Breaking through the Abortion Nightmare By Judie Brown

Changing hearts one person at a time. That’s what Abby Johnson, a former Planned Parenthood worker, is trying to do with her new venture. Understanding the fear and pain abortion workers face as they contemplate leaving the known for the unknown, Johnson wanted to find a way to help each and every one. Read today’s commentary for more on what she is currently doing.

The first time I ever heard the name Abby Johnson I was fascinated by the information I received about her. Abby writes on her website, “I once was lost . . . but now I am pro-life. Formerly a Planned Parenthood director, I now work to save lives.”

Abby wrote a book entitled Unplanned about her conversion from the culture of death to the culture of life. Among those honored to write comments about the text, I wrote, “This remarkable book is destined to reshape the culture of death into a culture of love, life, and hope in Christ the Lord . . . it’s a life-changer!”

Abby has made that prediction a bit more likely to come true through her latest venture, a ministry she calls And Then There Were None (ATTWN). This work is dedicated to providing a literal safety net of love and understanding for those who want to leave the abortion industry but are fearful of the experiences they may have once they depart their comfort zone.

Telling her blog followers about her motivation for doing this, Abby writes,

Planned Parenthood is terrified of former abortion workers. They are terrified of their own . . . the defectors. “Traitors,” they call us. We have betrayed women in the worst way, they say. But we know better. We have heard the truth, and we have followed a path that we didn’t even know we had the courage to walk. They call us names because they fear us . . . and they should. We become strong warriors for life. We have seen the ugliest side of this movement of “choice.” And, most of the time, we want to talk. And when we talk, people want to listen. Yes, abortion industry, be scared. Be scared of what we will expose. Be scared of the truth. The truth is what will bring you down.

And now we are on the eve of another step in the process of getting the entire pro-life movement involved in testifying to and helping with the powerful message this new ministry is transmitting. On Monday, June 11, at 8 pm Eastern Standard Time, there will be a live one-time only webcast hosted by Abby Johnson. The purpose of the event is to help those yet unfamiliar with Johnson’s work learn more about her own motivation and the reasons why many more would leave the abortion industry if they knew there was a place to go where they could find acceptance and, ultimately, healing.

We know that what Abby is doing will bear much fruit because we know many who have made the decision to leave the killing fields and work to defend life. One such person was Dr. Bernard N. Nathanson. Speaking with a reporter from Life News about his own conversion, Nathanson also discussed abortionist George Tiller,

My switch to pro-life had nothing to do with religion. . . . Tiller was a church-going man, which doesn’t say a whole lot in this country, but one wonders why he never changed his mind based on the scientific evidence. That is where I changed my mind, based on fetoscopies and ultrasound studies.

Once we had ultrasound in place, we could study the fetus and see it was a member of our community. If you don’t do that, you’re just a creature of political ideology.

And from that clinical determination that abortion was wrong, Nathanson progressed to a complete immersion in the teachings of the Catholic Church, which inspired him to write a book entitled The Hand of God. As reporter Julia Duin of the Washington Times wrote, “He began casting about for a system that provided space for guilt and could assure him ‘that someone died for my sins and my evil two millennia ago.’” Nathanson then went on to say, “The New Testament God was a loving, forgiving, incomparably cossetting figure in whom I would seek, and ultimately find, the forgiveness I have pursued so hopelessly, for so long.”

Every conversion from death to life takes time. But it also takes the understanding and Christ-like compassion of those who are already convinced that life is always and in every case precious. Furthermore, it takes a self-giving attitude and self-giving actions.

We encourage you to learn more about how you can be a witness to the power of love and mercy to those caught up in the culture of death.

Join Abby on June 11 and be inspired!

http://blogs.christianpost.com/american-life-league/breaking-through-the-abortion-nightmare-10287/

Botched abortions bring clinic shutdown (OneNewsNow.com)

Botched abortions bring clinic shutdown (OneNewsNow.com).

Megachurch pastor Creflo Dollar arrested (OneNewsNow.com)

Megachurch pastor Creflo Dollar arrested (OneNewsNow.com).

Proverbial shutdown averted (OneNewsNow.com)

Proverbial shutdown averted (OneNewsNow.com).

