Pro-Life or Pro-Choice?

I recently was a part of an online discussion about abortion. I felt limited in how I could respond because it was not my blog and I didn’t feel it my place to fill up someone else’s space. However, after posting my comments I felt as though I had not expressed all or how I wanted to in that space at that time. So, I thought I would use this forum to complete my feelings concerning this very divisive issue.

First of all I want to state my opposition to abortion. I believe that it goes against the teachings of God and is a sin. Where it stacks up among other sins I do not know, but I base my feelings on the following passage from scripture:

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; Before
you were born I sanctified you;
Jeremiah 1:5

With that said, I believe that everyone has choices in this world and it is not for me to make those choices for others. I believe that when we stand before the judgment seat of Christ there will be no witnesses called. God will not ask me what I thought about your decisions; it will be each one of us alone before God. We all must search our own hearts in making decisions and there are few if any decisions that are as overwhelming for many women as the decision to have an abortion. It is a decision that has plagued many women for the rest of their lives. Even those who have gone on to have successful full term pregnancies afterwards are haunted by that faithful decision. I am not here to cast stones at anyone, for I am no one to judge another. My only hope and desire is that those in this position will find the support, love, and the wisdom to make the right decision.

I have lost two babies to abortions in my life that I know about. In each case it was a heart wrenching experience for my partners at the time and myself. In each situation I protested vehemently against having the abortion, but again each of us is responsible for our own decisions. The issue that I don’t think most women understand is how the abortion affects a lot of men. Of course for the most part unfortunately it is the man promoting the abortion for various selfish reasons, but there are many of us who deeply feel the lost of our unborn. Of course in both cases there were plenty of reasons for having the procedures; we’re too young, we aren’t established, we’re not ready, my career, and etc. It is in my nature to see both sides of an argument and it makes a lot of my decisions real torment; I go back and forth. Being the man of course limited my being able to offer anything more than an opinion, which was torture in itself. I would be reduced to a mere spectator in the decision on whether to keep my unborn child. Women, if you don’t know that was one of the most powerful feelings of powerlessness I have ever had. It was so difficult to be supportive and yet have feelings of anger, frustration, and fear.

Because of my beliefs, it was more than just the life of my unborn child that troubled my spirit. It was also the soul of my partner that caused me great alarm; I worried for their eternal life. It is amazing to me how we waxed so poetically about our love for one another, yet many of us care absolutely nothing about the eternal destination of our partners. If I truly love someone shouldn’t I want to protect their eternal life as much as I want to protect their physical life? If I could avoid placing them in positions that could jeopardize their souls by controlling my selfish desires, shouldn’t I want to do it? Do I love that person more than I love myself? I think so many of us err in our choices for partners because we don’t do the homework, we don’t ask the right the questions. Some don’t ask the right questions because they don’t want to hear the answer they are going to receive.

The women in each of these cases were “good” women. They were loving, kind, and considerate. They both in my opinion would have made excellent mothers. I don’t think that either took their responsibilities lightly or the dreadful decision that they would have to make. In each case the process of deciding was torment for both of us. It took us to the brink of terminating our relationship and back again. In each case the relationship was never repaired to its previous state. In both cases I lost not only the unborn, but my partners as well. In each case the lost was devastating.

The point I want to stress is that today I realize if we had remained in the state that God had intended for us, these decisions would not have been necessary to make. The attending loss of trust and intimacy would have not been necessary. There are those who will say, “Or you could have used a condom, but that is really not the answer. This is not the answer for me because it is merely treating the symptom and not the underlying cause. I know today that God’s plan is the best plan for my life; He gives me instructions not to punish me but to protect me. I can never articulate the pain and anguish that my partners and I suffered during these times, nor do I believe that any single mothers can articulate the struggle of her life trying to raise children alone. I know that raising children with two parents is a herculean endeavor. I see the hardship daily in the lives of all the single mothers I encounter. I have never met a woman yet who did not continue to be haunted by their decision years later to have an abortion. If we want to avoid the results, we must avoid the cause. We must remain pure at all costs.

To those who have had to struggle and make that dreadful decision my heart goes out to you, because I too am bruised and hurt. I want you to know that there is no condemnation at the cross, there is forgiveness and reconciliation. Come to the “Healer” and be healed, there is no sin so bad that it will not be forgiven. I first must ask for that forgiveness.

