Living A Life of
Significance
Not Merely Contentment
3/16/03
WASHINGTON (March 13, 2003) – By a lopsided margin of 64-33, the U.S.
Senate today passed a bill to ban the practice of partial-birth abortion
nationwide. The ban, twice vetoed by President Bill Clinton, is strongly
supported by President George W. Bush. It now goes to the House of Representatives,
which last year approved the ban by a nearly two-to-one margin.
During this week’s debate in the Senate, opponents of the ban argued that the
bill violates two U.S. Supreme Court rulings -- Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling
that legalized abortion on demand, and Stenberg v. Carhart, a 2000 decision in
which five justices held that Roe v. Wade covers even partial-birth abortions.
"President Bush, 70 percent of the public, 64 senators, and four Supreme
Court justices say there is no constitutional right to deliver most of a living
baby and then puncture her head with scissors," said Douglas Johnson,
legislative director for the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC). "But
five Supreme Court justices said that partial-birth abortion is protected by
Roe v. Wade, and 33 senators agreed. We hope that by the time this ban reaches
the Supreme Court, at least five justices will be willing to reject such
extremism in defense of abortion."
The bill (S. 3) legally defines a partial-birth abortion as any abortion in
which the baby is delivered "past the navel . . . outside the body of the
mother" before being killed. It is well documented that partial-birth
abortions are performed by the thousands, mostly on healthy babies of healthy
mothers in the fifth and sixth months of pregnancy, and sometimes even later.
Hillary Clinton was offended
by the use of the word “murder.”
When I watched my son being born I didn’t
witness a fetus coming into the world--but a little boy coming into the world!
The reason this ban was passed in the Senate was because of prayer!
“I have an irrepressible desire to live till I can be assured that the
world is a little better for my having lived in it,” Lincoln wrote as
president.
Living
a life of significance, not merely contentment.
Last Thursday morning a group of men from this church made a difference
in the world. We met for prayer and
interceded for our president, the vice president, the cabinet, congress, the
senate, the supreme court justices and other world concerns!
During that prayer meeting the Lord pierced my heart about
something. The need for global prayer!
If
the people of God across this country would have daily interceded for our
legislators, prayed for God’s people to be in office, prayed for the appointment
of our supreme court justices, legalized abortion would never have
happened!
After 70 years of captivity God was true to His promise and made a way
for His people to come back to their home land. Ezra was a spiritual leader to these people. Listen closely what he instructed them to
do.
Ezra6:8 Moreover, I hereby decree what you
are to do for these elders of the Jews in the construction of this house of
God:
The expenses of these men are to be fully
paid out of the royal treasury, from the revenues of Trans-Euphrates, so that
the work will not stop. 9Whatever is needed—young bulls, rams, male
lambs for burnt offerings to the God of heaven, and wheat, salt, wine and oil,
as requested by the priests in Jerusalem—must be given them daily without fail,
10so that they may offer sacrifices pleasing to the God of heaven and
pray for the well-being of the king and his sons.
God
was always urging His people to pray big.
To pray beyond themselves.
Even when God’s people were in captivity they were told to pray for the
land they were in.
Jer. 29:4 The LORD Almighty, the God of
Israel, sends this message to all the captives he has exiled to Babylon from
Jerusalem: 5“Build homes, and plan to stay. Plant gardens, and eat
the food you produce. 6Marry, and have children. Then find spouses
for them, and have many grandchildren. Multiply! Do not dwindle away! 7And
work for the peace and prosperity of Babylon. Pray to the LORD for that city
where you are held captive, for if Babylon has peace, so will you.”
God
honors specific pray not generic prayer!
I cover what I do in my personal life with
prayer. That’s good. But the Lord wants us to pray specifically
for bigger things beyond our own life.
I don’t believe that the urgency that God is
putting in my own heart for global prayer is something He is doing just with
me.
We need to pray specifically for our
president, vice president, the cabinet, congress, the senate, the supreme court
justices.
Unless something greatly changes, we are
going to war. We need to cover our
troops with prayer, those in key places of leadership with our armed forces.
The
similarities between Abraham Lincoln and George Bush is interesting.
