chapter.</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><i><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><i><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">"</span></i><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">Fasting the delightful discipline. Is this a contradiction in terms? No! The practice of fasting is geared for results. Far from some somber truth dressed in drabness, fasting is a vibrant, radiant, yes, delightful Christian discipline."<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">Now, that might sound counter intuitive to some of us. Fasting is delightful? If we are honest </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">some of us would respond to the thought of fasting with words like sacrifice, self-denial, </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">hunger, self-discipline or hardship, rather than delight. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">One cannot go far in either the Old or New Testament before finding references to fasting. </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">The incidents of fasting recorded in the Bible provide a wealth of information from which to understand what Biblical fasting is all about. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">This morning it is not my intention to present a comprehensive teaching on fasting but touch </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">on some of the truths relating to God's call to fast. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">Note first of all, the mandate to fast. This answers the question "should we fast?" Let's turn to Jesus first for the answer. On at least two occasions, Jesus spoke about fasting. </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">First, Jesus assumed his disciples would fast. </span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">“And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you." </span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">(Matthew 6:16-18 ESV) <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Twice, in this passage Jesus says "when you fast" not "if" you fast. It wasn't a matter of "if." It was a matter of "when." Jesus clearly taught that the day would come when his disciples would fast. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">Secondly, we are to fast in His absence.<b> </b>On another occasion He was asked why his disciples did not fast. Mark chapter two, verses 18-20,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">"Now John's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. And people came and said to him, 'Why do John's disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?' </span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">And Jesus said to them, 'Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away</span><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="font-size: 16pt;"></span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">from them, and then they will fast in that day</span><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="font-size: 16pt;">." <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">Jesus expected that his disciples would fast after he departed from them.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">Secondly, some thoughts on how to fast.<b> </b>Notice that, motive is key. Back to Matthew 6. Jesu</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">s exposed the hypocrisy of those who fasted to be seen by others; those who fasted to gain the attention of those around them. Remember he said, when you fast, don't look "gloomy." Don't "disfigure' your face, to be noticed by others. Rather anoint you head and wash you face. In other words, act and look normal. Don't draw attention to yourself because you're fasting. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">He went on to say, you should be fasting to be seen by your Father who is in secret. After all, He is the one who will reward you. You don't fast to embellish your reputation or to feed your spiritual pride and ego. On the contrary fasting is<b> </b>an act of humility<b>.</b> David said, "</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">I put on sackcloth and humbled myself with fasting." (Psalm 35:13) </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Arthur Wallis, in his book <i>His Chosen Fast,</i> writes, "...fasting is a divine corrective to the pride of the human heart. It is a discipline of the body with a tendency to humble the soul." </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">And one of the key spiritual principles repeated throughout Scripture, finds application here. As Peter stated it, "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." (1 Peter 5:5) Fasting is an opportunity to humble ourselves before God. When we come to Him in a spirit of humility, contrition, and repentance we position ourselves to receive an out-pouring of His grace. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">That's what fasting is all about. Getting in touch with God. Think of it this way. Through fasting we give God our undivided attention so He can do what He would otherwise not have the opportunity to do. Fasting is giving God a chance to<b> </b>do a work in our lives that only He can do, if we allow Him to do it. Andrew Murray said, <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">"Fasting helps to express, to deepen, and to confirm the resolution that we are ready to sacrifice anything, to sacrifice ourselves to attain what we seek for the kingdom of God." </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">(</span><i style="font-size: 14pt;">With Christ in the School of Prayer</i><span style="font-size: 14pt;">)</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">You see, f</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">asting helps us focus on God. </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Fasting is a practical way of narrowing our focus. </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Here's what I mean by that. When we fast, we set aside a legitimate and very powerful biological and physiological desire, our appetite for food, so that we can focus on the spiritual. We set aside something that is tangible and physical to gain something that is intangible and spiritual. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">As you know, we live in material world. We relate to that world by what we see and hear- touch, taste and smell. We rely on these five senses to function in the physical world that we live in. But God lies beyond those five senses, beyond the material, beyond the empirical in the realm of the unseen. Ordinarily, we do not relate to him with these five senses. He is Spirit and can only be known by spirit. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">The apostle John put it this way, “</span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spiritand truth,” (John 4:24) </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">hence the great value of fasting. Our appetite for food is one of the strongest of human desires that competes for our attention. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Fasting helps us move from a fixation on the material and physical world that dominates our senses and life, and focus on the spiritual, which is unseen. Fasting gives our spiritual life the advantage as it were, as it competes with the physical. As Jentezen Franklin says, "Simply stated, biblical fasting is refraining from food for a spiritual purpose." <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Remember Dr. Foster's premise? F</span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">asting is a delightful discipline. </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Are you beginning to see why? <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><b><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Fourthly, when we fast we should be led of the Spirit<b>. </b>We look at Jesus' example. L</span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">et me put Jesus 40 day fast in its context. I believe there were three things of great significance that took place before Jesus began his public ministry. First, He was baptized<b> </b>by John the Baptist in the Jordan River where the Holy Spirit descended on Him and God's voice from heaven declared, "You are my Son, whom I love, with you I am well pleased." (Luke 3:21) </span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">Submitting to John's baptism was an act of consecration on the part of Jesus. </span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">As Arthur Wallis points out, "His baptism in the Jordan was His dedication unto death in anticipation of the cross." (</span><i><span style="font-size: 14pt;">His Chosen Fast</span></i><span style="font-size: 14pt;">) </span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">But his baptism was also where the Holy Spirit of God "descended" upon Jesus Christ "in bodily form," "like a dove" writes Luke. (Luke 3:22) This certainly speaks of the empowerment, of the Holy Spirit, and the call and anointing for ministry. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Secondly, Jesus begins a 40 day fast<b>. </b>Luke writes, <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">"And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan [where he was baptized] and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry.' (Luke 4:1,2) Notice that the text says Jesus was "led of the Spirit" to the wilderness for the 40 day fast. Mark's account is even more straightforward. After His baptism, Mark writes, "The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. And he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan." (Mark 1:12) Clearly Jesus began the 40 day fast in response to the leading of the Holy Spirit. Our motive for fasting has always been of great importance as we noticed when looking at Matthew 6.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">The prophet Isaiah wrote one of the most valuable passages in the Bible on fasting. In chapter 58, the prophet, among other things, deals with motive for fasting. He first indicts his readers </span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> for their wrong motives. The people asked why God was ignoring their fast. "Why have we fasted, and you see it not?
Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?" (Isaiah 58:3) To which God replies, "Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure and oppress all your workers. Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight</span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">and to hit with a wicked fist. Fasting like yours this day will not make your voice to be heard on high. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">Arthur Wallis, commenting on this passage writes, "God reminds his people that the acceptable fast is the one which <i>H</i>e has chosen. Fasting, like prayer, must be God-initiated and God ordained if it is to be effective. Prevailing prayer begins with God; He places upon us a burden by the Spirit, and we respond to that burden. Prayer that originates with God always returns to God. So it is with fasting." (<i>God's Chosen Fast</i>)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">You see, being Spirit led in our fasting helps guard against the temptation to try and gain merit from God by an act of self-denial. It prevents us from turning fasting into a "good work," a way of bribing God, if you will. John Wesley sounded the warning this way, <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">"Let us beware of fancying we merit anything of God by our fasting. We cannot be too often warned of this; inasmuch as a desire to 'establish our own righteousness,' to procure salvation of debt and not of grace, is so deeply rooted in all our hearts." <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">I trust you will not underestimate the significance of the sequence of events that took place in Jesus' life at this point. First, He submits to the baptism of John the Baptist in an act of consecration. Second, He is empowered by the Holy Spirit at his baptism. Third, the Holy Spirit- then led Him into the wilderness to begin a 40-day fast where he is tempted by Satan. It was only then that Jesus returned to Nazareth "in the power of the Spirit." to begin his public ministry. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">Notice it was during the 40-day fast that Jesus engaged Satan in spiritual warfare. May I suggest to you that this alone is reason to fast. Ephesians 6:12, "For our struggle is not against </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms."</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">Down through Biblical history Satan has opposed the redemptive purposes of God that ultimately led to the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ for the sins of the world. Time would not allow us to trace that thread down through the Biblical record. Suffice it to say, having risen out of those waters of baptism and consecration where Jesus received the affirmation of the Father and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, the only one who stood in the way of Jesus Christ carrying out the mission assigned to Him by the Father was Satan himself. Satan knew it. Jesus knew it. The Father knew it. And the Holy Spirit knew it. Hence Jesus was thrust into the wilderness to engage His enemy, not only His enemy, but our enemy; the enemy of every human being that has ever lived or will ever live on this earth. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">So, Jesus was in the wilderness forty days without food. And </span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">Luke says He was hungry. It was in that vulnerable state that he was tempted by the devil, the first temptation being to turn a stone into bread. That was predictable. Satan always tempts us at our point of weakness where we are most vulnerable. Please note, he was tempting Jesus with more than having lunch. As G. Campbell Morgan writes, "The suggestion behind the temptation is that all that humanity needs is the physical, and the material supply of that..."<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">By the way, nothing has changed. That is the big lie today. It's called secular humanism, and it's offspring moral relativism. This is the dominant philosophy - religion if you will - of our western culture today. Morgan continues, "Said the Devil: Man is only an animal, highly developed possibly; but bread is the one thing necessary." <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">You see, that is the inevitable conclusion of naturalism, man's attempt to live apart from God, to live as if there is no God. That is social Darwinism. Matter is all there is. Life is all about the survival of the fittest, in a world without God, without the purpose, meaning and fulfillment, that come from knowing God through faith in Jesus Christ. If you are here this morning and have never trusted in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins could that be where you are spiritually? <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">You're probably familiar with Jesus' response to the temptation to turn a stone into bread as well as the other two that followed. He stood his ground using the Word of God to overcome each of Satan's temptations. "It is written: Man does not live on bread alone," was Jesus' reply to the Devil. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">Again, G C Morgan, "Said Jesus: Man is not an animal. He does not live as animals live. His life cannot be sustained on that level." If we are ever tempted not to fast or for that matter not to seek the Lord, not to obey the Lord, not to worship the Lord, not to give our lives to the Lord, may I suggest that this could be at the root of the temptation. Living in a material world we are continually being tempted to buy into the big lie of Satan that what we can see and hear, touch, taste and smell is all there is to live for and all we need to find fulfillment and satisfaction as human beings. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">Jesus exposed that lie by refuting the first of the devil's temptations. He went on to resist two more temptations, and the devil left Him. Luke says, Jesus returned to Galilee "in the power of the Holy Spirit" (Luke 4:1) where, thirdly, He began his public ministry. </span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">Dr. Foster, writing of Jesus' 40 day fast says, "It is significant that He did this [the 40 day fast] before His ministry began and before the miraculous began to occur." Then he makes this observation, "The absence of the miraculous among many of today's Christians could be traceable to the lack of this forgotten discipline." </span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">As Arthur Wallis has written, "In New Testament times fasting was a channel of power." (<i>God's Chosen Fast</i>) <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">In looking at how to fast, we’ve seen the importance of motive in fasting. Secondly, we’ve seen that fasting is an act of humility and thirdly that fasting helps us focus on God. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">Lastly, note that fasting is your telegram to God.<b> </b></span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">Jeremiah 29:12,13, "</span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart." <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">Fasting is a means of declaring to God both the sincerity and urgency of your heart. </span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">By its very nature fasting expresses a deep sense of need on the part of the one fasting. As we noted, Pastor Foster wrote, "The practice of fasting is geared for results."<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">I don't know how many of you are old enough to remember the era when telegrams were used. I remember as a boy growing up in Japan in the 1950's and 60's that my parents used them. Remember, back then there was no internet, no Facetime, no Zoom, no skyping, no emails, cell phones or texting. It took several weeks to get an airmail letter to or from the States. There were telephones of course, but we rarely received or made phone calls to the States because it was cost prohibitive, about $25 a minute. So, telegrams were used to send a message of importance that were time sensitive. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">When the man came to the door and delivered the telegram, it wasn't set aside to be read at a later time. No, if a telegram came you knew it was important, perhaps even urgent. You opened it and read it immediately. I remember seeing some of those telegrams. Since you paid for a telegram by the number of words used, there was no concern for proper syntax, just the minimum number of words necessary to get the message across. When we fast, we are sending a telegram to God. Again, Arthur Wallis, "Fasting is calculated to bring a note of urgency and importunity into our praying, and to give force to our pleading in the court of heaven." (<i>God's Chosen Fast</i>)<i><o:p></o:p></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><i><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: #282828; font-size: 14pt;">As Ezra testified, having called a fast before he led the remnant on that dangerous journey from Babylon back to Jerusalem, "...we fasted and petitioned our God about this, and he answered our prayers." (Ezra 8:23) <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: #282828; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: #282828; font-size: 14pt;">In January of 2016, I brought a message from 2 Chronicles 20 from the life of Jehoshaphat King of Judah. He and his people were facing</span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> this massive army headed their way from the south. </span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: #282828; font-size: 14pt;">Upon hearing the news of the approaching army, the King was "alarmed" and "afraid." Perhaps you remember that King Jehoshaphat's first response was to “proclaim a fast for all Judah.” He called his nation to prayer and fasting. You see, fasting communicates urgency of desire. Apparently, King Jehoshaphat was desperate in light of this threat to his nation so he and his people sought the Lord in prayer and fasting. </span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">Arthur Wallis<i>, " </i>When a man is willing to set aside the legitimate appetites of the body to concentrate on the work of praying, he is demonstrating that he means business, that he is seeking with all his heart, and will not let God go unless he answers." (<i>God’s Chosen Fast</i>)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: #282828; font-size: 14pt;">How desperate are you for God this morning? Desperate to know His presence in a deeper, and more intimate way? Just this past week, the Lord impressed me with this thought. “Fasting is a pathway to intimacy with God.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: #282828; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: #282828; font-size: 14pt;">Perhaps, you're spiritually dry. The world and all it has to offer has left you empty and unfulfilled. Or perhaps you are in urgent need of victory over a besetting sin. You're in a struggle with the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes or the pride of life. Perhaps this morning, you need direction, guidance from the Lord for a decision you must make. Though it happened years ago when I was just a boy, I can still picture in my mind the image of my mother and father kneeling at the living room sofa seeking the Lord as they fasted and prayed over the noon hour. I have shard this with you before; when I fast, </span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">this is what motivates me: "I need God more than I need food." <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: #282828; font-size: 14pt;">Dr. Bill Bright, founder of Campus Crusade For Christ and a man of prayer and great insight- into fasting has written, "Fasting is the most powerful spiritual discipline of all the Christian disciplines. Through fasting and prayer, the Holy Spirit can transform your life."<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: #282828; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">King Jehoshaphat's father, King Asa, faced a similar crisis as his son as recorded in 2 Chronicles 14. As a vast army of Cushites threatened his nation King Asa called upon the Lord, </span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">"...Lord, there is no one like you to help the powerless against the mighty. Help us, Lord our God, for we rely on you, and in your name we have come against this vast army. Lord, you are our God; do not let mere mortals prevail against you.” (</span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">2 Chronicles 14:11) After the Lord "struck down the Cushites," the prophet Azariah brought this word of encouragement from the Lord to King Asa, “The Lord is with you when you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you” (2 Chronicles 15:2) May I suggest to you that is the theological basis for fasting. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">Pastor K. Neil Foster, “Fasting is the quickest way to get yourself into the position where God can give you what He wanted to give you all along." <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">As we enter the new year I believe there is no greater need than for the intervention of God in our lives, personally and in our families, in our nation and the world. I believe that will only come through repentance and seeking the Lord in prayer and fasting.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">Yesterday morning as I was thinking of this message I believe the Lord brought some additional thoughts to mind. Fasting is not only a pathway to intimacy with God, it is a means by which we have access to His presence. It is a means by which we have access to His provision. It is a means by which we have access to His power. It is a means by which we have access to His gracious and merciful intervention.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">This year, let’s take advantage of His call to fast.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">_____________________________________</span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">Message Outline<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">A Call to Fast<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">Matthew 6:16-18; Mark 2:18-20<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;">1. The mandate to fast.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"> a. Jesus <b>assumed</b> we would fast.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"> Matthew 6:16-18<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"> b. Fast in his <b>absence</b>.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"> Mark 2:18-20<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;">2. How to fast.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"> a. <b>Motive</b> is key.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"> Matthew 6:16-18<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"> b. Fasting is an act of <b>humility</b>.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"> Psalm 35:13<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"> 1 Peter 5:5<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"> c. Fasting helps us <b>focus</b> on God.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"> John 4:24<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"> d. Be led of the <b>Spirit</b>.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"> Jesus’ example:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"> Baptism - consecration & empowerment - Luke 3:21-22<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in 0in 0in 22pt; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;">40-Day fast - the defeat of Satan - Luke 4:1,2<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"> Begins three years of ministry - "in the power of the Spirit"<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"> f. Fasting is your <b>telegram</b> to God.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"> Jeremiah 29:12,13;<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"> Ezra 8:23<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;">“The Lord is with you when you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you.” <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"> 2 Chronicles 15:2b. (NIV)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;">© James P McGarvey All Rights Reserved<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: start;"><o:p> </o:p></p></div><p><br /> </p>Jim McGarveyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09559934703130337359noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1895307860926611586.post-83913219811642741032020-12-07T09:58:00.009-08:002020-12-07T11:29:34.106-08:00"Abortion, the Devil & the Church - Exposing the Spiritual Forces Behind Abortion" - Jim McGarvey - message given at New Life Romanian Baptist Church, Hollywood FL on Sunday Dec. 6, 2020 - Message begins at 7 minute 30 second mark.<br /><br /><span></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/X_LGfOz8wZU" width="320" youtube-src-id="X_LGfOz8wZU"></iframe></div><br />Jim McGarveyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09559934703130337359noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1895307860926611586.post-39008681114941691602020-11-10T10:06:00.004-08:002020-11-10T10:15:33.219-08:00Overcoming the World - James 4:4; Romans 12:1-2; John 17:13-21<p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JAKql-VUksI/X6rWjGk_6oI/AAAAAAAABB4/qTN43iU3KWEIGrDbrlkfE92Aa0aAliIsQCLcBGAsYHQ/s720/Slide1.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="720" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JAKql-VUksI/X6rWjGk_6oI/AAAAAAAABB4/qTN43iU3KWEIGrDbrlkfE92Aa0aAliIsQCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Slide1.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /> <p></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">(Most recently I gave this message at The Lighthouse Chapel in Port St. Lucie on November 8, 2020. You may view the PowerPoint slides that accompany this message on Microsoft OneDrive <a href="https://onedrive.live.com/embed?cid=F5CF8663937126CE&resid=F5CF8663937126CE!406&authkey=AEll93FHqda4RwA&em=2&fbclid=IwAR0U_6fbCxxgnTZ9Tlr3MMjD4QjWTMTobIrEdRBw-C1j8rsDBpMr99RFcIk">Here</a>)</span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">In June of last year I brought a message entitled, <a href="http://churchforlife.blogspot.com/2019/06/understanding-destructive-power-of.html">Understanding the Destructive Power of the World</a>. We examined what the Bible says about the "world." In the Bible, the word "world," can refer to the physical world, the planet earth, the people living on the earth, or the spiritual reality in which the people of the earth live. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">We use the word in a similar way when we speak of the "world of finance", the "world of sports" or the "entertainment world." It is used in this sense when the Bible refers to "that system or worldview that opposes God satisfies self and serves Satan." <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">We noted two things about the world. First, the world is ruled by Satan. Jesus called Satan "the ruler of this world" (John 14:30; 16:11, ESV) And the Apostle John writes that "the whole world is under the control of the evil one." (</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">1 John 5:19 NIV) Secondly, t</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">he world is in conflict with God and His Church. In 1 John 3:13, this is what John writes to believers, "Do not be surprised my brothers, If the world hates you." (NIV) <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Dr. John R. W. Stott summarizes, "'The world,' therefore, is an inclusive term for all those who are in the kingdom of darkness and who have not been born of God."<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">In 1 John 2:16, the nature of the world is defined for us. "Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life—Is not from the Father but is from the world." (NKJV)</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">We noted three ways in which the world operates. First, the lust (desires) of the flesh, that natural inclination </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">to be self-centered often at the expense of others. The natural drive to satisfy our physical and emotional appetites. It is what drives a person to indulge in sexual sin because it satisfies their sexual desires regardless</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">of the consequences to others.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Second, the lust (desires) of the eyes. The world has mastered the art of stimulating and arousing unholy desires through the eyes. John is saying that one of the dangers of the world is that it has access to our heart through our eyes. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Thirdly, the pride of life or the “pride in possessions”. (ESV) </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">This pride is linked with our relationship to others. </span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 12pt;"> Simply put, we take pride in who we are and what we have. </span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 12pt;">We seek the recognition and attention of others. </span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 12pt;">The word translated "pride" is literally "vainglory" meaning to be pretentious, conspicuous, showy. In other words "the pride of life" takes satisfaction in being noticed by others, having more than others.</span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; line-height: 15pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; line-height: 15pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">We noted that these three areas are the context in which the world operates and influences the believer. </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Think of it this way – there are three ways in which we give the world access to our lives. Three doors through which the world can enter and influence our minds and heart. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">This morning, I want to focus on how the believer can overcome the world in its influence and destructive power in our lives. Let's imagine that you were being introduced to fire for the first time. You have never heard of fire before. You know nothing about it. If that were the case there would be value in knowing the properties of fire. For fire to burn it must have fuel, that is, some kind of combustible material like, wood, gas, oil, etc. You would learn that fire needs oxygen to burn. You would want to know that fire is hot. Because it is hot, it can cook your supper, but it can also burn your hand, burn down your house or even kill you. You would soon learn that you do not play with fire. Hopefully, you would learn how to put out a fire. In other words, you would want to learn everything you could about fire so that you could live in a right relationship with it. That is what we will do this morning with regard to the "world”, that “system or worldview that opposes God, satisfies self and serves Satan”. We want to focus our attention on what the Bible says about overcoming the world. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">There are three responses that I want to share with you this morning. First of all, we overcome the world through separation from the world.<b> </b>James 4:4, “You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God." (NIV) <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">James uses a very strong metaphor to describe the state of a person who is a friend of the world. He says a friend of the world commits spiritual adultery. Literally, the word is "adulteresses" a noun. It's translated as an adjective "adulterous people” in the NIV and ESV. Adultery is when a man or a woman who is married has sexual relations with someone other than their spouse. Note with me several things about adultery.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">First, it is the breaking of a sacred agreement or covenant. The foundation of any marriage is a commitment to an exclusive relationship between one man and one woman for life. Adultery compromises that covenant and marriage relationship. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Secondly, the act of adultery by definition is a voluntary act. One chooses to commit adultery. In other words, it is consensual. James says, in the same way when you become a friend of the world it is a choice you make. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Thirdly, adultery is motivated by the desire to gratify self. It is an act of self-indulgence carried out at the expense of the marriage partner. "Adulterate" is the root meaning of the word "adultery." <i>Webster's 9<sup>th</sup> Collegiate Dictionary</i> defines adultery as, "to corrupt, debase or make impure by the addition of a foreign or inferior substance." That is what happens in adultery. The marriage relationship is corrupted or compromised </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">by the intrusion of a third party.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">A number of years ago, a pharmacist was arrested and charged with selling chemotherapy prescriptions that had been diluted or watered down. The prescriptions had been adulterated with some other solution, in order to make more money. Adultery is the image repeatedly used by God in the Old Testament in His dealings with Israel. For example, Jeremiah 3:20, "But like a woman unfaithful to her husband, so you have been unfaithful to me, O house of Israel, declares the Lord." (NIV) Israel repeatedly followed after pagan gods often practicing idolatry right alongside the worship of the Lord God of Israel. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">James uses the same imagery here of those who choose to be friends with the world. Notice in verse 4 that he defines this unholy relationship with the use of two words, "friend" and "enemy." These are mutually exclusive terms. You cannot be a friend and an enemy at the same time. James is saying, you cannot be a friend of the world, that “system or worldview that opposes god, satisfies self and serves Satan”, without being an enemy of God. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Let me ask you a question. How do you end adultery? There is only one way. You separate yourself from the person with whom you are not married. In other words, you end the relationship with the persowho is not your spouse. That is the only way to end adultery. The Apostle Paul quotes the prophet Isaiah (52:12) in his warning to the Corinthian church about being unequally yoked with unbelievers, "Therefore, come out from among them, and be separate, says the Lord." </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">(2 Corinthians 6:17a NIV) </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">By nature, God is jealous of His love relationship with those who have become members of His family through faith in Jesus Christ. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">In the Song of Moses recorded in Deuteronomy 32:16, we get a glimpse of God's heart response when Israel turned away from Him in idolatry. "They made him jealous with their foreign gods and angered him with their detestable idols." (NIV) Just as the heart of a husband or wife is broken when their spouse commits adultery, so the heart of God is overcome with sorrow when one of his children reaches out in friendship, companionship and compromise to the world. He takes it very personally. James 4:4, "Don't you know that friendship with the world Is hatred toward God?" (“enmity with God” – ESV) <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">But there is a practical problem here that has perhaps crossed your mind. While it is true that separation will end adultery, you might ask, does it change the desires of the heart? I was asked by my pastor to counsel a young man who had admitted to committing adultery. Though he told me he was no longer seeing the woman, it was apparent to me that he had not yet resolved the issue of his desire to be with her.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">What will end our desire for friendship with the world? The need for separation from the world must be accompanied by a transformation of heart. Romans 12:1-2, "Therefore, I urge you brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer yourselves as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is – his good, pleasing perfect will." (NIV) <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">This is similar in principle to what James goes on to say in James 4:7, “Submit yourselves, then, to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you." and verse 8, "Come near to God and he will come near to you.” and in verse 10, "Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will lift you up." (NIV)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">This is the pattern of God's grace. As we respond to Him in submission, humility and obedience, He empowers us. He does for us and through us what we cannot possibly do ourselves. Friends this is the Gospel message! God always empowers the one who surrenders to Him. Consecration and transformation always go together. First, "offer yourselves as living sacrifices…". In other words, surrender to God. That's implicit in the metaphor of a sacrifice. Make the decision to no longer be conformed to the world and God will transform you. Let's look at this for a moment.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">First, there is a negative command, "do not conform" or "do not be conformed" to the world. Phillips translation reads, "Don't let the world around you squeeze you into its own mold." <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">You've heard of chameleon lizards. Some of them have the ability to change colors to blend in with the color </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">of their surroundings. That is what Paul is talking about. When we conform to the world, we become </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">indistinguishable from the world around us. We embrace the values and lifestyles of the world. We become worldly.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Secondly Paul calls for a complete change, " but be transformed" he says, "by the renewing of your mind." </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The Greek word for transform is "metamorpho" from which we get our word "metamorphosis". <i>Vines</i> <i>Expository Dictionary</i> says that metamorpho or transformation is "…the obligation to undergo a complete change, which under the power of God, will find expression in character and conduct." </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">(p. 148) </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">It means to be made into something new. It speaks of a very visible and thorough change. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Think of the metamorphosis of a caterpillar into a butterfly. You have seen caterpillars.<b> </b>An insect that crawls on many legs, not particularly attractive, though often colorful. But when it emerges from the chrysalis it is transformed into a graceful and beautiful butterfly. What emerges from the chrysalis is something distinctly different from the original caterpillar. Metamorphosis has taken place.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">That is what Jesus Christ wants to do for us as we live in the world. Paul uses the same imagery in describing </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">the transformation that takes place at conversion. 2 Corinthians 5:17, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">new creation; the old has gone, the new has come." (NIV) That is the Gospel message. God will change the heart desires of the person who separates himself from the world and calls upon the Lord.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Dr. A. W. Tozer, in his book <i>The Root of the Righteous</i>, writes, "The converted man is both reformed and regenerated. And unless the sinner is willing to reform his way of living he will never know the inward experience of regeneration. This is the vital truth which has gotten lost under the leaves in popular evangelical theology. The idea that God will pardon a rebel who has not given up his rebellion is contrary both to the Scriptures and to common sense. How horrible to contemplate a church full of persons who have been pardoned but who still love sin and hate the ways of righteousness. And how much more horrible to think of heaven as filled with sinners who had not repented or changed their way of living." (page 43)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">So first, a negative command, “do not conform”. Secondly, a complete change, “but be transformed”. And <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Thirdly, this is a continuing transformation. Paul here used the present imperative, which implies a continuous action. Similarly in 2 Corinthians 3:18 he writes,"And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit." <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The New Living Translation reads, “So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord--who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.” It is a continuing process. Remember the butterfly? It was transformed by the process of metamorphosis from a caterpillar to butterfly. Hopefully we can look back in our lives five years ago, ten years ago and recognize today, areas where we have been transformed as we walk with the Lord. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">A negative command, “Do not conform”. A complete change, “be transformed”. A continuing transformation, “but be transformed (present imperative) and fourthly, this requires a deliberate decision. It involves a conscious decision on our part. It is not just going to happen. It involves the renewing of our mind, the center of our thoughts, the place of reasoning where we make moral and ethical choices and decisions. It will require that we turn from the world. Turn off the sensual music or television program that fuels the lust of our flesh. Turn our eyes away from every kind of visual image that stirs up impurity and creates unholy desires within us. </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Refuse to be sucked into consumerism and materialism by the unrelenting message of the world that has nothing else to live for except the possessions, toys, position, prestige and power that can be accumulated in a lifetime. Instead pursue God.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Dr. A.W. Tozer in his book <i>Rut, Rot or Revival</i>, writes, "To think God's thoughts requires much prayer. If you do not pray much, you are not thinking God's thoughts. If you do not read your Bible much and often and reverently, you are not thinking God's thoughts. Those thoughts you are having –and your head buzzes with them - all day long and into the night —are earthly thoughts —thoughts of a fallen race. They are thoughts of a lost society. They should not be your thoughts."<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">We overcome the world by separation from the world, by a transformation of the mind and heart and, thirdly, by incarnation. In<b> </b>John 17:13-21 Jesus prayed to His Father for us. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">“I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified. My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” (NIV)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Incarnation is the third step. What do I mean by that? Why did Jesus insist that his followers remain in the world? A world that hated them (vs.14) as it hated him? (15:18)? </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Because they were to continue the mission he had begun. He prayed to His Father, "As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world…May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me." <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Notice three things Jesus prayed for us two thousand years ago. First, He wanted us to remain in contact with the world. That is the premise of incarnation. John 1:14, "The word (that is Jesus Christ) became flesh and </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">made his dwelling among us." Jesus was God incarnate. He became a human being, flesh and blood like us, so He could save us from our sins by dying in our place. Jesus wanted us to remain in the world so that we can reach the world for Christ. "As you sent me into the world," he prayed "I have sent them into the world." verse 18.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Secondly however, He wanted us to be safe in the world. verse 15b and 17. Jesus did not mean the absence of opposition or persecution. He was talking about safety from the power and influence of the world, victory </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">over “the lust of the flesh”, “the lust of the eyes” and “the pride of life”. He prayed, "protect them from the evil one” verse 15, the trinity of evil, the world, the flesh and the devil. Protection as we live in a world system that is opposed to God, satisfies self and serves Satan. Jesus wants us to be IN the world but not OF the world.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">What will keep us holy in that hostile and dangerous environment? Notice verse 17. Jesus prayed that God would "sanctify them by the truth." The root meaning of "sanctify" is to separate, to be separated from sin unto God. And God's Word is God's provision for our sanctification as we carry out the mission He has given us in an evil world. In Galatians 6:14, the belt of truth is part of the believer's spiritual armor. David testified that, "I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you." </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">(Psalm 119:11 NIV) <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The Word of God is like a cleansing agent as we read it, digest it, memorize it, meditate on it and most important – obey it. What is your relationship with the Word of God today? The longer I live, the more I realize that my love relationship with God is inseparable from a love relationship with His Word. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Jesus prayed that we would remain in contact with the world, be safe in the world and thirdly, He prayed that we might reveal Christ to the world. Why is our sanctification so strategic in God's plan? Today Jesus Christ </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">is invisible to the world. In other words, He no longer has a physical presence in our world. God is counting on His Church, His body, you and I who are born again, to reveal Jesus to the world. He prayed, "May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” (vs. 21b) and "May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know you sent me and loved them even as you have loved me." (vs. 23b) (NIV)</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The world will understand that Jesus is God when a holy or sanctified Church is one! Here is the sobering implication of Jesus' words. If the Church is worldly it is as though Jesus Christ is invisible to the world. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Compromise with the world neutralizes the gospel witness. The whole mission of the Church is at stake at this point. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">At least twice, Jesus gave us His opinion of a worldly Christian. In the Sermon on the Mount, after He described the character of a Christian in the Beatitudes, He said, as recorded in Matthew 5:13, "…if the salt loses it saltiness…it is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men." (NIV)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">In the Book of Revelation, chapter 3, verses 15 and 16, Jesus spoke these words to the church of Laodicea in Asia Minor. "I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So because you are lukewarm – neither hot nor cold I am about to spit you out of my mouth." (NIV) Sobering words! May I to suggest that the primary cause of being spiritually lukewarm is worldliness. Jesus went on to say as much to the worldly church at Laodicea, "You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked." (NIV) <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Alan Johnson writes, "Observe the way this indictment is related to the general condition of the populace at large – rich in material possessions and self-sufficient. The spirit of the surrounding culture had crept into the congregation and had paralyzed their spiritual life." </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">(<i>Expositor's Bible Commentary</i>, p 458) They were the victims of worldliness. </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">That describes much of the American evangelical church today. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">I want you to notice, however, what the Lord went on to say to this church in Laodicea. I believe this is His word to the American Church as well. "Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will go in and eat with him, and he with me." (Revelation 3:19-20 NIV) These words are often used in evangelism in giving an invitation for salvation. But these words were spoken to Christians, to the worldly church of Laodicea! Jesus spoke these words of compassion and invitation to those who needed to come back to their first love. Those who needed to repent of their worldliness. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Remember Jesus' ministry to the Samaritan woman. Speaking with this non-believer who was desperately seeking fulfillment in the world and coming up empty over and over and over again, He had but one thing to offer her, Himself! In Revelation 3, He speaks to a worldly church. Again, He has but one thing to offer, Himself! <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Let me close with this word of encouragement. If you think being a Christian consists of keeping a list of rules </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">and believing certain Biblical facts you have missed the point. While you do need to believe the truth about Jesus Christ to be born again. That he is the Son of God. That He died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins. That He was raised from the dead and is alive today seated at the right hand of God the Father. And you need to call out to Him in repentance and faith for salvation and be born again. But the Christian life was never meant to be lived in our strength. When you are born again Jesus Christ comes and indwells you in the person of the Holy Spirit. Paul gives this personal testimony in writing the church at Galatia. Galatians 2:20 (NIV) "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me..." A few chapters later he wrote, "So I say, live [or walk] by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature." (5:16 NIV)</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">To the Ephesian church, he wrote how God "...is able to do immeasurably more than we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us..." </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">(3:20 NIV) </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">To the Philippian church, he wrote, "…work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure." </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">(Phil. 2:12-13 ESV) God will give the believer both the desire and the ability or power to do His will.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The apostle Peter summarized it this way in </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">2 Peter 1:3-4 (NIV)</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">, ‘</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.” That includes the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. You see, God will give us both the desire and power to do His will if we surrender to Him and allow Him to live His life through us. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">I close with this word from Dr. A. B. Simpson, a Canadian Presbyterian pastor who later founded the Christian & Missionary Alliance. "A precious secret of Christian life is to have Jesus dwelling within and conquering things that we never could over-come. It is the only secret of power in your life and mine. Men cannot understand it, nor will the world believe it, but it is true that God will come and dwell within us, and be the power and the purity and the victory and the joy of our life.' (<i>Days of Heaven upon Earth</i>)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">© James P. McGarvey, All Rights Reserved<o:p></o:p></span></p><style class="WebKit-mso-list-quirks-style">
<!--
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-margin-top-alt:auto;
margin-right:0in;
mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
margin-left:0in;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;
mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";}
h5
{mso-style-priority:9;
mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-link:"Heading 5 Char";
mso-margin-top-alt:auto;
margin-right:0in;
mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
margin-left:0in;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
mso-outline-level:5;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";
font-weight:bold;}
a:link, span.MsoHyperlink
{mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
color:blue;
text-decoration:underline;
text-underline:single;}
a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed
{mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
color:#954F72;
mso-themecolor:followedhyperlink;
text-decoration:underline;
text-underline:single;}
p
{mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-margin-top-alt:auto;
margin-right:0in;
mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
margin-left:0in;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";}
span.Heading5Char
{mso-style-name:"Heading 5 Char";
mso-style-priority:9;
mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-locked:yes;
mso-style-link:"Heading 5";
font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;
mso-ascii-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-hansi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
font-weight:bold;}
.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
mso-default-props:yes;
font-size:10.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt;
mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;
mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;
mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;
mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;}
@page WordSection1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:.5in .5in .5in .5in;
mso-header-margin:.5in;
mso-footer-margin:.5in;
mso-paper-source:0;}
div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}
/* List Definitions */
@list l0
{mso-list-id:-227;
mso-list-template-ids:-1130701712;}
@list l0:level1
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:"";
mso-level-tab-stop:0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:0in;
font-family:Symbol;}
@list l0:level2
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:;
mso-level-tab-stop:.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:.75in;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Symbol;}
@list l0:level3
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:o;
mso-level-tab-stop:1.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:1.25in;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:"Courier New";
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";}
@list l0:level4
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:;
mso-level-tab-stop:1.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:1.75in;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Wingdings;}
@list l0:level5
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:;
mso-level-tab-stop:2.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:2.25in;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Wingdings;}
@list l0:level6
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:;
mso-level-tab-stop:2.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:2.75in;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Symbol;}
@list l0:level7
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:o;
mso-level-tab-stop:3.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:3.25in;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:"Courier New";
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";}
@list l0:level8
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:;
mso-level-tab-stop:3.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:3.75in;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Wingdings;}
@list l0:level9
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:;
mso-level-tab-stop:4.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:4.25in;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Wingdings;}
-->
</style>Jim McGarveyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09559934703130337359noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1895307860926611586.post-43451183092048524422020-07-30T19:24:00.002-07:002020-07-30T19:29:42.659-07:00Responding to Challenging Times - Philippians 4:4-20(See the video message, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/firstchristianchurchofwiltonmanors/videos/274847953605617/">Responding to Challenging Times</a> an exposition of Philippians 4:4-20 recorded at First Christian Church of Wilton Manors for the Sunday July 5, 2020 online message.)<div> </div><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">To say that we are living in challenging times would be an understatement. A time of political turmoil, the Covig-19 pandemic </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">with its loss of life. The reshaping of our daily life, social distancing, stay at home orders, travel restrictions, 14 day quarantines school and church closures, online worship, working and studying from home, the cancellation or postponement of events and activities that have been a part of our daily lives.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">An unprecedented economic slowdown, business closures and failures, lost wages, unemployment, a volatile stock market, </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">racial turmoil, protests and rioting, the destruction of businesses and private and public property. All of these can be the source of fear, anxiety, anger hardship,even suffering, and circumstances we've never faced before. Or you might be facing challenges unrelated to any of these events.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">This morning I want to share some thoughts with you from the Apostle Paul found in the fourth chapter of his letter to the Philippian church. You might remember Paul's first visit to the city of Philippi as recorded by Luke in Acts chapter 16. Luke writes that while in the city of Troas, in what is today Turkey, Paul had a vision of a "...man of Macedonia...urging him and saying, 'Come over to Macedonia and help us.'" </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">And that is exactly what Paul did arriving in Philippi, a Roman colony and leading city of Macedonia where he planted his first church in Europe, in what is today the country of Greece. He met Lydia, a "seller of purple goods" there by the riverside and led her and her household to the Lord. He cast out a demon from a slave girl who was a fortuneteller and a source of income </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">to her slave masters. This led to the arrest of Paul and Silas, his companion in ministry. They were beaten with rods and imprisoned. God then miraculously set them free by an earthquake. Subsequently, the jailor and his family came to Christ. And now years later towards the end of his life Paul writes a letter to the Philippian church while in Roman prison.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">Sean McDonough explains one of the reasons Paul wrote the Philippians, "He was...eager to thank them for their continued support. Imprisonment carried with it a social stigma, and it would have been easy for the Philippians to turn their back on Paul at this point. But they had remained faithful to him." This is the background of Paul's letter to the Philippian church. And as we look this morning at how we can respond to challenging times I want to focus our thoughts on four things from this text, Joy - Prayer - Contentment and Provision. What does joy have to do with facing challenging times? What role does prayer play in living in unprecedented circumstances? How is contentment important in these days of uncertainty? What provisions has God made as for those facing hardships?</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">I want to acknowledge this morning that I<b></b>for one need this message! You will note that in verse 9, of our text, Paul encouraged the Philippians, and us, not only to practice his teaching but to follow his example. He writes, "What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me-- practice these things." (ESV) So let's focus on those four words, joy - prayer - contentment and provision as we consider how to respond to challenging times. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">First of all the word joy in verse four,<b></b>"Rejoice in the Lord always, again I will say, rejoice."<b></b>I think we all know what it means to rejoice, "be glad, be joyful" (The <i>Analytical Greek Lexicon </i>pg. 433). Here in verse four it is a present imperative, in other words, it is a command to continuously rejoice in the Lord. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">D. A. Hayes says the book of Philippians "...is the Epistle of Joy." (<i>The Epistle to the Philippians,</i>pg. 421) The title of A. T. Robertson's commentary on the book of Philippians is entitled,<i>Paul's Joy in Christ</i>. Writing about this letter to the Philippians, the German theologian Bengel said, "The sum of the epistle is, I rejoice; rejoice ye." In other words, I rejoice, you rejoice! <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">Remember, Paul wrote these words while a prisoner in Rome! That fact alone is instructive, but not surprising. D. A. Hayes explains,</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">"Paul was a man whose spirits were undaunted in any circumstances. He might be scourged in one city and stoned in another </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">and imprisoned in a third and left for dead in a fourth, but as long as he retained consciousness and as</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><b style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">soon</b><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">as he regained consciousness he rejoiced. Nothing could dampen his ardor. Nothing could disturb his peace. In Philippi he had been scourged </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">and cast into the inner prison and his feet had been made fast in the stocks. His back was bleeding and torn; his ankles were swollen and paining him; he could not lie down; he could not sleep. It was too dark in the dungeon for him to see anyone,</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">but he could hear the voice of Silas somewhere near him in the midnight gloom. Some men would have been depressed </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">under these circumstances, and the prison damp and darkness would have chilled their very souls. It was not so with Paul. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">He began to sing hymns of praise to God, and Silas joined in. " (</span><i style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">The Epistle to the Philippians, </i><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">pg.421)</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">Under these dire and painful circumstances Paul and Silas held a midnight worship service! And Luke adds, "...and the prisoners were listening to them."</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><i><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">Beth and I had three new granddaughters added to our family last year, one in January, February and September. And it has been so easy to rejoice in the birth of these three precious babies. The joy experienced in meeting them, holding them, loving on them has been effortless. But Paul says rejoice in the Lord ALWAYS. While it is easy to rejoice in the birth of three new granddaughters, rejoicing in the midst of overwhelming even painful circumstances, as was the case of Paul and Silas, and perhaps some of us today is another matter. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">Jac Muller notes that Paul's instruction to "rejoice in the Lord always" is a command. He writes, "Not circumstances decide whether there will be joy, but </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">No matter what our circumstances, good or bad, we are to take joy in knowing the Lord. Rejoicing in our relationship with Him! I believe to "Rejoice in the Lord always" is an act of worship. I believe it is a form of praise. May I suggest that rejoicing in the Lord sets the stage for facing difficult circumstances like we are facing in these unprecedented days. Listen to the words of the Psalmist in Psalm 100 (NIV), </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">"Shout for joy to the Lord all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the Lord is good and his love endures forever, his faithfulness continues through all generations." </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">Do you see why Paul instructs us to "rejoice in the Lord." The God described in Psalm 100 remains the same no matter what our circumstances are. Our circumstances can change but the character and faithfulness of God never changes. Please do not underestimate what we are to rejoice </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">"Paul's joy was not grounded in earthly conditions but in Christ. No one could rob Paul of Christ or of his joy in Christ. Christ satisfied Paul's soul. Christ was his all in all. He needed nothing else to make his soul sing aloud and long for sheer joy." (</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">Let me ask you this morning. Can you rejoice "in the Lord"? You see there is a prerequisite to rejoicing in the Lord. First you must </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">Jesus Christ "gave himself for me." That is, He died on the cross bearing the penalty for my sin and yours, our sin that separates us from God. When we repent of our sin and put our trust in Jesus' death and resurrection we are born again and Christ lives in us as Paul testified. Only then can you "rejoice in the Lord."</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">Rejoicing in the Lord, giving praise to the Lord, sets the stage for giving thanks to the Lord in prayer. That is the second word we look at. Philippians 4:4-6. What role does prayer play in responding to difficult circumstances, facing unprecedented challenges? You will notice that thanksgiving is included in Paul's instructions on prayer, verse six, "do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication [or petition] </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">Giving thanks is a part of our prayer life, and especially when we are struggling with anxiety. Paul says, don't be anxious but </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">"in</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><b style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">everything</b><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">by prayer and petition</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><b style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">with thanksgiving</b><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">make your requests known unto God." (emphasis mine) As we have just noted, Paul says we are to "rejoice in the Lord always"</span><b style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"></b><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">meaning in every circumstance. And now he instructs us when faced with anxiety to pray with thanksgiving in</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><b style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">every circumstance</b><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">Paul gave similar instructions to the Thessalonians found in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (ESV). "Rejoice always; pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." Have the circumstances you are facing caused you to be anxious? Paul described some of his "circumstances". In writing the Corinthians. (2 Corinthians 11:24-28 ESV) </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">"Five times I received at the hands of Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. [one of those was in Philippi] Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers, in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches." </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">Paul had multiple opportunities in his personal experiences to practice thanksgiving in prayer. In light of these experiences of Paul we see the need for him to write in verse five, "let your reasonableness [or gentleness - forbearance] be known to everyone." </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">I don't know about you but when I get anxious or worried about something I sometimes get on edge. Anxiety often produces inner turmoil that can spill over in our relationship to others. Hence the admonition to be reasonable toward others, to be gentle, forbearing. Notice that Paul then goes on to explain how to deal with anxiety. "Do not be anxious about anything", verse six. Standing on its own this would be a tall order if not an impossible order! "Do not be anxious about ANYTHING? </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">Paul makes no room for anxiety!</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">He however, does not leave us out on a limb. He continues verse 6, "...but in everything by prayer and supplication [petition] </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God."</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">Paul is challenging us to take our anxieties to the Lord in prayer and petition, and do it in the context of joy with thanksgiving! </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">"Give thanks in ALL circumstances". Essentially, Paul is linking prayer with our daily living. And he links thanksgiving with prayer. Both are to be the practice of the believer. It is a call to Thanksgiving Living no matter what the circumstances might be.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">H. A. Kennedy writes, "Thanksgiving is the background, the predominant tone of the Christian life." (</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">with our petitions and requests. This is the question I have to ask myself in light of Paul's admonition here. Is my prayer life characterized by thanksgiving? Dr. Mark Lee wrote, "Thanksgiving is a part of the formula of prayer. Thanks and praise are as necessary to prayer as salt and pepper are to food." ("Five Kernels of Corn" </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">Note briefly these results. What is the opposite of anxiety? Paul makes mention of "peace" twice in this passage. In verse 7 he writes, "...the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus". He goes on to give us instructions about our thought life in verse 8-9, "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me --practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you." (ESV)</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">What could be more valuable than peace as we struggle with anxiety? What could be more valuable than peace in the midst of the challenging times of our day? Paul says in verse 7, "the...peace of God...will guard your hearts". A.T. Robertson, "This peace of God quiets both out hearts and our thoughts." (</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">"God is the God of peace (Phil. 4:9), and his peace is the inward peace of the soul that is grounded in God's presence and promise. Paul here assumes that we have made our peace with God in Christ and now we are enjoying our peace with God (Rom. 5:1)."(</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt;"><span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">Have you been reconciled to God through faith in His Son Jesus Christ? In other words, are you at peace </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">The third word is contentment, verse 11. How is contentment important in a life of thanksgiving and as we face challenging times? </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">Paul expresses his thanksgiving for the gifts of support he had received from the Philippian church. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">And in doing so, Paul shares what is apparently an important part of our response to difficult and challenging circumstances - contentment. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">According to verse 12 he experienced times of great need as we noted in his letter to the Corinthians, but also times of great plenty. And in verse 11 he says </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">"I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content."</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">May I suggest to you that contentment is part of the framework of thanksgiving. J A Motyer writes it is, "...the 'restful contentment' of the Christian, </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">the opposite of the desire for more." and in Paul's case, he writes "Circumstances no longer had power to touch him, for he was content." (Philippian Studies, page 176)</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">Paul wrote the Romans, "...we rejoice in our suffering, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope..." (5:3-4 ESV)</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">erse 12. Notice in verse 13 he testifies, "I can do all things through him who strengthens me." (ESV)</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">For the born again Christian nothing God calls us to do or be depends on our own strength. And that truth is Paul's explicit testimony in this verse. The times of suffering, deprivation and need and the times of plenty were the context of Paul learning contentment, but it was the power of God that strengthened him making it possible for him to live in contentment not matter what the circumstances.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">Remember the Thanksgiving celebrated by the pilgrims in 1621? What you might not remember is that this came after incredible suffering following their arrival in Massachusetts ten months before in December of 1620. Shirley Dobson writes,</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">"The pilgrims landed in Massachusetts on December 16, 1620. Lacking sufficient provisions and shelter for winter, most settlers became ill within weeks. Ten of 17 husbands and fathers died with the 'first infection', and of the 17 wives, only three were alive after three months. By April, more than half of the population had died of disease or famine. These bleak circumstances were punctuated by other forms of human tragedy. For example, William Bradford's wife drowned as they disembarked from the Mayflower, leaving him a widower with a 1-year old son." </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">In spite of these overwhelming tragedies and unimaginable suffering, the Pilgrims that survived that first winter set apart time to give thanks to God. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">Paul's testimony, </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">"...I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content." (vs.11b) and verse 13, "I can do all things through him who strengthens me." </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">Paul's exhortation to us in verse 6 "Do not be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and supplication [petition] with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God." (ESV)</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">The fourth and last word is provision</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">Paul was grateful for the gifts of the Philippian church helping him in his time of need. But note in verse 19 another truth that is important, if not foundational for us n these days of uncertainty. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">God's promise to supply our needs is echoed throughout Scripture, for example Matthew 6:33. In the context of discussing </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">the futility of being anxious about the physical needs of life food, clothing and shelter, Jesus said, (ESV) "But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." And notice the guarantee behind the promise of verse 19 of our text,</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">"...my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus."</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">God can make this kind of promise because of who</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">is inseparable from</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">the</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">glory of the One making the promise. It is the promise of a resurrected, ascended, exalted and sovereign Lord unlimited in power and resources. That is the foundation for thanksgiving! That allows us to "give thanks in all circumstances"</span><b style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"></b><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">and "to continue in prayer, being...thankful".</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">I close with this illustration. As I was thinking about this message I remembered the words of King David recorded in Psalm 63. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">I think most commentators believe David wrote this psalm after he fled Jerusalem when his son Absalom made an attempt to take the throne away from his very own father. David's life was endangered and his throne in jeopardy by an insurrection and rebellion of his own son! And so he fled to the desert and wilderness.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">In the midst of those challenging circumstances heartache and danger David faced, as I share his words, notice the praise that springs from David's heart in this face of his adversity. Notice the words that express his insatiable hunger for God in the midst of the challenges he faced. Notice the words that express his intimate fellowship with God in the face of his trials. Listen carefully to the metaphors and the word pictures that he used to describe his faith and trust in the Lord in these difficult circumstances. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">May I suggest to you as I close, that his words embody how we are to respond to God in the face of every challenge and adversity. As you listen to verses 1-8 of Psalm 63 (NIV)</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">David wrote, </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">"Oh God, you are my God, Earnestly I seek you; </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">My soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">in a dry and weary land where there is no water. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">I have seen you in the sanctuary </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">and beheld you power and your glory. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">Because your love is better than life, </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">my lips will glorify you. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">I will praise you as long as I live, </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">and in your name I will lift up my hands.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods; </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">With singing lips my lips my mouth will praise you; </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">On my bed I remember you; </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">I think of you through the watches of the night. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">Because you are my help, </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">I sing under the shadow of your wings. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">My soul clings to you; </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">your right hand upholds me. " </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">"Rejoice in the Lord always, again I will say, Rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand [or near], do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication [petition] with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:4-7 (ESV)</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">"...I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content." Philippians 4:11 (ESV)</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">"I can do all things through him who strengthens me." Philippians 4:13 (ESV)</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">"And my God will supply every need of yours, according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. To our God and Father be glory </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">for ever and ever. Amen." Philippians 4:19 (ESV) </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">© James P. McGarvey All Rights Reserved</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p>
<br />
<br /></div>Jim McGarveyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09559934703130337359noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1895307860926611586.post-1571590270231241012020-03-15T15:09:00.001-07:002020-04-26T11:19:49.449-07:00Spiritual Warfare & The Battle For Life - 40 Days For Life<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YpAj_suoHsY/Xm_ry-d1o6I/AAAAAAAAA_E/4KKiH37iQ7gHIprWFgi1DnYFU1iYE6jrQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Slide01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="720" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YpAj_suoHsY/Xm_ry-d1o6I/AAAAAAAAA_E/4KKiH37iQ7gHIprWFgi1DnYFU1iYE6jrQCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Slide01.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: #0f243e; font-family: "calibri";">(I gave this message on March 14, 2020 at the Mid-Point Rally of Fort Lauderdale's 40 Days For Life Prayer and Fasting Vigil. You may view the PowerPoint slides of this message online at Microsoft OneDrive <a href="https://1drv.ms/p/s!As4mcZNjhs_1gw2iopCbEa2Nuk6C?e=cXmrmA">Here</a>. You may download Microsoft OneDrive Basic free <a href="https://products.office.com/en-us/onedrive/compare-onedrive-plans?activetab=tab:primaryr1">Here</a>.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: #0f243e; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">At the Kick Off Rally last month I gave a message entitled <a href="https://churchforlife.blogspot.com/2020/03/strategic-prayer-40-days-for-life.html">"Strategic Prayer"</a>. We noted seven things to help us to engage in strategic prayer during the 40 day prayer and fasting vigil. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: #0f243e; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">We began by identifying the enemy, looking at two passages in particular where Jesus clearly identified the devil as the driving force behind the worldwide effort to kill human life at any age. The Biblical evidence makes it clear that Satan is the Architect of Abortion. Killing unborn children is part of his Agenda. Abortion is a Satanic Enterprise. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: #0f243e; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">In this morning's message, "Spiritual Warfare & the Battle For Life", we will look at Biblical truth that will further equip us for the spiritual warfare we are engaged in during these 40 Days. But first, I want to answer the question "Why does Satan want to kill unborn children?" Why is he so determined to exterminate human life? After all that is why we pray and fast at an abortion clinic asking God to prevent unborn children from being murdered. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: #0f243e; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">We speak of the sanctity of human life. What does that mean? What value does God place on human life? More specifically, how valuable are the unborn to God? This takes us to the Biblical creation account. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: #0f243e; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Man was created by God and in His image and likeness. Genesis 1:27 (ESV), “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created them.” and Genesis 2:7 (ESV), “…then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: #0f243e; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">It should be clear from the Biblical creation account that man is not the product of a random, meaningless evolutionary process over millions of years. Man is not the result of a cosmic accident. Rather God intentionally created man with capacities reflective of Himself, in other words, in His image and likeness. As recorded in Isaiah 43:7 God says, man was “created for my glory.” (NIV)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: #0f243e; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Man is made in the image of God. What does that mean? In his book, <i>Man: The Image of </i>God, pediatrician, Dr. John Rendle-Short, M.D. points out the </span><span style="color: #0f243e; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Godlike qualities man shares with God.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: #0f243e; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Language – humans can communicate. I had a dog named Maggie who could bark, whine, and growl, but over thirteen years I never heard her utter a single word, no less speak a sentence. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: #0f243e; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Intelligence – man can think. Not only is man a rational being he can think in the abstract. For example, he can compute complex mathematical, chemical and engineering formulas. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: #0f243e; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Creativity – his intelligence allows him to create sophisticated products. He can send a man to the moon and back and speak instantly around the world from a cell phone or by the internet. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: #0f243e; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Love<b></b>- relationships, fellowship, community. Man is a social creature with the ability to love and be loved. With the ability to care for and nurture its young and to live in life long committed relationships.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: #0f243e; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Holiness <b>-</b>man has a moral conscience, the ability to tell right from wrong. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: #0f243e; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Immortality – he is eternal and unlike the rest of the animal world, he will live forever.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: #0f243e; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Freedom - man can make choices. All of this “because he is human, made in the image of God.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
The Personhood of the unborn is also clearly established in God's word. We look at two examples. This is what God said to Jeremiah, (1:5) “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”<b></b>Before there was any physical manifestation of Jeremiah in the womb of his mother, God knew Him. <span style="font-size: 14pt;">God regarded Jeremiah as a unique and distinct person even before his birth.</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
Note this incredible incident. <span style="color: #0f243e;">These words were spoken by Elizabeth, who was six months pregnant with John the Baptist, when Mary, just days pregnant with Jesus Christ, visited her as recorded in </span>Luke 1:41-44 (NIV), <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: #0f243e;">"When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she exclaimed: ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.’" <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: #0f243e;">Do you realize what took place? The text says that six month old John the Baptist leaped for joy in his mother's womb when he came into the presence of Jesus Christ, God incarnate, who was but days old in the womb of his mother Mary. This is the first record </span>of worship of the Messiah. <span style="color: #0f243e;">And it took place in the womb! I call it intra-uterine worship. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: #0f243e;">Do you see the personhood of the unborn in these narratives? You see, the Biblical evidence is clear. </span>The unborn are created by God and for God. They are created in His image and God recognizes them as distinct and unique persons in the womb from the moment of conception. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
T<span style="color: #0f243e;">he scientific evidence leads us to the same conclusion. D</span>ouglas Erlandson writes, "When the fertilized egg (or zygote) is first formed, it already possesses its <i>full</i>complement of DNA or genetic information." He continues, <span style="color: #0f243e;">"That information never changes. A person’s sex, blood type hair and skin color, and future height are all determined in that first cell. </span>From that moment on, unless its life is terminated, it will develop until it becomes an adult human being.” <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: #0f243e;">Professor, Dr. Micheline Matthews-Roth, M.D. of Harvard University Medical School writes, </span>“…It is scientifically correct to say that an individual human life begins at conception…”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: #0f243e;">We don't have time to dwell on this further in this message. For more information see my presentation, "The Scientific, Philosophical & Metaphysical Case for Life" on my website churchforlife.blogspot.com. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: #0f243e;">Let's bring Satan back into the picture. We noted last time ["Strategic Prayer" 40 Days Kick Off Rally] that the devil is the driving force behind abortion. The stage was set thousands of years ago as recorded in Genesis 3:15 (NIV). After Adam and Eve fell into sin, God said to Satan,<b></b>"...I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; </span><span style="color: #0f243e; font-size: 14pt;">he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel."</span><b style="color: #0f243e; font-size: 14pt;"></b><span style="color: #0f243e; font-size: 14pt;">And with that, the epoch struggle between good and evil began. And ever since, Satan has been involved in an unrelenting effort to kill the offspring of Eve, created in the image of God.</span><span style="color: #0f243e; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: #0f243e;">Remember Jesus Himself said as much. In John 8:44 (NIV) Jesus said this to those who were threatening to kill him, "You belong to your father, the devil, and you want </span>to carry out your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and father <b></b>of lies." <span style="font-size: 14pt;">Here Jesus identifies two roles of Satan, a murderer from the beginning and a liar and the father of lies.</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
In 2013 a study by Dr. Brian Clowes revealed that there had been 1.72 billion abortions worldwide <span style="color: #0f243e;">in the forty years since 1973. That's an average of 117,800 per day for 40 years. Abortion is the most frequently performed elective surgery in America, over 3,000 a day. 21% of all pregnancies (excluding miscarriages) are surgically aborted. </span><b>“</b>About one in three American women will have had an abortion by the time she reaches age 45.” (Compiled by Operation Rescue) <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
John Powell has written, “In the United States it is statistically confirmed that the most dangerous place for anyone to be, with regard to the preservation of one’s life, is in the womb of one’s mother.” (<i>Abortion: The Silent Holocaust</i>)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
Remember in John 10:10, Jesus said, "The thief comes only to steal, and kill, and to destroy...." (NIV) <span style="color: #0f243e;">The Devil has been very successful in carrying out his agenda. </span>This is why we pray and fast to end abortion. We are in a spiritual war with the powers of darkness. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
Satan is also a liar and the father of lies. <b> </b>As we noted last time, d<span style="color: #0f243e;">eception proliferates in the abortion industry. In fact, deception characterizes the abortion industry. </span>Notice, deception involves telling lies. <span style="color: #0f243e;">These were the words of an abortion counselor:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: #0f243e;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
"Although the test is positive, you shouldn't consider yourself pregnant," she explained. "It's really just cells dividing at this point. We can take care of the problem quickly and easily, and you'll never have to think about it again.” She made four statements. Each of the four statements was a lie. <span style="color: #0f243e;">This is the mantra of the abortion industry. </span>Remember this as you pray at the clinic. <span style="color: #0f243e;">The women and men entering the abortion clinic next door </span>will be told similar lies. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: #0f243e;">Deception involves withholding the truth. This study showed that, “Even though the majority felt rushed and uncertain, 67% received no counseling; 79% were not told about alternatives to abortion.” ( VM Rue et. al., <i>Medical Science Monitor</i>) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: #0f243e;">L</span><span style="color: #0f243e;">ies and deception are part of the business model of the clinic where you are interceding in prayer on behalf of the unborn and their parents. You see, deception Leads to Moral Schizophrenia. </span><span style="color: #0f243e;">How else do you explain this conclusion by Pastor Randy Alcorn, "</span><span style="color: #0f243e;">In America it is illegal to <b><i>harm </i></b>your pre-born child, but it is perfectly legal to <b><i>kill </i></b>him.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: #0f243e;">The Devil is “a murderer”, “a liar and father of lies”.<b></b>These two “attributes” expose him<b></b>as the Architect of Abortion.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: #0f243e;">Look with me at the ancient origin child killing. </span><span style="color: #0f243e;">We trace it back to Molech worship. Molech was a god of the Ammonites the descendants of Lot. Molech was a fertility god whose worship included child sacrifice. Israel became involved in this form of idolatry. Children were placed on the out stretched arms of idol Molech falling into the fire burning in the belly of the idol </span><span style="color: #0f243e; font-size: 14pt;">where they were burned alive. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: #0f243e; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: #0f243e; font-size: 14pt;">Ezekiel 16:20-21 records God's response, “And you took your sons and daughters whom you bore to me and sacrificed them as food to the idols…You slaughtered my children and sacrificed them to the idols.”</span><b style="color: #0f243e; font-size: 14pt;"></b><span style="color: #0f243e; font-size: 14pt;">King Solomon built the first high place for the worship of Molech. Subsequent kings continued the practice including King Ahaz and Manasseh who sacrificed their very own children as they led their nation in the worship of the demon god Molech.</span><span style="color: #0f243e; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: #0f243e;">Notice the parallels with abortion. In Molech worship a child was sacrificed to gain Molech's favor. I</span>n other words, the parents sacrificed something of value, their child, to gain something at a given point in time they considered to be of even greater value. F<span style="color: #0f243e;">or example, seeking Molech’s favor for, a good harvest, victory in battle or financial wellbeing. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: #0f243e;">Notice the similarity with abortion. In abortion the mother sacrifices the life of her child for something, which at that time is of more value to her than the child - her education, avoiding personal shame, financial reasons, personal convenience, her career or birth control. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
Sacrifice for what? Pastor John Piper has written, “Abortion in America is not done consciously with any desire to get blessing from a deity. But it is done to gain something 'better' than the baby— The life of a child is being sacrificed for something. What that 'something' is defines the barbarity of our culture.” <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
Pastor Rusty Thomas, in his book <i>Field Manual for Abortion Ministry</i>, writes, <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
"Though thousands of years have passed,...The pagan ritual...persists. These ancient rites continue through clinics established by organizations such as Planned Parenthood in the abortion industry. The setting has indeed changed, but the lying message and brutal practice remains the same. Can you hear its voice today? 'You are too young.' 'You have to think about your schooling and career.' 'You cannot afford a baby.' 'It will leave stretch marks' ...Moloch and Baal still whisper, 'Give your child to me and all will be well with you.'" <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
Do you see the deception? This is why we pray and fast that God will open the eyes of those who are being lied to and deceived by our culture and the abortion industry. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: #0f243e;">The Scriptures identify the demonic nature of this child sacrifice in Psalm 106:37-38. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: #0f243e;">"</span>They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons<i>. </i>They shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, and the land was desecrated by their blood."<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: #0f243e;">There are distinct parallels between Molech worship</span><b><span style="color: #0f243e;"></span></b><span style="color: #0f243e;">and abortion.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
1. Abortion is the “sacrifice” of the unborn. “They sacrificed their sons and their daughters”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
2. The unborn are family – our sons & daughters. “They sacrificed their sons and their daughters”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
3. Abortion sheds innocent blood. “They...shed innocent blood”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
4. The innocent blood of the aborted is sacrificed demons. “They sacrificed…to demons”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
Pastor Randy Alcorn writes, <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
“As the devil loved the sacrifice of children in the ancient heathen cultures, so he loves the sacrifice of children in our modern culture." "Whether children are sacrificed to a heathen god called Molech or to the god of our own convenience, he does not care. Whether these children are born or unborn does not matter to God’s enemies, for each of them is equally created in the image of God, and by killing them Satan comes as close as he can to striking out at God Himself. In killing those created in God’s image, Satan kills God in effigy.” (<i>Prolife Answers to ProChoice Arguments.</i>)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
Eric Holmberg and Jay Rogers, in their work, <i>Massacre of Innocence</i>,<i></i>summarize, “The spiritual heritage of the Moabites and the Ammonites is passed down to our own day. Today the church is fighting against those same spiritual forces for the very survival of our nation."<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
They continue, "Without all out spiritual warfare, what are our chances of victory when the demons' lust is being gorged on the blood of not just one, but over one million children killed each year?”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
Prayer and fasting to end abortion is spiritual warfare. That makes it the business of the Church. Tell that to your pastors and spiritual leaders!<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
As we noted last time, "...our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”<b></b>(Ephesians 6:12, NIV) And the Apostle Paul wrote the Corinthians,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
"For though we walk in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension [lofty opinion] that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." (2 Corinthians 10:3-5, NIV) Prayer and fasting are an essential part of that spiritual arsenal. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: #0f243e;">Lest you think that that abortion and the demonic is just ancient history, let me bring you up to date. M</span>odern feminism, witchcraft & abortion. In December of 1985 an article, entitled, "Feminist Spiritualism and Abortion" appeared in the feminist <i>Ms. Magazine</i>, <span style="color: #0f243e;">written, and I emphasize, by feminists about themselves. </span>"The feminist spirituality movement began to emerge in the mid-1970s <span style="color: #0f243e;">and has become one of the largest sub-movements within feminism...to the women in feminist spirituality, witchcraft had even a more fundamental meaning. It is a woman's religion, vilified by patriarchal Christianity, and now, finally, reclaimed.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: #0f243e;">Eric Holmberg and Jay Rogers write this about what was in the article, "Much space was given to goddess worship or adulation of the various demons associated with child sacrifice (including Isis and Aphrodite).” (<i>Massacre<b></b>of Innocence</i>)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: #0f243e;">Here is just a sample of the thinking of modern day feminists with regard to abortion. </span>Patricia Baird-Windle owned three abortion clinics <span style="color: #0f243e;">responsible for 65,000 abortions. In an interview after retirement she said, "Abortion is a major blessing and a sacrament in the hands of women..." (The 'Sacrament' of Abortion: An Interview With a Retired Abortionist.") <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: #0f243e;">Rev. Katherine Hancock Ragsdale, President of the Episcopal Divinity School in New England said the following in a sermon given in Birmingham AL in 2007, “When a woman becomes pregnant within a loving, supportive, respectful relationship; has every option open to her; decides she does not wish to bear a child; and has access to safe, affordable abortion – there is not a tragedy in sight – only blessing.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: #0f243e;">Episcopal Priestess, Dr. Carter Hayward, in 1985, told the National Abortion Federation, </span><span style="color: #0f243e;">"Abortion would be a sacrament if women were in charge. </span><span style="color: #0f243e;">Abortion should be a sacrament even today." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: #0f243e;">Listen to these astounding words. "It’s rare for a woman to choose abortion because in some way she dislikes the fetus. She sacrifices it for the sake of something she judges at this moment to be more important, whether it be her existing children… or her own physical, economic, or psychological survival or the fate of the planet." </span><span style="color: #0f243e;">Do you remember what I just shared comparing abortion to child sacrifice? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: #0f243e;">Psychologist Dr. Ginnette Paris wrote those words in her book <i>The Sacrament of Abortion.</i></span><span style="color: #0f243e;">She continues, “When abortion is necessary, not only should there be no shame but there should be a new consensus that to have a child who cannot adequately be cared for is shameful…it is not immoral to choose abortion; it is simply another kind of morality, a pagan one.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: #0f243e;">Frank Pavone, commenting on her book writes, “The fact that some defend abortion as a sacred act should alert us to the depth of the spiritual warfare that is going on. Abortion has never been merely or even primarily a political issue. It is a <i>false religion</i>." He writes of a former abortion clinic security guard who "...after being converted, admitted why he was angry at pro-life sidewalk counselors 'You were coming to protest in front of our church. That clinic was where we conducted our worship.’” ("The 'Sacrament' of Abortion")<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
Do you see why abortion is a gospel issue? Do you see why ending abortion is the business of the Church? And the first work of the Church with regard to anything is prayer and fasting. To think otherwise is to be Biblically uninformed! <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: #0f243e;">Unmasking a "woman's right to choose." and "reproductive rights". </span><span style="color: #0f243e;">If you dialogue about abortion around the water cooler at work or at home over the back yard fence these are the words that always come into play. These are the two terms the proponents of abortion use to frame the debate. "A woman's right to choose" and "reproductive rights" are code words for a woman's right to take the life of her unborn child. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
The key Scripture that addresses this issue is Genesis 3:1-5 (NIV).<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
"Now, the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, 'Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden?' The woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.' ‘You will not surely die,’ the serpent said to the woman. ‘For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”<b><o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: #0f243e;">Note the significance of the "tree of the knowledge of good and evil". These were the temptations Eve faced then and we face today.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: #0f243e;">To live independent of God - Self-idolatry – self love rules.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: #0f243e;">Man becomes his own god “you will be like God". In other words, the self-deification of man -- and its result.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: #0f243e;">Man determines right & wrong (moral relativism).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: #0f243e;">This is the underlying premise of the proponents of a woman's right to choose" and "reproductive rights.” As Dr. Carl Ellis has said, <b>"</b>Eve became, in essence, the first secular humanist." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: #0f243e;">Notice the link between abortion and the Garden of Eden. "I do not what a child at this time." Pastor John Piper writes, </span><span style="color: #0f243e;">“…that is one of the most powerful sentences a person can speak…the ‘want’- of a mother has become the will of a god. …Our modern, secular, God-dethroning culture has endowed the will (the ‘want’) of a mother not just with sovereignty over her child, but with something vastly greater...the right and the power to create personhood.” (“Abortion & the Tree of Knowledge of Good & Evil.”) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: #0f243e;">The legal right “to choose” gives women the legal right to define personhood or play god. Agai</span><span style="color: #0f243e;">n Pastor Piper, </span><span style="color: #0f243e;">“…the awesome thing is that we endow her will not just with sovereignty over her unborn baby, but with the authority to define it. If she wants it, it is a baby, a person. </span><span style="color: #0f243e;">If she does not want it, it is not a baby, not a person.” (“Abortion & the Tree of Knowledge of Good & Evil.”)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: #0f243e;">Pastor Randy Alcorn, “The prochoice position always overlooks the victim’s right to choose...The blacks didn’t choose slavery. The Jews didn’t choose the ovens. And the babies don’t choose abortion.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: #0f243e;">How should the Church respond? </span>I hope that you have seen this morning that abortion is first and foremost a spiritual issue, and therefore a gospel issue. This makes prayer the first work in the effort to end abortion. <span style="color: #0f243e;">Last time I made a copy of the tri-fold "Praying to End Abortion" available to assist us in our prayers. Be sure to get one if you were not here. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: #0f243e;">I shared these two conclusions with you last time. They bear repeating in light of the Biblical truth we have just noted. The Body of Christ, the church, is the <b><i>only </i></b>organism (institution) spiritually equipped to engage the Satanic forces behind abortion.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: #0f243e; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Therefore the Church <b><i>must take the lead </i></b>in the efforts to end abortion. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