My Guns and Loads to Dispatch Zombies Baking on Bath Salts

I love Miami. Many of my conservative buddies can’t figure out why I moved here or why I stay. I remind them quite often that Miami does have its perks:

- The weather during the late fall through early spring is dreamy.

- It’s green and gorgeous all year round as opposed to your brown town.

- Lincoln Road and Ocean Drive are two of the best zoos in the world. You’ll see more freaky critters on those two avenues than you will at the most exotic zoo in Dubai.

- The Atlantic Ocean down here is stunning, and we have first-class beaches.

- We have superlative sport fishing—and I have the pictures to prove it.

- And there’s never a dull moment during any state or national election.

My pals come back at me with stuff like:

- It’s stupid hot down there in the summer.

- It’s expensive to live in SoFla.

- It’s vice-laden.

- The Marlins and the Dolphins suck. Yeah? But what about the Heat?

- Honkies are in the minority. You’d better get used to “se habla español” or you’re “se habla” screwed.

- Miami has the worst traffic known to mankind.

- Hurricanes use Florida as a hacky sack before they fish slap the rest of the 57 states, as Obama calls them.

- And it’s the first place where zombies have manifested in this pre-apocalyptic time period.

Look, I can stomach the heat, hurricanes, congested highways and the perennial pusillanimous Dolphins, but they’ve got a point with the zombies. Zombies … you’ve got to go.

Most folks are now familiar with Miami’s 2012 Memorial Day flesh eater, Rudy Eugene, who, high on bath salts, chewed the face off a 65-year-old homeless dude in broad daylight on the MacArthur Causeway. It took six rounds from an officer to take him down.

Last Saturday (6/2/12) we had another wannabe zombie. During an altercation at a Boston Market, Brandon De Leon told a Miami Dade policeman to “eff off,” violently resisted arrest and threatened to “eat” the cop just before he got tased and muzzled. Toxicology reports showed that the wannabe zombie was tripping on “Cloud 9,” a type of bath salts, plus Xanax and ganja, and his blood-alcohol level was a hefty 0.29.

Y’know, bullet manufacturer Steve Hornady might have developed a zombie product line of cartridges as a goof and a homage to his love for zombie flicks, but given these two twisted crimes he might have stumbled onto something.

Now, before lathered-up critics start laughing at the thought that I think the undead are a legit concern for us mortals to arm ourselves against, let me allay any fears and squelch that notion straight away. I don’t believe zombies are real, okay?

That said, when young adults move from drinking a Bud Light and minding their own business to snorting Calgon and eating human flesh, zombie or not … Houston, we have a problem. Apparently, now we can’t stroll MacArthur Causeway or go to Boston Market for a chicken pot pie with a side of garlicky lemon spinach without some Slingblade trying to eat our face.

Given the supernatural strength and hallucinations this new drug from hell spawns I’m steppin’ it up a notch in what I’m carrying on my person and what I’m loaded with in my house.

For personal defense I think I’ll rock it old school with an S&W 29 .44 Magnum with a 6.5-inch barrel. Not the most concealable, but OMG is she gorgeous when drawn.

My load of choice? Well, I’ve seen over and over what Barnes’ X-Bullets do to animals when hunting in the field, so I think I’ll chamber my S&W with Barnes’ XPB FBs in the 225 gr. option. I doubt the criminal cranking on Bed, Bath & Beyond’s best could take one of these to the vitals and continue to feel invincible. Indeed, they create quite the terminal wound channel; it’s about the size of your fist (FYI zombies).

For home defense I’m going to stick with the ultimate zombie zapper, the 12-gauge pump riot gun stuffed to the hilt with three-inch yummy magnums. Man, oh man. Is this a zombie stopper, or what? I won’t tell you what I intend to do with these sweeties at the house … that’ll be just for me and the zombie dumb enough to cross the sacred threshold of my dwelling.

As for all these various self-defense scenarios my family might encounter, we will practice, practice, practice double tapping center mass at the target range at different angles and in different situations until we become zombie flawless. Yes, practice makes perfect, and I want my kin to get to a place where we don’t care if someone is straight tripping on Herbal Essence’s finest; it will be hard for him to eat our cheek meat with a fist-sized wound channel through his heart and one through his lungs.

In Doug’s world the innocent person should live and the attacking bath salt zombie should die.

Apocalypse Wow!

