Of Lions and Lambs

March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb. Lions and lambs are fitting images to consider as we approach Resurrection Sunday in this calendar. Although the Jews wanted their Messiah to come as a lion to destroy their enemies and free their nation, Jesus came as the Lamb of God and sacrificed His life to free all nations from The Enemy. He came then in the power of humility and vulnerability and was led as a sheep to the slaughter. But in the future, He will come in the power of the Lion of Judah with authority to unleash the travails leading to the end of the world as we know it. (Revelation 5) At that time the Lamb will receive glory, and in the new world the lamb and the lion will lie down together in peace with little children playing nearby. (Isaiah 11:6-9)

Back in January, my first grandchild was born. We celebrated his birth for barely one day before a doctor gave us the devastating news that Soren had a congenital heart defect known as Tetralogy of Fallot: he was born with anomalies in his heart that had to be corrected if he was to live. There followed a hasty flight to Mott Children’s Hospital in Ann Arbor, MI, and a week of tests, diagnoses, and plans. The Lord was very gracious to us and allowed Soren to remain stable as these considerations were being made with the end result that in one amazing surgery all of his anomalies were addressed. (He’ll need more surgery, but hopefully not for some years.)

This was medicine at its best – God-gifted doctors, nurses, and technicians, resources and technological development, available, quality health care – medicine focused on saving lives. It stands in stark contrast to the miserly culture of death being preached by Planned Parenthood and the abortion industry. They would have us believe that one life is worth more than another life, that quality trumps viability, that the value of life is relative to its utility. In truth, the value of life, even of one little life – Soren’s little life – is immeasurable in God’s sight, so valuable that He gave His One and Only Son to die in his place.

Like good medicine, pregnancy care centers focus on saving lives, healing hearts torn by abortion, and guiding clients toward healthy life choices. But they do even more by bringing the gospel of eternal life in Christ to those living in the shadow of death.

The last enemy to be destroyed is death. (1 Cor. 15:26) As we celebrate Christ’s resurrection, we’re reminded that death has no power over Him and therefore none over we who are in Him. Some day soon the Lamb of God will return as the Lion of Judah, and we will be with the Lord forever! Encourage one another with these words! (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18)

Sue Ellen Doenier, PCC liaison
Baptists for Life / Partners in Ministry
PO Box 3158
Grand Rapids, MI 49501
616.257.6800 / 800.968.6086
suellen@bfl.org

Access BFL's March-April Prayer Calendar here!

Amazing But True: Miracle Stem Cell Cures

from Breakpoint.org

It sounds like something out of science fiction—or “Ripley’s Believe It Or Not”—but it isn’t.

Britain’s Daily Telegraph reports the story of Russell Turnbull, who tried to break up a fight while riding home on the bus one night. For his pains, Turnbull ended up getting ammonia sprayed into his right eye, which scarred his cornea. Turnbull lost most of his sight in that eye, and suffered pain every time he blinked.

But now Turnbull has had his sight almost completely restored, thanks to a pioneering procedure using stem cells. Adult stem cells.

Dr. Francisco Figueiredo, an eye surgeon at the North East England Stem Cell Institute, performed an operation that involved cutting away a tiny portion of Turnbull’s undamaged eye—complete with stem cells. He then grew the section of the eye to 400 times its size, and stitched it “onto the badly-damaged cornea in place of the damaged membrane,” the Telegraph reported.

Turnbull is thrilled with the results. “The operation was a complete success, and I now have my sight back,” he said. “This really has given me my life back.”

The technique has been used on eight other patients; most have had their vision almost completely restored.

Miracles like this have been repeated many times as researchers bend their attention to the uses of adult stem cells. But because much of the mainstream media refuses to report on them, many Americans remain unaware of them. If people knew how good they were, they’d stop demanding embryonic stem-cell research, which kills human beings at the embryonic stage. And the media knows that. Americans also seem unaware that not a single clinical success has ever resulted from treatments using embryonic stem cells. None!

Tragically, in the U.S., multi-million dollar grants are available for embryo-destructive research, but money is scarce for ethically sound and workable adult stem cell research.

Why isn’t adult stem-cell research receiving the funding it deserves? Josephine Quintavalle, director of Comment on Reproductive Ethics, explains why. What you get from [the adult stem cell] approach is a patient-specific cure. There’s no middleman ... and there’s no drug company that’s going to get rich as a result.”

But, she explains, a lot of pressure for stem-cell research is to find products that sell, as opposed to a treatment that can cure you.

This is a moral obscenity—one that not only the drug companies, but medical researchers, are complicit in. They want to experiment with human embryos simply for the sake of science. And the media constantly labels our efforts against embryonic stem-cell research as backwards and unenlightened.