When the church sees abortion as a Gospel issue we will win the battle for life! Christ has already won the victory! The Apostle Paul wrote<b>, </b>"For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over ever power and authority." (Colossians 1:9-10, NIV) <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: #0f243e;">The enemy has been defeated. </span><span style="color: black;">"The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work."<b></b>(1 Jo</span>hn 3:8, NIV) <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
A<span style="color: #0f243e;">s you enter the battle against the demonic forces propelling the abortion holocaust, remember Paul's words, "</span>Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against devil's schemes." (Ephesians 6:10-11, NIV) <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: #0f243e;">Pastor John Ensor in his book,<i>Innocent Blood </i>writes, "The commands of Scripture exist that we might be compelled to do what does not come naturally." </span><span style="color: #0f243e;">In Luke chapter ten Jesus helped a lawyer understand what it meant to love his neighbor. The lawyer was evidently hung up on exactly what that looked like. So he asked Jesus, "Who his my neighbor?" Jesus then tells him the story of a man on his way to Jericho from Jerusalem who was robbed and beaten and left half dead alongside the road. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: #0f243e;">Three different individuals had the opportunity to come to his rescue, in all likelihood to save his life. Two of the three did not respond to the needs of the man bleeding by the side of the road. Those two were the church leaders of that day, a priest and a Levite, responsible for the spiritual care of their nation. And Jesus points out that not only did they fail to respond but, they "passed by on the other side." (NIV) In other words they consciously and deliberately distanced themselves from the needs of the man dying by the side of the road. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: #0f243e;">Jesus then pointed out that the one who proved to be the neighbor to the dying man was the one who showed mercy to the badly beaten traveller. He then said, "Go and do likewise." </span><span style="color: #0f243e;">John Ensor, in his book <i>Innocent Blood</i>, defines "<b><u>Samaritan compassion</u>" </b>this way:<b></b>"Doing right in the sight of the Lord means acting to stop the shedding of innocent blood. The only person in Jesus’ parable who is pro-life according to the demands of love is the Samaritan. Only he was willing to make the nearly dead man’s problem his own. Only he was willing to see the victim’s suffering as his own. Only he was willing to act </span><span style="color: #0f243e; font-size: 14pt;">according to what</span><span style="color: #0f243e; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><i style="color: #0f243e; font-size: 14pt;">he </i><span style="color: #0f243e; font-size: 14pt;">would cry out for if their positions had been reversed."</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
May I suggest to you that according to Jesus' parable, <span style="color: #0f243e;">our salvation has a moral imperative built into it with regards to the needs of those around us, our neighbors. </span><span style="color: #0f243e;">In 2019 - 9,864 unborn children lost their lives to abortion in Broward County. That's an average of 27 children every day. They were our neighbors. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: #0f243e;">Children will die unless someone intervenes on their behalf. In other words, we have an opportunity and responsibility to "go and do likewise!" Again, Pastor Ensor, "Loving my neighbor will occasionally arrest me, and maybe even require me to help prevent someone from being murdered." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: #0f243e;">The writer of Proverbs </span>said something very similar, "Rescue those who are unjustly sentenced to death; Don’t stand back and let them die. <span style="color: #0f243e;">Don’t try to avoid responsibility by saying you didn’t know about it."<b></b></span>(24:10-12, NLT)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
In his pamphlet, <i>Field Manual for Abortion Ministry, </i>(2014) Pastor Rusty Lee Thomas posed these two penetrating questions.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
"What does Christianity look like in a nation that murders its own children? <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
Has the church failed to be prolife or have we failed to be Christian when it comes to rescuing our neighbors scheduled to be dismembered?"<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: #0f243e;">You participation in prayer and fasting to end abortion is part of the answer to those two questions. I hope you have seen tonight that ending abortion is a gospel issue if not a gospel imperative. The Church has no alternative but to take it's stand - against the devil's schemes engaging in spiritual warfare as it steps into the battle for life with all of the powerful resources<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: #0f243e; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">that the Gospel equips us with. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: #0f243e;">O</span>n January 20, 2011, Rev. Flip Benham of Operation Save America issued the following statement ina press release. "...the time is now, for the Church to rise up and not wait for political parties, or the president, or Congress, or the Supreme Court to take care of the issue. It is our responsibility. The gates of hell will not prevail against the Church of Jesus Christ. Abortion will come to an end, when the Church of Jesus Christ makes up her mind it will come to an end – not a Second sooner. The responsibility for ending abortion in America rests squarely upon the shoulders of the Church of Jesus Christ.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: #0f243e; font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: #0f243e; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt;">© James P McGarvey All Rights Reserved<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<style class="WebKit-mso-list-quirks-style">
<!--
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";}
a:link, span.MsoHyperlink
{mso-style-priority:99;
color:blue;
mso-themecolor:hyperlink;
text-decoration:underline;
text-underline:single;}
a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed
{mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
color:purple;
mso-themecolor:followedhyperlink;
text-decoration:underline;
text-underline:single;}
p
{mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-margin-top-alt:auto;
margin-right:0in;
mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
margin-left:0in;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Times;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";}
p.MsoNoSpacing, li.MsoNoSpacing, div.MsoNoSpacing
{mso-style-priority:1;
mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:14.0pt;
mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Calibri;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";}
p.FreeFormA, li.FreeFormA, div.FreeFormA
{mso-style-name:"Free Form A";
mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-fareast-font-family:"ヒラギノ角ゴ Pro W3";
color:black;}
p.FreeForm, li.FreeForm, div.FreeForm
{mso-style-name:"Free Form";
mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-fareast-font-family:"ヒラギノ角ゴ Pro W3";
color:black;
mso-ansi-language:#0400;}
p.Body, li.Body, div.Body
{mso-style-name:Body;
mso-style-update:auto;
mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Helvetica;
mso-fareast-font-family:"ヒラギノ角ゴ Pro W3";
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
color:black;}
.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
mso-default-props:yes;
font-size:10.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt;
mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;}
@page WordSection1
{size:11.0in 8.5in;
mso-page-orientation:landscape;
margin:.5in .5in .5in .5in;
mso-header-margin:.5in;
mso-footer-margin:.5in;
mso-paper-source:0;}
div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}
/* List Definitions */
@list l0
{mso-list-id:217517323;
mso-list-type:hybrid;
mso-list-template-ids:1206300240 -884470402 -207950282 1038786478 1493991870 -900666462 1158432722 -1330498940 1010577080 -1922384690;}
@list l0:level1
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l0:level2
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:1.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l0:level3
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:1.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l0:level4
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:2.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l0:level5
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:2.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l0:level6
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:3.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l0:level7
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:3.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l0:level8
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:4.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l0:level9
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:4.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l1
{mso-list-id:443883214;
mso-list-type:hybrid;
mso-list-template-ids:-240477806 293499074 890241106 -1620958966 -757433076 -1260347346 -1622892166 1625966194 -535559934 11818158;}
@list l1:level1
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l1:level2
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:1.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l1:level3
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:1.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l1:level4
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:2.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l1:level5
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:2.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l1:level6
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:3.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l1:level7
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:3.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l1:level8
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:4.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l1:level9
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:4.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l2
{mso-list-id:564754496;
mso-list-type:hybrid;
mso-list-template-ids:-30877464 -838055708 -735293828 1686805954 -1937346104 -2113489814 -571953336 -839850668 1239158872 -2067864904;}
@list l2:level1
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l2:level2
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:1.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l2:level3
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:1.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l2:level4
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:2.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l2:level5
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:2.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l2:level6
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:3.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l2:level7
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:3.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l2:level8
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:4.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l2:level9
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:4.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l3
{mso-list-id:843865533;
mso-list-type:hybrid;
mso-list-template-ids:-1391416050 67698689 67698691 67698693 67698689 67698691 67698693 67698689 67698691 67698693;}
@list l3:level1
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Symbol;}
@list l3:level2
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:o;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:"Courier New";}
@list l3:level3
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Wingdings;}
@list l3:level4
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Symbol;}
@list l3:level5
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:o;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:"Courier New";}
@list l3:level6
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Wingdings;}
@list l3:level7
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Symbol;}
@list l3:level8
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:o;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:"Courier New";}
@list l3:level9
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Wingdings;}
@list l4
{mso-list-id:929895672;
mso-list-type:hybrid;
mso-list-template-ids:851240672 -905913744 -1351998096 -1370356402 -464721584 1316618264 343071462 1673449868 1567241794 -177560188;}
@list l4:level1
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l4:level2
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:1.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l4:level3
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:1.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l4:level4
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:2.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l4:level5
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:2.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l4:level6
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:3.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l4:level7
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:3.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l4:level8
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:4.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l4:level9
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:4.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l5
{mso-list-id:1340305358;
mso-list-type:hybrid;
mso-list-template-ids:539496140 -297664360 936261450 1756799426 1033154332 1921440896 -1814296264 -24240494 312530710 562697608;}
@list l5:level1
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l5:level2
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:1.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l5:level3
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:1.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l5:level4
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:2.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l5:level5
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:2.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l5:level6
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:3.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l5:level7
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:3.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l5:level8
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:4.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l5:level9
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:4.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l6
{mso-list-id:1342001600;
mso-list-type:hybrid;
mso-list-template-ids:-830672028 67698703 67698691 67698693 67698689 67698691 67698693 67698689 67698691 67698693;}
@list l6:level1
{mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l6:level2
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:o;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:"Courier New";}
@list l6:level3
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Wingdings;}
@list l6:level4
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Symbol;}
@list l6:level5
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:o;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:"Courier New";}
@list l6:level6
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Wingdings;}
@list l6:level7
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Symbol;}
@list l6:level8
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:o;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:"Courier New";}
@list l6:level9
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Wingdings;}
@list l7
{mso-list-id:1657611190;
mso-list-type:hybrid;
mso-list-template-ids:1288481686 257872198 49192120 -1331274176 431792202 -1336521840 1531998438 -2141165122 194140994 1550508248;}
@list l7:level1
{mso-level-tab-stop:.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l7:level2
{mso-level-tab-stop:1.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l7:level3
{mso-level-tab-stop:1.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l7:level4
{mso-level-tab-stop:2.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l7:level5
{mso-level-tab-stop:2.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l7:level6
{mso-level-tab-stop:3.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l7:level7
{mso-level-tab-stop:3.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l7:level8
{mso-level-tab-stop:4.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l7:level9
{mso-level-tab-stop:4.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l8
{mso-list-id:1823505256;
mso-list-type:hybrid;
mso-list-template-ids:654978020 709786532 -896347410 -1540876704 -1636012126 353170394 -2039948780 -1293899322 -1523830766 -1581741814;}
@list l8:level1
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l8:level2
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:1.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l8:level3
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:1.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l8:level4
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:2.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l8:level5
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:2.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l8:level6
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:3.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l8:level7
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:3.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l8:level8
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:4.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l8:level9
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:4.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l9
{mso-list-id:2107269244;
mso-list-type:hybrid;
mso-list-template-ids:-2055679370 -1909584990 -2067482914 410970996 1131209602 2030067084 511348176 236380274 -123449400 439803322;}
@list l9:level1
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l9:level2
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:1.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l9:level3
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:1.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l9:level4
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:2.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l9:level5
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:2.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l9:level6
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:3.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l9:level7
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:3.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l9:level8
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:4.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l9:level9
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:4.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
-->
</style><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;">
<br /></div>
Jim McGarveyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09559934703130337359noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1895307860926611586.post-23410429453975304762020-03-15T09:51:00.001-07:002020-07-31T09:22:51.242-07:00Strategic Prayer - 40 Days For Life<div class="Body" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Nj6sM0i7g2k/Xm_vUGGSqXI/AAAAAAAAA_Q/bv9eXfE0NfMyuK93PW08W7DH5LdLqUXRgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Slide01.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="720" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Nj6sM0i7g2k/Xm_vUGGSqXI/AAAAAAAAA_Q/bv9eXfE0NfMyuK93PW08W7DH5LdLqUXRgCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Slide01.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: medium;">(I gave this message on February 25, 2020 at the Kick Off Rally of theFort Lauderdale 40 Days For Life Prayer and Fasting Vigil. You may view the PowerPoint slides that accompany this message on Microsoft OneDrive <a href="https://1drv.ms/p/s!As4mcZNjhs_1gwlfzR05JHUK--X3?e=lSecf6">Here</a>. You may sign up for MS OneDrive for free <a href="https://products.office.com/en-us/onedrive/compare-onedrive-plans?activetab=tab:primaryr1">Here</a>.)</span></div>
<div align="center" class="Body" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">As the prayer and fasting vigil begins tomorrow I want to share a few thoughts about strategic prayer. According to the Florida Agency For Health Care Administration, 9,864 unborn children were killed by abortion in Broward County in 2019. That is an average of 27 children per day. They were our neighbors. This is the reason we meet here tonight. This is the reason for the 40 Days of prayer and fasting. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">I want to note with you tonight seven things to help us as we engage in strategic prayer. First of all, we must recognize the enemy Jesus identified as the enemy in John chapter eight. He was engaged in a conversation with the some of the religious leaders. Jesus said, "As it is, you are determined to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God." He went on to say as recorded in John 8:44, "You belong to your father, the devil...He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of all lies."</span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">In this passage, Jesus identifies the two key roles of Satan in our world today. His job description, if you will. He is a murderer from the beginning, a liar, and the father of lies. How successful has he been? in the State of Florida, 71,908 unborn babies lost their lives to abortion in 2019. It is estimated that between 40 and 50 million unborn children are killed by abortion worldwide each year.</span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">Satan is a liar. Deception proliferates in the abortion industry. In fact, deception characterizes the abortion industry. Satan is "a murderer" and "a liar and the father of lies". These two attributes expose Satan as the Architect of Abortion</span><b style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">. </b><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">Satan has been very successful in carrying out his agenda. Jesus described Satan's agenda it in John 10:10, "T</span><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">he thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy." Therefore, this evening in order to pray strategically, please beware that abortion is a Satanic Enterprise.</span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">As Pastor Randy Alcorn has written, “According to the Scriptures, there are spiritual beings present here, righteous angels and fallen angels, and we are under attack. There is a battle for our minds, and a battle for our souls: It’s not fiction, it’s not imagination; it’s revealed reality. There is great spiritual warfare associated with the issue of abortion." </span><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">(</span><i style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">ProLife Answers to ProChoice Arguments</i><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">, pg. 353)</span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">Secondly, as we pray strategically let's begin with repentance. Repent of the Church's complicity with abortion. </span><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">1 Peter 4:17 "For it is time for judgmentto begin with God’s household; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God?" (NIV) </span><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">We must repent of abortion in the church and the silence and ambivalence of the church to the abortion crisis.</span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">43% of women having abortions identify themselves as Protestants, 27% as Roman Catholics. (AGI, “In Brief” July, 2008)"76% of women indicate local churches had no influence on their decision to terminate their pregnancy". </span><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">("<a href="http://www.slideshare.net/CareNetHQ/lifeway-research-on-abortion-in-church"><span style="color: black; text-decoration: none;">Study of Women Who Have Had An Abortion and Their Views On Church</span></a></span><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">", </span><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">CareNet/Lifeway) </span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">Thirdly, as we pray strategically, let us note the work of the enemy in the hearts, lives and minds of those we are praying for. </span><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">I remind you this evening that the advocates of abortion are not the “enemy". Dr. Harvey Roth and Dr. Loss the abortionists next door, and the staff at the Fort Lauderdale Women's Center, clients at the abortion clinic and all those associated with the killing of the unborn and those who defend the right of a woman to kill her unborn are not the enemy.</span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">Paul further describes the spiritual forces at work when he wrote of the unseen reality behind this kind of evil, "...our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” (Ephesians 6:12, NIV).</span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">You see tragically those involved in the abortion industry are themselves the casualties of Satan's deception and evil schemes. </span><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">T</span><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">o the Corinthian church Paul wrote, “The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” (2 Corinthians 4:4, NIV)</span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">Writing from prison in Rome where he was in chains awaiting execution by the Emperor Nero the Apostle Paul writes Timothy </span><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">instructing, him how to deal with those who oppose the truth and exposing how the devil has trapped and taken them captive. </span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">“And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. Opponents must be gently instructed, in the hope that </span><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will.” (</span><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">2 Timothy 2:24-26, NIV)</span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">That is the work of Satan deceiving those participating in abortion and those defending abortion. Paul wrote</span><b style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"></b><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">that the Christians at Colossae had been "…rescued…from the dominion of darkness and brought…into the kingdom of the Son </span><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins." (Colossians 1:13, NIV)</span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">This is the spiritual condition of all of us apart from the saving grace of God through faith in His son Jesus Christ. Do you see the spiritual condition of those who do not know the truth or have turned away from the truth? God can reach them through our prayers. </span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">Fourthly then, as we pray strategically, what should guide our response, what should characterize out attitude toward those for whom we pray and those who oppose our efforts?</span><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">"Do not repay evil with evil or insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called </span><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">so that you may inherit a blessing." (1 Peter 3:9, NIV)</span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">"Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves."<b>(</b>Philippians 2:3, NIV) </span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">This is an opportunity for us to realize that but for the grace of God anyone of us could be working at the Fort Lauderdale Women's Center. But for the grace of God anyone of us could be visiting the clinic as a client of their services. The Apostle Peter wrote, 1 Peter 5:5b</span><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><b style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">"</b><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, 'God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.'</span><b style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">" </b><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">(NIV)</span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">Fifthly, as we pray strategically, note God's provision to engage the Satanic forces in this prayer vigil.<b></b>How do we intercede on behalf of the unborn whose lives are at risk at the Fort Lauderdale Women's Center and the mothers, fathers, boyfriends, </span><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">husbands, grandparents and others who bring them to the clinic? How do we pray for the abortionists and their staff at the clinic?</span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">Note with me that we are equipped with God's promises and God's power for this prayer vigil, the Word of God and the power of the Holy Spirit. Do you remember the temptation of Jesus by the devil recorded in Luke 4:1ff?</span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">"Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert, where he was tempted by the devil."<b></b>The devil tempted Jesus three times. and each time Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit responded by quoting the Scriptures. </span><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">The writer to the Hebrews says, "For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account."<b>(</b>Hebrews 4:12-13, NIV)</span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">As you stand and pray at the clinic, remember these astounding words from the Apostle Peter.</span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">"His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires." (</span><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">2 Peter 1:3-4, NIV)</span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">Through the promises of God we have access to the power of God. The two always go together as His provision for the task before us. Notice the Apostle John's words, "The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work."</span><b style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"></b><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">(1 John 3:8, NIV)</span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">Then listen to this bold statement by the Apostle Paul.</span><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><b style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">"</b><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over ever power and authority." (Colossians 2:9, NIV)</span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">Remember Paul's words in Ephesians chapter six about the powers and authorities that we struggle with? He continues in Colossians 2:15, "...having disarmed the powers and authorities He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross."</span><b style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"></b><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">(NIV) Do you see the authority Christ has over every demonic power? His authority is unrivaled. He has conclusively defeated the demonic forces behind abortion.</span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">Sixthly, strategic prayer relies on the work of the Holy Spirit. In </span><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">John 16:7-11 Jesus promised "</span><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; </span><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged." (ESV) or "stands condemned." (NIV)</span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">Claim this work of the Holy Spirit as you pray at the clinic! He can take the messages on the signs you hold and bring conviction of sin, righteousness and judgment. He can bring to remembrance truth that the clients have heard or read sometime in the past and bring conviction of sin. While we do not have personal access to the clients, nor to the clinic workers, nor can we physically prevent the abortionist from carrying out their deadly procedures, we can rely on the ministry and even intervention of the Holy Spirit as we intercede for them from the sidewalk. His Spirit can access the hearts of those behind closed doors out of our sight.</span><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">Abortion is a gospel issue. This is the inescapable truth that the Church is still wrestling with and to a large degree has failed </span><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">to understand and respond to. There is a political fight to be fought. There are social implications to be wrestled with. But first and foremost, when seen through a Biblical paradigm, abortion is a spiritual issue.</span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">The battle will be won or lost depending on the Church's response. The enemy has been identified. His strategy has been exposed. Our weapons have been issued, the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Word of God and the power of the Holy Spirit. He waits for His body the Church to enlist and engage the enemy.</span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">I have been saying this for years now. The Body of Christ, the Church, is the only organism (or institution) spiritually equipped</span><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">to engage the satanic forces behind abortion. Therefore the Church must take the lead in the efforts to end abortion. </span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">Paul said as much in 2 Corinthians 10:3-5</span><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">(NIV).</span><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">"For though we walk in the world, we do not wage war as the world does.</span><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension [lofty opinion] that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ."</span><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">Lastly, during this prayer vigil strategically there will be praying and fasting. I close with these words to encourage you in the fast. In 2 Chronicles 20 we have the account of the response of King Jehoshaphat of Judah when his nation faced a crisis. A massive army from Edom was headed his way. It was a challenge that was humanly speaking insurmountable. </span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">Let me share with you Jehoshaphat's first response in the face of the approaching army that threatened his nation and people. He called a fast. It is recorded in verse two of chapter twenty, that some men came and told Jehoshaphat, "A vast army is coming against you from Edom... Alarmed, Jehoshaphat resolved to enquire of the Lord, and he proclaimed a fast for all Judah. The people of Judah came together to seek help from the Lord; indeed, they came from every town in Judah to seek him."</span><b style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"></b><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">(NIV)</span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">Fasting means to deny oneself </span><b style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"></b><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">something that is a legitimate part of your life for the purpose of seeking God. Fasting from food or drink is common. But one can fast in many different ways. When I fast, this is what motivates me, "I need God more than I need food."</span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">Why did Jehoshaphat call a fast? Note two reasons. First of all, fasting communicates urgency of desire. In verse three it says that Jehoshaphat was “alarmed” and "afraid”.</span><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">Arthur Wallis, in his book</span><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><i style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">God’s Chosen Fast </i><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">writes, “When a man is willing to set aside the legitimate appetites of the body</span><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">to concentrate on the work of praying, he is demonstrating that he means business, that he is seeking God with all his heart, and will not let God go unless he answers."</span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">The second thing we learn about fasting from King Jehoshaphat is that </span><b style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"></b><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">fasting communicates </span><b style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"></b><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">dependence on</span><b style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"></b><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">God. I like the New Living Translation of 20:12. "O our God, won't you stop them? We are powerless against this mighty army that is about to attack us. We do not know what to do, but we are looking to you for help." In other words, it's like saying to God, “We are helpless!”, "Our back is up against the wall.", "You’re the only one we can turn to for help!”</span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">The prophet Azariah spoke the word of the Lord to Jehoshaphat's father King Asa years before after the Lord gave the king a great victory over a similar powerful army. I believe his words are the theological basis for fasting</span><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><b style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">“</b><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">The Lord is with you when you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you”</span><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><b style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">(</b><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">2 Chronicles 15:2, NIV)</span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">Pastor K. Neil Foster has written, “Fasting is the quickest way to get yourself into the position where God can give you what He wanted to give you all along." You see, Fasting is an invitation for God's intervention."</span><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">Fasting provides an opportunity for God to demonstrate His </span><b style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"></b><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">supernatural power. In other words for God to do what only God can do. Through fasting God will bring His resources into the battle to end abortion. Through fasting God will intervene in America's abortion crisis. Through fasting God is glorified because He gets all the credit. </span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">Pope John Paul II, in his</span><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><i style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">Gospel of Life </i><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">writes,</span><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">"Jesus Himself has shown us by His own example that prayer and fasting are the first and most effective weapons against the forces of evil (cf. Mt 4:1-11). As He taught His disciples, some demons cannot be driven out except in this way (cf. Mk 9:29). Let us therefore discover anew the humility and the courage to</span><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><b style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"><i>pray and fast </i></b><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">so that power from on high will break down the walls of lies and deceit: the walls which conceal from the sight of so many of our brothers and sisters the evil of practices and laws which are hostile to life".</span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="FreeForm" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">Rev. Flip Benham, then president of Operation Save America, in a Press release on January 20, 2011, said, "Abortion will come to an end, when the Church of Jesus Christ makes up her mind it will come to an end – not a second sooner. The responsibility </span><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">for ending abortion in America rests squarely upon the shoulders</span><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">of the Church of Jesus Christ.”</span></div>
<div class="FreeForm" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="FreeForm" style="font-family: helvetica; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">As you participate in the 40 Days Prayer and Fasting Virgil, you are helping to make that come true.</span><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">© James P McGarvey All Rights Reserved<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
Jim McGarveyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09559934703130337359noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1895307860926611586.post-52551587419615261322020-01-10T12:45:00.000-08:002020-03-14T19:16:42.934-07:00Forming a Gospel-Centered Response to Abortion<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_icJrSNSg_Q/XiPmM_oxyKI/AAAAAAAAA-k/XjMntaQiqN8zq0PJGxGVIWzhdmki61AoQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Slide1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="720" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_icJrSNSg_Q/XiPmM_oxyKI/AAAAAAAAA-k/XjMntaQiqN8zq0PJGxGVIWzhdmki61AoQCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Slide1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 16.0pt;"><b style="font-family: Times;"><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 22pt;">Forming a Gospel-Centered Response to Abortion</span></b></span></b><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 16.0pt;"><br /></span></b>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 16.0pt;">The challenge we
face:</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial narrow"; font-size: 16pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial narrow";"><span style="font-size: 21.33333396911621px;">412 million abortions worldwide in 2019*</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial narrow";"><span style="font-size: 21.33333396911621px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial narrow";"><span style="font-size: 21.33333396911621px;">61,628,584 abortion since 1973 in the USA **</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial narrow"; font-size: 16pt;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial narrow"; font-size: 16pt;">70,912 abortions in Florida in the year 2019 ***</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "arial narrow"; font-size: 16.0pt;">"What
does Christianity look like in a nation that murders its own children?"<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial narrow"; font-size: 16.0pt;">~ Pastor Rusty Lee Thomas****<span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 16.0pt;">Sharing the truth of the sanctity
of human life <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "arial narrow";">76% of women indicate local churches had no
influence on their decision to terminate their pregnancy*****<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><u><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">T</span></u></span></span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;"><u>he spiritual
battle behind abortion</u><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> <span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Abortion
the Devil & the Church-Exposing the Spiritual Forces Behind<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> Abortion
- John 8:44; 10:10; Psalm 106:37-38******</span></i><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> Read, watch or listen <a href="http://churchforlife.blogspot.com/2019/02/abortion-devil-church-exposing.html">Here</a></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 9.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 9.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span><u>The Biblical
case for life</u></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: "arial narrow"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span></u></i></b><u><span style="font-family: "arial narrow"; font-size: 14.0pt;">(creation, image of God, dominion, personhood)</span></u><u><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></u></span></div>
<div class="Body">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The Sanctity of the Unborn - Genesis 1:26-28; Psalm
139:13-16******</span></i><span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> Read </span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><a href="http://churchforlife.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-sanctity-of-unborn.html"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Here</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><u><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Pro-Life Apologetics - defending life in a secular culture<span style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></u></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">The Scientific, Philosophical & Metaphysical
Case for Life******</span></i><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> Read </span><a href="http://churchforlife.blogspot.com/2016/02/the-scientific-philosophical.html"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Here</span></a><span style="color: black; font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-themecolor: text1;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></b><u><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The clash
of two worldviews behind the abortion debate<span style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></u></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></i></span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">How Valuable are the Unborn to God? </i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Romans 1:25</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">****** Read <a href="https://churchforlife.blogspot.com/2018/05/how-valuable-are-unborn-to-god.html">Here</a></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span><u>Abortion
and the doctrine of Blood Guilt<span style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></u></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">How Should
I Respond to the Shedding of Innocent Blood?<o:p></o:p></span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Genesis 3:15; 4:8-10; 9:5-6; Deuteronomy
21:1-9****** </span></i><span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Read/listen </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><a href="http://churchforlife.blogspot.com/2015/01/how-should-i-respond-to-shedding-of.html">Here</a> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><u><br /></u></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> <u>A compassionate response to the plight of the unborn</u></span><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="color: #262626; font-family: "calibri";"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="color: #262626; font-family: "calibri";"> Are Unborn Children Our Neighbors? ****** </span></i></span><span style="color: #262626; font-family: "calibri";"><span style="font-size: small;">Read <a href="http://churchforlife.blogspot.com/2016/11/are-unborn-children-our-neighbors.html">Here</a> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #262626; font-family: "calibri";"> </span></span><br />
<span style="caret-color: rgb(38, 38, 38); color: #262626; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: x-small;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-decoration: underline;">Image of God</span><br />
<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> <i>Created in the Image of God </i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> Ge</span></span><span style="font-family: "calibri";">nesis 1:26-28; 2:7; Romans 1:18-25 ****** Read/listen </span><a href="http://churchforlife.blogspot.com/2017/02/created-in-image-of-god-genesis-126-28.html"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Here</span></a></span><br />
<!--EndFragment-->
<!--EndFragment--></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 16.0pt;">Ministering forgiveness, healing
and hope to the post-abortive </span></b><br />
<i style="font-family: cambria; text-align: center;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial narrow"; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-themecolor: text1;">5</span></i><i style="font-family: cambria; text-align: center;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial narrow"; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-themecolor: text1;">2% of churchgoers who have had an abortion have no one
at church who knows they have had a pregnancy terminated*****<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #272727; font-family: "arial narrow"; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;"><i>Nearly
two-thirds of women having abortions say they are Christians </i>(Focus on the Family 2015)</span></span><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial narrow"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Arial Unicode MS"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Arial Unicode MS"; mso-themecolor: text1;"><br /></span></i>
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial narrow"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Arial Unicode MS"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Arial Unicode MS"; mso-themecolor: text1;">35%
of Christian women who have had an abortion indicate they currently attend
church once a week or more*****</span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial narrow"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Arial Unicode MS"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Arial Unicode MS"; mso-themecolor: text1;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial narrow"; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-themecolor: text1;">23% of Christian women who have had an abortion consider
themselves to be an evangelical Christian***** (250,</span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "arial narrow";">000
evangelical women abort their children each year) </span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "arial narrow";"><br /></span></i>
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "arial narrow";">65% </span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "arial narrow";">report symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress
Disorder they attribute to their abortions.*******<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></i><br />
<u><span style="font-family: "arial narrow"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></u>
<br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Footnotes:</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">* <a href="https://www.lifenews.com/2019/12/31/abortion-was-the-leading-cause-of-death-worldwide-in-2019-killing-42-million-people/">LifeNews.com 12-31-19</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">** <a href="https://www.lifenews.com/2020/01/10/61628584-babies-have-been-killed-in-abortions-since-roe-v-wade-in-1973/">LifeNews.com 01-10-2020</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">***See<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> </b></span><a href="http://ahca.myflorida.com/MCHQ/Central_Services/Training_Support/Reports.shtml"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">State of Florida Abortion Data - Induced Terminations of Pregnancy [ITOP] Reports</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> (by county) <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">**** </span><a href="http://www.operationsaveamerica.org/downloads/"><span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Field Manual for Abortion Ministry</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">, 2014 -</span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span></i><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Free download<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>from Operation Save America website<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">***** </span><a href="http://www.slideshare.net/CareNetHQ/lifeway-research-on-abortion-in-church"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Study of Women Who Have Had An Abortion and Their Views On Church</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> CareNet - Free do</span><span style="font-family: "calibri";">wnload</span><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">****** </span><a href="http://churchforlife.blogspot.com/"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Churchforlife.blogspot.com</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> This message is available online - see side bar indexes </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">*******Rue VM, et al</span><br />
<u><span style="font-family: "arial narrow"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></u>
<u><span style="font-family: "arial narrow"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Post
Abortive<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> </b>e</span></u><u><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14.0pt;">motional
problems</span></u><b><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14.0pt;">: </span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">anxiety/panic;
grief/Loss; fear of losing your child; guilt; self-hatred; depression;
anger/rage </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><br /></span>
<u><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Post
Abortive</span></u><b><u><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span></u></b><u><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Behavioral
problems:</span></u><b><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">drug/alcohol/child abuse;
promiscuity; eating disorders; protective parenting; inability to bond with
children </span><br />
<b style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 16pt;"><br /></b>
<b style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 16pt;">Responding
with practical Gospel centered compassion </b><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">L</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">uke 10 - "Love the
Lord your God...and love your neighbor as yourself." The lawyer asked,
"Who is my neighbor?" Jesus replied, the traveller left for dead. What
is love? Jesus, it is "Samaritan compassion." "Go and do likewise."
