ASSEMBLIES OF GOD
Is There not a Cause?
by Sheila Harper
These words rang across a bloody battlefield as the evil side taunted and the righteous side trembled. David, the least likely among them — and not even a warrior — asked this question and reminded the Israelite soldiers why they were fighting.
Sometimes circumstances are giants in our eyes. We get intimidated, much like Israel’s fighting force in 1 Samuel, and we forget the cause for which we are fighting. At times circumstances make us believe “facts” that are not true.
Israel’s once brave warriors saw this giant and believed they could not stop him. He was too big, had too many giants behind him, and had goaded them for so long they started believing what Goliath was saying.
The truth was, all this battle needed was one brave young man to step forward realizing God only wanted a willing vessel to show himself strong. The rest is history. After David killed Goliath, the story continues in 1 Samuel 17:52, with a sentence that always makes me sit up taller and my heart beat a little faster: “Then the men of Israel and Judah gave a great shout of triumph and rushed after the Philistines” (NLT2).
Billy Graham said, “Courage is contagious. When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others are often stiffened.” How true is this in the battles we fight? Sometimes someone needs to take that first step so others will follow.
One great battle we now wage is for the lives of our unborn children. January 2013 marks the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade3 that legalized abortion. Forty years. Many reading this article have never known a world without abortion; but I am here to tell you we can see this horror end.
If people repeat a lie enough times we start to believe it as truth. Let me dispel two lies the pro-abortion side has told us that we, as a society, have believed and have put into practice. I believed these lies to justify my own abortion in 1985. The years following included terrible drug and alcohol abuse and a failed suicide attempt. But it was a simple Bible study, much like the one SaveOne now offers, that helped me find my way back to Christ, my ultimate Healer. I am now a walking billboard for God’s grace over my sin, and I want others to know the availability of this same healing.
The first lie was “abortion was a woman’s right to choose.” The proabortion side of this cause was ingenious in making this choice about the woman. This left the weaker sex alone and susceptible and took men out of the equation and stripped them of decency, respect, or rights concerning the lives of their children. At this moment not one law exists that protects a man’s right to his child. Abandoning these men is gross negligence with an obvious agenda to promote abortion and to prey on the vulnerable. Countless men have come through our offices with a common thread in their tear-stained speech, “I didn’t feel like I could say anything.” Abortion is a woman’s issue, a man’s issue, as well as a family crisis. We have to include both the man and the woman equally in the healing process to help make our families whole again.
The second lie was “abortion was a political issue.” Scripture clearly tells us God’s heart when it comes to innocent human life. God’s Word tells us how precious human life is (Psalms 22; 51; 139). Deuteronomy 30 tells us to choose life so we may live. John 10:10 is the dividing line. We can filter everything we do through this verse: “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” (NKJV). Abortion steals, kills, and destroys life; therefore, it comes from the enemy. The church has a clear directive in God’s Word to fight the enemy.
Believing abortion was a political issue closed the mouths of some of the most powerful men and women on earth … our pastors. What other platform gives a truth-telling, Scripture-quoting person a captive audience at least once a week? Think. To take the enemy’s most powerful issue, abortion, out of the hands of the church was brilliant. Pro-abortionists made us believe we could not talk about abortion from our pulpits — that standing for life would cause too many controversies in our congregations — and they made us believe we would get in trouble regarding our not-for-profit statuses if we tackled this issue. Allowing politicians to deal with this issue pretty much guaranteed nothing would ever be done about it. And 40 years later here we are. Legalized child-killing has grown to be a multimillion dollar business;4 yours and my tax dollars every day go to fund this monstrosity;5 and 54 million children are dead … on our watches.6
These circumstances seem like a giant too large to face, and a giant we certainly would not want to fight. Remember, all it took to kill Goliath was one brave young man. I believe we can kill this giant in our country by helping those who have already chosen abortion. Then we will build an army of men and women who become the same walking billboards able to tell the truth, from personal experience — of what abortion truly does to a person and family. No one can argue with personal experience. That is why the Book of Revelation says we overcome the enemy by the word of our testimony. We are doing this every day through SaveOne offered at churches across our country.