Chapter 9, Part 11

Live In The Spirit

“Then I will give them one heart and I will put a new
spirit within them and take the stony heart out of
their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh.”
Ezekiel 11:19

God says in order to serve Him we will need a new heart and a new spirit. Our old heart has been turned to stone by our own sinfulness and the cruelty of the world, as well as our spirits. Our old spirits are incapable of following and worshiping God. They are corrupted by our sinful nature inherited from Adam. They do not seek the things of God, but the things of the world. That old spirit can never lead us to God it leads us to sin. The Scriptures say we must test all spirits, for not all spirits are of God.[1] There are many evil and false spirits in the world, sent out to mislead us away from God. Therefore, before we begin to live in the spirit we must make sure the spirit we are living in is the Spirit of God.

So how do we know what spirit is leading us? Or how do we test the spirits? The Word says, “by this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God.” Therefore, any spirit that preaches the Word incarnate is of God and any spirit that preaches the world is of the world. Many Christians are being led astray by the enemy using the spirit of the world. They preach the riches of this world over the righteousness of God. You can witness this in the fact that many believe that the ends justifies the means. If a false testimony or witness brings in converts then it is acceptable. Not that they would condone dishonesty per se; but if it furthers the call it is ok. They would rather blame those who expose such false testimony than to rebuke the ones who have given this false testimony. When we become truly born again how we do things becomes as important, if not more important as what we do. They have their “sacred cows”, they ignore the sin and focus on the messenger. Forget the fact some sin has occurred, for them the ends justifies the means. In the Kingdom of God, the means is the end. Our Lord taught us it is not what you do, it is how and why you do it.[2] He never used dishonesty to further His teachings why should we?

“I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall
not fulfill the lust of the flesh.”
Galatians 5:16

The apostle Paul says the way to overcome the sins of the flesh is to live in the Spirit. How do we live in the Spirit? First, we have to have the Spirit. We receive the Spirit when we surrender our lives to God. When we confess the Lord with our mouths and believe in our hearts He was raised from the dead we shall be saved.[3] At that time we are given the baptism of the Holy Spirit.[4][5] Therefore, faith is the key to our unleashing His power. I walk in the Spirit by faith. I no longer rely on my logic, on the wisdom of the world, or on what the people on television say. I put my faith in the Living God and Him only. I seek Him in all my decision-making. This has been what God has desired from the beginning, if Adam and Eve had sought direction from the Father, we would probably not be here today. Nevertheless, they relied on their own thinking and we see how that worked out. We should allow that Spirit to Guide us. If we do He will lead us into all righteousness and away from sin. With all the people that have been baptized why, is the fornication epidemic still raging? The key to “walking” in the Sprit is faith; we have no power because we have no faith. The Lord said, “if you have the faith the size of a mustard seed, you can move mountains.

“The Spirit Himself bears witness with our
spirit that we are children of God”
Romans 8:16

God’s Spirit will touch our spirit and let us know that we are His. God sends out His Spirit for the purpose of guiding us. It is called the “Spirit of truth”.[6] He is to lead us into the truth. The truth is that we are the children of God, we are royalty. We are given the power to overcome the world and the sins of this world, even fornication. Let the Spirit of God transform you from a child of darkness into a child of light. Living in the Spirit is not something we do overnight. It is a matter of changing not only how we think and believe, but how we live. We are no longer to live for ourselves but for the Father. Our personal selfish desires no longer rule over us. We are no longer slaves to our passions and foolish pleasures but slaves to righteousness.[7] The Spirit, if allowed will compel us to follow righteousness. Throughout the scriptures the Spirit is spoken of as compelling whom God chooses to righteousness. It will compel us if we get out of the way and surrender to the Spirit of God. The Word says we are children of light, we need to walk as such.[8]

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[1] 1 John 4:1

[2] Matthew 6:16

[3] Romans 10:9

[4] Acts 1:5

[5] Matthew 17:21

[6] John 15:26

[7] Romans 6:18

[8] Ephesians 5:8

Chapter 7 Part 4

“Fathers shall not be put to death for their children,
nor shall children be put to death for their fathers,
a person shall be put to death for his own sin.”
Deuteronomy 24:16