According to </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Jesus
our salvation has a moral imperative built into it with regard to the needs of
those around us, our neighbors - those vulnerable to choose abortion, the 62,731 unborn murdered by abortion each year (in Florida), and the post-abortive. <span style="color: #0f243e;">"Loving my neighbor will occasionally arrest me, and
maybe even require me to help prevent someone from being murdered."</span>
~ Pastor John Ensor (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Innocent Blood)</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><br /></i></span>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">The Church for Life online resources</span></b><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">: </span><br />
<a href="http://churchforlife.blogspot.com/"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">The Church for Life</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> website - see right side bar for messages & resource indexes </span><br />
<a href="https://www.facebook.com/ChurchForLife?ref=hl"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">The Church for Life on Facebook</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span><br />
<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/profile/edit?fromEmail=true&fromEmail=true&_mSplash=1&trk=eml-prof-cbkgd1-cta1"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Linkedin</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><a href="https://churchforlife.blogspot.com/2017/11/jim-mcgarvey-biography-and-ministry.html">Jim McGarvey Biography & Ministry Credentials</a></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<div class="page" title="Page 1">
<div class="layoutArea">
<div class="column">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 12pt;">Online - <a href="http://churchforlife.blogspot.com/2015/11/pro-life-websites-and-bibliography.html">Pro-Life Websites and Bibliography</a></span></div>
</div>
</div>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Some of the churches where I have
brought sanctity of human life messages:</span></b><b style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Calvary Chapel Pompano Beach, FL - Ken Kerrigan</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Calvary Chapel Deerfield Beach, FL - Rian Gittman</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Calvary Chapel Coral Springs, FL - (formerly Gus Flores)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Calvary Fellowship Freewill Baptist Church, Hollywood FL</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Cathedral Church of God
(COG Cleveland TN), Deerfield Beach, FL - (formerly Eddie Solomon)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Community Alliance of S. Florida (Brazilian) - Eddie Dutra</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Community Baptist
Church, Stuart, FL - Phil Smith</span><br />
<div class="page" title="Page 1">
<div class="layoutArea">
<div class="column">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 12pt;">Eglise Haitienne Bethanie C&MA - Port St. Lucie - Cherubin Thelusma</span></div>
</div>
</div>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Faith Bible Church, Deltona FL - Zach Coleman</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Fellowship Baptist Church, Hixson, TN</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">F</span><span style="font-family: "calibri";">irst Baptist Church
Stuart, FL - Darrell Orman</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">First Baptist Church
Oakland Park, Oakland Park, FL - Merlin Berkey</span><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">First </span><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Christian Church
Wilton Manors, Wilton Manors, FL - John Stauffer </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Holl</span><span style="font-family: "calibri";">ywood Hills Alliance
Church, Hollywood, FL - Tim Williamson</span><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Hopew</span><span style="font-family: "calibri";">ell Missionary
Baptist Church, Pompano Beach, FL - Robert Stanley </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Jesus</span><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> Is Lord Worship
Center, Miami, FL - Verbert C. Anderson</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Jesus Supernatural Life Center, Pompano Beach, FL - Gary McLamore</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Moorepark Community
Church, Three Rivers, MI - (formerly Ken Miller)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Mount Antioch Missionary Baptist
Church, Pompano Beach, (formerly Alonzo Neal) </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">N</span><span style="font-family: "calibri";">ew Hope Community
Church (C&MA), North Port, FL - Eddie DeJesus</span><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">New H</span><span style="font-family: "calibri";">ope Fellowship
(Nazarene), Palm City, FL - Gary Durham </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">New Life Baptist Church, Davie, FL - Mark Coleman</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">New </span><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Life Romanian Baptist
Church, Hollywood, FL - Florin Vancea </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Piedmont Park Alliance
Church, Tallahassee, FL - Chris Greaves</span><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Pines Baptist Church,
Pembroke Pines, FL - Luis Acosta</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Plantation Baptist Church, Plantation, FL - Tom Hunter</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Restoration Outreach
Church & Ministries, Miramar, FL - Gerard Bishop</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Riverside Church, North
Lauderdale, FL - Brian Brookins</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">The Harbour Church,
Pompano Beach, FL - Darren Davis</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">The Lighthouse Chapel
(C&MA), Port St. Lucie, FL - Jeff Norus</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Tropical Farms Baptist
Church, Stuart FL - (formerly Lee Fielder)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Westwood Church,
(C&MA), Orlando FL - Dan Hall</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Worldwide Christian
Center, Pompano Beach, FL - O'Neal Dozier</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><br /></span>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Other venues:</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">40 Days for Life - </span><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Fort Lauderdale Campaign - </span><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Cast the Vision - September 2012</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">40 Days for life - </span><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Fort Lauderdale Campaign</span><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> - </span><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Kick Off Rally - September 2012</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">40 Days for Life - Fort Lauderdale Campaign - Mid-Point Rally - October 2012</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">40 Days for Life - Fort Lauderdale Campaign - Kick Off Rally - February 2020</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">40 Days for Life - Fort Lauderdale Campaign - Mid-Point Rally - March 2020</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Faith</span><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> Forum at Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale FL</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Florida Baptist Children's Home SOHL Regional Training, Miami FL</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Flori</span><span style="font-family: "calibri";">da Right to Life 2013
Pro-Life Leaders Forum, Orlando, FL</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Florida State University
Noles 4Life, Tallahassee, FL </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Flou</span><span style="font-family: "calibri";">rish 2016
Conference (Catholic Witness), Fort Lauderdale FL</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">LifeChoice Pregnancy
Center Banquet, Winter Haven FL</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Nova Southeastern
University Students for Life, Davie </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Tampa Bay ProLife Alliance, Tampa FL</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Thre</span><span style="font-family: "calibri";">e Rivers Pregnancy Helpline
Center Banquet, Three Rivers MI</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Trinity Baptist College,
Jacksonville - Chapel - Jeremiah Stanley, Dean of Students</span><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Trinity College, Trinity - Chapel - Al
Depoutot, VP Student Development</span><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Trinity International
University, Davie - multiple class lectures</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Westminster Academy,
Chapel, Fort Lauderdale FL</span><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></b><span style="font-family: "calibri";">15th
Annual Pregnancy Care Center Conference, Lake Yale FL</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">South Florida Bible College & Theological Seminary, Deerfield Beach FL</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><br /></span>
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 16pt;">The Church for Life</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Helping the Church form a Gospel centered response to America's abortion crisis </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">as it:</span><br />
<div style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-align: center;">
- leads the nation in prayer to end abortion</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-align: center;">
- communicates the message of the sanctity of human life</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-align: center;">
- ministers healing and restoration to the post-abortive</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-align: center;">
- provides compassionate and practical help to those at risk for abortion.</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: large;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: large;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
<o:AllowPNG/>
</o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:View>Normal</w:View>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:TrackMoves/>
<w:TrackFormatting/>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:DoNotPromoteQF/>
<w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther>
<w:LidThemeAsian>JA</w:LidThemeAsian>
<w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:SnapToGridInCell/>
<w:WrapTextWithPunct/>
<w:UseAsianBreakRules/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
<w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/>
<w:EnableOpenTypeKerning/>
<w:DontFlipMirrorIndents/>
<w:OverrideTableStyleHps/>
<w:UseFELayout/>
</w:Compatibility>
<m:mathPr>
<m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/>
<m:brkBin m:val="before"/>
<m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/>
<m:smallFrac m:val="off"/>
<m:dispDef/>
<m:lMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:rMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/>
<m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/>
<m:intLim m:val="subSup"/>
<m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/>
</m:mathPr></w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
DefSemiHidden="true" DefQFormat="false" DefPriority="99"
LatentStyleCount="276">
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Normal"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="heading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="35" QFormat="true" Name="caption"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" Name="Default Paragraph Font"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="59" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0in;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<!--StartFragment-->
<!--EndFragment--><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial narrow"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Arial Unicode MS"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Arial Unicode MS"; mso-themecolor: text1;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></i><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial narrow"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Arial Unicode MS"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Arial Unicode MS"; mso-themecolor: text1;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
Jim McGarveyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09559934703130337359noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1895307860926611586.post-78839284702696706972019-12-15T18:35:00.002-08:002023-11-21T10:20:09.207-08:00Thanksgiving Living - Philippians 4:4-20<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4yc2XgpSuSo/X78yaVThtmI/AAAAAAAABCM/_jhzgE0oIfcWscz4J0rT7hPIngoyEIjiwCLcBGAsYHQ/s720/Slide1.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="720" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4yc2XgpSuSo/X78yaVThtmI/AAAAAAAABCM/_jhzgE0oIfcWscz4J0rT7hPIngoyEIjiwCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Slide1.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: medium;">(I gave this message at Pines Baptist Church, Pembroke Pines on November 24, 2019. You can listen to the message under the title "Thanksgiving Leads to Thanksgiving" online at sermonsonline.com <a href="https://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=1221922303168">here</a>.) </span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">This week we celebrate Thanksgiving Day. For many of us when we think of Thanksgiving </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">we remember that group of 50 Pilgrims who gathered in October of 1621 in Plymouth Massachusetts to express thanksgiving to God for their first harvest ten months after arriving </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">in the New World in December of 1620.</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">The first Federal Thanksgiving Proclamation was made by President George Washington on October 3, 1789. Part of the proclamation reads a follows:</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">"Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of God, to obey His will, </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection, and favors...Now therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th Day of November next, to be devoted by the People of the States to service of the great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; That we may then all unite </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country...and for all the great and various favors He has been pleased to confer upon us."</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">243 years later, on October 3, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a nationwide Thanksgiving Day, declaring that it would be a day of "...thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens." </span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">On December 26, 1941 the United States Congress established the fourth Thursday of November as a legal public holiday known a Thanksgiving Day.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">I’m not sure that Thanksgiving Day is observed by everyone as it was originally by the Puritans. </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Nor is it always celebrated as day set apart to both recognize and give thanks to God as reflected in the two presidential proclamations I just read to you.</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">I googled "Thanksgiving Day" and clicked on , "What is the meaning of Thanksgiving Day?" "Why do we celebrate Thanksgiving Day", and 'What does Thanksgiving really mean?" and there was no mention of giving thanks to God at all. No mention of WHO we are to give thanks TO on Thanksgiving Day.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">This Thursday we can acknowledge, as the Pilgrims did 398 years ago, and as President Washington and Lincoln noted in their proclamations, that this is a day to both acknowledge and give thanks to our God for his provision and blessings.</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">One of the challenges we face as believers is living a lifestyle of thanksgiving to God. Hence the title of the message "Thanksgiving Living".</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">This morning I want to share some thoughts with you from the Apostle Paul regarding thanksgiving from the fourth chapter of his letter to the Philippian church.</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">You might remember Paul's first visit to the city of Philippi as recorded by Luke in Acts chapter 16. Luke writes that Paul had a vision of a "man of Macedonia...urging him and saying, 'Come over to Macedonia and help us.'"</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">And that is exactly what Paul did arriving in Philippi a leading city of Macedonia and a Roman colony where he planted his first church in Europe. He met Lydia, a "seller of purple goods" </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">there by the riverside and led her and her household to the Lord. He cast out the demon of a slave girl who was a source of income as a fortuneteller for her slave owners. This led to the arrest of Paul and his companion in ministry, Silas.</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">They were beaten and imprisoned. God then set them free by a great earthquake. Subsequently, the jailor and his family were converted.</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">And now years later, towards the end of his life Paul writes a letter to the Philippian church </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">this time from a Roman prison. Sean McDonough explains one of the reasons Paul wrote the Philippians.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">"He was...eager to thank them for their continued support. Imprisonment carried with it a social stigma, and it would have been easy for the Philippians to turn their back on Paul at this point. But they had remained faithful to him."</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">This is the background of Paul's letter to the Philippian church. And as we look at the subject </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">of thanksgiving living, I want to focus our thoughts on four things in this text. You will find them on the outline in your bulletin. Joy - Prayer - Contentment and Provision.</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">What does joy have to do with thanksgiving? What role does prayer play in thanksgiving? How is contentment important to a life of thanksgiving? What provisions has God made for living a life of thanksgiving?</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Philippians 4:4-9,</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">(ESV)</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">"Rejoice in the Lord always, again I will say, Rejoice. Let you reasonableness [or gentleness] </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand [or near], do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication [petition] with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">and heard and seen in me--practice these things and the God of peace will be with you."</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Let me pause here and share something personal. I have been going through some challenging times for the last several months, and I will admit that I have struggled to live consistently in the truth of Paul's words to us. As I prayerfully considered what message to bring today, one of the reasons I chose this message was because I </span><b style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">need</b><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">this message!</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">In verse 9, Paul encouraged the Philippians, and encourages us, not only to practice his teaching but to follow his example. So let's focus on those four words, joy - prayer - contentment - provision as we consider Thanksgiving Living. </span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">First of all joy, verse 4, "Rejoice in the Lord always, again I will say, Rejoice."</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">I think we all know what it means to rejoice. To be joyful, to be glad (The</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><i style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">Analytical Greek Lexicon</i><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">) Here in verse four it is a present imperative, in other words, it is a command to continuously rejoice in the Lord. D. A. Hayes says the book of </span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Philippians "...is the Epistle of Joy." The title of A. T. Robertson's commentary on the book of Philippians is</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><i style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">Paul's Joy in Christ</i><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">. Writing about this letter to the Philippians, the German theologian Bengel said, "The sum of the epistle is, I rejoice; rejoice ye."</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Remember, Paul wrote these words while a prisoner in Rome! That fact alone is instructive, </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">but not surprising. D. A. Hayes explains, </span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">"Paul was a man whose spirits were undaunted in any circumstances. He might be scourged in one city and stoned in another and imprisoned in a third and left for dead in a fourth, but as long as he retained consciousness and as soon as he regained consciousness he rejoiced. </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Nothing could dampen his ardor. Nothing could disturb his peace. In Philippi he had been scourged and cast into the inner prison and his feet had been made fast in the stocks. His back was bleeding and torn; his ankles were swollen and paining him; he could not lie down; he could not sleep. It was too dark in the dungeon for him to see anyone, but he could hear the voice of Silas somewhere near him in the midnight gloom. Some men would have been depressed under these circumstances, and the prison damp and darkness would have chilled their very souls. It was not so with Paul. He began to sing hymns of praise to God, and Silas joined in. " (</span><i style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">The Epistle to the Philippians, </i><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">pg.421)</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Under these dire and painful circumstances Paul and Silas held a midnight worship service! </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">And Luke adds, "...and the prisoners were listening to them." </span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">What does rejoicing in the Lord have to do with thanksgiving living? Well, note that Paul says </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">we are to rejoice</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">in the Lord</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">. Ralph Martin explains, "</span><i style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">In the Lord </i><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">is the governing factor </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">in the exhortation. It is the Philippians' faith</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><i style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">in the Lord </i><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">which makes rejoicing in the throes of opposition a glorious possibility." (</span><i style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">Philippian Studies, pg. 167) </i></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Beth and I have had three new granddaughters added to our family this year, one in January, February and September. And it has been so easy to rejoice in the birth of these three precious babies. The joy experienced in meeting them holding them, loving on them has been effortless.</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">But Paul says rejoice in the Lord ALWAYS. While it is easy to rejoice with the birth of three new granddaughters, rejoicing in the midst of overwhelming, even painful circumstances, as was the case of Paul and Silas, is another matter. Jac Muller notes that Paul's instruction to "rejoice in the Lord always" is a command. He writes,</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">"Not circumstances decide whether there will be joy, but</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><i style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">in the Lord</i><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">, in living fellowship with him, the believer can and must rejoice under all circumstances. Hence the apostle's repetition </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">of the exhortation: 'Rejoice!'" (New International Commentary pg. 140)</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">I believe to "Rejoice in the Lord always" is an act of worship. I believe it is a form of praise. May I suggest that rejoicing in the Lord sets the stage for thanksgiving living. Listen to the Psalmist - Psalm 100,</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">"Shout for joy to the Lord all the earth.</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the Lord is good and his love endures forever, his faithfulness continues through all generations."</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Do you see why Paul instructs us to "rejoice in the Lord." The God described in Psalm 100 remains the same no matter what our circumstances are. Our circumstances can change but the character and faithfulness of God never changes.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Please do not underestimate what we are to rejoice in, rejoice in the Lord" A. T. Robertson explains,</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">"Paul's joy was not grounded in earthly conditions but in Christ. No one could rob Paul of Christ or of his joy in Christ. Christ satisfied Paul's soul. Christ was his all in all. He needed nothing else to make his soul sing aloud and long for sheer joy." (</span><i style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">Paul's Joy in Christ</i><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">, pg. 129)</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Let me ask you this morning. Can you rejoice "in the Lord"? There is a prerequisite to rejoicing in the Lord. First you must know the Lord. Paul testified to the Galatian church,</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">"I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."</span><b style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"></b><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">(Galatians 2:20</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">ESV)</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Jesus has made every provision necessary to save us from our sin. As Paul testified, Jesus Christ "gave himself for me." That is, He died on the cross bearing the penalty for our sin, </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">the sin that separates us from God. When we repent of our sin and put our trust in Jesus' death and resurrection we are born again and Christ lives in us as Paul testified. Only then can you "rejoice in the Lord." Rejoicing in the Lord; giving praise to the Lord; sets the stage for giving thanks to the Lord in prayer.</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">That is the second word, prayer, Philippians 4:4-6. What role does prayer play in thanksgiving? </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">You will notice that thanksgiving is included in Paul's instructions on prayer. "...do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication [or petition] with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God."</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Giving thanks is a part of our prayer life, and especially when we are struggling with anxiety. </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Paul says, "...in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving make your requests known unto God."</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">As we have just noted, Paul says we are to "rejoice in the Lord always</span><b style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">" </b><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">meaning in every circumstance, and now he instructs us to pray with thanksgiving in every circumstance. Paul gave similar instructions to the Thessalonians,</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">"Rejoice always; pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you."</span><b style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"></b><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">(1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 ESV)</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Paul described some of his "circumstances" in writing the Corinthians.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">"Five times I received at the hands of Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. [one of those was in Philippi] Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers, in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches." </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">(2 Corinthians 11:24-28 ESV)</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">In light of these experiences of Paul we see the need for him to write in verse 5,</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><b style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">"</b><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">let your reasonableness [or gentleness - forbearance] be known to everyone." I don't know about you </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">but when I get anxious or worried about something I sometimes get on edge. Anxiety often produces inner turmoil that often spills over in our relationship to others, hence the admonition to be reasonable toward others.</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Notice that Paul then goes on to explain how to deal with anxiety. "Do not be anxious about anything" verse 6. Standing on its own this would be a tall order!</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">"Do not be anxious about ANYTHING?" He makes no room for anxiety! Paul however does not leave us out on a limb. </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">He continues verse 6, "...but in everything by prayer and supplication [petition] with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God."</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Paul is challenging us to take our anxieties to the Lord in prayer and petition, and do it in the context of joy with thanksgiving! "Give thanks in ALL circumstances" (emphasis mine).</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Essentially, Paul is linking prayer with our daily living. And he links thanksgiving with prayer. </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Both are to be the practice of the believer. Hence, Thanksgiving Living! H. A. Kennedy writes,</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">"Thanksgiving is the background, the predominant tone of the Christian life." (A. T. Robertson,</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><i style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">Paul's Joy in Christ, </i><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">pg. 131)</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Thanksgiving is to characterize our relationship with the Lord in every circumstance we find ourselves as we go to Him with our petitions and requests.</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">This is the question I have to ask myself in light of Paul's admonition here; Is my prayer life characterized by thanksgiving? Dr. Mark Lee wrote, "Thanksgiving is a part of the formula of prayer. Thanks and praise are as necessary to prayer as salt and pepper are to food." ("Five Kernels of Corn"</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><i style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">Alliance Life</i><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">11-15-95) </span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Note briefly these results. What is the opposite of anxiety? Paul makes mention of "peace" </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">twice in this passage. verse 7, "...the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus" verse 9, "and the God of peace will be with you."</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">What could be more valuable than peace as we struggle with anxiety? Paul says the "peace of God...will guard your hearts", verse 7. A.T. Robertson, "This peace of God quiets both our hearts and our thoughts." (</span><i style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">Paul's Joy in Chris</i><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">, pg. 13)</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">However, notice that just as there is a prerequisite to rejoicing in the Lord, as we have just noted, there is also a perquisite to knowing the peace of God that Paul speaks of here. You must be at peace WITH God before you can experience the peace OF God. As A T Robertson writes,</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">"God is the God of peace (Phil. 4:9), and his peace is the inward peace of the soul that is grounded in God' presence and promise. Paul here assumes that we have made our peace </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">with God in Christ and now we are enjoying our peace with God Romans 5:1)." </span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Have you been reconciled to God through faith in His Son Jesus Christ?</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">In other words, are you at peace with God" This is the prerequisite of experiencing the peace of God that Paul is speaks of here. </span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">The third word - contentment, Philippians 4:10-20,</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">(ESV)</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">"</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me. You were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity. Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. Yet it was kind of you 'to share' my trouble. And you Philippians yourselves know that in the beginning of the gospel, when I left Macedonia, no church entered into partnership with me in giving and receiving, except you only. Even in Thessalonica you sent me help for my needs once and again. Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that increases to your credit. I have received full payment, and more. I am well supplied, having received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God. And my God will supply every need of yours, according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. To our God and Father be glory for ever and ever. Amen." </span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">How is contentment important in a life of thanksgiving? </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Paul expresses his thanksgiving for the gifts of support he had received from the Philippian church. A</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">nd in doing so, Paul shares what is apparently an important part of Thanksgiving Living - contentment. According to verse 12 </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">he experienced times of great need and times of great plenty. And in verse 11 he says </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">"I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content."<b></b></span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">May I suggest to you that contentment is part of the framework of thanksgiving. J A Motyer writes it is, "...the 'restful contentment' of the Christian, the opposite of the desire for more." and in Paul's case, he writes "Circumstances no longer had power to touch him, for he was content." (<i>Philippian Studies, </i>page 176) </span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> Paul wrote the Romans, "...we rejoice in our suffering, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope...<b>" </b>(5:3-4 ESV) </span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">But Paul also learned the secret to contentment, "...in any and every circumstance" v</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">erse 12, and verse 13, "I can do all things through him who strengthens me."</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">For the born again Christian nothing God calls us to do or be depends on our own strength.</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">And that truth is Paul's explicit testimony in this verse. Times of suffering, deprivation and want and times of plenty were the context of Paul learning contentment, but it was the power of God that strengthened him making it possible for him to learn contentment.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Earlier I mentioned the Thanksgiving celebrated by the pilgrims in 1621. What you might not remember is that this came after incredible suffering following their arrival in Massachusetts </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">in December of 1620. William Bradford, Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony wrote of what happened after their arrival in Plymouth,</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">"...In two of three months' time half of their company died especially in January and February, </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">being the depth of winter, and wanting houses and other comforts; being infected with the scurvy and other diseases which this long voyage...had brought them. So as there died as many as two or three a day in the foresaid time, that of 100 and odd persons, scarce 50 remained." </span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Shirley Dobson writes, "The pilgrims landed in Massachusetts on December 16, 1620. Lacking sufficient provisions and shelter for winter, most settlers became ill within weeks. Ten of 17 husbands and fathers died with the 'first infection', and of the 17 wives, only three were alive after three months. By April, more than half of the population had died of disease or famine. </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">These bleak circumstances were punctuated by other forms of human tragedy. For example, William Bradford's wife drowned as they disembarked from the Mayflower, leaving him a widower with a 1-year old son."</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">In spite of these overwhelming tragedies and unimaginable suffering, the Pilgrims that survived that first winter set apart time to give thanks to God.</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">The fourth and last word - provision. What provisions has God made for living a life of thanksgiving? </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Paul was grateful for the gifts of the Philippian church helping him in time of need. But note in verse 19 another truth that is important, if not foundational for Thanksgiving Living. "And my God will supply every need of yours, according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus." </span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">N</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">ote the extent of God's promise. "my God will supply every need of yours<b>.</b>" Paul's testimony in this letter bore witness to this truth. God had used the gifts of the Philippians to fulfill this promise to Paul. God's promise to supply our needs is echoed all throughout Scripture. For example Matthew 6:33. In the context of discussing the foolishness of being anxious about the physical needs of life, food, clothing and shelter, Jesus says, "But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." (ESV) </span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">And notice the guarantee behind the promise. Again verse 19 Paul writes,</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">"according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus."</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">God can make this kind of promise because of who He is. The promise rests on the nature of God Himself. In other words, there is no limit to His provision. It is limitless. It can never be used up, no matter how great the need. His promise is inseparable from the glory of the one making the promise. It is the promise of a resurrected, ascended exalted and sovereign Lord unlimited in power. That is the foundation for thanksgiving! That allows us to "give thanks in all circumstances" and "to continue in prayer, being...thankful".</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">I close with this illustration. Author unknown.</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">"Sandra felt as low as the heels on her Birkenstocks as she pushed against the November gust </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">at the florist shop. Her life had been easy, like a spring breeze. Then in the fourth month of her second pregnancy, a minor automobile accident stole her ease. During this Thanksgiving week </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">she would have delivered a son. She grieved over her loss. As if that weren't enough, her husband's company threatened a transfer. Then her sister, whose holiday visit she coveted, </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">called saying she</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">could not come. What's worse Sandra's friend infuriated her by suggesting her grief was a God-given path to maturity that would allow her to empathize with others who suffer.</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">'Had she lost a child? No-she had not idea what I'm feeling.' Sandra shuddered. Thanksgiving? "Thanksgiving for what?" she wondered. For a careless driver whose truck was hardly scratched when he rear-ended her? For an airbag that saved her life but took that of her child?"</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">'Good afternoon, can I help you?' The flower shop clerk's approach startled her. 'Sorry,' said Jenny, 'I just didn't want you to think I was ignoring you.'</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">'I...I need an arrangement.' 'For Thanksgiving?' Sandra nodded. 'Do you want beautiful but ordinary, or would you like to challenge the day with a customer favorite I call the Special.'</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">J</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">enny saw Sandra's curiosity and continued. 'I'm convinced that flowers tell stories, that each arrangement insinuates a particular feeling. Are you looking for something that conveys gratitude this Thanksgiving?'</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">'Not exactly!' Sandra blurted. 'Sorry but in the last five months, everything that could go wrong has.' Sandra regretted her outburst but was surprised when Jenny said, 'I have the perfect arrangement for you.'</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">The door's small bell suddenly rang. 'Barbara! Hi,' Jenny said, She politely excused herself from Sandra and walked toward a small workroom. She quickly reappeared carrying a massive arrangement of greenery, bows, and long-stemmed thorny roses. Only, the ends of the rose stems were neatly snipped, no flowers.</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">'Want this in a box?' Jenny asked. Sandra watched for Barbara's response. Was this a joke? </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Who would want rose stems and no flowers! She waited for laughter, for someone to notice the absence of flowers atop the thorny stems, but neither women did. 'Yes, please. It's exquisite,' said Barbara. 'You'd think after three years of getting the special, I'd not be so moved by its significance, but it's happening again. My family will love this one. Thanks.'</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Sandra stared. 'Why so normal a conversation about so strange an arrangement? she</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">wondered. 'Ah, said Sandra, pointing, 'That lady just left with, ah...' Yes?' 'Well, she had no flowers!' 'Right, I cut off the flowers.' "Off?" Off. Yep. That's the Special. I call it the Thanksgiving Thorns Bouquet.' </span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">'But, why do people pay for that?' In spite of herself she chuckled.' 'Do you want to know?'</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">'I couldn't leave this shop without knowing. I'd think about nothing else!' 'That might be good,' said Jenny. 'Well,' she continued, 'Barbara came into the shop three years ago feeling very much like you feel today. She thought she had very little to be thankful for. She had lost her father to cancer, the family business was failing, her son was into drugs, and she faced major surgery. ''Ouch!' said Sandra.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">'That same year, I lost my husband. I assumed complete responsibility for the shop and for the first time spent the holidays alone. I had no children, no husband, no family nearby, and too great a debt to allow any travel.'</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">'What did you do?' 'I learned to be thankful for thorns.' Sandra's eyebrows lifted. 'Thorns?'</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">'I'm a Christian, Sandra. I've always thanked God for good things in life and I never thought to ask Him why good things happened to me? But, when bad stuff hit, did I ever ask! It took time to learn that dark times are important. I always enjoyed the "flowers" of life but it took thorns to show me the beauty of God's comfort. You know, the Bible says that God comforts us when we're afflicted and from His consolation we learn to comfort others.'</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Sandra gasped. 'A friend read that passage to me and I was furious! I guess the truth is I don't want comfort. I've lost a baby and I'm angry with God.' She started to ask Jenny to 'go on' when the door's bell diverted their attention.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">'Hey, Phil!' shouted Jenny as a balding, rotund man entered the shop. She softly touched Sandra's arm and moved to welcome him. He tucked her under his side for a warm hug. 'I'm here for the twelve thorny long-stemmed stems!' Phil laughed, heartily. 'I figured as much' said Jenny. 'I've got them ready.' She lifted a tissue-wrapped arrangement from the refrigerator cabinet. 'Beautiful,' said Phil. 'My wife will love them.'</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Sandra could not resist asking. 'These are for your wife?' Phil saw that Sandra's curiosity </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">matched his when he first heard of a Thorn Bouquet. 'Do you mind me asking, "Why thorns?''</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">In fact, I'm glad you asked, 'he said. 'Four years ago my wife and I nearly divorced. After forty years, we were in a real mess, but we slogged through, problem by rotten problem. We rescued our marriage---our love, really. Last year at Thanksgiving I stopped in here for flowers. </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">I must have mentioned surviving a tough process because Jenny told me that for a long time </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">she kept a vase of rose thorn-stems!' ---a reminder of what she learned from "thorny" times. </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">That was good enough for me. I took home stems. My wife and I decided to label each one</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">for a specific thorny situation and give thanks for what the problem taught us. I'm pretty sure this stem review is becoming a tradition.'</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Phil paid Jenny, thanked her again and as he left, said to Sandra, 'I highly recommend the Special!' </span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">'I don't know if I can be thankful for the thorns in my life,' Sandra said to Jenny. 'Well, my experience says that thorns make roses more precious. We treasure God's providential care more during trouble than at any other time. Remember, Sandra, Jesus wore a crown of thorns </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">so that we might know His love. Do not resent thorns.'</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Tears rolled down Sandra's cheeks. for the first time since the accident she loosened her grip on resentment. 'I'll take twelve long-stemmed thorns, please.' 'I hoped you would,' Jenny said. </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">'I'll have them ready in a minute. Then every time you see them, remember to appreciate both good and hard times. We grow through both.'</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">'Thanks you. What do I owe you?' 'Nothing. Nothing but a pledge to work toward healing your heart. The first year's arrangement is always on me.' Jenny handed a card to Sandra. 'I'll attach a care like this to you arrangement but maybe you'd like to read it first. Go ahead read it.'</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">My God, I have never thanked Thee for my thorns! I have thanked Thee a thousand times for my roses, but never once for my thorns. Teach me the glory of the cross I bear, teach me the value of my thorns. Show me that I have climbed to Thee by the path of pain. Show me that my tears have made my rainbow. ~ George Matheson</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Jenny said, 'Happy Thanksgiving, Sandra,' handing her the Special. 'I look forward to our knowing each other better.' Sandra smiled. She turned, opened the door and walked toward hope." </span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Let's read this together as we close:</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">"Rejoice in the Lord always, again I will say, Rejoice. Let you reasonableness [or gentleness] be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand [or near], do not be anxious about anything, but in everything with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus....</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content....</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">I can do all things through him who strengthens me.... </span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">And my God will supply every need of yours, according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">To our God and Father be glory for ever and ever. Amen."</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">© James P. McGarvey, All Rights Reserved<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
</div>
Jim McGarveyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09559934703130337359noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1895307860926611586.post-89020407196080417292019-09-08T17:50:00.001-07:002019-09-08T21:40:04.916-07:00Why Fast to End Abortion<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3vxfq44Tbko/XXXXnKDqqrI/AAAAAAAAA98/8u_H2wiO9z4vr12iI9ZhDz4uaGqqZEZ5wCLcBGAs/s1600/All%2BWomen%2527s%2BCenter.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1004" data-original-width="1600" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3vxfq44Tbko/XXXXnKDqqrI/AAAAAAAAA98/8u_H2wiO9z4vr12iI9ZhDz4uaGqqZEZ5wCLcBGAs/s320/All%2BWomen%2527s%2BCenter.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">(This is a slightly edited version of a message I gave at the Mid-Point Rally of 40 Days For Life Fort Lauderdale, on October 18, 2012, Day 23 of the prayer and fasting campaign.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Last Friday, well into the second hour of my vigil at the All Womens Center, I watched a man, perhaps in his mid thirties pull into the parking lot and enter the center alone. About twenty minutes or so later, he and a women left the center, got into their late model automobile and drove off. From everything I had observed over that last hour or so, they had just made an irreversible decision and taken the life of their child.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">I was overwhelmed with a vicarious sense of their loss. It was emotionally painful with tears of sorrow, even momentary sobs.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">You see, at least two things had contributed to that visceral response. First of all, I realized this couple had just denied themselves the privilege of ever looking into the eyes of their child. They would never know the unique and distinct personality of a child God had meant for them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">My mind was filled with the imagery of looking into the eyes and the joy I have of knowing my three and a half year old grandson Adrian, who himself was the result of an unplanned pregnancy. Born out of wedlock, but by the grace of God given a chance to live by his mother. [Most aborted children are conceived out of wedlock.]<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">He and his mother have lived with us for over three years now. Just the day before, it had been "Papa time" when I cared for Adrian as his mother went to work late that afternoon. We had spent several precious hours together down at the beach and the jetty.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Secondly, on that Friday, every client that went in or exited during the two hours I stood alone in front of the center, were African American. For five years I have been working in the African American church community seeking to sound the alarm of the genocidal effect of abortion in America's Black community.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">At Friday's vigil, I realized that I was witnessing Black Genocide, and it was not easy to watch.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">The founder of World Vision, the late Dr. Bob Pierce once said,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">"Break my heart with the things that break the heart of God." That was his heart cry.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">In April of 2009, Christine J Gardner, writing in "Christianity Today" commented on those words.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">"...that is precisely the experience of the biblical prophets. They saw the abuse of the people God loved with his eye and loved them with his heart--and thus they wept with the tears and decried injustice with his voice." She continues, "If... the primary purpose of fasting is to draw near to God's heart, a true fast will result in our seeing as God sees and weeping over injustice as God weeps over it." (CT 04-05-99 "Hungry For God," pg. 31)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">If that were the only result we experienced from prayer and fasting in the 40 Day For Life Fort Lauderdale campaign, may I suggest to you, that alone would be worth it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">What am I saying? This fast gives God the opportunity to do something not just regarding the evil of abortion, but an opportunity for God to do something in our hearts as those he has called to the work of ending abortion and to a ministry of intercession on behalf of the unborn.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Andrew Murray, wrote,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">"Fasting helps to express, to deepen, and to confirm the resolution that we are ready to sacrifice anything, to sacrifice ourselves to attain what we seek for the kingdom of God." (<i>With Christ in the School of Prayer</i>)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Last week after returning from one of the vigils I told my wife, "I feel God is, 'schooling me,' to use a word from my children's generation, "as I participate in the prayer vigil." And I welcome it, as He is teaching me how to respond to America's abortion crisis as I gain a better understanding of how He views all of this.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">And that is exactly what the Church is wrestling with, or should be wrestling with today. What does God think of all of this? I believe that is one thing God wants to do for us through this season of prayer and fasting at the All Womens Center or as you fast and pray from some other location.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Yes, we are there to access His power and intervention to end abortion. Yes, we are there to intercede on behalf of the post-abortive who walk out of that clinic never to be the same again. Yes we are there to intercede for the salvation of clinic staff and employees.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">But I believe of equal importance, is that God wants to "school us." In other words,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">He wants to birth His heart for the unborn in our hearts. He wants to break our hearts with the injustice that breaks His heart. And He wants to do this by drawing us to Himself.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Friends, that is a key component of fasting and prayer. It is not just a by-product of fasting but the very the fabric of fasting and prayer.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">You see, the intimacy and fellowship with the Lord experienced in prayer and fasting becomes the very conduit through which He touches and changes our lives, freeing us to respond in compassion and love to those both deceived and blinded to what they are doing by their participation in abortion.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Remember that, to God, knowing Him, is far more important than what we do for Him.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">God is continually seeking to be given a larger place in our lives. He wants a larger place in our affections. He jealously wants to deepen the intimacy of our personal relationship with Him, knowing, that out of that love relationship, we become more useful to him.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">In Matthew 9, Jesus was asked why his disciples did not fast as did the disciples of John and the Pharisees. Perhaps you remember Jesus' response, in verse 15,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">"How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn while he is with them? The time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus addressed the issue of fasting as recorded in Matthew 6:16-18,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">“When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face,<b> </b>so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Two observations from these passages - first, Jesus assumed his followers would fast. He says "when you fast" not "if" you fast. It wasn't a matter of "if." It was a matter of "when." He said, the day would come when his disciples would fast in his absence.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Second, motive is key. He exposed the hypocrisy of those who fasted to be seen. We fast to the Lord, not to gain the recognition of man. On the contrary, we fast to humble ourselves before the Lord.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">David said, "I put on sackcloth and humbled myself with fasting" (Psalm 35:13)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">And Peter's spiritual principle is so appropriate here, "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." (1 Peter 5:5) Through fasting, we position ourselves for an out-pouring of God's grace.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">And as we noted last time [in my message, "Strategic Prayer" at the Kick Off Rally] from King Jehoshaphat's experience, fasting is a means of communicating our desperate need of God or our desperate need of his help or intervention.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">I don't know how many of you are old enough to remember the era when telegrams were used. I remember as a boy growing up in Japan in the 1950's and 60's that my parents used them. Remember, back then there was no internet , no skyping, no emails or texting. It took several weeks to get an airmail letter from the States.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">There were telephones of course, but we rarely received phone calls from the States or made calls to the States because it was cost prohibitive, around $25 a minute. So telegrams were used to send important messages quickly. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">When the man came to the door and delivered the telegram it wasn't set aside to be read at a later time. No, if a telegram came you knew it was important. You opened it and read it immediately. I remember seeing some of those telegrams. There was no concern for proper syntax, just the minimum number of words to get the message across. You paid for telegrams by the word.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Through the 40 Days for Life campaign, we are sending God a telegram. We need His help. Each of us personally need his help to do what he has called us to do. We urgently need his intervention, on behalf of the unborn threatened by abortion; on behalf of those employed at the All Womens Center; on behalf of the clients of the center; on behalf of the post-abortive and on behalf of our nation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Again, Arthur Wallis, in <i>God's Chosen Fast </i>he<i> </i>writes,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">"Fasting is calculated to bring a note of urgency and importunity into our praying, and to give force to our pleading in the court of heaven."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">This is God's provision for us to call upon Him not only for His help but to seek to know His heart and passion for the unborn as we move into deeper fellowship with Him.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
Jim McGarveyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09559934703130337359noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1895307860926611586.post-46731696073498986362019-06-29T14:55:00.001-07:002019-09-19T19:34:40.048-07:00Understanding the Destructive Power of the World - 1 John 2:15-17<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MBxSlLXR3Ms/XRfXffJa4MI/AAAAAAAAA9E/J-UVnemSuGEQL_i3a8eZhmS4qWeaiisXgCLcBGAs/s1600/Slide01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="720" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MBxSlLXR3Ms/XRfXffJa4MI/AAAAAAAAA9E/J-UVnemSuGEQL_i3a8eZhmS4qWeaiisXgCLcBGAs/s320/Slide01.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
(I gave this message at The Lighthouse Chapel (C&MA) in Port St.. Lucie FL on June 23, 2019. You may view the PowerPoint slides of this message <a href="https://1drv.ms/p/s!As4mcZNjhs_1gnYFIX1OSlW1WCV0">HERE</a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