Doug Giles

Doug Giles is the author of Raising Righteous & Rowdy Girls. Follow him on Twitter @Doug_Giles and on Facebook. You can see and hear Doug’s video blog and talk show at ClashRadio.com.

http://townhall.com/columnists/douggiles/2012/06/10/my_guns_and_loads_to_dispatch_zombies_baking_on_bath_salts/page/full/

IRS Official Warns Pastors to Keep Silent During Elections by ADF Senior Legal Counsel Erik Stanley

The IRS warned pastors attending a faith leader’s summit in Washington D.C. recently not to speak from their pulpits about candidates or elections. As reported by OneNewsNow, IRS official Peter Lorenzetti attended the summit and told pastors that prohibited activities include anything that supports or opposes a candidate for public office. Mr. Lorenzetti’s statements are not surprising or even noteworthy given the fact that IRS officials have been interpreting the Johnson Amendment in this way since its addition to the tax code in 1954. So why should we be concerned about these statements?

Well, for starters, Mr. Lorenzetti’s statements follow a long pattern by the IRS of intimidating pastors and churches into silence on the issues surrounding candidates and elections. The Johnson Amendment operates as a direct restriction on the speech of pastors and churches. There is no denying this fact. And there is no denying the fact that the Johnson Amendment is unconstitutional. It is never permissible to allow a government agency the power to punish a church for something its pastor says from the pulpit. Where did America’s churches ever get the idea that it was okay to invite IRS officials into the process of sermon preparation and allow them to wield the power of censorship over what your pastor says from the pulpit? Such a regime is not okay, and indeed, it is unconstitutional.

That’s why ADF started Pulpit Freedom Sunday in 2008 – to restore a pastor’s right to speak freely from the pulpit and to remove the pen of censorship from the hand of government officials. Because we believe that the Constitution protects the right of a pastor to speak freely from the pulpit and that government should hold no sway over a pastor’s sermon preparation or delivery. It is for every pastor and church to decide for themselves what is said from their own pulpit.

Pulpit Freedom Sunday is October 7, 2012. If you are a pastor, please sign up to participate to exercise your constitutional rights on that day together with hundreds of other pastors from across the country. If the IRS wants to continue to enforce the Johnson Amendment against pastors and churches, then it will continue to take a sustained and united effort to remind the IRS of the constitutional rights of pastors and churches. If you are not a pastor, please send every pastor you know to www.pulpitfreedom.org to learn more and to sign up to participate on October 7, 2012.

http://blogs.christianpost.com/liberty/irs-official-warns-pastors-to-keep-silent-during-elections-10289/

Bold Love

Bold Love.

Now Appearing . . . Jesus!

“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:14

If I were God—and I know a lot of people including my wife who are deeply grateful that I’m not—I might very well have planned a stealth arrival to our planet to keep people guessing about who I really was.

Think of how cool it would have been for God to be here and for no one to know it was actually Him. With the old sunglasses, fake nose, and moustache trick, He could sneak into a lot of places without being noticed. The advantage of being able to check up on religious folk to see what they were really like when they thought He wasn’t looking is almost too tantalizing of an option to refuse! He could do the Santa routine: making a list and checking it twice. And to most people that would make a lot of sense since masses of us assume that God considers it great sport to spend his time finding out who’s naughty and nice. Then, after getting the scoop, He could quietly disappear and plan His sting operation against our wayward ways.

But you’ve got to give God a lot of credit. He resisted the temptation and arrived on our planet in the person of an unshrouded and wide-open Jesus. And most surprisingly, He didn’t come to find out who is naughty and nice. He already knows that. Instead, He came to shock us about God. To prove once and for all that God was not a stingy-hand-wringing-grimacing-out-of-touch-with-reality God who can’t wait to pull the trigger. But rather a God who generously disperses the rare items of grace and mercy to all who have at one time or another slipped up. And that’s all of us! A God whose love was not the mushy kind but tough enough to risk a life-threatening rescue mission so that all of us might recover and experience the ultimate satisfaction that He promises—guaranteed!