Sons of anger, you will be responsible for your own consequences. While God knows that you have gotten a bad start, He still requires you to acknowledge and obey Him. There is a lot of rebelliousness in your hearts, you feel like the whole world is wrong. The trials and tribulations of this world again are not to punish you but to draw you closer to God.[1] The real sin is not that we do not believe that God can change us, it is that we know He can and choose not to allow Him to. That we choose to stay enmeshed in our sinfulness. We prefer the filth of this world to the purification of God. With rebelliousness comes false pride. Our lives are a mess, but we are doing fine. We refuse to acknowledge that we need help. We refuse to say that life sometimes is too much to bear. As boys, we are not allowed to express fear, or sadness, or even to cry. The only emotions many of us are allowed to express is anger and aggression. I can not cry, but I can kick somebody’s butt. We are taught to not let anyone hit us, we must always fight back. For many of us as adults all of our emotions can be summed up into anger. When we are in pain, or fear, or we are sad, we lash out in anger. Anger has always been an acceptable emotion. This unchecked anger is fueling the epidemic of violence we as a community are now facing. Hurt people, hurt people. When we hurt, somebody has to pay. Give that anger and pain to God, we as a people have suffered enough. You not only hurt others, but you damage yourself as well.

For many of us our lives are being led by false pride. False pride says we do not need help from anyone. Many of your lives are full of disappointments, yet you refuse to seek help. We continue to suffer, yet the One who can relieve our suffering, we refuse to call on. Unfortunately, many of us stay in pain far longer than we have to. There have been times in my life when I have had pain and I have known the remedy to stop it and have chosen to stay in the pain. I wish I could say that I immediately seek a remedy for the pain, but sometimes I do not. Our pride becomes our idol, we worship our ourselves. We worship our own intellect we become wiser than God. We think that our “street smarts” will overcome the world. All we have to do is to look at our past histories to see the foolishness of this plan. All of our plans have only brought pain and suffering for our loved ones and ourselves.

“He who trusts in his own heart is a fool,
but whoever walks wisely will be delivered.”
Proverbs 28:26

We must transfer that trust from ourselves to Christ Jesus. Christ Jesus said, “Who among you can add one inch to your height by worrying?”[2] Therefore if none of us can do the least thing, how can we expect to do the difficult task of fixing our lives. It will only be by submitting to God that change will take place. How can God who has the power to raise the dead, not have the power to change us? Does He not have the power to stop us from sinning? It is not that God can not change us, it is that we will not allow Him to. Then the question that each one of us must ask and ultimately answer is, “Why will I not allow God to change me?” Why do we continue to live this way? This will be one of the most important questions we will ever ask ourselves and answer. The answer will hold the key to the rest of your young lives and your eternity as well. The Lord, your God does not require our belief to be God. We should understand God does not need us we need God! The Bible tells us we must trust in God with all of our hearts and not lean on our own understanding or ourselves.[3] This is very difficult for us because we know and trust that “old man”. Let’s face it he shares all of our secrets, all our good times, and all our hurts and pains. We have been with him through thick and thin. And now just because I say so you are suppose to just trust in God who you can not see. I know it sounds crazy, but it is your only hope. If there were another way I would tell you, but all I know is Christ and Him crucified for you and me.

All I ask is for now is that you take fifteen minutes a day out for God. Take fifteen minutes to read His Word and to pray. I guarantee it will change your life. That still leaves you with twenty-three hours and forty-five minutes to yourself. I know with all your "busy schedules" it will be difficult, but you and your family are worth fifteen minutes. Just consider all that God has done for you. If you love your children are you passing along the life that you want them to live? I have a young daughter and if I had continued to live the life-style I was living, I might as well have given her the addiction I had right then. Is this what you want for your children, your cousins, or your nieces and nephews? Read a chapter of the Bible a day; remember if you do not like the change in your life you can always go back to your old life. How are things going right now in your life? What do you have to lose?