You may watch the latest version of this message given at Gospel Life Church, Sunrise FL on August 25, 2019 <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=541&v=_95s1dLuwgg">HERE</a>)</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">A number of years ago, </span><span style="color: #262626; font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 13pt;">Pastor Samuel Rodriquez posted the following on Facebook. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #262626; font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 13pt;">"Around or IN Jesus?...This is the difference between a religion and a relationship. We have too many people around him, too many people next to HIM but what we need are people that abide IN HIM...In Him we are new people. 2 Corinthians 5:17, NIV Therefore, if anyone is IN Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! In Him we live, in Him we move, in Him we have our being! Acts 17:28 In Him, No Condemnation! Romans 8:1 therefore, There is now no condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus. (NASB)" <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Let me ask you this morning. Are you in Christ or just hanging around Christ? John's purpose in writing 1 John is found in chapter five, verse 13, "I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life." (NIV) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">The question of Christian assurance or assurance of salvation is what John addresses in this book. He gives three tests we can use to judge whether we have eternal life. Or conversely know that we do not have eternal. As John R. W. Stott has written,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">"His purpose is to destroy the false assurance of the counterfeit as well as the right assurance of the genuine. He is conscious throughout the Epistles of these to companies, 'you' and 'they'...The same two groups exist today. Some...boast of what they may well not possess; others are conventional churchgoers who have no assurance of salvation, and even say it is presumptuous to claim any. But there is a true Christian assurance, which is neither arrogant nor presumptuous, but is on the contrary...the plainly revealed will of God for His people."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<i><span style="font-size: 14pt;">(The Epistles of John, </span></i><span style="font-size: 14pt;">page 64)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">What are the three tests we can use to examine ourselves? There is the moral test. Are you practicing righteousness, living a life of obedience to God. Chapter 2:4, "The man who says, 'I know him,' but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him." (NIV)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">There is the social test. Do you love our brother? Chapter 2:9, "Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in darkness." (NIV) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Thirdly, there is the doctrinal or theological test. Do you acknowledge that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh? Chapter 2:23, "No one who denies the Son has the Father." (NIV) Chapter 4:15, If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God." (NIV)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Dr. Stott summarizes, "The true Christian, born from above, believes in the Son of God, loves God and the children of God, and keeps the commandments of God. Each involves the other. Belief, love and obedience are marks of the new birth. The new birth brings us...into a certain relation to Christ, to God, to the Church and to the world which we cannot repudiate and which marks us out as Christians." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">What is he relationship of the Christian to the world? Jesus Himself acknowledged that his followers were to be in the world but not of the world. He prayed these words to the Father on our behalf. "My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of this world, even as I am not of it."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">How does a Christian live "in" the world but not be "of" the world? How is he to be "unworldly" without being "other worldly"? John helps us live in a right relationship to the world by exposing the destructive power of the world. 1 John 2:15-17, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<b><span style="font-size: 14pt;">"</span></b><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever." (ESV) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Here John has defined what it means to be a part of the world, what it means to be "worldly" and how that presents a danger to the believer. </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">What exactly does the word "world" refer to here? Let's define it. The world defined. The word translated "world" in our English Bibles is used three ways in the Scriptures. It can refer to the physical earth, our planet earth. Acts 17:24, "The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth…" (ESV).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Secondly, it can refer to the people that inhabit the earth. John 3:16, "For God so loved the world [the people of the earth] that he gave his only begotten Son…" (ESV) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Thirdly, It can refer to the spiritual reality in which the people of the earth live as it does in our text this morning, "Do not love the world". (2:15) We use the term "world" in this way. We say the world of "finance", the "world of entertainment", the "world of fashion", the "world of sports" and so forth. This is similar to how the Bible uses it here in 1 John 2:15-17. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Pastor Warren Wiersbe defines the word "world" used by John as "…an invisible spiritual system opposed to God and Christ." (<i>Be Real, </i>Warren W. Wiersbe, page 66) In other words, as someone has said, "Satan's system for opposing the work of Christ on earth." or the system that is opposed to God, satisfies self and serves Satan. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">How would you, describe this "world" that opposes God and the Church?<b></b>First,<b>t</b>he world is ruled by Satan. Satan is the head of the world. In John 14:30; 16:11 Jesus refers to Satan as "the ruler [prince NIV] of this world", in other words the ruler of the world. In 1 John 5:19 John writes, "the whole world is under the control of the evil one." That is, the world geographically and spiritually is his territory, the sphere of his influence, his domain, his kingdom. The world is where Satan has his way.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Secondly, the world is in conflict with God and His Church. In His High Priestly prayer, Jesus said, "I have given them (Christians) your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world." (John 17:14) In the next chapter of this book, - 1 John 3:1, John writes, "The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him [God]." Then in verse 13 "Do not be surprised, my brothers, If the world hates you." (3:13)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">The Apostle Paul says that unbelievers follow the ways of the world and are energized by the god of this world. Speaking of the Ephesians before they became Christians Paul wrote, "…when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient." (Ephesians 2:2b) Satan is the ruler of the world. The world is his kingdom. The world and the church are two distinct groups of people. Not only distinct but polarized opposed to one another.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">J. R. W. Stott writes, "'The world', therefore, is an inclusive term for all those who are in the kingdom of darkness and have not been born of God." (<i>The Epistles of John, </i>page 101)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">As A. W. Tozer has written, "Our warfare is not against mere worldly ways, but against the <i>spirit </i>of the world. For man, whether he is saved or lost, is essentially spirit. The world, </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">in the New Testament meaning of the word, is simply unregenerate human nature wherever it is found, whether in a tavern or in a church." (</span><i style="font-size: 14pt;">The Pursuit of Man</i><span style="font-size: 14pt;">, page 124)</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Do you see why John begins this section of his letter with this admonition, "Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the Love of the Father is not in him?"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Secondly, note with me the, <b>t</b>he nature of the world or worldliness verse 16, "For all that is in the world--the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and the pride of life--is not from the Father but is from the world. John breaks down the nature of worldliness into three parts in verse sixteen. He describes for us what constitutes worldliness in very personal terms. By that I mean, he describes how it is easy for you and I to be influenced and drawn into, the "world" of the world. He points out how we are vulnerable to the world. In other words how the "world" constitutes a threat or a danger to the believer.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Think it of in this way. It is as though there are three ways in which we can give the world access to our lives; three doors through which we can give the world entrance into our mind and heart; three ways that we are at risk to the threat of the world, that system that is opposed to God, ignores God, satisfies self and serves Satan. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">First of all, verse 16, <b>"</b>the lust [desires] of the flesh" (NIV) (NASB). This is a one of the more literal translations. Let me give you some of the other translations to fill out the meaning as best I can. New Living Translation, "the lust for physical pleasure"; Moffat, "the things our physical nature…crave for." 20<sup>th</sup>Century New Testament, "the gratification of the earthly nature." New English Bible, "all that panders to the appetites." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">The flesh or sinful man is the sinful nature we are born with. It is the part of us that apart from regeneration, is blind and even hostile to God. It is that natural inclination to look out for self before others. It is that natural drive to satisfy our physical and emotional appetites. It is what drives a person to indulge in sexual sin because it satisfies their sexual desires regardless of the consequences to others. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">It is what allows a person to be unkind to be resentful, live in anger, be hateful to be dishonest, manipulative for selfish and self-serving reasons. Simply put, it is the reason each of us need the Gospel! Jesus said, "The Spirit gives life the flesh counts for nothing." (Matthew 6:36 ESV) Paul said, "I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, my sinful nature [or flesh]." (Rom. 7:18 NLT) He admonishes the Romans, "…clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">and do not think about how to gratify the desires of your sinful nature [or flesh]." (Romans 13:14 NIV)</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">That is exactly what John says is part of the spirit or nature of the world. This is the hope of the Gospel. When we come to Christ in repentance and faith and are born again, regenerated by the Holy Spirit, we receive a new nature whereby we can overcome the desires of the flesh. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">So Paul says to the Galatians, "live (or walk) in the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature [or flesh]." (Galatians 5:16 NIV) In other words Paul says by the power of the Holy Spirit you will overcome the spirit of this world that appeals to your sinful nature. And in Romans 6:6, "For we know that our old self was crucified with him [Christ] so that the body of sin [authority of sin] might be rendered powerless, that we should no longer be slaves to sin." (NIV) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">That is God's antidote to the world! That is what Christ offers. Not only deliverance from the penalty of sin, our justification, but deliverance from the power of sin in our lives, our sanctification. The "world" is that system and worldview that Is opposed to God and fuels the cravings of man's sinful nature. It appeals and panders to the sinful inclinations of the human heart. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">I probably don't need to explain how the world of 21<sup>th</sup>century America provides every conceivable opportunity to feed and promote the cravings of man's sinful nature. America's entertainment industry provides a steady stream of immorality, impurity, greed and ungodliness promoting and portraying values and lifestyles contrary to the will of God <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">A caution here to each of us. Be aware of the blatant assault by the world upon all that is wholesome and pure decent and godly and the danger that presents for each of us. It is easy to be de-sensitized by the relentless worldly mindset that permeates our culture. This is a tool of our enemy and his world. John is exposing our vulnerability to it when he identifies "The lusts of the flesh."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">But there is a second way in which the world presents a danger to the believer. Notice John's second description of the nature of worldliness or the spirit of the world. Again, other translations,<b></b>"the lust of the eyes" verse sixteen. New Living Testament, "the lust for everything we see"; Moffat - "the things…our eyes crave for"; IVP Commentary, "desire that comes from what we see"; English Standard Version, "The desires of the eyes". <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Stop and think with me of the role the eye plays in our lives. Jesus identifies the relationship of the eye to the heart. "Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light. But when it is bad, your body is full of darkness." (Luke 11:34 ESV)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">The eye is like a gate to the soul. The eye is like a doorway to our heart. John is saying that </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">one of the dangers of the world is the access it has to our heart through our eyes. If you are anything but dead, you know what he is talking about.</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Remember what the world represents. It is the system opposed to God, which satisfies self </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">and our sinful nature and serves Satan. Think back over the last 24 hours and recall what your eyes have seen either inadvertently or intentionally on purpose. Do you recall being enticed or tempted by anything you saw with your eyes?</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Did you allow yourself to lust after, to desire or crave something your eyes saw? Maybe it was enticement of a positive nature. You saw your wife standing in the kitchen and you were prompted to go over and give her a hug. Or you came home and upon seeing your children were prompted to embrace them affectionately. Or perhaps it was an advertisement that came on during the evening news featuring a scantily clothed woman trying to sell you on the idea that you needed a new car. But the ad had you wanting more than the car. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">The world has mastered the art of stimulating and arousing unholy desires through the eyes. </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">There is nothing new about this. Achan was drawn into sin by what he saw, the sight of a beautiful piece of Babylonian clothing some silver and gold, was enough to birth covetousness in his heart which led to his sin. (Judges 7) David was enticed by what he saw on the roof of his neighbor's house, a beautiful woman taking a bath. It resulted in adultery and murder.</span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">How many times have we given in to our lust by what we have allowed our eyes not only to see, but to dwell on? Modern technology has created many means of transmitting visual mages that appeal to the lust of the eyes. Satellite and cable TV, videos, digital cameras, and movies, iPods, DVDs, personal computers, smart phones, laptops and play stations, and the list goes on. The technology is morally neutral, but the "world" has exploited these devices. Increasingly it has become a challenge to regulate the access and influence of these visual images to our eyes. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">A number of years ago, I read an article entitled "The Pornographic pandemic – we are awash in porn" by Patrick Trueman, who wrote, </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">"Pornography is now more popular than baseball. In fact, it has become America’s pastime, and we are awash in it. Porn is on our computers, our smartphones, and our cable or satellite TV. It’s common in our hotels and even in many retail stores and gas stations. For many men — and, increasingly, women — it is part of their daily lives." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">He writes, "Addiction to pornography is now commonplace among adults and is even a growing problem for children and teenagers. Few who are addicted will get help, and the consequences can be lifelong and severe." </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">(lifeSiteNews.com 11-18-11)</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">According to CovenantEyes.com, "64% of Christian men and 15% of Christian women say they watch porn at least once a month." And what is more shocking is that "1 in 5 youth pastors and 1 in 7 senior pastors use porn on a regular basis and currently struggling. That is more than 50,000 U.S. church leaders."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">According to Second Glance Ministries, <span style="background-color: white; color: black;">"The reality is we live in a society that is bombarding us with information that is sexual in nature. Everywhere we go, every place we turn, people of all ages are being inundated with sexually oriented information. The advent of the Internet and cell technology has made the worst of the worst pornographic material available to every man, woman, and child, regardless of age. The information we are receiving is becoming more graphic, violent, and disgusting every day."<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">The question I pose to each of us at the point is, are we giving the world access to our hearts </span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14pt;">through our eyes?</span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14pt;">A third way John describes the nature of worldliness,</span><b style="font-size: 14pt;"></b><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14pt;">"the pride of life". New American Standard Bible, "boastful pride of life"; Moffat – "the proud display of life"; English Standard Version – "pride in possessions". This pride is linked with our relationship to others. Simply put, we take pride in who we are and what we have.</span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">We seek the recognition and attention of others. There are the "Jones" to keep up with. The word translated "pride" is literally "vainglory". It has the idea of being pretentious showy, conspicuous. In other words it takes satisfaction in being noticed by others, having more than others, having a higher position than others, notoriety, prominence, prestige and the power that comes with it. The focus here is our pride. Enjoyment derived not only from what we have </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">but with who we have become. "Boasting of what you have and what you do." as someone has said. Why do so many Americans live in homes they cannot afford. Take vacations with money they do not have? Live lifestyles maintained by consumer debt?</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">One of the greatest tools of the "world" is the advertising industry. Advertising often appeals </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">to this pride of life. We are told what we should have and why we need to have it. It often fosters discontentment and dissatisfaction with what we have. Its influence is often subtle and relentless.</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">We have defined what the world is. We have noted the three-fold nature of worldliness - "the desires of the flesh", "the desires of the eyes" and "the pride of life". Thirdly, John points out the danger of worldliness.<b></b>In verse 15, John warns us not to love the world.</span><b><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> "</span></b><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him." </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">(ESV)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Notice first of all that love for the world compromises our fellowship with God. If you love the world, "the love of the Father is not in you." That's pretty straightforward! In other words we jeopardize out fellowship with God when we indulge the "the lust of the flesh", "the lust of the eyes" and "the pride of life". When we choose to play with the world. When we look to the world for our fulfillment. When we find our satisfaction in what the world has to offer, John says we turn our backs on God! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Does that sound radical to you? Listen the words of James. </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">"You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God."</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">(James 4:4 ESV) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">When we befriend the world we commit spiritual adultery. James says there is something incompatible with loving the world - and loving God. The two cannot be reconciled. They are mutually exclusive.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">There is a second reason John warns us not to love the world. Verse 17,</span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"> "The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">May I suggest to you that when we find our fulfillment in the world we live in deception. We are short sided, that is, we make decisions with no regard for the future. Notice the two parallel thoughts in verse 17. "The world and its desires pass away." That's the first thought. </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">In other words, what the world has to offer that which appeals to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, is temporary! Here to day – gone tomorrow. The self- gratifying, self-indulging pleasures that the world has to offer will some day come to an abrupt end.</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">In my neighborhood there are several streets you can turn into off of NW 94<sup>th </sup>Avenue that are dead end streets. And there are several neighborhoods you can turn into that have no outlet. You've seen the signs, DEAD END and NO OUTLET. That is what John is saying. The world and its desires lead you down a dead end street. The world and its desires lead you into a neighborhood that has no outlet. To disregard this reality is to be short sighted. To disregard this reality is to be deceived says John.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Notice the contrast what follows in the second part of verse 17, "but whoever does the will </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">of God lives forever." John is making this an issue of obedience. It all comes down to two choices, choosing Jesus Christ and God's will or choosing to follow the world and its desires.</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Here's the bottom line. Living for the world leads to a dead end. It's short sighted. It's deceptive. In contrast, the one who does God's will lives in the presence of God now and forever. Paul writing the Galatians sounds the same warning. "Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sow to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will read eternal life." (Galatians 6:7-8 NIV)</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">You will never find fulfillment in the world. Anything the world offers is temporary. It is superficial and will pass away. You've heart the story of the frog that jumped into the hot frying pan. Immediately after his feet touched the hot surface of the pan he jumped right back out. But then, there was the frog who jumped into a pot of cold water on the stove. He didn't realize, however, that the fire have been turned on. The water gradually got warmer and warmer. Since frogs are cold blooded, their bodies adjust to the temperature of their environment. As the water heated up so did the temperature of the frog. You know the end of the story. The frog died in the boiling water without even knowing what was happening. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">I am afraid that's how many Christians are living. They are playing in the world's playground </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">where they are indulging the desires of their flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, not even aware of what is happening to them. The world is subtly and slowly conforming them into its mold.</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Jesus met a Samaritan woman at Jacob's well in the Samaritan village of Sychar. (John 4) </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">She evidently was thirsty because she had come to Jacob's well to draw some water. Jesus asked her for drink of water, and in so doing engaged her in a conversation about another kind of thirst. You see, He knew the circumstances of her life. He knew that she was looking for answers in all the wrong places. She had turned to the world to find fulfillment. She was seeking satisfaction by fulfilling the desires of her sinful nature. And she had come away desperately empty.</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Could that be where you are this morning? Jesus knew she had turned to the world. And in His conversation, He said to her, "The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband." But perhaps what was more significant was the fact that Jesus knew her heart. He knew that she was not finding what she was ultimately looking for in her relationships with men. She was looking for fulfillment down one those dead end streets. She was driving around one of those no outlet neighborhoods trying to find her way out. She was lost, seeking happiness and satisfaction in all the wrong places, and coming up empty over and over again. She was very thirsty, spiritually thirsty. Her heart was empty, and Jesus knew it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Could that be where you are this morning? So, Jesus offered her something, something only He could give her. "Everyone who drinks of this water [of Jacob's well] will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." (John 4:13-14 ESV)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">In John chapter seven, Jesus was teaching in the Temple courts where He said something very similar, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, 'Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.' Now this he said about the Spirit, </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">whom those who believed in him were to receive……" (John 7:37- 39 ESV)</span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Have you received the Holy spirit? In other words, have you been born again? In his album, "Past the Edges", Chris Rice sings a song called simply "Thirsty". I think he might have had these words of Jesus in mind. He talks about a "River" with a capital "R". I believe he is speaking of Jesus as that River. Listen to the lyrics.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">"I’m so thirsty, I can feel it<br />Burning through the deepest corners of my soul<br />Deep desire, can’t describe <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">this Nameless urge <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">that drives me somewhere<br />Though I don’t know where to go<br />Seems I’ve heard about a River <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">from someone who’s been<br />And they tell me once you reach it,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">oh, you’ll never thirst again<br />So I have to find the River, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">somehow my life depends on the River<br />Holy River, I’m so thirsty<br /><br />Other waters I’ve been drinkin’<br />But they always leave me empty like before<br />Satisfaction, all I’m askin’<br />Could I really feel this thirsty <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">if there weren’t something more?<br />And I’ve heard about a River from someone who’s been<br />And they tell me once you reach it, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">oh, you’ll never thirst again<br />So I have to find the River, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">somehow my life depends on the River<br />Holy River, I’m so thirsty<br /><br />I’m on the shore now <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">of the wildest River<br />And I kneel and beg for mercy from the sky<br />But no one answers, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">I’ve gotta take my chances<br />‘Cause something deep inside me’s cryin’<br />“This is why you are alive!”<br />So I plunge into the River <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">with all that I am<br />Praying this will be the River<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">where I’ll never thirst again<br />I’m abandoned to the River<br />And now my life depends on the River<br />Holy River, I’m so thirsty<br />(Copyright Clumsy Fly Music (ASCAP)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Perhaps this morning you are still "thirsty" like the Samaritan woman. Maybe in your thirst </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">you identify with Chris Rice's words, "Could I really feel this thirsty If there weren't something more?" There is something more. Jesus is the River! Have you plunged into that River? He alone can satisfy the deepest longing of your soul.</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">When we turn to Jesus Christ and are born again and we walk in fellowship with Him, the world and what it offers becomes tasteless and empty. Friends, by God's design we have been created to have fellowship with Him through faith in Jesus Christ. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">St. Augustine wrote, "You have created us for Yourself, and our heart is not quiet until it rests in You." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">This morning, whether you have never come to Christ for salvation or as a believer you have been looking for fulfillment in the world and have come up empty, Jesus invites you, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink," and out of your heart "will flow rivers of living water."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">© James P. McGarvey<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<style class="WebKit-mso-list-quirks-style">
<!--
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-margin-top-alt:auto;
margin-right:0in;
mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
margin-left:0in;
text-align:center;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:Calibri;
mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";}
h1
{mso-style-priority:9;
mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-link:"Heading 1 Char";
mso-style-next:Normal;
mso-margin-top-alt:auto;
margin-right:0in;
mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
margin-left:0in;
text-align:center;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
page-break-after:avoid;
mso-outline-level:1;
font-size:16.0pt;
font-family:Calibri;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS ゴシック";
mso-font-kerning:16.0pt;
font-weight:bold;}
h2
{mso-style-priority:9;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-link:"Heading 2 Char";
mso-style-next:Normal;
mso-margin-top-alt:auto;
margin-right:0in;
mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
margin-left:0in;
text-align:center;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
page-break-after:avoid;
mso-outline-level:2;
font-size:14.0pt;
font-family:Calibri;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS ゴシック";
font-weight:bold;
font-style:italic;}
h3
{mso-style-priority:9;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-link:"Heading 3 Char";
mso-style-next:Normal;
mso-margin-top-alt:auto;
margin-right:0in;
mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
margin-left:0in;
text-align:center;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
page-break-after:avoid;
mso-outline-level:3;
font-size:13.0pt;
font-family:Calibri;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS ゴシック";
font-weight:bold;}
p.MsoList, li.MsoList, div.MsoList
{mso-style-priority:99;
mso-margin-top-alt:auto;
margin-right:0in;
mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
margin-left:.25in;
mso-add-space:auto;
text-align:center;
text-indent:-.25in;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:Calibri;
mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";}
p.MsoListCxSpFirst, li.MsoListCxSpFirst, div.MsoListCxSpFirst
{mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-type:export-only;
mso-margin-top-alt:auto;
margin-right:0in;
mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
margin-left:.25in;
mso-add-space:auto;
text-align:center;
text-indent:-.25in;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:Calibri;
mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";}
p.MsoListCxSpMiddle, li.MsoListCxSpMiddle, div.MsoListCxSpMiddle
{mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-type:export-only;
mso-margin-top-alt:auto;
margin-right:0in;
mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
margin-left:.25in;
mso-add-space:auto;
text-align:center;
text-indent:-.25in;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:Calibri;
mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";}
p.MsoListCxSpLast, li.MsoListCxSpLast, div.MsoListCxSpLast
{mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-type:export-only;
mso-margin-top-alt:auto;
margin-right:0in;
mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
margin-left:.25in;
mso-add-space:auto;
text-align:center;
text-indent:-.25in;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:Calibri;
mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";}
p.MsoList2, li.MsoList2, div.MsoList2
{mso-style-priority:99;
mso-margin-top-alt:auto;
margin-right:0in;
mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
margin-left:.5in;
mso-add-space:auto;
text-align:center;
text-indent:-.25in;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:Calibri;
mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";}
p.MsoList2CxSpFirst, li.MsoList2CxSpFirst, div.MsoList2CxSpFirst
{mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-type:export-only;
mso-margin-top-alt:auto;
margin-right:0in;
mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
margin-left:.5in;
mso-add-space:auto;
text-align:center;
text-indent:-.25in;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:Calibri;
mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";}
p.MsoList2CxSpMiddle, li.MsoList2CxSpMiddle, div.MsoList2CxSpMiddle
{mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-type:export-only;
mso-margin-top-alt:auto;
margin-right:0in;
mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
margin-left:.5in;
mso-add-space:auto;
text-align:center;
text-indent:-.25in;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:Calibri;
mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";}
p.MsoList2CxSpLast, li.MsoList2CxSpLast, div.MsoList2CxSpLast
{mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-type:export-only;
mso-margin-top-alt:auto;
margin-right:0in;
mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
margin-left:.5in;
mso-add-space:auto;
text-align:center;
text-indent:-.25in;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:Calibri;
mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";}
p.MsoList3, li.MsoList3, div.MsoList3
{mso-style-priority:99;
mso-margin-top-alt:auto;
margin-right:0in;
mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
margin-left:.75in;
mso-add-space:auto;
text-align:center;
text-indent:-.25in;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:Calibri;
mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";}
p.MsoList3CxSpFirst, li.MsoList3CxSpFirst, div.MsoList3CxSpFirst
{mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-type:export-only;
mso-margin-top-alt:auto;
margin-right:0in;
mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
margin-left:.75in;
mso-add-space:auto;
text-align:center;
text-indent:-.25in;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:Calibri;
mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";}
p.MsoList3CxSpMiddle, li.MsoList3CxSpMiddle, div.MsoList3CxSpMiddle
{mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-type:export-only;
mso-margin-top-alt:auto;
margin-right:0in;
mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
margin-left:.75in;
mso-add-space:auto;
text-align:center;
text-indent:-.25in;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:Calibri;
mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";}
p.MsoList3CxSpLast, li.MsoList3CxSpLast, div.MsoList3CxSpLast
{mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-type:export-only;
mso-margin-top-alt:auto;
margin-right:0in;
mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
margin-left:.75in;
mso-add-space:auto;
text-align:center;
text-indent:-.25in;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:Calibri;
mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";}
p.MsoList4, li.MsoList4, div.MsoList4
{mso-style-priority:99;
mso-margin-top-alt:auto;
margin-right:0in;
mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
margin-left:1.0in;
mso-add-space:auto;
text-align:center;
text-indent:-.25in;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:Calibri;
mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";}
p.MsoList4CxSpFirst, li.MsoList4CxSpFirst, div.MsoList4CxSpFirst
{mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-type:export-only;
mso-margin-top-alt:auto;
margin-right:0in;
mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
margin-left:1.0in;
mso-add-space:auto;
text-align:center;
text-indent:-.25in;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:Calibri;
mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";}
p.MsoList4CxSpMiddle, li.MsoList4CxSpMiddle, div.MsoList4CxSpMiddle
{mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-type:export-only;
mso-margin-top-alt:auto;
margin-right:0in;
mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
margin-left:1.0in;
mso-add-space:auto;
text-align:center;
text-indent:-.25in;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:Calibri;
mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";}
p.MsoList4CxSpLast, li.MsoList4CxSpLast, div.MsoList4CxSpLast
{mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-type:export-only;
mso-margin-top-alt:auto;
margin-right:0in;
mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
margin-left:1.0in;
mso-add-space:auto;
text-align:center;
text-indent:-.25in;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:Calibri;
mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";}
p.MsoBodyText, li.MsoBodyText, div.MsoBodyText
{mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-link:"Body Text Char";
mso-margin-top-alt:auto;
margin-right:0in;
mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
margin-left:0in;
text-align:center;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:Calibri;
mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";}
a:link, span.MsoHyperlink
{mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
color:blue;
text-decoration:underline;
text-underline:single;}
a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed
{mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
color:purple;
mso-themecolor:followedhyperlink;
text-decoration:underline;
text-underline:single;}
p
{mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-margin-top-alt:auto;
margin-right:0in;
mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
margin-left:0in;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";}
p.MsoAcetate, li.MsoAcetate, div.MsoAcetate
{mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-link:"Balloon Text Char";
mso-margin-top-alt:auto;
margin-right:0in;
mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
margin-left:0in;
text-align:center;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:8.0pt;
font-family:Tahoma;
mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;}
span.Heading1Char
{mso-style-name:"Heading 1 Char";
mso-style-priority:9;
mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-locked:yes;
mso-style-link:"Heading 1";
mso-ansi-font-size:16.0pt;
mso-bidi-font-size:16.0pt;
font-family:"MS ゴシック";
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS ゴシック";
mso-font-kerning:16.0pt;
font-weight:bold;}
span.Heading2Char
{mso-style-name:"Heading 2 Char";
mso-style-priority:9;
mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-locked:yes;
mso-style-link:"Heading 2";
mso-ansi-font-size:14.0pt;
mso-bidi-font-size:14.0pt;
font-family:"MS ゴシック";
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS ゴシック";
font-weight:bold;
font-style:italic;}
span.Heading3Char
{mso-style-name:"Heading 3 Char";
mso-style-priority:9;
mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-locked:yes;
mso-style-link:"Heading 3";
mso-ansi-font-size:13.0pt;
mso-bidi-font-size:13.0pt;
font-family:"MS ゴシック";
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS ゴシック";
font-weight:bold;}
span.BalloonTextChar
{mso-style-name:"Balloon Text Char";
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-locked:yes;
mso-style-link:"Balloon Text";
mso-ansi-font-size:8.0pt;
mso-bidi-font-size:8.0pt;
font-family:Tahoma;
mso-ascii-font-family:Tahoma;
mso-hansi-font-family:Tahoma;
mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;}
span.BodyTextChar
{mso-style-name:"Body Text Char";
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-locked:yes;
mso-style-link:"Body Text";
mso-ansi-font-size:11.0pt;
mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt;}
.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
mso-default-props:yes;
font-size:10.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt;
mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Calibri;
mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;
mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;
mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;}
@page WordSection1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:.5in .5in .5in .5in;
mso-header-margin:.5in;
mso-footer-margin:.5in;
mso-paper-source:0;}
div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}
/* List Definitions */
@list l0
{mso-list-id:-227;
mso-list-template-ids:-322409616;}
@list l0:level1
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:"";
mso-level-tab-stop:0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:0in;
font-family:Symbol;}
@list l0:level2
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:;
mso-level-tab-stop:.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:.75in;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Symbol;}
@list l0:level3
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:o;
mso-level-tab-stop:1.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:1.25in;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:"Courier New";}
@list l0:level4
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:;
mso-level-tab-stop:1.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:1.75in;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Wingdings;}
@list l0:level5
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:;
mso-level-tab-stop:2.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:2.25in;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Wingdings;}
@list l0:level6
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:;
mso-level-tab-stop:2.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:2.75in;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Symbol;}
@list l0:level7
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:o;
mso-level-tab-stop:3.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:3.25in;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:"Courier New";}
@list l0:level8
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:;
mso-level-tab-stop:3.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:3.75in;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Wingdings;}
@list l0:level9
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:;
mso-level-tab-stop:4.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:4.25in;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Wingdings;}
@list l1
{mso-list-id:640421268;
mso-list-template-ids:391704804;}
@list l1:level1
{mso-level-number-format:alpha-upper;
mso-level-tab-stop:.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l1:level2
{mso-level-number-format:alpha-upper;
mso-level-tab-stop:1.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l1:level3
{mso-level-number-format:alpha-upper;
mso-level-tab-stop:1.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l1:level4
{mso-level-number-format:alpha-upper;
mso-level-tab-stop:2.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l1:level5
{mso-level-number-format:alpha-upper;
mso-level-tab-stop:2.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l1:level6
{mso-level-number-format:alpha-upper;
mso-level-tab-stop:3.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l1:level7
{mso-level-number-format:alpha-upper;
mso-level-tab-stop:3.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l1:level8
{mso-level-number-format:alpha-upper;
mso-level-tab-stop:4.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l1:level9
{mso-level-number-format:alpha-upper;
mso-level-tab-stop:4.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l2
{mso-list-id:927075282;
mso-list-template-ids:827103778;}
@list l2:level1
{mso-level-number-format:alpha-upper;
mso-level-tab-stop:.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l2:level2
{mso-level-number-format:alpha-upper;
mso-level-tab-stop:1.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l2:level3
{mso-level-number-format:alpha-upper;
mso-level-tab-stop:1.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l2:level4
{mso-level-number-format:alpha-upper;
mso-level-tab-stop:2.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l2:level5
{mso-level-number-format:alpha-upper;
mso-level-tab-stop:2.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l2:level6
{mso-level-number-format:alpha-upper;
mso-level-tab-stop:3.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l2:level7
{mso-level-number-format:alpha-upper;
mso-level-tab-stop:3.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l2:level8
{mso-level-number-format:alpha-upper;
mso-level-tab-stop:4.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l2:level9
{mso-level-number-format:alpha-upper;
mso-level-tab-stop:4.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l3
{mso-list-id:2090467655;
mso-list-template-ids:1820916808;}
@list l3:level1
{mso-level-number-format:alpha-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l3:level2
{mso-level-number-format:alpha-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:1.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l3:level3
{mso-level-number-format:alpha-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:1.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l3:level4
{mso-level-number-format:alpha-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:2.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l3:level5
{mso-level-number-format:alpha-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:2.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l3:level6
{mso-level-number-format:alpha-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:3.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l3:level7
{mso-level-number-format:alpha-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:3.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l3:level8
{mso-level-number-format:alpha-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:4.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l3:level9
{mso-level-number-format:alpha-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:4.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;}
-->
</style></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<br />Jim McGarveyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09559934703130337359noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1895307860926611586.post-1131635166760455412019-06-10T13:30:00.007-07:002023-03-11T10:13:29.030-08:00"Maafa21 - Black Genocide In 21st Century America"<div data-block="true" data-editor="er1re" data-offset-key="4ijtl-0-0">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: inherit; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VmziJGnM3bY/XP65wjjF_SI/AAAAAAAAA8k/XGdAOA1anWMH4CwFjEhskGFAneY0jvj1wCLcBGAs/s1600/Maafa%2B21%2B-%2BBlack%2BGenocide.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VmziJGnM3bY/XP65wjjF_SI/AAAAAAAAA8k/XGdAOA1anWMH4CwFjEhskGFAneY0jvj1wCLcBGAs/s1600/Maafa%2B21%2B-%2BBlack%2BGenocide.jpg" style="font-family: inherit; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="393" data-original-width="243" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VmziJGnM3bY/XP65wjjF_SI/AAAAAAAAA8k/XGdAOA1anWMH4CwFjEhskGFAneY0jvj1wCLcBGAs/s320/Maafa%2B21%2B-%2BBlack%2BGenocide.jpg" width="197" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="4ijtl-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative; text-align: center; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><b><span data-offset-key="4ijtl-0-0">Watch "Maafa21 - Black Genocide In 21st Century America" </span></b></span><br />
<span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><b>ONLINE FREE at: <a href="https://www.maafa21.com">https://www.maafa21.com</a></b></span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="er1re" data-offset-key="c41to-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="c41to-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span>
<span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">"They were stolen from their homes, locked in chains and taken across an ocean. And for more than 200 years, their blood and sweat would help to build the richest and most powerful nation the world has ever known. But WHEN SLAVERY ENDED, THEIR WELCOME WAS OVER. America's wealthy elite had decided it was time for them to disappear and they were not particular about how it might be done. What you are about to see is that the plan these people set in motion 150 years ago is still being carried out today. So DON'T THINK THAT THIS IS HISTORY. IT IS NOT. IT IS HAPPENING RIGHT HERE, AND IT'S HAPPENING RIGHT NOW." </span></div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="c41to-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<span data-offset-key="c41to-0-0"><span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">~ Maafa21: Black Genocide in 21st Century America. </span></span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="er1re" data-offset-key="dsdkh-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="dsdkh-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="er1re" data-offset-key="28fcf-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="28fcf-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://www.maafa21.com">https://www.maafa21.com</a><br /></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="er1re" data-offset-key="7t916-0-0" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: inherit; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
</div>
Jim McGarveyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09559934703130337359noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1895307860926611586.post-11864744966600737982019-04-10T19:31:00.003-07:002019-06-10T15:04:44.302-07:00Christ Our Healer - Isaiah 53:4, Matthew 8:17, James 5:13-16(I gave this message at First Alliance International Church in Fort Lauderdale Florida on Sunday April 7, 2019. You may view the PowerPoint slides that accompany this message <a href="https://1drv.ms/p/s!As4mcZNjhs_1gnT0dAhyJOcsBElZ">here</a>.)<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-gsP4YIJkOto/XK6mijB0SHI/AAAAAAAAA7I/nk_1d8ti8UgsGpXT4CmPc4QxSXPexzQxwCLcBGAs/s1600/Slide08.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="720" height="240" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-gsP4YIJkOto/XK6mijB0SHI/AAAAAAAAA7I/nk_1d8ti8UgsGpXT4CmPc4QxSXPexzQxwCLcBGAs/s320/Slide08.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">"The mission of The Christian and Missionary Alliance is to know Jesus Christ; exalt Him as Savior, Sanctifier, Healer, and Coming King; and complete His Great Commission." </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">(General Council 2017)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">The Alliance website explains, "Alliance founder Dr. A. B. Simpson defined the C&MA's spiritual DNA more than 100 years ago, referring to it as the Fourfold Gospel; it's the heart of what Alliance people believe about Jesus and forms the foundation of all that defines the Alliance movement." It continues,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">"The Fourfold Gospel is the Christological summary on which the core values of the Christian and Missionary Alliance is based." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">The Cross - Jesus Christ is our Savior. Jesus shed His blood on the cross as He bore the sins of the world. He made atonement for our sin having paid the penalty of our sin in His substitutionary death on the cross. Isaiah prophesied of Christ's substitutionary death for our sins hundreds of years before His death, writing, in chapter 53, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">"All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned - everyone- to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all." (Isaiah 53:6 ESV) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">"...by his knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, As He will bear their iniquities." (Isaiah 53:11b ESV) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">"...because he poured out his soul to death, and was numbered with the transgressor; yet bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors." (Isaiah 53:12b ESV) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">When we repent of our sin and by faith believe in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ our sins are forgiven and we justified, that is declared righteous in God's sight our sins no long being held against us because Jesus bore our sin and paid the penalty of our sin in His death on the cross. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">As the Apostle John wrote, "Whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">The Apostle Peter proclaimed that Jesus is the only Savior, writing, "...there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved." (Acts 4:12) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">The Laver - Jesus Christ is our Sanctifier. The laver represents the power of the Holy Spirit to cleanse us from our sins and empower us to live a holy life. Sanctification means separation from sin and separation to God. Peter wrote, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">"His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">his very</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires." (2 Peter 1:3-4 NIV)</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">As our Sanctifier Jesus delivers us from the bondage and the power of sin as we allow His Holy Spirit to control our lives. The Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthian church, "And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness, sanctification and redemption." (1 Corinthians 1:30 ESV)</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">The Pitcher - Jesus Christ is our Healer. The pitcher contains the oil used to anoint the sick. James writes, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">"Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up." (James 5:14,15 ESV) We will look at this in detail </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">later in the message.</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: medium;">And lastly, The Crown - Jesus Christ is our Coming King. Jesus is the King of Kings. He has no rivals. The Bible declares that Jesus Christ died, was buried and three days later rose from the dead. And just as the Scriptures give witness to the literal bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ from the grave, the Bible is equally emphatic in its declaration that one day Jesus Christ will physically return to this earth.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">You remember as the disciples watched Jesus ascend into heaven the two angels that appeared to them said, "'Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.'" (Acts 1:11 ESV)</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">And the Apostle Paul wrote the Thessalonians,</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">"For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever." (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">NIV) That is the promise for every believer!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">The Fourfold Gospel, the Christological summary; Jesus is our Savior, Sanctifier, Healer and Coming King.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Let me pause here and ask you a question. Is Jesus Christ your Savior? Have you received the forgiveness and the gift of eternal life He alone can offer you? It is ours when we repent of our sins and put our faith in His death and resurrection as God's only provision for our salvation.</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Knowing Jesus as your Savior is the starting point of knowing him as your Sanctifier, your Healer and your coming King.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Today we focus on Christ our Healer. The Statement of Faith of the Alliance states, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">"Provision is made in the redemptive work of the Lord Jesus Christ for the healing of the mortal body. Prayer for the sick and anointing with oil are taught in the Scriptures and are privileges for the Church in this present age. (Matthew 8:16-17, James 5:13-16)" (C&MA Statement of Faith, Council 2015) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">This morning I want to focus on two aspects of healing as found in the Scriptures and noted in this doctrinal statement. First of all, what is the Biblical truth that substantiates that Christ is our healer? Secondly, the ministry of healing in the local church as outlined by James in the fifth chapter of his letter. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">First then, the Scriptural basis for the claim that Christ is our healer. </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Dr. Keith Bailey, formerly our Vice President of North American Ministries wrote, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">"The claim for healing in the atonement rests on two principal passages of Scripture: Isaiah 53:4-5 and Matthew 8:17." (Dr. Keith Bailey, <i>The Children's Bread</i>, page 43) He states that atonement <b>is </b>"...the procuring cause of healing." To "procure" means to obtain something to acquire or secure it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">As we have noted in the Alliance Statement of Faith, "</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Provision is made in the redemptive work of the Lord Jesus Christ for the healing of the mortal body." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">What is the relationship between divine healing and Jesus Christ's work of atonement on the cross? There is a reason I began this morning by reviewing the Fourfold Gospel. You see, God's provision for the healing of the believer is not unrelated to Christ's redemptive work of atonement on the cross for the forgiveness of our sin and His work of sanctification in our lives. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Both our salvation and God's provision for the physical healing of our bodies, come from the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ on the cross. As Dr. Bailey noted, the key text in this regard is found first in the Old Testament and the fulfillment of it, in Matthew's account of the healing ministry of Jesus while in Capernaum as recorded in Matthew chapter 8. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Let me read Matthew 8:17. in it's context beginning at verse 14. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">"And when Jesus entered Peter's house, he saw his mother-in-law lying sick with a fever. He touched her hand, and the fever left her, and she rose and began to serve them. That evening they brought to him many who were oppressed by demons, and he cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick." Verse 17, "This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah, <b>'He took our illnesses and bore our diseases.'" </b>(emphasis mine) (ESV)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Matthew says that the healing ministry of Jesus Christ was in fulfillment of the words of the prophet Isaiah written centuries before, as recorded in Isaiah 53:4. We cannot and should not underestimate the significance of this text with regard to the ministry of Christ our Healer. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Let me read you Isaiah 53:4 (ESV) in its larger context beginning with verse one down to verse six. Remember that in this passage Isaiah is speaking prophetically of Israel's coming Messiah often referred to as the "Suffering Servant". Note how he suffered for you and I. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">"Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief, and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised and we esteemed him not."</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Then verse four, the verse that Matthew quotes in his Gospel,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">"Surely he has borne our griefs," (Matthew - illnesses) "and carried our sorrows;"<b>(</b>Matthew - diseases) "yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned--everyone -- to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">This passage graphically describes the substitutionary nature of Jesus' sacrificial death on the cross. Substitutionary, He suffered and died a brutal death in our place as our substitute. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Isaiah wrote, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">"he was smitten by God and afflicted"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">"he was crushed for our iniquities"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">"upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">"the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Do you see God's love for us in these verses? His grace? His unmerited favor? Jesus Christ, </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">the Creator of this world, the sustainer of all life, the sovereign, powerful, omnipotent ruler of the universe, allowed Himself to be despised and rejected; to be "smitten by God and afflicted"; to be "wounded for our transgressions"; to be "crushed for our inequities" so that He could make atonement for our sin and heal our sicknesses.</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Most versions of the Bible translate Isaiah 53:4, "he has borne our griefs </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">and carried our sorrows" </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">as it might be in the version you are reading.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">But note that Matthew in quoting this verse in his gospel wrote </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">'He took our illnesses and bore our diseases". </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Dr. A. B. Simpson comments on the word translated "griefs" as follows, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">"The original word is found about one hundred times in the Old Testament, and every time but this it is translated 'sickness...This is the only instance where it is translated 'griefs'...'Griefs is not altogether a mistranslation, but the word really means 'disease.'"(A.B. Simpson, <i>The Lord For the Body, </i>page 78<i>) </i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Greek scholar T. J. McCrossan concurs writing, "'Kholee' (sickness) is from 'chalah'--to be weak, sick or afflicted." He then cites an example, "</span><i style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">In Deuteronomy 7:15</i><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">we read, 'The Lord will take away from thee all sickness (kholee).'" (T. J. McCrossan,</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><i style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">Bodily Healing and The Atonement,</i><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">page 17)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Similarly, most versions of the Bible translate the next phrase of Isaiah 53:4, "and carried our sorrows." This word can also be translated "pains". Matthew used the word "diseases". The English Standard Version, "and bore our diseases", or New American Standard Bible, "carried away our diseases". <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Notice also the significance of the two verbs "borne" and "carried" used in Isaiah 53:4. The verb "nasa" translated "borne" means"...to bear in the sense of 'suffering punishment f</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">or something.'"(T. J. McCrossan, Ibid</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><i style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">,</i><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">page 18)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">The Messiah, Isaiah wrote, "has borne our griefs" or as we have seen our sicknesses "(53:4) The verb "sabal" translated "carried" similarly "...means to 'bear something as a penalty or chastisement.'" (McCrossan, ibid. page 18)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">The Messiah "carried our sorrows" or our "pains" or diseases. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">The reason I take the time to look closely at Isaiah's use of these two verbs in verse 4, is because it is important at this point to note that the two verbs </span><span style="font-family: "calibri";">"</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">borne' (nasa) and carried (sabal) in Isaiah 53:4 used of Jesus bearing our sicknesses, are the same two verbs used in Isaiah 53:11 and 12 of Jesus bearing and carrying our sin. (</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">T. J. McCrossan)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">As we read earlier, verse 11, "he shall bear their iniquities" and verse 12, "yet he bore the sins of many". Isaiah uses the same two verbs in verse 4 speaking of Christ bearing our sicknesses and pains, as he does in verse 11 and 12 of Christ bearing our sins. Let me summarize with these words from Dr. A.B. Simpson commenting on Isaiah 53:4,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">"This is the great evangelical vision, the gospel in the Old Testament, the very mirror of the coming Redeemer. And here in the front of it, prefaced by a great AMEN--the only 'surely' in the chapter --is the promise of healing; the very strongest possible statement of complete redemption from pain and sickness by His life and death, and the very words which the Evangelist afterwards quotes, under inspired guidance of the Holy Ghost (Matt. 8:17) as the explanation of His universal works of healing....the two words here used denote respectively <i>sickness</i>and <i>pain</i>, and...the words for "bear" "carry," denote not mere sympathy, but an actual substitution and the removal utterly of the thing borne. Therefore, in the same full sense as He has borne our sins, Jesus Christ has SURELY BORNE AWAY and CARRIED OFF our sicknesses; yes, and even our PAINS, so that abiding in Him, we may be fully delivered from both sickness and pain. Thus 'by his stripes we are healed. 'Blessed and glorious Gospel! </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Blessed and glorious Burden Bearer!" (</span><i style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">The Gospel of Healing</i><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">, pages 15-16)</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Secondly, this morning, </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">a look the ministry of healing in the local church as outlined by James in the fifth chapter of his letter. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">James 5:13-16 </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">, </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">"Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working." (ESV)</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">From the moment Adam and Eve fell into sin sickness and death became a part of the human experience. Sin not only separated man spiritually from God but sin brought sickness, disease, pain and death to the human experience. But one cannot read either the Old or New Testament without taking notice that God heals the sick. Accounts of divine healing are found as early as the book of Genesis. We do not have time this morning to review some of those accounts.</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">But as we have noted in the Alliance Statement of Faith, </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">"Prayer for the sick and anointing with oil are taught in the Scriptures and are privileges for the Church in this present age. (Matthew 8:16-17, James 5:13-16)" <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">The instructions found in James 5 have never been revoked or repealed. They are as valid to day as they were in the day James wrote them, giving us instructions </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">in implementing a ministry of healing in the life of the local church. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">This letter was written by James the Just, the brother of Jesus, and leader of the early Jerusalem church and one of the first martyrs of the church. It was most likely written </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">and sent to Jewish Christian house churches scattered around the Mediterranean world. (ESV Study Bible)</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">First of all, note the prominence of prayer in James instructions. One cannot read this passage without taking note of the role of prayer in the ministry of healing. It is mentioned five times</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> i</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">n the four verse we just read, seven times if your read through verse 18.</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Notice the five references: verse 13 - James instructs those who are suffering to pray.</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Verse 14 - Those who are sick are to "call for the elders of the church" to pray over them. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Verse 15 - It is "the prayer of faith" that will heal the sick.</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Verse 16, The congregation is to pray. "</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed."</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">And again verse 16, It is the "prayer of a righteous person" that "has great power".<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Prayer is a "spiritual exercise" as Dr. Keith Bailey has pointed out. (Bailey, ibid. page 133) And prayer is the atmosphere, the context, the setting in which the church is to experience healing. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Secondly notice the ministry of the elders of the church. The sick are instructed to call for the elders to pray for them and anoint them with oil. That constitutes an act of obedience on the part of the individual who is sick. The elders are the men who God has entrusted with the oversight and spiritual care of the church. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">The sick are to take the initiative in requesting this ministry of the elders on their behalf. As Dr. Bailey points out, "To call for the elders is a humble admission of need. What better heart attitude than this for receiving the blessing of the Lord!" (Bailey, Ibid. page 134) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Thirdly, note the significance of anointing with oil. It can be illustrated from the life of David </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">when Samuel anointed him king of Israel. </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">"</span><span style="color: #020f18; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him [David] in the midst of his brothers. And the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon David from that day forward." (</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">1 Samuel 16:13 ESV)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Dr.</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Simpson explains the significance of anointing with oil. He writes that oil. "...is the Old Testament symbol of the Holy Ghost. It signifies His personal coming into the body of the person anointed to communicate the healing life and power of Jesus Christ." (<i>The Lord for the Body</i>, chapter 15, "Inquiries and Answers," question 21) </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">F</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">ourthly, verse 15, notice it is the "prayer of faith" that "will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up." Our faith is only as effective as the object in which we place our faith. </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">That's why we have attempted in the first part of this message to present </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">the Biblical truth </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">that substantiates that Christ died on the cross to atone for our sicknesses as well as our sins </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">and therefore is our healer </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">today!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">When everyone in the church --- the elders, the sick being prayed for, and rest of the church </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">pray for healing it is to be a prayer of faith in the promises and provision of God for the healing of the sick. Just, as it is a prayer of obedience to these instructions James has given to the church.</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Fifthly, notice James' instructions regarding the confession of sin in the healing ministry of the church. James calls us, the entire church, to examine our hearts as we pray for healing. Verses 15 and16,</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">" And the prayer of faith will save the one win who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Dr. Bailey comments, "The personal preparation for anointing, according to James, requires deep heart searching. The sufferer must not only relate his physical need to the spiritual but also search his heart for any sin that could stand as a barrier to God's healing touch. The sin should be confessed and put under the blood of Christ." (Bailey, ibid. page 134) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">And notice this instruction for confession of sin involves the whole church not just the one seeking the anointing and prayer of the elders. Confession of sin is a means of preparing our hearts for prayer. Dr. Simpsons writes, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">"I</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">t is quite vain for us to try to exercise faith for ourselves or others<b></b>in the face of willful transgression and in defiance of the chastening which God has meant we shall respect and yield to. But, when we receive His correction; and to turn to Him with humble and obedient hearts, He will graciously remove the hand of pain, and make the touch of healing the token of His forgiving love."(A.B. Simpson, <i>The Gospel of Healing, </i>chapter 2, "Practical Instructions", #3)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Number six, note this healing is a work of the Holy Spirit. God the Holy Spirit is the agent of healing. We have already noted this with regard to the anointing the sick with oil. But James also adds in verse 16, "The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working." Or as Herman Hoyt has translated it, "The effective prayer of a righteous man, which is energized (wrought) in him accomplishes much." (Bailey, ibid. page 137)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">The Holy Spirit is at work in the prayer of the righteous person. The efficacy of the prayer depends on the energizing of the Holy Sprit in the righteous person praying. Dr. Bailey,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">"It is true that righteous men pray effectively, but James is saying also that the kind of praying needed on this occasion finds its inspiration in God Himself. The Holy Spirit energizes the believer for such powerful praying. No doubt the prayer of faith is a prayer resulting from the special energizing of the Holy Spirit." (Bailey, ibid. page 137) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">I hope that you have seen this morning that one cannot separate the healing available to us in the gospel, from our personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Just as Christ is our Savior by faith<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">and the work of regeneration by the Holy Spirit; just as Christ is our Sanctifier by our surrender to<b></b>and the filling of His Holy Spirit; so He is our Healer because He lives in us and His healing power is available to us through His Holy Spirit. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">After that miraculous deliverance of God's people Israel from the pursuing army of Pharaoh at the Red Sea, Moses led his people into the wilderness where God miraculously intervened by changing the bitter water at Marah into sweet drinkable water. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Moses then writes this in Exodus 15:25b-26, </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">"There the Lord made for them a statute and rule, and there he tested them, saying 'If you will diligently listen to the voice of the Lord your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, your healer.'"</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Dr. Simpson, commenting on Exodus 15:26, writes,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">"'I the Lord am healing thee.' This is the aspect of divine healing which the Apostle Paul so frequently emphasizes. It is not a mere fact or incident occurring occasionally in life, but it is a life of constant, habitual dependence upon Christ for the body; moment by moment abiding in Him for our physical, as well as spiritual need, and taking His resurrection life and strength for every breath and every step."</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">© James P McGarvey, All Rights Reserved<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<style class="WebKit-mso-list-quirks-style">