And, it must be admitted, masses in our day have found the real Jesus to be anything but elusive. In fact, they have found Him to be compellingly available. And, for the suspicious among us, it is not just the feeble and weak who flee to Him for rest and comfort (though He gladly grants rest and comfort to those who find themselves shoved to the bottom of the heap). Many highly placed, intelligent, prosperous, and privileged people have found—in the midst of their abundance and instant access to thrills and stuff—that they are still hanging out the vacancy sign on the door of their hearts. It is these people who are finding that Jesus does exactly what He says He will: cancel the smoke-and-mirrors show and fill the hollow recesses of life with hope, purpose, and the pursuit of all that is truly significant!

So, here’s the good news. If you embrace the real Jesus, you will find Him to be deeply rewarding and wonderfully different. Wonderfully different from anyone you have ever known. Wonderfully full of grace and truth!

YOUR JOURNEY…

• Have you embraced the reality of Jesus and his ways in your life, or is He just another religious icon in your life?
• What do you find wonderfully different about Jesus? Do people around you find that in your life as well?
• What do you find wonderfully rewarding about Jesus? Have you rewarded others with that through your life?
• Make a plan. Be the wonderfully different and rewarding Jesus to someone in your world today!

http://getmorestrength.org/daily/now-appearing-jesus/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+GetMoreStrength+%28Strength+For+The+Journey%29

And After That What’s Next To Do?

. . . seek, and you will find . . . —Luke 11:9

Seek if you have not found. “You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss . . .” (James 4:3). If you ask for things from life instead of from God, “you ask amiss”; that is, you ask out of your desire for self-fulfillment. The more you fulfill yourself the less you will seek God. “. . . seek, and you will find . . . .” Get to work— narrow your focus and interests to this one thing. Have you ever sought God with your whole heart, or have you simply given Him a feeble cry after some emotionally painful experience? “. . . seek, [focus,] and you will find . . . .”

“Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters. . .” (Isaiah 55:1). Are you thirsty, or complacent and indifferent— so satisfied with your own experience that you want nothing more of God? Experience is a doorway, not a final goal. Beware of building your faith on experience, or your life will not ring true and will only sound the note of a critical spirit. Remember that you can never give another person what you have found, but you can cause him to have a desire for it.

“. . . knock, and it will be opened to you” (Luke 11:9). “Draw near to God . . .” (James 4:8). Knock— the door is closed, and your heartbeat races as you knock. “Cleanse your hands . . .” (James 4:8). Knock a bit louder— you begin to find that you are dirty. “. . . purify your hearts . . .” (James 4:8). It is becoming even more personal— you are desperate and serious now— you will do anything. “Lament . . . ” (James 4:9). Have you ever lamented, expressing your sorrow before God for the condition of your inner life? There is no thread of self-pity left, only the heart-rending difficulty and amazement which comes from seeing what kind of person you really are. “Humble yourselves . . . ” (James 4:10). It is a humbling experience to knock at God’s door— you have to knock with the crucified thief. “. . . to him who knocks it will be opened” (Luke 11:10).

http://utmost.org/and-after-that-what%E2%80%99s-next-to-do/

He doth execute the judgment of the fatherless and widow. Deu 10:18

In the gate of the Eastern town, at early morn, the judge sits, and any suppliant has a right to appeal to him. The word Porte, or Gate, as applied to the Turkish Government, alludes to this. So to the thought of the inspired writers, behind the flimsy vail of sense, God sat within the shadow, “keeping watch upon His own,” waiting to answer every plea, and to avenge the innocent and oppressed against high-handed wrong.

Individuals may appeal to that tribunal. – David, Jeremiah, and other sufferers, lodged their complaints there. Their cry was not for revenge, but for avengement. There is a great difference between the two. The one is vindictive and retaliatory; the other is magisterial and passionless.

Whenever an affront or wrong is inflicted on thee, avoid vindicating, or answering for thyself. Be still toward man, unless it be to induce thy brother to repent; but turn instantly to thy righteous Judge, asking Him to right the wrong and vindicate the right. He shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday. When Christians go to law, and seek to maintain their cause against wrongdoing, they miss this. The weaker you are, the more certainly will the Lord judge for you.

The Church may appeal. – Our Lord depicted her as a widow pleading to be avenged of her adversary. Her martyrs cry from under the altar, “How long, O Master, holy and true? Dost Thou not judge and avenge our blood?” To us the delay is long; but we know that He has no complicity with evil, and that He is faithful. Give us the white robe, that we may wait!

http://devotionals.ochristian.com/f-b-meyer-devotional.shtml