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[1] Romans 5:3

[2] Luke 12:25

[3] Proverbs 3:5

Chapter 5, Part 3

“For when they speak great swelling words of emptiness, they allure
through the lusts of the flesh, through lewdness, the ones who
have actually escaped from those who live in error.”
2 Peter 2:18

Many men are like wolves in sheep’s clothing. They approach with words of endearment that have no meaning. They are empty promises designed to destroy and not to encourage. They play on the desire to be wanted by all humans. They attack a woman’s vanity and use it against her. They deliberately mislead and connive the unsuspecting women into a false sense of security and hope. Only to pull the curtain down when they have achieved their goals. They use any and every method at their disposal to overcome the obstacles to their desired end. That end of course being their own selfish pleasure. The Bible says those being attacked are newly removed from sinful pasts. The same women who are being misled are the same sisters standing up in church during the altar calls professing the lordship of Christ Jesus. That lordship should begin to be realized in a person’s life, in how we live. How long do you think the shepherd will allow His sheep to be treated this way? Remember they are still technically under authority, many men are not. Eventually, the good and faithful shepherd will come to the aid of His fallen sheep. Woe to those wolves who are found to have been misleading His flock.

Many brothers have gravely erred in their conduct and thoughts. They have mistaken God’s patience for indifference, His kindness for weakness. Do not be fooled, God at His appointed time will unleash His wrath upon those who are disobedient. We must discontinue this utter lack of respect for God and His Word. We should repent as a people beginning with us, the men. We cannot continue to deny the authority of God and bring accusations against Him. This false pride must cease. This attitude of being bulletproof, it may work on the streets, but it does not carry with God. How much longer will we continue not to see the futility of our actions? Our lives are continuing to get worse. Our children and our family’s lives are getting worse. There is still time to step back from the abyss. We are on the path to destruction. All we like sheep have gone astray.[1]

“and especially those who walk according to the flesh in the lust of
uncleanness and despise authority. They are presumptuous, self-willed.
They are not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries,
whereas angels, who are greater in power and might, do not bring a
reviling accusation against them before the LORD.
but these like natural brute beasts made to be caught and
destroyed, speak evil of the things they do not understand, and will
utterly perish in their own corruption,
and will receive the wages of unrighteousness, as those who
count pleasure to carouse in the daytime. They are spots and
blemishes, carousing in their deceptions while they feast with you.
having eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease from sin,
enticing unstable souls and are accursed children.”
2 Peter 2:10-14

It is amazing to me how this was written two thousand years ago and yet it captures what is happening in our communities. We have turned fleshly pleasure and desire into a god that we are sacrificing our souls to. However, we are not just sacrificing our souls, but the children’s souls as well. Our hearts are “trained” in sinfulness, not in righteousness. Our only faith is in ourselves and whatever paltry pleasure we can derive at the expense of others. The problem with sexual sin is that it keeps taking more and more to get us excited. The more women we are with the more women we lust after. We have debased our women and perverted ourselves.

The future for us in this condition is not a pleasant one to look forward to. Our communities will continue to deteriorate. Our children will continue to be cut down by each other or the police. There will be a growing chasm of dissension between us as a people. There will be no unity amongst us. We as a people will continue to be disrespected and scorned. New plagues of drugs and crimes will come upon us. Parents will stop caring for their children. Our hearts will begin to wax cold towards one another. Children will lose their love and respect for their parents. Our best and brightest young people will fall prey to destruction. Fornication and sinfulness will rule our lives and our hearts. Unless the Lord was to have mercy, it would be our destruction. The Lord will keep a remnant for himself, a humble and faithful people who will love and obey Him.

These things are to wake us up to our deliberate sinfulness before God, to cause us to repent and forsake this terrible sin. How can we not see the damage this epidemic has and is causing to our people? It all begins with the men, there has to be a revival, as we have never seen. As a people, our biggest enemy is our attitude towards fornication and sexual sin. It cannot be ignored any longer. We as a people need to take action or it will destroy us. The time is at hand for every man to seek God while He may be found.[2] God has shown us the problem, are we willing to do the solution? Are we even willing to acknowledge that there is a problem? For our sakes, I hope so. In order to begin to solve a problem, we must acknowledge there is a problem.