<!--
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}
p
{mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-margin-top-alt:auto;
margin-right:0in;
mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
margin-left:0in;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Times;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";}
p.MsoNoSpacing, li.MsoNoSpacing, div.MsoNoSpacing
{mso-style-priority:1;
mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}
.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
mso-default-props:yes;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}
@page WordSection1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:.5in .5in .5in .5in;
mso-header-margin:.5in;
mso-footer-margin:.5in;
mso-paper-source:0;}
div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}
/* List Definitions */
@list l0
{mso-list-id:338973244;
mso-list-template-ids:-44286862;}
-->
</style><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;">
<br /></div>
<br />Jim McGarveyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09559934703130337359noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1895307860926611586.post-43133631889861308192019-02-11T14:07:00.001-08:002020-09-22T19:22:53.792-07:00Abortion the Devil & the Church - Exposing the Spiritual Forces Behind Abortion<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nJKEzXxKCag/XGHuVhbniPI/AAAAAAAAA6U/Epn7RXNdJ8cU27wSsRwnW7J2xPUN2274ACLcBGAs/s1600/Slide02.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="720" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nJKEzXxKCag/XGHuVhbniPI/AAAAAAAAA6U/Epn7RXNdJ8cU27wSsRwnW7J2xPUN2274ACLcBGAs/s320/Slide02.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">I gave this message at New Life Baptist Church in Davie Florida on January 20, 2019.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">Watch the message on Vimeo </span><a href="https://vimeo.com/313056546?ref=fb-share&fbclid=IwAR3fZMuiytwv4A8P0nYYeK2wLefrkAGfC03866xxuLvFheu4hjaQm5TD-Xo" style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">HERE</a><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">. </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">View the PowerPoint slides on Microsoft OneDrive <a href="https://1drv.ms/p/s!As4mcZNjhs_1gm7Mjmf1rrTEBIXu">HERE</a>. </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Listen to this message given at Calvary Chapel Pompano Beach on January 15, 2017 </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: purple;"><a href="http://www.calvarypb.com/?sermons=abortion-the-devil-and-the-church" style="color: purple;">HERE</a>.</span></span>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt; text-align: center;"> </span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">****************************<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">After suffering his second heart attack in 1984 my Dad under went by-pass surgery in an effort to save his life. It was major surgery, very invasive. His chest was cut wide open, so the surgeon could do what was necessary to save his failing heart. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Sometimes major surgery is necessary to save the life of the patient. It was an uncomfortable and difficult procedure for my Dad to undergo but it was the only option available to keep my Dad alive. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">In the same way some subjects like abortion are difficult, perhaps even painful and uncomfortable to think about. But like major surgery is sometimes necessary to save the life of a heart attack victim so the truth about abortion, as uncomfortable, even painful as it might be, is necessary to save the lives of unborn children at risk of being aborted and is necessary for those whose lives have been touched by abortion to receive forgiveness, healing and restoration.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Statistics tell me that in most audiences I speak to there will be individuals whose lives have been touched by abortion. I want you to know that I am aware of that. Perhaps you have had an abortion, or in some way were a participant in an abortion. Or you have lost a child, a brother or sister, grandchild, niece or nephew to abortion.</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">As followers of Jesus Christ we must be willing to address this subject from the authority of Scripture. But, do so in the context of two very important Biblical truths. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Let me illustrate it this way. There are two things a train must have to safely arrive at its destination. Two tracks. Two tracks that run parallel to each other all the way to its destination. A train will go nowhere without riding on both tracks at the same time all the way to the end of the rail line.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">In the same way, we must communicate what God says about abortion in the context </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">of God's grace and God's truth. You see, theologically grace and truth always go together. In fact, they are theologically inseparable. They are like the two sides of the same coin. You cannot have one without the other. And here's why this is important.</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Pastor Randy Alcorn has written, "Grace without truth deceives people, truth without grace, crushes people."</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">We will never understand God's grace apart from God's truth. But God's truth will always lead us to God's grace. And as we begin this morning let me impress this upon you. If your life has been touched by abortion, while you cannot escape the truth about abortion nor some of the consequences of your abortion, please know that there is forgiveness, there is healing and restoration in the gospel of Jesus Christ. As with any of our sin, there is a way to resolve the guilt, shame and hurt that abortion will bring to the human experience.</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">And I want you to know that you are in the right place to hear that Good News. No one is here to condemn or judge you. On the contrary, we are here to extend love and compassion and a message of forgiveness, hope, healing and restoration available to you through the gospel of Jesus Christ. You are in a safe place in this church.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Abortion was legalized forty-six years ago on January 22, 1973. According to the</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">National Right to Life, on that day,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">"...the Supreme Court handed down its <i>Roe v. Wade</i>and <i>Doe v. Bolton</i>decisions legalizing abortion in all 50 states during all nine months of pregnancy, for any reason, medical, social, or otherwise.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">In other words, a woman was given the legal right to take the life of her unborn child at any time during the nine months of pregnancy, right up to moment of natural child birth, for virtually any reason.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Notice first of all, the Sanctity of the unborn. What value does God place on human life? To answer that question we begin with creation.</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Man was created by God, in His image and likeness. Genesis 1:17,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">"So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created them.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Genesis 2:7 (ESV)"...then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">It should be clear from the Biblical creation account that man is not the product of a random, meaningless evolutionary process over billions of years. Man is not the result of a cosmic accident. God intentionally created man with capacities reflective of Himself, In other words, in His image. As God said in Isaiah 43:7, man was “created for my glory.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Man is made in the image of God. In his book, <i>Man: The Image of God, </i>pediatrician, Dr. John Rendle-Short, M.D. points out the </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Godlike qualities man Shares with God.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Language – humans can communicate. We had a dog named Maggie. She could bark, whine, and growl, but I never heard her utter a single word, no less speak a sentence. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Intelligence – man can think. Not only is he a rational being, he can think in the abstract. For example, he can compute complex mathematical, chemical and engineering formulas.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Creativity – his intelligence allows him to create sophisticated products. He can send a man to the moon, and speak instantly around the world from a cell phone or the internet.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Love - he can have relationships and live in fellowship and community. Man is a social creature with the ability to love and be loved; with the ability to care for and nurture its young; and to live in committed lifelong relationships, like marriage.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Holiness - man has a moral conscience with the ability to tell right from wrong. I<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Immortality – man is eternal. Unlike the rest of the animal world, he will live forever.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Freedom – man can make choices. All of this “because he is human, made in the image of God."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Notice the Personhood of the unborn. This is what God said to Jeremiah, (1:5) “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”Before there was any physical manifestation of Jeremiah in the womb of his mother, God knew Him. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Listen to this incredible incident. These words were spoken by Elizabeth who was six months pregnant with John the Baptist, when Mary, just days pregnant with Jesus<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Christ, visited her. Luke 1:41-44 <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">"When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she exclaimed: 'Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! But why am I so favored, hat the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.’"</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Do you realize what took place? The text says that John the Baptist, leaped for joy in his mother's womb when he came into the presence of Jesus Christ, God incarnate, who was but days old in the womb of his mother Mary. This is the first record of worship of the Messiah. And it took place in the womb. I call it intra-uterine worship.</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Do you see the personhood of the unborn in these narratives? You see, the Biblical evidence is clear. The unborn are created by God and for God. They are created in His image. They are recognized by God as distinct and unique persons even in the womb from the moment of conception if not before. Life begins at conception. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">The scientific evidence leads us to the same conclusion. Douglas Erlandson writes, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">“When the fertilized egg (or zygote) is first formed, it already possesses its <i>full</i>complement of DNA or genetic information. That information never changes. A person’s sex, blood type hair and skin color, and future height are all determined in that first cell. From that moment on, unless its life is terminated, it will develop until it becomes an adult human being.” </span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Professor Micheline Matthews-Roth, M.D. of Harvard University Medical School, concurs writing, “…It is scientifically correct to say that an individual human life begins at conception…”</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Who is behind abortion? Who is the driving force behind this holocaust? The Biblical evidence would indicate that abortion is a Satanic enterprise.</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">The stage was set thousands of years ago as recorded in Genesis 3:15 (NIV). After Satan deceived Adam and Eve and man was plunged into sin, God said to Satan,</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">...I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel." And with that the epoch struggle between good and evil began. And Satan has been involved in an unrelenting attempt to kill the offspring of Eve ever since. Abortion is a satanic enterprise!</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Jesus, Himself, said as much. John chapter eight records an encounter between Jesus and the religious leaders. In that exchange Jesus said this about the devil,</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">"The devil…was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies." John 8:44 (NIV)</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Here Jesus identifies two roles of Satan: A murderer from the beginning and a liar and the father of lies. Has he been successful?</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">It i</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">s estimated that between 40 and 50 million unborn babies are killed by abortion worldwide each year. Worldwide about one in five pregnancies end in abortion. (AGI “In Brief” October 2007)</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">A study by Dr. Brian Clowes estimated there have been 1.72 billion abortions worldwide in the forty years between 1973 and 2013. That's an average of 117,800 per day for 40 years!</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Each year close to one million preborn babies are killed by abortion in the United States. Since 1973, almost about 60 million unborn babies have been killed by abortion in America.</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Abortion is the most frequently performed elective surgery in America. Over 3,000 a day. 21 % of all pregnancies (excluding miscarriages) are surgically aborted. <b>“</b>About one in three American women will have had an abortion by the time she reaches age 45.” (Compiled by Operation Rescue)</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">In Florida, almost 68,000 unborn babies lost their lives to abortion in 2018. (Florida Agency for Health Care Administration).</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">John Powell has written,</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">“In the United States it is statistically confirmed that the most dangerous place for anyone to be, with regard to the preservation of one’s life, is in the womb of one’s mother.”</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">(</span><i style="color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">Abortion: The Silent Holocaust</i><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">)</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">In John 10:10, Jesus said, "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy." The Devil has been very successful in carrying out his agenda.</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Satan is also a liar and the father of lies. Deception proliferates in the abortion industry. In fact, one can accurately say that deception characterizes the abortion industry.</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">N</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">otice that deception involves telling lies. These were the words of an abortion counselor: "Although the test is positive, you shouldn't consider yourself pregnant," she explained. "It's really just cells dividing at this point. We can take care of the problem quickly and easily, and you'll never have to think about it again.”</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">She made four statements. Each statement was a lie. This is the mantra of the abortion industry.</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Deception involves withholding the truth.</span><b style="color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"></b><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">This study showed that, “Even though the majority felt rushed and uncertain, 67% received no counseling; 79% were not told about alternatives to abortion.” (VM Rue et. al.,</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><i style="color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">Medical Science Monitor</i><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">)</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">You see, deception leads to moral schizophrenia.</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">A</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">s Pastor Randy Alcorn has noted, "</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">In America it is illegal to</span><b style="color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"></b><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">harm</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">your pre-born child, but it is perfectly legal to </span><b style="color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"></b><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">kill </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">him.”</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">The Devil is</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">“a murderer" "a liar and father of all lies.” These two “attributes” expose him<b></b>as the arch</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">itect of abortion.</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Look with me at the ancient origin of child killing. We trace it to Molech worship. Molech was a god of the Ammonites the descendants of Lot. Molech was a fertility god whose worship included child sacrifice. Ezekiel 16:20-21 records God's words, "And you took your sons and daughters whom you bore to me and sacrificed them as food to the idols… You slaughtered my children and sacrificed them to the idols.”</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">King Solomon built the first high place for the worship of Molech. Subsequent kings continued the practice including King Ahaz and King Manasseh who sacrificed their own children as they led their nation in the worship of the demon god Molech.</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Notice the parallels with abortion. In</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Molech worship a child was sacrificed to gain Molech's favor. In other words, the parents sacrificed something of value, their child, to gain something at a given point in time they considered to be of even greater value. For example, seeking Molech’s favor for a good harvest, victory in battle or financial well-being.</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Notice the similarity with abortion. In abortion the mother sacrifices the life of her child for something, which at that time is of greater value to her than the child. Her education, avoid personal shame, finances, personal convenience, her career, birth control.</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Sacrifice for what? Pastor John Piper, “Abortion in America is not done consciously with any desire to get blessing from a deity. But it is done to gain something 'better' than the baby—the life of a child is being sacrificed for something. What that “something” is defines the barbarity of our culture.”</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Do you see the deception? The Scriptures identify the demonic nature of this child sacrifice in Psalm 106:37-38.</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">"They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons.</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">They shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, and the land was desecrated by their blood."</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">T</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">here are distinct parallels between Molech worship </span><b style="color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"></b><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">and modern abortion.</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Abortion is the sacrifice of the unborn. “They sacrificed their sons and their daughters.”</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">The unborn are family – our sons & daughters. “They sacrificed their sons and their daughters.”</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Abortion sheds innocent blood. “They shed innocent blood.”</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">The innocent blood of the aborted is sacrificed to demons. “They sacrificed…to demons.”</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Eric Holmberg and Jay Rogers, in their work,</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><i style="color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">Massacre of Innocence, </i><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">summarize,</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">“The spiritual heritage of the Moabites and the Ammonites is passed down to our own day through abortion. Today the church is fighting against those same spiritual forces for the very survival of our nation.”</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Lest you think that abortion and the demonic is just ancient history, let me bring you up to date.</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Modern feminism, witchcraft & abortion.</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">In December of 1985, an article, entitled, "Feminist Spiritualism and Abortion" appeared in the feminist</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><i style="color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">Ms. Magazine</i><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">, written, and I emphasize, by feminists about themselves.</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">"The feminist spirituality movement began to emerge in the mid-1970s and has become one of the largest sub-movements within feminism...to the women in feminist spirituality, witchcraft had even a more fundamental meaning. It is a woman's religion, vilified by patriarchal Christianity, and now, finally, reclaimed.”</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Eric Holmberg and Jay Rogers have this to say about what was in the article, “Much space was given to goddess worship or adulation of the various demons associated with child sacrifice (including Isis and Aphrodite).”</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">(<i>Massacre<b></b>of Innocence</i>)</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Let me give you just a sampling of the thinking of modern day feminists. Patricia Baird-Windle owned three abortion clinics responsible for 65,000 abortions. In an interview after retirement she said, "Abortion is a major blessing and a sacrament in the hands of women..." (The 'Sacrament' of Abortion: An Interview With a Retired Abortionist.")</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Rev. Katherine Hancock Ragsdale, President of the Episcopal Divinity School in New England said the following in a sermon given in Birmingham Alabama in 2007.</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">When a woman becomes pregnant within a loving, supportive, respectful relationship; has every option open to her; decides she does not wish to bear a child; and has access to safe, affordable abortion– there is not a tragedy in sight – only blessing.”</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Episcopal Priestess, Dr. Carter Hayward, told the National Abortion Federation in 1985, "Abortion would be a sacrament if women were in charge. Abortion should be a sacrament even today."</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Listen to these astounding words.</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">“It’s rare for a woman to choose abortion because in some way she dislikes the fetus. She sacrifices it for the sake of something she judges at this moment to be more important, whether it be her existing children… or her own physical, economic, or psychological survival or the fate of the planet."</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Do you remember what I just shared, comparing abortion to child sacrifice? Psychologist Dr. Ginnette Paris wrote those words in her book,</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><i style="color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">The Sacrament of Abortion. </i><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">She continues,</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">“When abortion is necessary, not only should there be no shame but there should be a new consensus that to have a child who cannot adequately be cared for is shameful…</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">It is not immoral to choose abortion; </span><u style="color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"></u><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">it is simply another kind of morality, a pagan one.”</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Frank Pavone, commenting on her book writes,</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">“The fact that some defend abortion as a sacred act should alert us to the depth of the spiritual warfare that is going on. Abortion has never been merely or even primarily apolitical issue. It is a</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><i style="color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">false religion</i><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">."</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">He writes of a former abortion clinic security guard who "...after being converted, admitted why he was angry at pro-life sidewalk counselors</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">'You were coming to protest in front of our church. That clinic was where we conducted our worship.’”</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Unmasking a "woman's right to choose" and "reproductive rights."</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">If you dialogue about abortion around the water cooler at work or at home over the back yard fence, these are the words that always come into play. These are the two terms the proponents of abortion use to frame the debate.</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">To hide, as it were, what abortion really is. "A woman's right to choose" and "reproductive rights" are code words for a woman's right to take the life of her unborn child. The key Scripture that addresses this issue is Genesis 3:1-5.</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">"Now, the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, ‘Did God really say, “You must not eat from any tree in the garden?” The woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, “You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.” ‘You will not surely die,’ the serpent said to the woman. 'For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.'”</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Note the significance of the "tree of the knowledge of good and evil." Here are the temptations. To live independent of God. Self-idolatry – self love rules. Man becomes his own god “you will be like God.” Man determines right and wrong (moral relativism). This is the underlying premise of the proponents of “a woman's right to choose" and "reproductive rights.”</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">As Dr. Carl Ellis has said,</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><b style="color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">"</b><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Eve became, in essence, the first secular humanist."</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Notice the link between abortion and the Garden of Eden. "I do not what a child at this time." Pastor John Piper,</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">"...that is one of the most powerful sentences a person can speak...the 'want' of a mother has become the will of a god....Our modern, secular, God-dethroning culture has endowed the will [the 'want'] of a mother not just with sovereignty over her child, but with something vastly greater...the right and the power to create personhood."</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">The legal right "to choose" gives women the legal right to define personhood or play god. Again Pastor Piper,</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">“…the awesome thing is that we endow her will not just with sovereignty over her unborn baby, but with the authority to define it. If she wants it, it is a baby, a person. If she does not want it, it is not a baby, not a person.” (John Piper, “Abortion & the Tree of Knowledge of Good & Evil.”)</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Pastor Randy Alcorn,</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">“The prochoice position always overlooks the victim’s right to choose....The blacks didn’t choose slavery. The Jews didn’t choose the ovens. And the babies don’t choose abortion.”</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">How should the Church respond?</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">I hope you have seen that abortion is first and foremost a spiritual issue and thus a gospel issue. Prayer is therefore the first work in ending abortion. Copies of "Praying to End Abortion Prayer Guide" are available in the foyer. I put this together in 2012 when serving as the Prayer Coordinator for Fort Lauderdale's first 40 Days for Life Prayer and Fasting Vigil. It is virtually all Scripture. I use it every time I'm at the clinic praying.</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">We must live in sexual purity. There is a direct link between sexual immorality and abortion. Over 80% of women who have an abortion are unmarried. "…among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity.” Ephesians 5:3 (NIV)</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">We must repent of abortion in the church, "There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him: hands that shed innocent blood” (Proverbs 6:16a,17b)</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Why repent of abortion in the church? 37% of women having abortions identify themselves as Protestant. (AGI, “In Brief” July, 2008) A number of years ago Focus on the Family reported that 250,000 evangelical women choose abortion each year.</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">(www.heartlink.org) A more recent study found that "23% of Christian women who have had an abortion consider themselves to be an evangelical Christian." (Lifeway/Carenet 2016)</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">As the church responds to abortion we must be careful not to overlook the complex circumstances of many facing unplanned pregnancies. This demands a practical and compassionate response by the church. Over 50% of all women who have an abortion feel they have no choice. Notice some of the reasons women have abortions. They are forced by their mother; father opposed her having the child; persuaded by husband or boyfriend; never given an option; loss of family support; would be kicked out of their home; persuaded by the clinic. (Frederica Mathewes-Green</span><i style="color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">, Real Choices</i><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">)</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">As you might know, one of the ways the Church is responding in a practical and compassionate way here in Broward County is through the ministry of Hope Women's Centers, with centers in North Lauderdale, Fort Lauderdale and Davie. I congratulate this church for being one of the avid supporters of this ministry as is your pastor.</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">As you can see Hope provides many free and confidential services including pregnancy tests, limited obstetric ultrasound, STI testing and treatment, options counseling, community referrals and of course the gospel.</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">I believe the church should take ownership of these pregnancy resource centers. There are Hope Center flyers in the foyer that will tell you more about how you can help, support and pray for them. They have a volunteer training on February 2. See the bulletin insert.</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">In these centers the truth about abortion and the gospel of Jesus Christ are confronting the lies of hell itself. It is where church members, the Body of Christ, are intervening in the lives of men and women often at a critical time of decision when they need love, compassion, truth and the gospel of life.</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">The church must also reach out and minister to the post-abortive. Does abortion hurt men and women? This study showed that, “65% report symptoms of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder they attribute to their abortions.” (VM Rue et, all)</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">This is, I emphasize, a short list of emotional and behavioral problems experienced by the post-abortive: emotions such as anxiety/panic, grief/loss, fear of losing your child, guilt, self-hatred, depression, and anger/rage. Behaviors such as drug </span><b style="color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"></b><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">and alcohol abuse, child abuse, sexual promiscuity, overprotecting parenting, eating disorders, and inability to bond with children.</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">On Wednesday morning I watched the video of the Hope Restored Stories, a panel discussion you hosted here at New Life with two post-abortive women, Chaina and Michelle. Powerful testimonies. They experienced these types of problems but they gave witness to how the ministry of Hope Women's Centers and the gospel prevailed in their lives. It brought me to tears a number of times as I watched it. It was powerful.</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">It is important to realize that the root cause of any of these problems could be past involvement in abortion. "Could it be that your life has been touched by an abortion?" That question could unlock the door to wonderful healing and restoration.</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">I want you to know this morning that there is forgiveness, healing and restoration for the post-abortive in Jesus Christ. And that is a priority here at New Life Baptist Church.</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">If your life has been touched by an abortion speak with Pastor Coleman.</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Hope Women's Centers also provides help to those suffering from post abortion stress through an abortion recovery ministry. For more information or for an appointment call the number on the screen or email at hoperestored@thereishope.org.</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Several years ago I was on Facebook one Sunday afternoon. A pro-life advocate was having an online discussion about abortion. A woman came into the discussion, telling us she had three abortions in her past.</span><b style="color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> L</b><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">isten what she went on to say,</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">“The consequences to women who have had abortions (and men as well) cut deep into the soul…The post-abortive women sitting in church on a Sunday morning need to hear about forgiveness for ALL SIN through Jesus Christ….abortion is not the unforgivable sin so many think it is... women need to know there is healing and hope in Christ that they may also forgive themselves.”</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">The host asked her about how she was dealing with the loss of her three children. This was the powerful testimony she then shared,</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">“…the fact of the matter is that I don’t grieve any more. Christ has delivered me from all of the pain through his healing power! I know that one day I'll stand in heaven finally meeting my three precious children: David, Rebekah, and Grace Hope!... when they've asked the Father why they couldn't be with me on earth or why they never knew me here, He’ll look at them with love and say, “I don't remember”</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">(VA, Facebook 09-27-09)</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">There is a way to resolve the guilt, shame and hurt that abortion will bring to the human experience. The blood of Jesus Christ shed over 2000 years ago is sufficient to cover our sin, my sin and your sin, any sin and all sin. If you today are not reconciled to God through faith in His Son Jesus Christ, today can be your day of salvation. The healing can begin.</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">The Apostle Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 7:10, "Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret."</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Remember the words of Jesus in John 10:10, "The thief comes only to stead and kill and destroy." Listen to the second half of that verse. "I came that they might have life and have it abundantly."</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Here's Jesus invitation, Matthew 11:28,</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. (literaly - I will rest you - knowing Jesus is the rest) Take my yoe upon you and learn from me, for I am gently and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls."</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Abortion is first and foremost a gospel issue! There are two conclusions I have been sharing with the Church for over a decade.</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">The Body of Christ, the church, is the</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><b style="color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"><i>only</i></b><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">o</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">rganism (institution) spiritually equipped to engage the Satanic forces behind abortion. Therefore the Church</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><b style="color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">must take the lead</b><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">in the effort to end abortion.</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">When the church sees abortion as a Gospel issue we will win the battle for life! Christ has already won the victory!</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">“For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority.” (Colossians 2:9-10)</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Paul goes on to say, verse 15,</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">“...having disarmed the powers and authorities, [God] he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross."</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">This is how we respond to 46 years of legalized abortion. Unashamedly proclaim the gospel of life, while responding with compassionate and practical help like that offered through Hope Women's Centers and other ministries in Broward, by prayer and sidewalk counseling and other ways of assisting and helping.</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">I close with this illustration, John Ensor wrote, "The commands of Scripture exist that we might be compelled to do what does not come naturally." (John Ensor,</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><i style="color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">Innocent Blood - Challenging the Powers of Death With the Gospel of Life</i><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">)</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">In Luke chapter ten Jesus tells the story of a man on his way to Jericho from Jerusalem who was robbed and beaten and left half dead alongside the road. Three different individuals had the opportunity to come to his rescue, in all likelihood to save his life. Two of the three did not respond to the needs of the man bleeding by the side of the road. Those two were the church leaders of that day, a priest and a Levite, responsible for the spiritual care of their nation.</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">And Jesus points out that not only did they fail to respond, but they "passed by on the other side." In other words they consciously and deliberately distanced themselves from the needs of the man dying by the side of the road.</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Jesus then pointed out that the one who proved to be the neighbor to the dying man was the one who showed mercy to the badly beaten traveller. He then said, "Go and do likewise."</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">John Ensor, in his book</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><i style="color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">Innocent Blood</i><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">, defines "</span><b style="color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"><u>Samaritan compassion</u>" </b><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">this way,</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">"Doing right in the sight of the Lord means acting to stop the shedding of innocent blood. The only person in Jesus’ parable who is pro-life according to the demands of love is the Samaritan. Only he was willing to make the nearly dead man’s problem his own. Only he was willing to see the victim’s suffering as his own. Only he was willing to act according to what</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><i style="color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">he </i><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">would cry out for if their positions had been reversed."</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">May I suggest to you that according to Jesus' parable, our salvation has a moral imperative built into it with regards to the needs of those around us, our neighbors.</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Last year almost 9,000 unborn children lost their lives to abortion in Broward County, an average of over 26 per day. They were our neighbors.</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Children will die unless someone intervenes on their behalf. In other words, we have an opportunity to "go and do likewise."</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Again, Pastor John Ensor, "Loving my neighbor will occasionally arrest me and maybe even require me to help prevent someone from being murdered."</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">The writer of Proverbs said something very similar,</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">"Rescue those who are unjustly sentenced to death; Don’t stand back and let them die. Don’t try to avoid responsibility by saying you didn’t know about it." (</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Proverbs 24:10-12)</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Eight years ago, Flip Benahm, on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, (January 22, 2011) issued the following statement in a press release,</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">"...the time is now, for the Church to rise up and not wait for political parties, or the president, or Congress, or the Supreme Court to take care of the issue. It is our responsibility. The gates of hell will not prevail against the Church of Jesus Christ. Abortion will come to an end when the church of Jesus Christ makes up her mind it will come to an end - not a second sooner. The responsibility for ending abortion rests squarely upon the shoulders of the Church of Jesus Christ."</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">I think he's right.</span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">© James P McGarvey , All Rights Reserved<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> <br /><br /> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0.25in; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt 0.25in; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt 0.25in; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt 0.25in; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 16pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<style class="WebKit-mso-list-quirks-style">
<!--
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";}
a:link, span.MsoHyperlink
{mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
color:blue;
text-decoration:underline;
text-underline:single;}
a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed
{mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
color:purple;
text-decoration:underline;
text-underline:single;}
p
{mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-margin-top-alt:auto;
margin-right:0in;
mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
margin-left:0in;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Times;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";}
p.MsoNoSpacing, li.MsoNoSpacing, div.MsoNoSpacing
{mso-style-priority:1;
mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:14.0pt;
mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Calibri;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";}
p.FreeFormA, li.FreeFormA, div.FreeFormA
{mso-style-name:"Free Form A";
mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-fareast-font-family:"ヒラギノ角ゴ Pro W3";
color:black;}
p.FreeForm, li.FreeForm, div.FreeForm
{mso-style-name:"Free Form";
mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-fareast-font-family:"ヒラギノ角ゴ Pro W3";
color:black;
mso-ansi-language:#0400;}
.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
mso-default-props:yes;
font-size:10.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt;
mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;}
@page WordSection1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:.5in .5in .5in .5in;
mso-header-margin:.5in;
mso-footer-margin:.5in;
mso-paper-source:0;}
div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}
/* List Definitions */
@list l0
{mso-list-id:217517323;
mso-list-type:hybrid;
mso-list-template-ids:1206300240 -884470402 -207950282 1038786478 1493991870 -900666462 1158432722 -1330498940 1010577080 -1922384690;}
@list l0:level1
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l0:level2
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:1.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l0:level3
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:1.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l0:level4
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:2.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l0:level5
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:2.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l0:level6
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:3.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l0:level7
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:3.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l0:level8
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:4.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l0:level9
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:4.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l1
{mso-list-id:443883214;
mso-list-type:hybrid;
mso-list-template-ids:-240477806 293499074 890241106 -1620958966 -757433076 -1260347346 -1622892166 1625966194 -535559934 11818158;}
@list l1:level1
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l1:level2
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:1.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l1:level3
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:1.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l1:level4
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:2.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l1:level5
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:2.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l1:level6
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:3.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l1:level7
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:3.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l1:level8
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:4.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l1:level9
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:4.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l2
{mso-list-id:564754496;
mso-list-type:hybrid;
mso-list-template-ids:-30877464 -838055708 -735293828 1686805954 -1937346104 -2113489814 -571953336 -839850668 1239158872 -2067864904;}
@list l2:level1
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l2:level2
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:1.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l2:level3
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:1.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l2:level4
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:2.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l2:level5
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:2.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l2:level6
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:3.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l2:level7
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:3.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l2:level8
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:4.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l2:level9
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:4.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l3
{mso-list-id:843865533;
mso-list-type:hybrid;
mso-list-template-ids:-1391416050 67698689 67698691 67698693 67698689 67698691 67698693 67698689 67698691 67698693;}
@list l3:level1
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Symbol;}
@list l3:level2
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:o;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:"Courier New";}
@list l3:level3
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Wingdings;}
@list l3:level4
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Symbol;}
@list l3:level5
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:o;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:"Courier New";}
@list l3:level6
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Wingdings;}
@list l3:level7
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Symbol;}
@list l3:level8
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:o;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:"Courier New";}
@list l3:level9
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Wingdings;}
@list l4
{mso-list-id:929895672;
mso-list-type:hybrid;
mso-list-template-ids:851240672 -905913744 -1351998096 -1370356402 -464721584 1316618264 343071462 1673449868 1567241794 -177560188;}
@list l4:level1
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l4:level2
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:1.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l4:level3
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:1.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l4:level4
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:2.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l4:level5
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:2.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l4:level6
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:3.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l4:level7
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:3.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l4:level8
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:4.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l4:level9
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:4.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l5
{mso-list-id:1340305358;
mso-list-type:hybrid;
mso-list-template-ids:539496140 -297664360 936261450 1756799426 1033154332 1921440896 -1814296264 -24240494 312530710 562697608;}
@list l5:level1
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l5:level2
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:1.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l5:level3
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:1.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l5:level4
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:2.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l5:level5
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:2.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l5:level6
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:3.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l5:level7
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:3.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l5:level8
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:4.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l5:level9
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:4.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l6
{mso-list-id:1342001600;
mso-list-type:hybrid;
mso-list-template-ids:-830672028 67698703 67698691 67698693 67698689 67698691 67698693 67698689 67698691 67698693;}
@list l6:level1
{mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l6:level2
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:o;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:"Courier New";}
@list l6:level3
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Wingdings;}
@list l6:level4
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Symbol;}
@list l6:level5
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:o;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:"Courier New";}
@list l6:level6
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Wingdings;}
@list l6:level7
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Symbol;}
@list l6:level8
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:o;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:"Courier New";}
@list l6:level9
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Wingdings;}
@list l7
{mso-list-id:1657611190;
mso-list-type:hybrid;
mso-list-template-ids:1288481686 257872198 49192120 -1331274176 431792202 -1336521840 1531998438 -2141165122 194140994 1550508248;}
@list l7:level1
{mso-level-tab-stop:.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l7:level2
{mso-level-tab-stop:1.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l7:level3
{mso-level-tab-stop:1.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l7:level4
{mso-level-tab-stop:2.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l7:level5
{mso-level-tab-stop:2.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l7:level6
{mso-level-tab-stop:3.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l7:level7
{mso-level-tab-stop:3.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l7:level8
{mso-level-tab-stop:4.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l7:level9
{mso-level-tab-stop:4.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l8
{mso-list-id:1823505256;
mso-list-type:hybrid;
mso-list-template-ids:654978020 709786532 -896347410 -1540876704 -1636012126 353170394 -2039948780 -1293899322 -1523830766 -1581741814;}
@list l8:level1
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l8:level2
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:1.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l8:level3
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:1.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l8:level4
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:2.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l8:level5
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:2.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l8:level6
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:3.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l8:level7
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:3.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l8:level8
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:4.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l8:level9
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:4.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l9
{mso-list-id:2107269244;
mso-list-type:hybrid;
mso-list-template-ids:-2055679370 -1909584990 -2067482914 410970996 1131209602 2030067084 511348176 236380274 -123449400 439803322;}
@list l9:level1
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l9:level2
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:1.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l9:level3
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:1.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l9:level4
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:2.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l9:level5
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:2.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l9:level6
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:3.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l9:level7
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:3.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l9:level8
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:4.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
@list l9:level9
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:•;
mso-level-tab-stop:4.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Times;}
-->
</style></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;">
<br /></div>
<br />Jim McGarveyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09559934703130337359noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1895307860926611586.post-52529301765540488872018-08-29T18:14:00.003-07:002018-08-29T18:15:49.986-07:00A Day of Atonement message - to the All Women's Medical Clinic<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
<o:AllowPNG/>
</o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:View>Normal</w:View>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:TrackMoves/>
<w:TrackFormatting/>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:DoNotPromoteQF/>
<w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther>
<w:LidThemeAsian>JA</w:LidThemeAsian>
<w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:SnapToGridInCell/>
<w:WrapTextWithPunct/>
<w:UseAsianBreakRules/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
<w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/>
<w:EnableOpenTypeKerning/>
<w:DontFlipMirrorIndents/>
<w:OverrideTableStyleHps/>
<w:UseFELayout/>
</w:Compatibility>
<m:mathPr>
<m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/>
<m:brkBin m:val="before"/>
<m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/>
<m:smallFrac m:val="off"/>
<m:dispDef/>
<m:lMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:rMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/>
<m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/>
<m:intLim m:val="subSup"/>
<m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/>
</m:mathPr></w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
DefSemiHidden="true" DefQFormat="false" DefPriority="99"
LatentStyleCount="276">
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Normal"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="heading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="35" QFormat="true" Name="caption"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" Name="Default Paragraph Font"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="59" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0in;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<!--StartFragment-->
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pra2T46xybE/UGPfwDpNU6I/AAAAAAAAAHE/tpPSrZFX1Xc/s1600/DSCN4418.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pra2T46xybE/UGPfwDpNU6I/AAAAAAAAAHE/tpPSrZFX1Xc/s320/DSCN4418.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">(I wrote this blog back in September of 2012 while serving as the Prayer Coordinator for Fort Lauderdale's first 40 Days for Life prayer vigil)</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14pt;">Yesterday was the first day of the Fort Lauderdale 40 Days for
Life's prayer vigil at the All Women's Medical Center located at 2100 E.