That’s why you and I have got to get the word out about the miracle cures of adult stem-cell research. This administration is deeply committed to research involving the destruction of human embryos. In his inaugural address, President Obama took a swipe at those who oppose this research on moral grounds when he said, “We’ll restore science to its rightful place.”

Well, if you really mean that, Mr. President, stop funding useless embryo-destructive research, and start funding adult stem-cell research. Not only because it is morally unproblematic, but because it’s the only thing that works. Just ask Russell Turnbull—the British man who once was blind, but now can see.

Broken Promises

from Americans United for Life

Yesterday, President Obama released his health care proposal…with no mention of the Life issue. Remember, the President promised you that “no federal dollars will be used to fund abortions, and federal conscience laws will remain in place.” In a meeting last fall, I told the White House very clearly that unless they include specific legislative language banning the use of federal funds for abortion, they will be establishing taxpayer funding for abortion. The President knows what he needs to do to keep his promise and has done just the opposite.

The Washington Examiner reported yesterday that the President and his staff have met at least four times with Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards, but that the President has not spoken to Congressman Bart Stupak – sponsor of the Stupak Amendment that protected Life in the House of Representatives health care bill – since September 18th, 2009. There is only one conclusion to be drawn; the Obama Administration has been working hand in hand with the pro-abortion lobby.

What You Can Do

We have learned that the President’s proposal is very close to the pro-abortion health care bill passed by the Senate last December. AUL’s legal team has prepared a detailed analysis that includes my original letter to the White House on this issue. KNOW THE FACTS. Click here for AUL’s detailed analysis of the President’s proposal.

This Thursday, February 25th, a select group of leaders from both parties are attending a White House health care summit. Our Washington staff is engaged in outreach to this select group. We’ve put together an action sheet with six specific questions to ask President Obama. URGE OUR LEADERS to ask President Obama these questions by clicking here.

February quarterly newsletter

Our quarterly newsletter, which we print on paper and send through the mail, is also available online at scribd.com. Check it out!

Annual Brist Chiropractic Fundraiser for MWC's Acacia Fund

As the Director of Metro Women’s Center, I appreciate so much the support you have given us, and I look for ways to give back to you. That’s why I like to pass on the stories about babies who have been saved and women who have been helped through MWC-—so you can share in the rewards of this ministry.

Here’s another way that I’m able to give something back to you. Dr. Jeff Brist, a chiropractic and naturopathic physician, is offering Health Scans at no charge for anyone who brings in a donation for MWC during the week of February 22. This is indeed a “circle of giving”: you bring a gift for Metro Women’s Center; MWC provides life-changing material, emotional, and spiritual support for women in crisis pregnancies; and Dr. Brist gives you a Health Scan at no charge!

Dr. Brist was one of the original supporters of our ministry. Through our Acacia’s Heart Fund (named in memory of the Brists’ daughter), MWC provides material assistance to women in crisis pregnancies who are experiencing pressing financial needs.

The Health Scan Dr. Brist is offering is designed to get you started toward a real solution to a health complaint that may have been bothering you for a long time. Dr. Brist screens dozens of organs and body systems and pinpoints the areas that he believes are the highest priority to focus on to restore your health and wellness. He then recommends a completely natural treatment program that will be not just a quick fix but rather a real solution.

If you or a loved one is experiencing a nagging health problem, including fatigue, joint and muscle aches, headaches, digestive problems, skin rashes, difficulty sleeping, dizziness, or tingling in the hands or feet, I suggest you call Dr. Brist’s office to schedule a Health Scan at no charge during the week of February 18. You can find out for yourself whether chiropractic and naturopathic health care can help you, and you can be part of a circle of giving that can have long-term rewards for women in crisis pregnancies.

I wish you God’s greatest blessings in 2010.

P.S. To schedule your Health Scan at no charge in exchange for your gift to MWC, call Dr. Brist’s office at 763-546-9151. Dr. Brist’s office is conveniently located a block west of Highway 169 in Champlin.

"What you can expect if you go to a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic for an abortion" - - this is chilling!

(Note: This could be disturbing for some people--not gory, but disturbing)

A friend of mine shared this video from Planned Parenthood's website about what a woman could expect if she went to a PP clinic for an abortion.