“But if anyone does not provide for his own, and
especially for those of his household, he has
denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.”
I Timothy 5:18

How can we as “so called” men make babies and not be responsible for them. No other creature on the face of the earth does that. How can you not provide for what is yours? These are not some orphans in a far off country; these children are our flesh and blood. How can you enjoy anything knowing that you have children suffering somewhere? Fornication is one of the most selfish and self-centered of all sins. All that matters is my gratification, my pleasure. It is interesting that when women get a man who has children from a previous relationship that he is not supporting, they have children by this same man. News flash, if a man has deserted his children from a previous relationship, he is going to desert the ones he has with you! These women will not only have children from this man, but will also defend this man against the women he has already deserted. Of course, in the end they find out what the other woman already knew and tried to tell her. This is not about “hating” on other men, it is about loving my people and especially those broken children already here and those yet to come. What self respecting man will not take care of defenseless children or will steal from his flesh and blood? A man is supposed to support and leave an inheritance to his children. We pretend they do not exist and then wonder why they are angry and in pain. We leave them to grow up thinking that their father does not love them. The pain of this is devastating to a child. Men it must and will stop one way or the other.

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[1] Isaiah 53:6

[2] Isaiah 55:6

Chapter 2 Part 4

Finally, there is the humiliation of sin. We talk about our “values” and yet we receive humiliation at home and abroad. We talk about exporting our values, the world doesn’t want them, and we wonder why. What’s wrong with them? They see our hypocrisy. How we lay claim to things that we do not have or believe in. How we attempt to promote our policies at the end of a gun. Sin brings humiliation to the individual, as well as to a nation. We try to hide it, but guilt and humiliation follows every sin. Initially, we cannot look people in the eye because of our sins, but as we continue to practice them there develops a comfort in them. We learn how to ignore the pain and humiliation. The only problem is that they do not go away, they manifest themselves in other areas of our lives. In how we view ourselves and others, from a shame based perspective. As we become more comfortable in our sins, we become more embolden to commit other more serious sins. But there is One who can remove all these epidemics. That One is God, may you come to Him now.

“Since the days of our forefathers to this day we have been very guilty,
and for our iniquities we, our kings and our priests have been
delivered into the hand of the king of the lands, to the sword,
to captivity, to plunder, and to humiliation, as it is this day.”
Ezra 9:7

It is unfathomable to me that the black church for the most part has been silent on this most important issue. It’s like the church has followed the lead of society, instead of leading society. The bible says that we must come out from among the worldly. Jesus said, “We are the salt of the earth, but what good is salt if it has lost its flavor?” It is no longer good for anything. So much of the modern church is about not offending anyone, except we are offending God. It’s getting so you can’t tell the sinners from the saints. It’s like if I were to go hang out in a nightclub drinking and slapping women on the butt saying, “God bless you sister”. Who would take me seriously as a Christian? But this is exactly what we do. And wonder why we don’t have any impact on the world for God. Why our sons and daughters continue to fornicate and have illegitimate children. Where is the leadership of the church? Where is the outcry of the church saints? You know what happens is that anyone that does speak out on this and other spiritual issues gets attacked by the church people, instead of praised. The bible says that, “they loved the praise of men, more that the praise of God.” In an effort to keep the membership rolls and tithes coming in, the church has ignored God’s word. And we as believers go from church to church looking for a brand of religion that will allow us to continue sinning without anyone making us feel uncomfortable. Jesus said following Him would be uncomfortable.

“If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself,
and take up his cross daily and follow me”.
Luke 9:23

So in order to follow our example from God we should deny ourselves and our fleshly desires. We should take up our cross daily, that doesn’t sound comfortable to me. Instead of the black church preaching the kingdom of God, they are preaching the ministry of prosperity. This is in direct opposition to the teachings of Christ. For years, I have been waiting for a groundswell of condemnation of this epidemic of fornication gripping our community. There has been none forthcoming. We continue to turn a blind eye to this issue, not realizing that this issue is the source of so many other problems we face as a community. Rather than look at the true cause of the problem we look at the symptoms. Looking at the true cause of the problem is much more difficult for it requires us to look at ourselves. We cannot continue down this path, for we know what awaits us. It is as if we are all sitting in an airplane that is about to crash and everyone knows it and no one is saying a word. There is no outcry. We are pretending that everything is fine. I am here to tell you it is not all fine, the plane is crashing! The devil wants you to sit there and ignore it, but I can no longer do so. Wake up! Instead of God being your co-pilot, He needs to be your pilot.