Commercial Blvd. I signed up for the twelve noon hour and upon arrival, found
only one other 40 Days for Life volunteer at the clinic.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Unfortunately, when she left, I was the only 40 Days for Life volunteer
for the next hour and a half. (Please go to the prayer vigil website, www.40daysforlife.com/fortlauderdale
and sign up to join the vigil. We need more intercessors!)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The imposing black metal gate remained shut today as the
clinic was closed, presumably in observance of Yom Kippur, or the Day of
Atonement. The Day of Atonement is the holiest day of the year for those of the
Jewish faith, a day of fasting, prayer and repentance.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14.0pt;">It is ironic that a business that majors in shedding innocent
blood of unborn children (abortion) would be closed on the Day of
Atonement. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The shedding of blood was central to the Day of Atonement. (See
Leviticus 16.) As J. Barton Paine has written,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14.0pt;">"An atonement is, literally a 'covering,' a ransom that
averts one's punishment... atonement
furnished a covering over the sin, provides an intervening sacrifice to bear
the punishment that would otherwise fall upon us, should God 'see through to
our sin.'"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Of course, Jesus Christ was the fulfillment of what was foreshadowed
by the Day of Atonement. As the writer to the Hebrews says of Christ,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 16.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14.0pt;">He did not enter [the Holy of Holies] by means of the blood of goats
and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood,
thus obtaining eternal redemption...the blood of Christ, who through the
eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, [will] cleanse our
consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living
God! (Hebrews 9:11-14 NIV)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Body">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14.0pt;">That
is why we pray in front of the All Womens Center. </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Abortion is a gospel issue. The gospel can
change the heart of an abortion minded mother to make a life affirming
decision. The gospel can change the heart of those who participate and are
invested in the abortion industry. The gospel alone provides the hope of
forgiveness, healing and restoration for the post-abortive. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Body">
<br /></div>
<div class="Body">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Only God can bring this about.
That is why we fast and pray. The words of the prophet Azariah to King Asa of
Judah, (2 Chronicles 15:2)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Body">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14.0pt;">“The Lord is
with you when you are with him. </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">If you seek
him, he will be found by you.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The ten foot
high black fence that surrounds the entrance and parking lot of this abortion
facility is intimidating. Apparently designed to secure the privacy of those at
work inside. But I prayed, alone, out loud, very loud, to an empty building -
knowing that a ten foot high black metal fence, as impregnable as it looks, cannot
keep out the Spirit of God, and the building, though closed for business, might
not be empty. After all, abortion is a satanic enterprise (John 8:44), so
should any of his legions be within hearing of my voice, I shouted, among
others Scriptures, these words from the Apostle Paul, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14.0pt;">For in
Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and in Christ you
have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and
authority...having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public
spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14.0pt;">(Colossians
2:9,15 (NIV)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14.0pt;">A Day of
Atonement message to the All Women's Medical Clinic.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: x-small;">Copyright James P McGarvey All Rights Reserved</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="Body">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 16.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Jim McGarveyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09559934703130337359noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1895307860926611586.post-83346239001866331492018-08-25T11:44:00.000-07:002018-09-14T15:04:41.024-07:00The Grace of Giving - 2 Corinthians 8:1-15 "excel in this grace of giving"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<br />
(<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I preached this message at Pine Baptist Church in Pembroke Pines Florida on September 4, 2011.)</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5OFTzAdGMBw/W4GmmobJQhI/AAAAAAAAA4Y/May4xssjStgPlF8e0HtBqKqjG6A91AauACLcBGAs/s1600/giving-money.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="790" height="202" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5OFTzAdGMBw/W4GmmobJQhI/AAAAAAAAA4Y/May4xssjStgPlF8e0HtBqKqjG6A91AauACLcBGAs/s320/giving-money.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="Normal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.466665267944336px;">In October 2008, www.emptytomb.org published the following data regarding giving in a report "The State of Church Giving through 2006". In 1916 Protestants gave 2.9% of their income to churches; in 1933, in the worst of the Depression, 3.2%; in 1955 after America began to experience affluence, it was still 3.2%; in 2006 Americans were 569% richer than in the Depression, after taxes and inflation, but were giving 2.6% of their income to their churches. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Normal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.466665267944336px;">"Giving has not kept up with income” the report said....The Great Depression and World War II help to explain the down turn in giving in the mid-1930s. No such national disasters help to explain the decline in giving since the 1960s.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Normal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.466665267944336px;">According to a research project, "4 Key Findings from STATE of the PLATE" released in March of this year (2011), "Since the recession started in 2008, churches have been learning to navigate troubled financial waters that are unprecedented in our lifetime…" The report indicated that 43 % of churches saw increases in giving in 2010 while 39% reported a decline in giving in the same year. The remaining 18% saw no change. The smaller churches those under 250 people in attendance saw more decline in giving than larger churches. </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.466665267944336px;">Churches in the west coast and southeast states were hit the hardest. 46 % of churches in those states saw a decline in giving, the downturn in giving is forcing some churches to down size their staff or programs. Some churches have closed or merged with others. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Normal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.466665267944336px;">I received an email this week from a pastor who said his c</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.466665267944336px;">hurch is going through a major financial crisis that threatens to put them out of their building very soon unless the favor of the Lord intervenes. Thursday I learned of another church in Broward whose property was foreclosed on and their members are now attending a sister church. These are difficult economic times for many of us, if not most of us. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Normal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.466665267944336px;">Let me make a disclaimer at the outset of this message. This is not a message about fund raising. I give you this information as a backdrop for what we will look at this morning in 2 Corinthians 8 on the subject of giving. I don't want to minimize the challenges churches are facing. I don't want to trivialize the difficulties that many of you might be facing personally as a result of the current economic crisis. But I am going to suggest to you that there is a greater issue at stake here than paying the grocery bill and mortgage payment, or churches meeting budgets and maintaining programs. And it is this, making sure we understand God's provision for us in the matter of giving. I hope you didn't miss what I just said. I said, "God's provision for us" in the matter of giving. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Normal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.466665267944336px;">Let me ask you a question? Have you ever been given a gift and felt hesitant to receive it because you felt undeserving? Perhaps you felt the person giving the gift could not afford to give you the gift. </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.466665267944336px;">Remember Paul's words to the Ephesian elders Acts 20:35? He reminded them that Jesus said '''It is <b>more </b><b>blessed </b>to givethan to receive.'" (emphasis mine) That sounds counterintuitive doesn't it? Most of us would associate blessing with receiving rather than giving. I think that Paul's doctrine of "grace giving" in 2 Corinthians 8 explains how it can be more blessed to give than to receive.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Normal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.466665267944336px;">In this letter, Paul once again addresses the Corinthian church regarding an offering he was collecting for the church in Jerusalem that was undergoing very difficult economic times including a famine. That is the context of 2 Corinthians 8:1-15.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Normal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.466665267944336px;">Read with me our text this morning that includes words of encouragement and instruction to the Corinthian church as they prepare to participate in that offering. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in 0in 7.5pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">"</span></b><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, </span><b><sup><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">2 </span></sup></b><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. </span><b><sup><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">3 </span></sup></b><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord, </span><b><sup><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">4 </span></sup></b><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">begging us earnestly for the favor<sup></sup>of taking part in the relief of the saints— </span><b><sup><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">5 </span></sup></b><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">and this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us. </span><b><sup><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">6 </span></sup></b><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Accordingly, we urged Titus that as he had started, so he should complete among you this act of grace. </span><b><sup><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">7 </span></sup></b><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">But as you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all earnestness, and in our love for you—see that you excel in this act of grace also. </span><b><sup><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">8 </span></sup></b><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">I say this not as a command, but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine. </span><b><sup><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">9 </span></sup></b><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich. </span><b><sup><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">10 </span></sup></b><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">And in this matter I give my judgment: this benefits you, who a year ago started not only to do this work but also to desire to do it. </span><b><sup><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">11 </span></sup></b><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">So now finish doing it as well, so that your readiness in desiring it may be matched by your completing it out of what you have. </span><b><sup><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">12 </span></sup></b><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">For if the readiness is there, it is acceptable according to what a person has, not according to what he does not have. </span><b><sup><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">13 </span></sup></b><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">For I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened, but that as a matter of fairness </span><b><sup><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">14 </span></sup></b><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">your abundance at the present time should supply their need, so that their abundance may supply your need, that there</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue";">may be fairness.</span><b><sup><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 9pt;">15 </span></sup></b><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue";">As it is written, “Whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack.” (ESV) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in 0in 7.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">I remember reading about the economic problems in Russia after the fall of the Communist regime. One of the serious problems was a shortage of food. But the problem was not a lack of food. The problem was with the “delivery system” of the food. You see, food was rotting and spoiling in warehouses because of the failure to get the food to the consumer. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in 0in 7.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">It was a delivery or distribution problem not a lack of resources. Could I draw a parallel here? Lack of giving is usually not a shortage of resources. If I understand 2 Corinthians 8 and 9 correctly it is more a failure of the “delivery system.” We are going to see that grace giving takes care of the “delivery problem." And according to chapter 9 it takes care of the resource problem as well. 2 Corinthians chapters eight and nine, in my opinion, is the greatest passage in the Bible on giving. This passage gives us one of the most remarkable stories of giving in the Bible, the giving of the Macedonian Christians. Paul uses the Macedonians as an example in challenging the Corinthian church in their giving to the famine stricken Jerusalem church. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in 0in 7.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">If you look carefully at the first part of chapter eight, you notice the emphasis on grace in this matter of giving. In fact, grace is so closely linked with giving that Paul in verse seven calls it an "act of grace" (ESV), or the "grace of giving" (NIV). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in 0in 7.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">A number of years ago, Dr. Keith Bailey wrote, "The theological basis of stewardship is the doctrine of grace." I think that is probably why the New Testament says next to nothing about tithing. Now, I believe tithing is Biblical. I practice it and teach it and commend it to you. Jesus endorsed it, as did the prophet Malachi. But other than Jesus' endorsement little mention is made of it in the New Testament.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in 0in 7.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">As Paul prepared the Corinthian church to participate in the offering he was taking up his emphasis was on the grace of giving, verse six. When we begin to talk about grace we begin to focus on what God wants to do through us. You see, "grace giving" depends on God. Isn't that what grace is all about? God doing in us and through us and for us what we cannot possibly do for ourselves? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in 0in 7.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">That means that in "grace giving" God provides us with both the motive or desire to give and the means or resources to give. Did you get that? In "grace giving" God provides us with both the motive or desire to give and the means or resources to give. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in 0in 7.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Paul cites the Macedonian Christians as examples of grace givers. By looking at this passage, we can see the characteristics of grace giving in the lives of these Macedonians and in Paul's instructions to the Corinthians. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in 0in 7.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">First of all, generosity, verse two, is a characteristic of grace giving. Paul described their giving as "a wealth of generosity on their part" (ESV), literally, "abounded to the riches of the liberality of them" (Marshall). Paul is not talking about the amount they gave. They couldn't have given a very sizeable amount because according to verse two they lived in "extreme poverty". As someone has said, it was a "deep down poverty." In other words they were "scraping the bottom of the barrel" due to the harsh treatment of the Romans who were exploiting their natural resources. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in 0in 7.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">It was not the size of the gift Paul was commenting on. It was how generous they were with what they had. It was the "delivery system" that was so unusual. You see, God had done a work in their heart that released generosity in their giving despite their difficult economic circumstances. You see, generosity is a characteristic of grace giving. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in 0in 7.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Secondly, verse three, sacrifice is a characteristic of grace giving. Verse three, "they gave…beyond their means" (ESV) "beyond their ability" (NIV). It is one thing to give when you have plenty. It is another thing to give when you have next to nothing. In Mark 12: 41-44 we are told that Jesus sat down opposite the temple treasury and watched people put their offerings in the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums of money. But a poor widow gave two small copper coins, two leptons. A lepton was a Jewish coin worth 1/128<sup>th</sup>of a denarius. One denarius was one day's wage of a laborer in those days. In other words, the widow gave a very small gift. Based on our minimum wage scale the widow put about 94 cents into the offering box. Jesus called this to the attention of his disciples and said that the widow out gave the rich. The reason for this conclusion is found in verse 44, "…they contributed out of their abundance (wealth NIV), but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on." (ESV) This was very similar to the experience of the Macedonian Christians. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in 0in 7.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Alan Redpath has written, "They gave out of what they could not afford." It is one thing to give generously when you have plenty. It is another thing to give everything you have when you have very little. Grace giving has less to do with what you have than it does with what you are willing to live without. Sacrifice is a characteristic of grace giving. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in 0in 7.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Thirdly, willingness is a characteristic of grace giving, verses 4, 10-11. Evidently Paul did not have to do any arm-twisting to get the Macedonians to give. On the contrary, the Macedonians who lived in extreme poverty according to verses three and four, "Entirely on their own…urgently pleaded with us" (NIV) ("begging us earnestly" ESV) '...for the privilege of sharing in this service to the saints."(NIV) In verse ten Paul comments on the desire, the willingness of the Corinthians, to participate in this offering. He says that a year ago they were the first to "have the desire to do so." Then in verse eleven, he encourages them to follow through with this "eager willingness" ("readiness in desiring it" ESV). He goes on in verse twelve to say, "…if the willingness (or eagerness, readiness ESV) is there, the gift is acceptable". <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in 0in 7.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">It would appear that to Paul, one's attitude in giving was of paramount importance. He wanted the Corinthians to follow through with their giving but is concerned that the motive, an eager willingness, is behind the giving. Paul deals with this again in chapter nine verse seven where he admonishes them to give, "not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver." It is the grace of God at work in our lives that creates eagerness, a willingness to give. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in 0in 7.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">The fourth characteristic of grace giving is surrender, verse five. In fact we might say that surrender is the pre-requisite for grace giving. Surrender to God, that is. When you surrender yourself to God you will also surrender all that you have to God. Perhaps you've heard the slogan, "God does not have a man until he has his pocketbook.” The truth behind that saying is found here in verse five, "they gave themselves first to the Lord". You see, the greatest obstacle to giving has never been lack of resources. It has been the lack of a willing heart. In other words, it's a heart problem. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in 0in 7.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Jesus said as much, "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth… but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven…for where your treasure is there your <b>heart</b>will be also. (emphasis mine Matthew 6:19-21 ESV) In other words, your heart follows your treasure. And then he makes this observation, verse 24, "No one can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot love both God and money." (Matthew 6:24 ESV) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in 0in 7.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Therein lays the tension. Jesus was emphatic about this. You cannot split your allegiance between God and your money. Alexander MacLaren has written, "These Macedonians did more that Paul had hoped for, and the explanation of the unexpected largeness of their contribution was their yielding themselves to Jesus. That is the deepest source of all liberality. If a man feels that he does not own himself, much less will he feel his goods are his own?"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in 0in 7.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">As they surrendered their lives to Christ, the grace of God flowed through the Macedonians. As they surrendered their lives to Christ, God's giving heart flowed through them; God's giving nature was reproduced in them. It was as though God gave through these suffering, poverty stricken, Christians. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in 0in 7.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Number five, grace giving is always voluntary, verse eight. The defining motive behind grace giving is love. Paul did not want to "command" the Corinthians to give. He wanted their giving to be an act of love. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in 0in 7.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">When a man and a woman commit themselves to marriage it is a voluntary act. They give themselves to one another whole-heartedly, completely, permanently and voluntarily, in an act of love and commitment. And all of this is motivated by their love for one another. The voluntary lifelong commitment they make to one another is the ultimate test of their love.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in 0in 7.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Paul points to the grace of Jesus Christ as the model of this voluntary sacrificial love. Jesus was rich, but He became poor "so that you by his poverty might become rich." (verse nine ESV) Grace giving is voluntary giving. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in 0in 7.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Dr. L. L. King writes, "He [Paul] could have called their attention to the fact that Jesus, the Head of the church, endorsed tithing. Also, in accordance with his own divine commission and authority as an apostle, he was entitled to command them to give. Instead, he chose to put the Corinthians to the test of love." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in 0in 7.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Dr. King continues, "Sometimes people have asked: 'If the Lord wanted us to give, why did He not leave a clear command and stipulate the amount? How gladly then would we do it.' Ah! There you have it. You want a command to make you do it. But Christ does not want to make us give. He wants us to give out of love for Him. He therefore, has made the motivation to give and the amount to give to be the test of our devotion to Him."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in 0in 7.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Sixthly, grace giving is proportionate, verses 11 and 12. In verse 11 Paul says we are to give "according to your means" or "completing it out of what you have" (ESV) or "Give in proportion to what you have." (NLT) And he repeats this in verse 12, giving should be "according to what a person has". <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in 0in 7.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Earlier he wrote something similar in his first letter to the Corinthians 16:2, "On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper." (ESV) or "in keeping with his income"(NIV). This answers the question – "How much?" <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in 0in 7.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Pastor David Petrescue writes, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Normal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 5pt 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">"The New Testament does not teach tithing, although Jesus encouraged people to keep doing it. The New Testament teaches proportional giving. We are to give as we have been blessed, not with equal gifts but with equal sacrifice."<b>("</b><i>Your Money </i>Matters", Alliance life 02-14-96)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Normal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 5pt 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Roy LaTourneau, was known as "The Dean of Earthmoving." Back in the first half of the 20<sup>th</sup>century he designed and built different kinds of earthmoving machines. He was known around the world as a leader in the development and manufacture of heavy earth moving equipment. As a committed Christian, he was tithing 90% of his income by the end of his life. I know of another Christian businessman, Stanley Tam, who legally made God the owner of his business so that all of the profits went to the Lord's work. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Normal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 5pt 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">If you make $20,000/year and tithe, you are left with $18,000 to live on. If you make $100,000/year and tithe, you are left with $90,000 to live on. That is why the New Testament teaches proportionate giving. That is why grace giving is proportionate giving. G. Campbell Morgan commenting on 1 Corinthians 16:2 wrote, "The giving of the Christian man is to be personal; let every man. It is to be regular, upon the first day of the week. It is to be perpetually readjusted, according as God has prospered." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Normal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 5pt 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">This is why tithing is not the focus in the New Testament. For some it would be too limiting. I believe God wants to demonstrate His grace in our giving by taking us well beyond the tithe. There is nothing wrong with the tithe as long it is viewed as the beginning not the end of our giving, the minimum not the maximum.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Normal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 5pt 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Lastly, grace giving is characterized by concern for others, verses 13-15. Paul is promoting a concern for equality or as the ESV translates it "fairness", in other words a concern that the needs of everyone are met. In verse 14, the contrast is between those who have "plenty" or "abundance" (ESV) and those who have a "need". In other words, the contrast is between those who have more than they need, and those who do not have enough. So Paul argues that it is appropriate for those who have "plenty", or more than they need, to supply the need of those who do not have enough. And he points out that the day may come when the shoe is on the other foot. When the need of the Corinthians will be supplied by the plenty of others. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Normal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 5pt 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">This concept was practiced early on by the Jerusalem church. Acts 4:32-35, <sup>32</sup>Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common. <sup>3</sup>And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, a<b>nd great grace was upon them all</b>. <sup>34</sup>There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold <sup>35</sup>and laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to <b>each as any had need</b>. (ESV emphasis mine) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Normal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 5pt 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Friends, you cannot explain that kind of love, sacrifice and care for one another apart from the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ at work in His body the Church! And that is what the text says "...great grace was upon them all." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Normal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 5pt 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">I will never forget Father's Day of last year (2010). The leadership of this church had invited my family and I to come here so they could pray for us, and I could bring the morning message. Just six weeks earlier, on Mother's Day, May 9 my family was on their way to join me where I was preaching that morning, but they never made it and I never peached that Mother's Day sermon. While driving on Pine Island Road in Plantation, they were in a very serious automobile accident. My son Christopher resuscitated my wife at the scene of the accident after he dragged her lifeless body from the car before the EMT's arrived. Three of my family ustained serious injuries. On that morning last June 20 here at Pines Baptist, three wonderful things happened. The church gathered around my family and prayed for us. Then I had the privilege to preach, my first love in ministry. And after the service Pastor Acosta gave us a love gift of $3,000 that had been collected earlier from you. Grace giving in action. Church, thank you again. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Normal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 5pt 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">As I said at the beginning of this message through "grace giving" God provides us with both the motive, the desire to give and the means or resources to give. That means that each of us no matter who we are, or what we have can be participants in grace giving. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Normal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 5pt 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">I close with this illustration and a final quote. In 1 Kings chapter seventeen, God sent the prophet Elijah to give a message to wicked King Ahab, "…there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word. (Verse 1 ESV) Then the Lord ordered Elijah into hiding by the brook Kerith east of the Jordan River. There Elijah camped drinking from the brook and eating food the Lord provided him flown in by ravens. Eventually, due to the drought, the brook dried up.</span></div>
<div class="Normal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 5pt 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">Who did God send Elijah to for food and shelter? To the wealthiest home? To the local philanthropist in the village Zarephath? No, to a widow who was down to her last meal. A widow, who in this drought stricken land had enough food for one last meal for her and her son. God asked her to supply the needs of His prophet. And she did, feeding him first as he requested. And just as Elijah had promised she and her household ate for many mofe days as God in his grace kept refilling the flour pot and the jug of oil. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Normal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 5pt 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">You've heard the slogan, "You cannot out give God." It's true. The widow of Zarephath experienced it. 2 Corinthians chapter nine teaches it. But that is another message. As Dr. A. B. Simpson founder of the Christian and Missionary Alliance has written, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Normal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 5pt 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">"In second Corinthians 8 we are first taught that giving is a grace. It is not a work; it is not something we have to do but it is something God will do through us if we will let him. Grace is something given to us not something we give but something we get." Dr. Simpson continues, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Normal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 5pt 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">"God does not require us to give as a hard exercise. He wants to give us the Spirit of giving. This then is something we must take as a divine gift, a grace of the Holy Ghost. It belongs to the essential qualities of holiness and right living and without it we cannot call ourselves truly sanctifies children of God."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Normal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 5pt 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;">2011 James P. McGarvey All rights reserved <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Normal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 5pt 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="Normal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 5pt 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="Normal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 5pt 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="Normal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 5pt 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="Normal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 5pt 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Jim McGarveyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09559934703130337359noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1895307860926611586.post-9868634725348754742018-06-23T18:38:00.001-07:002020-02-25T20:11:11.242-08:00Remarks Given at the Memorial Service for Shanice Denise Osbourne<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CWUsK9lFKp8/Wy712eLKz2I/AAAAAAAAA3Q/RqB5QsZdWngGm1BS5hsDfA34yddUl5YMgCLcBGAs/s1600/red%2Bbiohazard%2Bbag_2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CWUsK9lFKp8/Wy712eLKz2I/AAAAAAAAA3Q/RqB5QsZdWngGm1BS5hsDfA34yddUl5YMgCLcBGAs/s1600/red%2Bbiohazard%2Bbag_2.jpg" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial";">(Rev. Dr. O'Neal Dozier, pastor of The Worldwide Christian Center in Pompano Beach, asked me to bring some remarks at the Memorial Service for Shanice Denise Osbourne held at his church on October 14, 2008. Baby Shanice was the victim of infanticide on July 20, 2006. After being born alive during preparation, surviving an abortion in Hialeah Florida, o</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "arial";">ne of the abortion clinic owners cut the babies umbilical cord and placed the baby into a red biohazard bag to die. D</span><span style="font-family: "arial";">r. Alan Keyes, presidential candidate of the American Independent Party gave the Eulogy. These are the remarks I made before Dr. Keyes spoke.) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.25in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial";">My condolences and sympathy to the mother Sycloria Williams, and family of Shanice.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial";">You are in our prayers and thoughts as you bear the pain of your great personal loss.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.25in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial";">Last week I received a phone call from a south Florida newspaper reporter. The reporter asked me what I was going to say at this memorial service. I replied that I was not sure <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial";">because I had just been asked to speak the day before. The reporter said that it was going to get political, and I agreed that it probably would.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.25in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial";">I shared with the reporter how Hope Women’s Centers serves abortion minded and abortion vulnerable women that are facing an unplanned pregnancy. We provide them with the truth, the alternatives and practical help so they can make an informed choice regarding their <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial";">pregnancy – an opportunity to make a life affirming choice. I shared the two words that are the guiding principles of all that we say and all that we do. The words – truth and grace.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.25in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial";">I believe these two words will help shape our thoughts as we wrestle with what happened to baby Shanice. We cannot look to the politicians to adequately explain the tragedy of what happened to Shanice. Nor can we expect the social scientist to adequately explain what took place. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.25in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial";"> May I suggest to you that we cannot fully understand this tragedy without looking beyond the circumstances that we are all familiar with, to the spiritual context of what happened. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial";">If we overlook the spiritual we remove the possibility of ever experiencing the comfort, healing and restoration that is available to those who have been so dramatically touched by the death of Shanice. If we overlook the spiritual we will never make the progress necessary to see that this never happens again.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.25in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial";">The civility of our society will always be measured by our treatment of the weakest, the powerless, and the most vulnerable among us. Our culture has devalued life at both extremities - the youngest and the oldest - those who are the most dependent on others for their survival. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.25in;">
<br />
Our legislators and judges are surgically removing any notion of accountability to a sovereign God in formulating the laws and public policy of our nation. In doing so they are abandoning the concept of absolute moral truth leaving man to define the ethical boundaries of acceptable human conduct and behavior. Truth has become relative and therefore ambiguous, subservient to our self interests. Self love has triumphed over transcendent truth. The sacred value placed upon human life by our Creator has become a casualty.<br />
<br />
But there is hope! Grace always accompanies truth. John declared that Jesus was "full of grace and truth" (John 1:14). The Bible says that "grace and truth come through Jesus Christ (John 1:17). Jesus himself declared, "I am the truth and the life. No one comes to the to the Father except through me." (John 14:6) and "I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly." (John 10:10)<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;"> </span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial";"> </span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial";">I tell you this morning what America needs is to reconnect with Jesus Christ who is the Truth. And that is truth with a capital "T". That’s where grace comes into play. Our hope lies in the cross of Jesus Christ! You see truth and grace converge at the cross. The justice of God and love of God intersect at the cross. On the cross Jesus took our sin upon himself. In His death He paid the penalty for our sins. As the Scriptures say, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial";">(2 Corinthians 5:21) And the Apostle Paul concluded, “since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Romans 5:1) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial";">The fruit of being justified is transformation. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17) The Apostle Paul's own testimony - "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me." </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;">(Galatians 2:20)</span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.25in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial";">Faith in Christ results in the regeneration of the human heart. We become lovers of God - and lovers of God’s moral law - and lovers of our fellow man. This is our hope – the cross of Jesus Christ. Through the cross there is forgiveness for those responsible for the death of Shanice. Through the cross there is forgiveness for those who have legalized abortion. And for those who have aborted their own children, there is forgiveness, there is healing, there is wholeness and restoration - through the cross.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial";">So this morning, I encourage you to see the tragedy of the death of Shanice from the vantage point of the cross. It is true that in her death evil triumphed over good, wrong defeated right, deception was victorious over truth, but the final chapter has yet to be written. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;"></span><br />
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial";">For all of us our hope lies in the cross of Jesus Christ. The power of the cross is in His truth. The hope of the cross is in His grace. Despite the skeptics, truth and grace remain the bookends of any great nation - the hope of a free and civil society. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial";">(Read a news report about the death of baby Shanice Denise Osbourne, "Baby Born Alive at 23 Weeks Gasped for Air. Abortion Clinic Threw the Baby in a Biohazard Bag" </span><span style="color: #114d6d; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;">at: </span><a href="https://www.lifenews.com/2020/02/25/baby-born-alive-at-23-weeks-gasped-for-air-abortion-clinic-threw-the-baby-in-a-biohazard-bag/?fbclid=IwAR1bzgzuifD2YBnteQPz6M7_u_Vst5A0y-ZQ2rotlNk06FiNFu57n7h5qpY" style="font-size: 11pt;">LifeNews.com report</a><span style="color: #114d6d; font-size: 11pt;"> )</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span>
</div>
</div>
Jim McGarveyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09559934703130337359noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1895307860926611586.post-87012209485470012882018-05-25T12:43:00.002-07:002021-01-08T11:35:43.256-08:00How Valuable Are the Unborn to God? Romans 1:25<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/--fRhtdeYrdw/Wwhowvpw6SI/AAAAAAAAA2s/Q655r17PjYAiG4qAfUIsT_jsk5zV15b7QCLcBGAs/s1600/unborn%2Bfetus.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="533" data-original-width="800" height="213" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/--fRhtdeYrdw/Wwhowvpw6SI/AAAAAAAAA2s/Q655r17PjYAiG4qAfUIsT_jsk5zV15b7QCLcBGAs/s320/unborn%2Bfetus.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
(I gave this message on April 28 and 29, 2018 at New Hope Community Church (C&MA) in North Port Florida. It is an update and slightly revised version of a message I wrote originally in 2013 under the title "Responding to 40 Years of Legal Abortion." You can view the PowerPoint slides of this message online at Microsoft One Drive <a href="https://1drv.ms/p/s!As4mcZNjhs_1gmbCpxHbmFskNAPl">HERE</a>.)</div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
After suffering his second heart attack in 1987 my Dad under went by-pass surgery in an effort to save his life. It was major surgery, very invasive. His chest was cut wide open so the surgeon could do what was necessary to save his failing heart. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
Sometimes major surgery is necessary to save the life of the patient. It was an uncomfortable and difficult procedure for my Dad to undergo but it was the only option available to keep my Dad alive. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
In the same way some subjects like abortion are difficult, perhaps even painful and uncomfortable to think about. But like major surgery is sometimes necessary to save the life <span style="font-size: 14pt;">of a heart attack victim, so the truth about abortion, as uncomfortable, even painful as it might be, is necessary to save the lives of unborn children at risk of being aborted and is necessary for those whose lives have been touched by abortion to receive forgiveness, healing and restoration.</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
Statistics would indicate that in most audiences I speak to there will be individuals whose lives have been touched by abortion. I want you to know that I am aware of that. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
Perhaps you have had an abortion or in some way were a participant in an abortion. You pressured your wife, girlfriend or daughter into having an abortion. Perhaps you paid for an abortion. Or you have lost a child, a brother or sister, grandchild, niece or nephew to abortion.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
As followers of Jesus Christ we must be willing to address this subject from the authority of Scripture. But, as we take this journey we must do so in the context of two very important Biblical truths. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
Let me illustrate it this way. There are two things a train must have to safely reach its destination. Two tracks. Two tracks that run parallel to each other all the way to its destination. A train will go nowhere without riding on both tracks at the same time all the way to the end of the rail line. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
In the same way we must communicate what God says about abortion in the context of God's grace and God's truth. You see, theologically grace and truth always go together. In fact, they are theologically inseparable. They are like the two sides of the same coin. You cannot have one without the other. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
And here's why this is important. Pastor Randy Alcorn has written, "Grace without truth deceives people. Truth without grace, crushes people." You see, we will never understand God's grace apart from God's truth, but God's truth will always lead us to God's grace. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
And as we begin this morning let me impress this upon you. If your life has been touched by an abortion, while you cannot escape the truth about abortion, nor some of the consequences of your abortion, please know that there is forgiveness, there is healing and restoration in the gospel of Jesus Christ. There is a way to resolve the guilt, shame and hurt that abortion will bring to the human experience. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
And I want you to know that you are in the right place to hear that Good News. If your life has been touched by an abortion in any way, you are in a safe place in this church. No one is here to condemn or judge you. On the contrary, we are here to extend love and compassion and a message of forgiveness, restoration and hope available to you because of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ on your behalf. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
We believe that the gospel is the solution to America's abortion crisis. We believe that as those who have been saved by grace and regenerated by the Holy Spirit we are to live as "children of light." as Paul says in Ephesians chapter five. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
"Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), andtry to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them." (Ephesians 5:8-11 ESV) <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
As Pastor John Piper says, "Another way to say this is that God calls his people to be the conscience of the culture. Our individual conscience probes into our behavior and either approves or disapproves what we do. So the children of light are to probe into the life of their culture and approve or disapprove what it does." (<i>Exposing the Dark Work of Abortion</i>) <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
On January 22, we remembered the forty-fifth anniversary of two U. S. Supreme Court decisions, Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton. These two rulings of the court legalized the <span style="font-size: 14pt;">deliberate, premeditated killing of unborn children at anytime during all nine months of pregnancy right up to the moment of natural child birth, for virtually any reason.</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
This plunged America into a national tragedy that has proved to be unparalleled in our 242 year history. It is estimated that upwards of 60 million unborn children have lost their lives to abortion in the United States in the last 45 years, almost 69,000 in Florida last year (2017) and 1,357 in Sarasota County in 2017. In January of 2014 U. S. Congressman Chris Smith made this observation, <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
"Someday future generations will look back on America and wonder how and why such a seemingly enlightened society, so blessed and endowed with education, advanced science, information, wealth and opportunity could have failed to protect the innocent and inconvenient.” <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
This morning I begin by raising a two-fold question: How could this happen and how should we respond? How could a civilized nation historically rooted in a Judeo-Christian heritage and ethic abandon both the metaphysical and scientific evidence that the unborn are human beings and proceed to legalize abortion? <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
I suggest to you the answer to that question is found in a radical worldview shift that has taken place in America in the last half-century or more. What do I mean by worldview? Here is Whitney Clayton's definition (“Basics: Defining Worldview”) <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
“…a worldview is quite literally the filter through which someone interprets, defines, and engages with the world around them. Your worldview assists you in making every decision throughout your day.” <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
At the risk of being overly simplistic the worldview issue centers around one question. Who is in charge? Or to personalize it, who do you recognize as being in charge of your world? <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
A conflict of worldviews has been in play from the beginning of time. Let me begin with the Biblical or Christian worldview. The stage was set as recorded in Genesis 3:15. After Satan <span style="font-size: 14pt;">successfully deceived Adam and Eve plunging mankind into sin, God said to Satan,</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">"...I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring he will bruise your head, and you will bruise his heel."</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">(NIV).</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
With that, the epoch struggle between good and evil began. It continues today as varying worldviews compete for the heart and soul of man. And Satan has been trying to kill the offspring of Eve ever since. He was successful in killing Jesus Christ. But the blood Satan shed <span style="font-size: 14pt;">on that cross came back to haunt him. As Paul said, "...having disarmed the </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">powers and authorities, He [that is Jesus Christ] made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross." Satan's work of evil became God's provision for his defeat and the salvation of sinful man. So today, though one can identify many different worldviews there are essentially only two. God's and Man's. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
There is a worldview chart on a very helpful Christian apologetics website that identifies six different worldviews, Islam, secular humanism, Marxism-Leninism, Cosmic Humanism, Post modernism and Biblical Christianity. But there is a sense in which there are only two worldviews because all of the five other than Biblical Christianity are in conflict with God's revelation of Himself to man through the Scriptures and the revelation of Himself by the historical intervention of Jesus Christ into our time and space dimension through His <span style="font-size: 14pt;">incarnation.</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
So today there are essentially two worldviews vying for control of every man and woman and the fate of the unborn. One is a Biblical or Christian worldview that acknowledges there is one God who is the Designer, Creator and sustainer of this universe. In other words, He is in charge! As Paul wrote the Colossians, <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
"For by him [that is Jesus Christ] all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities —all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together." <span style="font-size: 14pt;">Colossians 1:16-17 (ESV)</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
That is a worldview statement. That is a truth statement that applies to believer and unbeliever alike. It declares in very unambiguous terms who is in charge of our world! He created us. He sustains every breath we breathe. And ultimately we are accountable to him <span style="font-size: 14pt;">and will face Him in the final day of judgment.</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
Listen to the words of Paul, this time in Athens, as he interacted with those who disputed the Gospel he had proclaimed to them. It sparked their curiosity and this is part of his response. <span style="font-size: 14pt;">Again notice the emphasis on God the Creator, the cornerstone of a Biblical worldview.</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
"The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, <span style="font-size: 14pt;">since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for 'In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, 'For we are indeed his offspring.'' </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Acts 17:24-28 (ESV) </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
Do you see it? The Gospel is our worldview. That's why abortion is a gospel issue. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
How valuable are the unborn to God? God created man in His image and likeness for his purposes. And because He values each human life He sent His Son to the cross in an obedient act of sacrificial love to pay the penalty for our sin that by faith in Him we might be forgiven, justified and adopted into His family where we will spend eternity in the<b></b>presence of He who is both our Creator and our Savior. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
When I spoke here three years ago, on Sanctity of Human Life weekend, I make the case for the sanctity of unborn human life from both a Biblical and scientific perspective. I hope you understand that the two are never contradictory. And as we've just noted the Christian worldview begins with creation. This is the explicit teaching of the Genesis creation account. Genesis 1:27 (ESV),</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">"So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created them." Genesis 2:7 (ESV) "...then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature."</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