As I watched this presentation, I could not help getting chills, and my stomach was in knots. Then I got angry and thought, She just killed her baby, and they are acting as though everything is “normal”. There is no normal after an abortion. All I could think about was that they have sanitized the process—-they have removed the RED (blood) from the procedure-–everything appears very BEIGE (monotone). They have made the emotions of the process FLAT--the counselors' tones are FLAT, the aftermath is presented as FLAT. They have used slick-tongue marketing to package death and make it FLAT and benign. Reminds me of how Satan talked to Eve, slick-tongued and subtle:

Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?”
Genesis 3:1-3

Their presentation does not address the sounds and the smells and the tears and the anguish of the procedure. They may be correct about the "process" a person goes through, but they left out the part about when you are on the table and the baby is removed and your spirit screams, "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" They are liars! The wisdom of the world about abortion is foolishness. They think they are so righteous, but they are so deceived.

1 Corinthians 3:19
For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their own craftiness”;

2 Corinthians 11:3
But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.

Abortion Mandate is resurfacing - Please take action!

Information from stoptheabortionmandate.com communications:

WASHINGTON, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly is now reporting that the final health care proposal is expected to be released by the White House "as early as Feb 21" -- just three days from today.

Abortion proponents are aggressively assembling a coalition to ram through a health care bill that is fully expected to mandate abortion coverage and government funding of abortion.

With a final version expected out as early as Sunday, it's clear that abortion advocates know they're on the verge of having the votes they need to force this bill through in a way that is filibuster-proof:

"The most likely way forward is for the House to clear the Senate's health care bill (HR 3590) and for the Senate to pass a package of changes to it, using the filibuster-proof budget reconciliation process. That set of changes would incorporate the deals struck with the House, which would then send the new package to the White House. Obama would first sign the original Senate bill, then the 'corrections' package. The last measure signed into law would be the one that dictates the final shape of the overhaul."

You see, the House passed the Stupak language that would save lives and protect taxpayers from funding abortion -- but it was completely stripped from the Senate version.

With intense pressure mounting for the House to just roll over and pass the Senate version, millions of lives are at stake!

President Obama has refused to address the issue of abortion -- and every indication is that he will keep abortion funding as a centerpiece of his proposal.

And with the immense amount of pressure that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid have been applying to pro-life members of their party, we must act NOW!

We've been working around the clock to put together a coalition of like-minded groups, leaders, and activists to press for Stupak language -- that protects innocent human life in the final bill.

*** ACTION ITEM ***

Please contact your members of Congress to tell them: "Do not support any health care reform bill that does not include the Stupak language to block government funding of abortion!"

Here's how to reach them:
http://stoptheabortionmandate.com/representatives
http://stoptheabortionmandate.com/senators

Help us share the beauty of adoption

Few things in life are as satisfying as volunteering your time and talents to support an issue born in your heart. Adoption Option Committee Inc. (AOCI) is a non-partisan nonprofit that affirms and advocates adoption. The organization needs volunteers like you.

In the organization's 27-year history, AOCI's grant program has provided support to more than a thousand Minnesota birth parents. AOCI volunteers have also presented accurate, honest information about adoption to countless schools, organizations, and individuals. Most recently, AOCI developed a scholarship program for birth mothers who are pursuing college educations.

If your life has been touched by the beauty of adoption, the organization has many opportunities for you to help further our mission. We welcome you to read more at aoci.org. Contact us at info@aoci.org or 952-944-0866.

Patrick Henry Hughes

Are you are in need of a great inspirational story?

This video is an fantastic example of true sacrifical love of a parent for a child in action. What an inspiration! His story gave me the opportunity to look into the face of someone who has real courage and joy of life. Watch and be recommitted to the reality that all life is precious.

The pro-choice movement's soft underbelly has been exposed . . .

. . . they are really PRO-ABORTION!

A very interesting letter is posted on Dr. Nadal's blog which is a very outstanding take on all the flap over the Tebow ad. It appears that the enemies of life may have just shot themselves in the foot over this issue. How does the saying go? Why use a cannon when a flyswatter will do? The enemies of life have blown a hole in the side of their house of "choice" and are exposng themselves as the pro-abortionists they really are.

Read the letter here.

Tebow was not the first to speak out for life . . .

In 1989, the American Life League made a video featuring players from the New York Giants 1986 Super Bowl squad. In the presentation the players plead for an end to abortion.

These guys are "GIANTS" on more then one way in opinion--giants for the unborn!

WORLDMag.com: Escalating Opposition

Feminists, Planned Parenthood, and gays put pressure on CBS to drop the Tebows’ Super Bowl ad | by Megan Basham



Pam and Tim Tebow (AP/Photo by Phil Sandlin)

The backlash against Focus on the Family’s upcoming Super Bowl ad in which Pam Tebow describes how she rejected medical advice to have an abortion when she was pregnant with her Heisman Trophy-winning son, Tim, continues to escalate.

Read the rest of the article here.