Sometimes it’s hard to make the right decision, especially if it might
not be the popular decision in the eyes of other people. President Lincoln,
however, made decisions based on what was right and what he knew to be true. In
August 1864 he called for five hundred thousand more soldiers. The Union was
depressed as the Confederates had, with a comparatively small force, almost
beaten them. With election time nearing, many thought another call for men
would injure, if not destroy, Lincoln’s chances for reelection. A friend
warned him, and Lincoln replied, “As to my reelection, it matters not. We must
have the men. If I go down, I intend to go, like the Cumberland, with my
colors flying!” If Lincoln had based his decision only on what other people
might think, he would have lost both his reelection campaign and the war.
Instead, he won both.
1 Tim. 2:1 I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people. As you
make your requests, plead for God’s mercy upon them, and give thanks. 2Pray
this way for kings and all others who are in authority, so that we can
live in peace and quietness, in godliness and dignity. 3This is good
and pleases God our Savior, 4for he wants everyone to be saved and to
understand the truth.
Lincoln sensed the prayers of his fellow Americans. They strengthened
him. Frequently when he spoke to citizens in cities across the North, he
thanked people for their prayers. “it is most cheering and encouraging,” he
once observed, “for me to know that in the efforts which I have made and am
making for the restoration of a righteous peace to our country, I am upheld and
sustained by prayers of God’s people.”
1Chr. 5:18 The Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh
had 44,760 men ready for military service—able-bodied men who could handle
shield and sword, who could use a bow, and who were trained for battle. 19They
waged war against the Hagrites, Jetur, Naphish and Nodab. 20They
were helped in fighting them, and God handed the Hagrites and all their allies
over to them, because they cried out to him during the battle. He
answered their prayers, because they trusted in him.
Sending men to their deaths on the battlefield was hard for Lincoln and
his generals. He was reportedly in turmoil at thought of all the widows and
orphans that would result from the war. How did the president bear the thought
of it? “Without the assistance of that Divine Being, I cannot succeed. With
that assistance, I cannot fail.”
President Lincoln looked not only to God but also to God’s people for
help. Lincoln believed America was a chosen people, a people picked by
God to protect the cause of freedom and justice on earth. So when he
needed encouragement, he would go to those people whom God had appointed. “It
is true. . . that very great responsibility rests upon me in the position to
which the votes of the American people have called me... . I turn, then, and
look to the American people, and to that God who has never forsaken them.
God
has His hand on America. To deny that
or not see it is blindness!
Lincoln was unremitting in the task of winning the Civil War. His
doggedness became legendary. “The fight must go on,” he declared. “The cause of
civil liberty must not be surrendered at the end of one or even one hundred
defeats.” It was Lincoln’s persistence that gave the Union the confidence and
persistence to push Robert E. Lee and his generals back. Surrender was no
option for Lincoln, to the point that he was willing to give up his own life.
Lincoln was sure God was on his side. His confidence in the
righteousness of his case was unshakable. What he worried about was whether he
was on God’s side. He worried that his integrity, diligence in prayer, and character
weren’t worthy of God’s holiness. “I am not at all concerned that the Lord is
on the North’s side in the war, for I know the Lord is always on the side of
the right. But it is my constant anxiety and prayer that I and this
nation should be on the Lord’s side,” he said. Lincoln recognized the awesome
responsibility of being used by God, and he feared not living up to the
responsibility.
Yes,
God wants us to pray globally and pray big!
Mat. 6:9 “This, then, is how you should pray:
“‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
10 your kingdom come,
your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
Mat. 9:37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but
the workers are few. 38Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out
workers into his harvest field.”
Ps. 122:6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem:
“May those who love you be secure.
7 May there be peace within your walls
and security within your citadels.”
8 For the sake of my brothers and friends,
I will say, “Peace be within you.”
9 For the sake of the house of the LORD our
God,
I will seek your prosperity.
Jo. 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one
and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal
life. 17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the
world, but to save the world through him.
Lincoln was probably tempted to compromise many times during the Civil
War, to negotiate a deal that would bring an end to the bloodshed. He could
have brought a quick and peaceful resolution to the crisis by just giving in to
some of the demands of the South. But to Lincoln, the eternal cause of freedom
and equality were preeminently more important than temporal peace. “Often a
limb must be amputated to save a life; but a life is never wisely given to save
a limb,” he wrote. Lincoln wouldn’t tolerate anything but a permanent and
lasting solution—freedom and liberty for all.
Pr. 24:10 If you falter in times of trouble,
how small is your strength!
We need to rise to the occasion.
Eph. 6:12 For 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.
We
can make a difference in the world today!
Through our faithful heartfelt intercession in the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ who is the King of kings and Lord of lords!