As we've noted this is the consistent and repeated declaration of Scripture from Genesis to Revelation. The apostle Paul saw it as the foundation of a Biblical worldview, the denial of which prompted God's response to the ungodliness and unrighteousness of man. Romans 1:18-25 (ESV), <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
"For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth."<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
What is the truth we suppress? <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
"For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world,<b></b>in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen<span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 16pt;">."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
There are essentially only two worldviews. One denies the Creator and worships the creation, man, the other acknowledges the Creator and worships Him! <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
As Peter Jones writes, "To speak in postmodern terms, there are only two metanarratives'---an ultimate story within the universe, or an ultimate story from outside the universe. A word from <i>within</i>, or a Word from <i>without</i>. Either <i>creation</i>is divine or the <i>Creator </i>is divine. It is one or the other, but cannot be both. To claim that creation is divine is to deny true divinity to the Creator."<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
Contrary to modern evolutionary theory, that denies the existence of the Creator, man was not the product of a meaningless, random evolutionary process over billions of years. Man was not the result of a cosmic accident. On the contrary the Genesis account speaks to us of a Creator who intentionally created man in His image and likeness with capacities reflective of God. The Psalmist wrote these stunning words, identifying God as the creator of what John Piper calls "independent personhood." Listen to what David wrote of his life in the womb. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
"For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mothers womb…Your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. Psalm 139:13,16<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
The Biblical evidence can be summarized this way: The unborn are created by God and for God. They are created in His image and likeness. That is, they resemble God and they represent God. They are recognized by God as distinct and unique persons from the moment of conception. Life begins at conception. Therefore to take the life of a preborn infant would constitute a violation of God's moral law, specifically the sixth commandment "You shall not murder." <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
Three years ago, when I spoke here on this subject we identified the spiritual forces behind child killing. Jesus on at least two occasions revealed the nature of the Devil 's work. In John 8:44, He refers to the Devil as " a murderer" and "a liar and father of lies." making him the Architect of Abortion. In John 10:10 Jesus exposed Satan's agenda. "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy." (See, "Abortion, the Devil & the. Church - Exposing the Spiritual Forces Behind Abortion <a href="http://churchforlife.blogspot.com/2013/11/abortion-devil-church-exposing.html">here</a>.)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
As I shared with you back in 2015 there is conclusive scientific evidence that human life begins at conception. That debate ended years ago with the discovery that the first cell of human development contains its full complement of DNA. The unborn are human beings, a living person, from the moment of conception. As Dr. Jerome LeJeune, M.D. summarizes, <span style="font-size: 14pt;">"after fertilization has taken place a new human being has come into being."</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
You see, whether you approach the issue of<b></b>the personhood of the unborn from a Biblical or scientific and biological perspective, the inescapable conclusion is that life begins at conception. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
How valuable are the unborn to God? The unborn are distinct living persons while in the womb worthy of our protection. (For more on this, see my message "The Scientific, Philosophical & Metaphysical Case for Life" <a href="http://churchforlife.blogspot.com/2016/02/the-scientific-philosophical.html">here</a>.) <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
In light of this evidence, how is it that abortion could remain legal in America for forty-five years? To answer that question we look no further than the prevailing worldview of our nation's educational, governmental and judicial institutions and the entertainment and media establishment. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
Dr. Francis Schaeffer, over thirty years ago in his book, <i>A Christian Manifesto </i>wrote,<i></i><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
"The term humanism...means Man beginning from himself, with no knowledge except what he himself can discover and no standard outside of himself. In this view Man is the measure of all things, as the Enlightenment expressed it." (page 24)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
Man suppresses the truth, Romans 1:25, "they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator..." Again, Peter Jones, "The main enemy of the gospel is no longer secularism but religious paganism." <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
In essence, you have the deification of man according to this worldview. Man is the center of his own universe. He has put himself in charge, accountable to no one but himself! G.K. Chesterton, "When men cease to believe in God they do not believe in nothing; they believe in anything." <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
This parallels naturalism that denies the existence of God, believing that matter is all there is. <span style="font-size: 14pt;">Therefore the cosmos, as someone has said, "...exists as a uniformity of cause and effect in a closed system." A closed system that excludes God, transcendent truth and God's intervention in and sovereignty over His creation and the affairs of man. As someone has said, Man is but a complex machine "products of valueless processes" and the afterlife consists of the "extinction of personality and individuality" In other words, when you die, that's all there is. It's all over. Life is void of any intrinsic meaning or purpose. This is the premise of Darwinian evolution.</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
As Dr. D. James Kennedy & Jerry Newcombe have written, "Evolution simply says that the whole universe is made up of nothing but matter; that matter, time and chance -- the trinity of materialism--have brought all things into existence. Therefore there is no God." (<i>Lord of All, </i>pg. 24) <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;">This mindset not only denies the inherent value of each human life but it denies any notion </span><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-weight: normal;">of purpose to his existence. After all,</span><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-weight: normal;"> </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">if</span><b style="font-size: 14pt; font-weight: normal;"> </b><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-weight: normal;">man is the product of random chance he exists in the absence of any transcendent truth or moral compass that would assign purpose and meaning to his life. This worldview has had a significant impact on the fate of the unborn.</span><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-weight: normal;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
The Founding Fathers wrote, in the Declaration of Independence, "We hold these truths to be self evident...that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
The Founding Fathers recognized the truth of Genesis one, that the Creator endowed man with the unalienable right to life. Not the Federal Government, not the Supreme Court, not the state of Florida, but their Creator. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
Again, Dr. Schaeffer, (<i>CM</i>pg. 25-26) "Those who hold the material-energy, chance concept of reality...not only do not know the truth of the final reality, God, they do not know who Man is...They have reduced Man to even less than his natural finiteness by seeing him only as a complex arrangement of molecules, made complex by blind chance. Instead of seeing him as something great who is significant even in his sinning, they see Man in his essence only as an intrinsically competitive animal, that has no other basic operating principle than natural selection brought about by the strongest, the fittest, ending on top. And they see Man as acting in this way both individually and collectively as society."<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
Here is the reason why a modern, educated, highly advanced society can deliberately and legally kill its own off spring. Some advocates of abortion, however, are now acknowledging that life in the womb is human. But in an attempt preserve their right to choose abortion are sliding further and further down the inevitable slippery slope of those who deny the intrinsic value of human life. Listen to the words written by Mary Elizabeth Williams that appeared in January 2013 in the progressive online magazine Salon.com. The title of the article? "So What if Abortion Ends a Life" The subtitle: "I believe that life starts at conception. And it's never stopped me from being pro-choice" She writes, <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
"While opponents of abortion eagerly describe themselves as 'pro-life,' the rest of us have had to scramble around with not nearly as big-ticket words like 'choice' and 'reproductive freedom.' The 'life' conversation is often too thorny to even broach. Yet I know that throughout my own pregnancies, I never wavered for a moment in the belief that I was carrying a human life inside of me. I believe that’s what a fetus is: a human life. And that doesn’t make me one iota less solidly pro-choice." <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
Take note of her worldview as she goes on to explain, "Here’s the complicated reality in which we live: All life is not equal. That’s a difficult thing for liberals like me to talk about, lest we wind up looking like death-panel-loving, kill-your-grandma-and-your -precious-baby storm troopers. Yet a fetus can be a human life without having the same rights as the woman in whose body it resides. She’s the boss. Her life and what is right for her circumstances and her health should automatically trump the rights of the non-autonomous entity inside of her. Always." <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
An astounding admission. A diabolical line of reasoning. She continues, "I can say anecdotally that I’m a mom who loved the lives she incubated...If by some random fluke I learned today I was pregnant, you bet your [expletive] I’d have an abortion. I’d have the World’s Greatest Abortion." <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
Similar words to the defense of abortion by Psychologist and professor Dr. Ginette Paris "It is not immoral to choose abortion;<u>i</u>t is simply another kind of morality, a pagan one.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
When man is considered to be nothing more than the product of a meaningless, random evolutionary process over millions of years, or the result of a cosmic accident, when he is no longer assigned the intrinsic worth given to him by His Creator, he therefore becomes expendable in the struggle of the survival of the fittest. Might becomes right, and evolution triumphs. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
As Mary Elizabeth Williams has just acknowledged, the mother is the boss and her rights trump the rights of the child in her womb. And when the Supreme Court gave women the right to kill their unborn children the inevitable has taken place. You've just heard the admission. The stronger, in every case the mother, has used her power to take the life of the weaker-- her unborn child, allowing millions of mothers and fathers to sacrificed their own posterity to further their own convenience. The denial of transcendent truth has come at a very high price <span style="font-size: 14pt;">to our nation. When man becomes his own god, all hell breaks loose in society and the civility off a civilization is lost.</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
Dr. Bernard Nathanson, helped to legalize abortion and was personally responsible for 60,000 abortions before his conversion. Listen to his words,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 12pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
"The abortion holocaust is beyond the ordinary discourse of morality and rational condemnation. It is not enough to pronounce it absolutely evil. . . . The abortion tragedy is a new event, severed from connections with traditional presuppositions of history, psychology, politics and morality. It extends beyond the deliberations of reason, beyond the discernment of moral judgment, beyond meaning itself. . . . This is an evil torn free of its moorings in reason and causality, an ordinary secular corruption raised to unimaginable powers of magnification and limitless extremity." (Bernard Nathanson,“Pro-Choice1990,”<i>NewDimensions</i>,
October 1990, 38 quoted in <i>Innocent Blood</i>pages 109-110) <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 12pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
Do you see why this is a gospel issue? The Gospel has not failed abortion. The church has failed to apply the gospel to abortion. I have said it before. I know of no greater issue facing our nation to wrap in the gospel than the killing of unborn children. Just turn the page in the book of Romans to chapter three. In verses 21-26 Paul writes, <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 12pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
"But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus."<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 12pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
A propitiation is a blood sacrifice that covers sin, so that God’s wrath and judgment will be averted! There is only one remedy for the shedding of innocent blood -- the innocent blood shed on the cross. You see Jesus died in our place. He paid the penalty for our sins; your sin and my sin, any sin and all sin, the sin of killing your unborn child, the sin of pushing a girlfriend, wife, daughter or granddaughter into an abortion, the sin of paying for an abortion, the sin of performing an abortion, the sin of doing nothing to end abortion. It matters not what sin it is. We can be forgiven and justified, declared righteous in God's sight, our sin no longer being held against us.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 12pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
In January of 2013, Don Schanzenbach posted the following on blog site "Mission to Restore America". <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 12pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: #343434;">"The science is on our side. The supposedly scientifically-oriented secularists, are refusing to embrace the science they purport to use as their source of absolute truth. Given the trouncing they have received in these science-related categories, we would expect the battle should long ago have turned in our favor. Yet, this has not been the case. Secularists struggle on with undying emotion in their now scientifically disproven cause..." </span><span style="color: #343434; font-size: 14pt;">He goes on to write, </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 12pt; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: #343434; font-size: 14pt; font-weight: normal;">"The unsaved do not have the power to act righteously. Their minds are at enmity with God. As a group, they will </span><span style="color: #343434; font-size: 14pt;">not</span><b style="color: #343434; font-size: 14pt; font-weight: normal;"> </b><span style="color: #343434; font-size: 14pt; font-weight: normal;">turn toward the civilization of Christ without His Spirit and prevailing influence... Our only path to success is to preach and teach Biblical truth as it applies to the abortion issue. The only tool God uses to transform people</span><span style="color: #343434; font-size: 14pt; font-weight: normal;"> </span><b style="color: #343434; font-size: 14pt; font-weight: normal;">is</b><span style="color: #343434; font-size: 14pt; font-weight: normal;">His word preached. The culture calls it foolishness, but we call it the power and wisdom of God. God truly transforms men, and the societies of men, through the word preached. This then, must be our chosen road for the future."</span><span style="color: #343434; font-size: 14pt; font-weight: normal;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 12pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
I remind you this morning that in one sense the advocates of abortion are not the “enemy." The doctors who perform abortions and their clients, and those who defend a woman's right to kill their unborn are not the enemy. Paul identified the enemy when he wrote of the unseen reality behind this kind of evil, Ephesians 6:12 (NIV),<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 12pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
"...our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 12pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
You see, tragically those involved in the abortion industry are themselves the casualties of Satan's deception and darkness. To the Corinthian church Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 4:4, <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 12pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
“The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God." (NIV)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 12pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
Only Jesus can open the eyes of the blind. The writer of Proverbs, 24:10-12 says, "Rescue those who are unjustly sentenced to death; Don't stand back and let them die. Don't try to avoid responsibility, by saying you didn't know about it." <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 12pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
John Ensor wrote, "The commands of Scripture exist that we might be compelled to do what does not come naturally." (<i>Innocent Blood) <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 12pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
In Luke chapter ten Jesus helped a lawyer understand what it meant to love his neighbor. He told the story of a man on his way to Jericho from Jerusalem who was robbed and beaten and left half dead alongside the road. Three different individuals had the opportunity to render him assistance, in all likelihood to save his life. Two of the three, did not respond to the needs of the man bleeding by the side of the road. Those two were the church leaders of that day, a priest and a Levite, responsible for the spiritual care of their nation. And Jesus points out that not only did they fail to respond but they "passed by on the other side." In other words they consciously and deliberately went out of their way not to respond. Jesus then pointed out that the one who proved to be the neighbor to the dying man was the one who showed mercy to the badly beaten traveller. He then said, "Go and do likewise." <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 12pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
John Ensor, in his book <i>Innocent Life</i>, defines "<b><u>Samaritan compassion</u></b>" this way, <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 12pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
"Doing right in the sight of the Lord means acting to stop the shedding of innocent blood. The only person in Jesus’ parable who is pro-life according to the demands of love is the Samaritan. Only he was willing to make the nearly dead man’s problem his own. Only he was willing to see the victim’s suffering as his own. Only he was willing to act according to what <i>he </i>would cry out for if their positions had been reversed." <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 12pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
The Church in America is struggling with how to respond to America's abortion crisis. We have failed to expose the shedding of innocent blood and proclaim the full pardon available through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. We have failed to grasp the implications of the gospel with regard to the killing of over 3,000 unborn children each day in the USA. According to Jesus' parable our salvation has a moral imperative built into it with regard to the needs of those around us. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 12pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
John Ensor has written, "Loving God and loving neighbor are not separate choices. One flows sweetly from the other. Loving my neighbor will always mean a desire to help him or her find the grace of God in all its manifestations. Loving my neighbor will occasionally arrest me, and maybe even require me to help prevent someone from being murdered. Loving God and loving neighbor are never at odds with each other. Those who try to do one at the expense of the other offend both God and neighbor." <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 12pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
One of the ways we can love our neighbor is by providing practical and compassionate help to those at risk of abortion. Pregnancy Solutions offers such help here in the Tri-County area providing these free services to those facing an unplanned pregnancy at pregnancy centers in North Port, Venice and Port Charlotte. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 12pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
Perhaps you know someone at school or work a neighbor or family member who would benefit from their help. Please pick up one of their brochures at the display table. Pregnancy Solutions also provides help for post-abortive women and men. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 12pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
As we have already seen there is a way to resolve the guilt, shame and hurt that abortion will bring to the human experience. As it says on their website, supportafterabortion.com, "You're not alone. Have you been impacted by an abortion decision? Whatever your story, you have found the right place. We are here for you. Reach out to day to find out how we can help." Karin heads up their post abortion recovery ministry. You can reach her by phone, text or email.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 12pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
The Apostle Paul wrote, (2 Cor. 7:10) "Godly sorrow brings repentance that leadsto salvation and leaves no regret"<span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 16pt;"></span>You will never regret yielding to God. You will never regret obeying God. Remember the words of Jesus in exposing Satan's agenda, John 10:10 (ESV), "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy." Listen to the 2nd half of that verse. In stark contrast, Jesus said, "I came that they might have life and have it abundantly." <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 12pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
Here's Jesus' invitation to each of us this morning, Matthew 11:28-30. It comes with a promise. “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in hear, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." (ESV)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 12pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
If you hear His voice calling you to salvation this morning I urge you to surrender to His call, go ahead and do it. Cry out to Him. He will save you and you will never be the same again and you will never regret it. If there is sin that needs to be forgiven, repent and confess it. His blood will cover it for all eternity and you will be forgiven. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 12pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
(We closed the service singing "No One Understands Like Jesus")<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 12pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
No one understands like Jesus; He's a friend beyond compare. Meet Him at the throne of mercy; He is waiting for you there.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
Chorus: No one understands like Jesus, when the days are dark and grim. No one is so near, so dear as Jesus; Cast your every care on Him.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
No one understands like Jesus; Every woe He sees and feels. Tenderly He whispers comfort, and the broken heart He heals.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
No one understands like Jesus when the foes of life assail. You should never be discouraged; Jesus cares and will not fail.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
No one understands like Jesus when you falter on the way. Though you fail Him, sadly fail Him, He will pardon you today." (John W. Peterson)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
(c) James P. McGarvey All Rights Reserved<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 12pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="margin-bottom: 15pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="FreeFormA" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 12pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 12pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 12pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 12pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<style class="WebKit-mso-list-quirks-style">
<!--
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:14.0pt;
mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Calibri;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";}
p.MsoNoSpacing, li.MsoNoSpacing, div.MsoNoSpacing
{mso-style-priority:1;
mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:14.0pt;
mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Calibri;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";}
p.BodyA, li.BodyA, div.BodyA
{mso-style-name:"Body A";
mso-style-update:auto;
mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Helvetica;
mso-fareast-font-family:"ヒラギノ角ゴ Pro W3";
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
color:black;}
p.FreeFormA, li.FreeFormA, div.FreeFormA
{mso-style-name:"Free Form A";
mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-fareast-font-family:"ヒラギノ角ゴ Pro W3";
color:black;}
p.FreeFormB, li.FreeFormB, div.FreeFormB
{mso-style-name:"Free Form B";
mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-fareast-font-family:"ヒラギノ角ゴ Pro W3";
color:black;}
p.Body, li.Body, div.Body
{mso-style-name:Body;
mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Helvetica;
mso-fareast-font-family:"ヒラギノ角ゴ Pro W3";
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
color:black;}
p.FreeForm, li.FreeForm, div.FreeForm
{mso-style-name:"Free Form";
mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Helvetica;
mso-fareast-font-family:"ヒラギノ角ゴ Pro W3";
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
color:black;}
.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
mso-default-props:yes;
font-size:10.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt;
mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;}
@page WordSection1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:.5in .5in .5in .5in;
mso-header-margin:.5in;
mso-footer-margin:.5in;
mso-paper-source:0;}
div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}
/* List Definitions */
@list l0
{mso-list-id:1;
mso-list-type:hybrid;
mso-list-template-ids:1 1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1;}
@list l0:level1
{mso-level-start-at:29;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l0:level2
{mso-level-start-at:0;
mso-level-text:"";
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:0in;}
@list l0:level3
{mso-level-start-at:0;
mso-level-text:"";
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:0in;}
@list l0:level4
{mso-level-start-at:0;
mso-level-text:"";
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:0in;}
@list l0:level5
{mso-level-start-at:0;
mso-level-text:"";
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:0in;}
@list l0:level6
{mso-level-start-at:0;
mso-level-text:"";
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:0in;}
@list l0:level7
{mso-level-start-at:0;
mso-level-text:"";
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:0in;}
@list l0:level8
{mso-level-start-at:0;
mso-level-text:"";
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:0in;}
@list l0:level9
{mso-level-start-at:0;
mso-level-text:"";
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:0in;}
@list l1
{mso-list-id:5;
mso-list-template-ids:-1991317385;}
@list l1:level1
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:-;
mso-level-tab-stop:7.0pt;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:7.0pt;
text-indent:0in;
mso-ansi-font-size:12.0pt;
position:relative;
top:0pt;
mso-text-raise:0pt;}
@list l1:level2
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-suffix:none;
mso-level-text:-;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:43.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:12.0pt;
position:relative;
top:0pt;
mso-text-raise:0pt;}
@list l1:level3
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-suffix:none;
mso-level-text:-;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:79.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:12.0pt;
position:relative;
top:0pt;
mso-text-raise:0pt;}
@list l1:level4
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-suffix:none;
mso-level-text:-;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:115.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:12.0pt;
position:relative;
top:0pt;
mso-text-raise:0pt;}
@list l1:level5
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-suffix:none;
mso-level-text:-;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:151.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:12.0pt;
position:relative;
top:0pt;
mso-text-raise:0pt;}
@list l1:level6
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-suffix:none;
mso-level-text:-;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:187.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:12.0pt;
position:relative;
top:0pt;
mso-text-raise:0pt;}
@list l1:level7
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-suffix:none;
mso-level-text:-;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:223.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:12.0pt;
position:relative;
top:0pt;
mso-text-raise:0pt;}
@list l1:level8
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-suffix:none;
mso-level-text:-;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:259.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:12.0pt;
position:relative;
top:0pt;
mso-text-raise:0pt;}
@list l1:level9
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-suffix:none;
mso-level-text:-;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:295.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:12.0pt;
position:relative;
top:0pt;
mso-text-raise:0pt;}
@list l2
{mso-list-id:9;
mso-list-template-ids:-1991317381;}
@list l2:level1
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:-;
mso-level-tab-stop:7.0pt;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:7.0pt;
text-indent:0in;
mso-ansi-font-size:12.0pt;
position:relative;
top:0pt;
mso-text-raise:0pt;}
@list l2:level2
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-suffix:none;
mso-level-text:-;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:43.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:12.0pt;
position:relative;
top:0pt;
mso-text-raise:0pt;}
@list l2:level3
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-suffix:none;
mso-level-text:-;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:79.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:12.0pt;
position:relative;
top:0pt;
mso-text-raise:0pt;}
@list l2:level4
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-suffix:none;
mso-level-text:-;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:115.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:12.0pt;
position:relative;
top:0pt;
mso-text-raise:0pt;}
@list l2:level5
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-suffix:none;
mso-level-text:-;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:151.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:12.0pt;
position:relative;
top:0pt;
mso-text-raise:0pt;}
@list l2:level6
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-suffix:none;
mso-level-text:-;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:187.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:12.0pt;
position:relative;
top:0pt;
mso-text-raise:0pt;}
@list l2:level7
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-suffix:none;
mso-level-text:-;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:223.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:12.0pt;
position:relative;
top:0pt;
mso-text-raise:0pt;}
@list l2:level8
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-suffix:none;
mso-level-text:-;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:259.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:12.0pt;
position:relative;
top:0pt;
mso-text-raise:0pt;}
@list l2:level9
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-suffix:none;
mso-level-text:-;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:295.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:12.0pt;
position:relative;
top:0pt;
mso-text-raise:0pt;}
@list l3
{mso-list-id:10;
mso-list-template-ids:-1991317380;}
@list l3:level1
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:-;
mso-level-tab-stop:7.0pt;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:7.0pt;
text-indent:0in;
mso-ansi-font-size:12.0pt;
position:relative;
top:0pt;
mso-text-raise:0pt;}
@list l3:level2
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-suffix:none;
mso-level-text:-;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:43.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:12.0pt;
position:relative;
top:0pt;
mso-text-raise:0pt;}
@list l3:level3
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-suffix:none;
mso-level-text:-;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:79.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:12.0pt;
position:relative;
top:0pt;
mso-text-raise:0pt;}
@list l3:level4
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-suffix:none;
mso-level-text:-;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:115.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:12.0pt;
position:relative;
top:0pt;
mso-text-raise:0pt;}
@list l3:level5
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-suffix:none;
mso-level-text:-;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:151.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:12.0pt;
position:relative;
top:0pt;
mso-text-raise:0pt;}
@list l3:level6
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-suffix:none;
mso-level-text:-;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:187.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:12.0pt;
position:relative;
top:0pt;
mso-text-raise:0pt;}
@list l3:level7
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-suffix:none;
mso-level-text:-;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:223.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:12.0pt;
position:relative;
top:0pt;
mso-text-raise:0pt;}
@list l3:level8
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-suffix:none;
mso-level-text:-;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:259.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:12.0pt;
position:relative;
top:0pt;
mso-text-raise:0pt;}
@list l3:level9
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-suffix:none;
mso-level-text:-;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:295.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:12.0pt;
position:relative;
top:0pt;
mso-text-raise:0pt;}
-->
</style><br />
<div class="FreeFormA" style="margin-bottom: 15pt;">
<br /></div>
<style class="WebKit-mso-list-quirks-style">
<!--
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:14.0pt;
mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Calibri;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";}
p.MsoNoSpacing, li.MsoNoSpacing, div.MsoNoSpacing
{mso-style-priority:1;
mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:14.0pt;
mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Calibri;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";}
p.BodyA, li.BodyA, div.BodyA
{mso-style-name:"Body A";
mso-style-update:auto;
mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Helvetica;
mso-fareast-font-family:"ヒラギノ角ゴ Pro W3";
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
color:black;}
p.FreeFormA, li.FreeFormA, div.FreeFormA
{mso-style-name:"Free Form A";
mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-fareast-font-family:"ヒラギノ角ゴ Pro W3";
color:black;}
p.FreeFormB, li.FreeFormB, div.FreeFormB
{mso-style-name:"Free Form B";
mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-fareast-font-family:"ヒラギノ角ゴ Pro W3";
color:black;}
p.Body, li.Body, div.Body
{mso-style-name:Body;
mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Helvetica;
mso-fareast-font-family:"ヒラギノ角ゴ Pro W3";
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
color:black;}
p.FreeForm, li.FreeForm, div.FreeForm
{mso-style-name:"Free Form";
mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Helvetica;
mso-fareast-font-family:"ヒラギノ角ゴ Pro W3";
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
color:black;}
.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
mso-default-props:yes;
font-size:10.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt;
mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;}
@page WordSection1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:.5in .5in .5in .5in;
mso-header-margin:.5in;
mso-footer-margin:.5in;
mso-paper-source:0;}
div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}
/* List Definitions */
@list l0
{mso-list-id:1;
mso-list-type:hybrid;
mso-list-template-ids:1 1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1;}
@list l0:level1
{mso-level-start-at:29;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l0:level2
{mso-level-start-at:0;
mso-level-text:"";
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:0in;}
@list l0:level3
{mso-level-start-at:0;
mso-level-text:"";
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:0in;}
@list l0:level4
{mso-level-start-at:0;
mso-level-text:"";
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:0in;}
@list l0:level5
{mso-level-start-at:0;
mso-level-text:"";
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:0in;}
@list l0:level6
{mso-level-start-at:0;
mso-level-text:"";
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:0in;}
@list l0:level7
{mso-level-start-at:0;
mso-level-text:"";
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:0in;}
@list l0:level8
{mso-level-start-at:0;
mso-level-text:"";
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:0in;}
@list l0:level9
{mso-level-start-at:0;
mso-level-text:"";
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:0in;}
@list l1
{mso-list-id:5;
mso-list-template-ids:-1991317385;}
@list l1:level1
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:-;
mso-level-tab-stop:7.0pt;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:7.0pt;
text-indent:0in;
mso-ansi-font-size:12.0pt;
position:relative;
top:0pt;
mso-text-raise:0pt;}
@list l1:level2
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-suffix:none;
mso-level-text:-;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:43.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:12.0pt;
position:relative;
top:0pt;
mso-text-raise:0pt;}
@list l1:level3
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-suffix:none;
mso-level-text:-;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:79.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:12.0pt;
position:relative;
top:0pt;
mso-text-raise:0pt;}
@list l1:level4
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-suffix:none;
mso-level-text:-;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:115.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:12.0pt;
position:relative;
top:0pt;
mso-text-raise:0pt;}
@list l1:level5
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-suffix:none;
mso-level-text:-;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:151.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:12.0pt;
position:relative;
top:0pt;
mso-text-raise:0pt;}
@list l1:level6
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-suffix:none;
mso-level-text:-;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:187.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:12.0pt;
position:relative;
top:0pt;
mso-text-raise:0pt;}
@list l1:level7
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-suffix:none;
mso-level-text:-;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:223.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:12.0pt;
position:relative;
top:0pt;
mso-text-raise:0pt;}
@list l1:level8
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-suffix:none;
mso-level-text:-;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:259.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:12.0pt;
position:relative;
top:0pt;
mso-text-raise:0pt;}
@list l1:level9
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-suffix:none;
mso-level-text:-;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:295.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:12.0pt;
position:relative;
top:0pt;
mso-text-raise:0pt;}
@list l2
{mso-list-id:9;
mso-list-template-ids:-1991317381;}
@list l2:level1
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:-;
mso-level-tab-stop:7.0pt;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:7.0pt;
text-indent:0in;
mso-ansi-font-size:12.0pt;
position:relative;
top:0pt;
mso-text-raise:0pt;}
@list l2:level2
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-suffix:none;
mso-level-text:-;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:43.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:12.0pt;
position:relative;
top:0pt;
mso-text-raise:0pt;}
@list l2:level3
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-suffix:none;
mso-level-text:-;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:79.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:12.0pt;
position:relative;
top:0pt;
mso-text-raise:0pt;}
@list l2:level4
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-suffix:none;
mso-level-text:-;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:115.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:12.0pt;
position:relative;
top:0pt;
mso-text-raise:0pt;}
@list l2:level5
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-suffix:none;
mso-level-text:-;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:151.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:12.0pt;
position:relative;
top:0pt;
mso-text-raise:0pt;}
@list l2:level6
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-suffix:none;
mso-level-text:-;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:187.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:12.0pt;
position:relative;
top:0pt;
mso-text-raise:0pt;}
@list l2:level7
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-suffix:none;
mso-level-text:-;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:223.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:12.0pt;
position:relative;
top:0pt;
mso-text-raise:0pt;}
@list l2:level8
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-suffix:none;
mso-level-text:-;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:259.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:12.0pt;
position:relative;
top:0pt;
mso-text-raise:0pt;}
@list l2:level9
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-suffix:none;
mso-level-text:-;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:295.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:12.0pt;
position:relative;
top:0pt;
mso-text-raise:0pt;}
@list l3
{mso-list-id:10;
mso-list-template-ids:-1991317380;}
@list l3:level1
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:-;
mso-level-tab-stop:7.0pt;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:7.0pt;
text-indent:0in;
mso-ansi-font-size:12.0pt;
position:relative;
top:0pt;
mso-text-raise:0pt;}
@list l3:level2
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-suffix:none;
mso-level-text:-;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:43.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:12.0pt;
position:relative;
top:0pt;
mso-text-raise:0pt;}
@list l3:level3
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-suffix:none;
mso-level-text:-;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:79.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:12.0pt;
position:relative;
top:0pt;
mso-text-raise:0pt;}
@list l3:level4
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-suffix:none;
mso-level-text:-;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:115.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:12.0pt;
position:relative;
top:0pt;
mso-text-raise:0pt;}
@list l3:level5
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-suffix:none;
mso-level-text:-;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:151.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:12.0pt;
position:relative;
top:0pt;
mso-text-raise:0pt;}
@list l3:level6
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-suffix:none;
mso-level-text:-;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:187.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:12.0pt;
position:relative;
top:0pt;
mso-text-raise:0pt;}
@list l3:level7
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-suffix:none;
mso-level-text:-;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:223.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:12.0pt;
position:relative;
top:0pt;
mso-text-raise:0pt;}
@list l3:level8
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-suffix:none;
mso-level-text:-;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:259.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:12.0pt;
position:relative;
top:0pt;
mso-text-raise:0pt;}
@list l3:level9
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-suffix:none;
mso-level-text:-;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:295.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:12.0pt;
position:relative;
top:0pt;
mso-text-raise:0pt;}
-->
</style><style class="WebKit-mso-list-quirks-style">
<!--
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:14.0pt;
mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Calibri;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";}
p.MsoNoSpacing, li.MsoNoSpacing, div.MsoNoSpacing
{mso-style-priority:1;
mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:14.0pt;
mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Calibri;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";}
p.BodyA, li.BodyA, div.BodyA
{mso-style-name:"Body A";
mso-style-update:auto;
mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Helvetica;
mso-fareast-font-family:"ヒラギノ角ゴ Pro W3";
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
color:black;}
p.FreeFormA, li.FreeFormA, div.FreeFormA
{mso-style-name:"Free Form A";
mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-fareast-font-family:"ヒラギノ角ゴ Pro W3";
color:black;}
p.FreeFormB, li.FreeFormB, div.FreeFormB
{mso-style-name:"Free Form B";
mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-fareast-font-family:"ヒラギノ角ゴ Pro W3";
color:black;}
p.Body, li.Body, div.Body
{mso-style-name:Body;
mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Helvetica;
mso-fareast-font-family:"ヒラギノ角ゴ Pro W3";
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
color:black;}
p.FreeForm, li.FreeForm, div.FreeForm
{mso-style-name:"Free Form";
mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Helvetica;
mso-fareast-font-family:"ヒラギノ角ゴ Pro W3";
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
color:black;}
.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
mso-default-props:yes;
font-size:10.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt;
mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;}
@page WordSection1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:.5in .5in .5in .5in;
mso-header-margin:.5in;
mso-footer-margin:.5in;
mso-paper-source:0;}
div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}
/* List Definitions */
@list l0
{mso-list-id:1;
mso-list-type:hybrid;
mso-list-template-ids:1 1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1;}
@list l0:level1
{mso-level-start-at:29;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l0:level2
{mso-level-start-at:0;
mso-level-text:"";
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:0in;}
@list l0:level3
{mso-level-start-at:0;
mso-level-text:"";
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:0in;}
@list l0:level4
{mso-level-start-at:0;
mso-level-text:"";
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:0in;}
@list l0:level5
{mso-level-start-at:0;
mso-level-text:"";
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:0in;}
@list l0:level6
{mso-level-start-at:0;
mso-level-text:"";
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:0in;}
@list l0:level7
{mso-level-start-at:0;
mso-level-text:"";
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:0in;}
@list l0:level8
{mso-level-start-at:0;
mso-level-text:"";
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:0in;}
@list l0:level9
{mso-level-start-at:0;
mso-level-text:"";
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:0in;}
@list l1
{mso-list-id:5;
mso-list-template-ids:-1991317385;}
@list l1:level1
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:-;
mso-level-tab-stop:7.0pt;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:7.0pt;
text-indent:0in;
mso-ansi-font-size:12.0pt;
position:relative;
top:0pt;
mso-text-raise:0pt;}
@list l1:level2
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-suffix:none;
mso-level-text:-;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:43.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:12.0pt;
position:relative;
top:0pt;
mso-text-raise:0pt;}
@list l1:level3
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-suffix:none;
mso-level-text:-;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:79.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:12.0pt;
position:relative;
top:0pt;
mso-text-raise:0pt;}
@list l1:level4
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-suffix:none;
mso-level-text:-;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:115.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:12.0pt;
position:relative;
top:0pt;
mso-text-raise:0pt;}
@list l1:level5
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-suffix:none;
mso-level-text:-;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:151.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:12.0pt;
position:relative;
top:0pt;
mso-text-raise:0pt;}
@list l1:level6
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-suffix:none;
mso-level-text:-;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:187.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:12.0pt;
position:relative;
top:0pt;
mso-text-raise:0pt;}
@list l1:level7
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-suffix:none;
mso-level-text:-;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:223.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:12.0pt;
position:relative;
top:0pt;
mso-text-raise:0pt;}
@list l1:level8
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-suffix:none;
mso-level-text:-;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:259.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:12.0pt;
position:relative;
top:0pt;
mso-text-raise:0pt;}
@list l1:level9
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-suffix:none;
mso-level-text:-;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:295.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:12.0pt;
position:relative;
top:0pt;
mso-text-raise:0pt;}
@list l2
{mso-list-id:9;
mso-list-template-ids:-1991317381;}
@list l2:level1
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:-;
mso-level-tab-stop:7.0pt;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:7.0pt;
text-indent:0in;
mso-ansi-font-size:12.0pt;
position:relative;
top:0pt;
mso-text-raise:0pt;}
@list l2:level2
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-suffix:none;
mso-level-text:-;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:43.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:12.0pt;
position:relative;
top:0pt;
mso-text-raise:0pt;}
@list l2:level3
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-suffix:none;
mso-level-text:-;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:79.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:12.0pt;
position:relative;
top:0pt;
mso-text-raise:0pt;}
@list l2:level4
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-suffix:none;
mso-level-text:-;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:115.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:12.0pt;
position:relative;
top:0pt;
mso-text-raise:0pt;}
@list l2:level5
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-suffix:none;
mso-level-text:-;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:151.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:12.0pt;
position:relative;
top:0pt;
mso-text-raise:0pt;}
@list l2:level6
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-suffix:none;
mso-level-text:-;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:187.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:12.0pt;
position:relative;
top:0pt;
mso-text-raise:0pt;}
@list l2:level7
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-suffix:none;
mso-level-text:-;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:223.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:12.0pt;
position:relative;
top:0pt;
mso-text-raise:0pt;}
@list l2:level8
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-suffix:none;
mso-level-text:-;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:259.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:12.0pt;
position:relative;
top:0pt;
mso-text-raise:0pt;}
@list l2:level9
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-suffix:none;
mso-level-text:-;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:295.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:12.0pt;
position:relative;
top:0pt;
mso-text-raise:0pt;}
@list l3
{mso-list-id:10;
mso-list-template-ids:-1991317380;}
@list l3:level1
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:-;
mso-level-tab-stop:7.0pt;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:7.0pt;
text-indent:0in;
mso-ansi-font-size:12.0pt;
position:relative;
top:0pt;
mso-text-raise:0pt;}
@list l3:level2
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-suffix:none;
mso-level-text:-;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:43.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:12.0pt;
position:relative;
top:0pt;
mso-text-raise:0pt;}
@list l3:level3
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-suffix:none;
mso-level-text:-;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:79.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:12.0pt;
position:relative;
top:0pt;
mso-text-raise:0pt;}
@list l3:level4
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-suffix:none;
mso-level-text:-;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:115.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:12.0pt;
position:relative;
top:0pt;
mso-text-raise:0pt;}
@list l3:level5
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-suffix:none;
mso-level-text:-;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:151.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:12.0pt;
position:relative;
top:0pt;
mso-text-raise:0pt;}
@list l3:level6
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-suffix:none;
mso-level-text:-;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:187.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:12.0pt;
position:relative;
top:0pt;
mso-text-raise:0pt;}
@list l3:level7
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-suffix:none;
mso-level-text:-;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:223.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:12.0pt;
position:relative;
top:0pt;
mso-text-raise:0pt;}
@list l3:level8
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-suffix:none;
mso-level-text:-;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:259.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:12.0pt;
position:relative;
top:0pt;
mso-text-raise:0pt;}
@list l3:level9
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-suffix:none;
mso-level-text:-;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:0in;
text-indent:295.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:12.0pt;
position:relative;
top:0pt;
mso-text-raise:0pt;}
-->
</style>Jim McGarveyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09559934703130337359noreply@blogger.com1