When the church takes this issue back, we shed the stereotype that Christians are critical, judgmental people. Your church becomes known as a place where people can turn for help, even in these tough situations. You create a culture of healthy, whole people who go daily into their communities, families, and workplaces as able-bodied truth-tellers. You help those who have suffered for years in silence find help and become loyal congregants who are thankful they had a place to turn. You educate those in your church who are proabortion to see another side of this debate and possibly change their mindset. You create a place for a young man or woman to turn if they are caught in an unplanned pregnancy, encouraging their choices to become healthy choices, not choices made in secrecy and shame. Abortion recovery is truly the greatest way to save unborn babies.
Through your actions, pastor, you create a nation of believers who are healed from this choice and who will never choose abortion again. And through your actions we will see abortion become unthinkable before it becomes illegal. We do not have to hope every 4 years that finally an administration gets elected who will do the right thing. We can do the right thing now. It starts by speaking about abortion from our pulpits and offering abortion recovery through every church in every city and state across our nation.
It is time to take this issue back and place it where it belongs — in the church. We are the only entity able to care for the 54 million women and 54 million men in America who have personally experienced this choice. If we raise this army to be vocal truth-tellers, think of the difference we can make. We can sound an alarm that will ring true around the world. We can affect nations such as China and Russia who are the only two nations that have higher abortion rates than the U.S.7
David’s brothers told him that he could not kill Goliath. But David never wavered in his belief that he could. For David knew he was not the one actually killing Goliath. The God of heaven’s army had his back and would win the war for him. So what if we make some people angry and cause a little controversy in our churches? Just as David did, we have an audience of One to make happy and protecting human life is certainly something that makes God’s face shine upon us. It is time the most powerful men and women in our nation take this issue back and change the course of history for the most innocent among us.
David did not spend months praying about killing Goliath; he did not ask opinions about killing Goliath; he did not ponder if he had time to kill Goliath; he did not wonder if it was in the budget to kill Goliath. No. Scripture says, “He ran to battle.” That is faith. Let our children and grandchildren remember us as those running to battle, not allowing this travesty to happen on our watches any longer. Be men and women of faith who rise, shout, and welcome every broken man and woman to our churches and watch God’s healing power restore and transform marriages and families.
We can build this army of truth-tellers by offering abortion recovery and never forgetting David’s words, “Is there not a cause?”
Sheila Harper, founder/president, SaveOne, Hendersonville, Tennessee
Notes
1. Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
2. Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
3. “Roe v. Wade. APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS.” Found at: http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/historics/USSC_CR_0410_0113_ZS.html. Accessed 16 October 2012.
4. “Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc. Consolidated Financial Statements and Supplementary Information.” This is the latest annual P/L statement from America’s largest abortion provider. Found at: http://www.plannedparenthood.org/images/PPFA_final_fy_2011.pdf. Accessed 16 October 2012.
5. Michelle Malkin, “Planned Parenthood’s Obscene Profits.” Found at: http://michellemalkin.com/2008/06/04/planned-parenthoods-obscene-profits. Accessed 16 October 2012.
6. “U.S. Abortion Statistics by Year (1973-Current)” Christian Life Resources. Found at: http://www.christianliferesources.com/article/u-s-abortion-statistics-by-year-1973-current-1042. Accessed 16 October 2012.
7. David Batty, “13 million abortions carried out every year in China, newspaper reveals” The Guardian. Found at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jul/30/china-abortion-statistics. Accessed 16 October 2012
“Russia: World’s Highest Rate of Abortion” Daily News. Found at: http://www.iol.co.za/dailynews/lifestyle/russia-world-s-highest-rate-of-abortions-1.1176756#.UH23cuXEQ7s. Accessed 16 October 2012.