(great name for a place to visit during 40 Days for
Life, isn't it?)
Tonight I will be speaking at a banquet for a wonderful
pregnancy center that has a strategic location in a
shopping center next door to Planned Parenthood, and
they share a wall with the abortion facility.
As I prayed with the staff next to that wall this
afternoon, I got a deep sense of conviction that
Planned Parenthood's days are numbered.
Then when I checked my e-mail shortly afterward, I
received the THIRD national e-mail sent out by Planned
Parenthood about 40 Days for Life.
Here's an excerpt:
"We're coming to the end of a pretty amazing period at
Planned Parenthood. As you know, in early October, I
started sharing how I and other Planned Parenthood
employees live and work with the picketers outside
our clinics during their 40-day protest. Since my
first blog post, a whole lot has happened.
I've encountered more than 400 protesters, most of
them trying their hardest to make it impossible for
women to access health care.
One hardliner U.S. senator specifically named Planned
Parenthood in an amendment that would have limited
funding for health centers like ours.
A particularly venomous district attorney in Kansas
filed 107 baseless charges -- including more than 20
felony counts -- against Planned Parenthood in court.
An anti-birth control radical was put in charge of
U.S. family planning policy."
Once again, the message goes on to ask for more money
-- since apparently the $305.3 million they took from
American taxpayers last year just wasn't enough.
To me, the most amusing words in that message: "We're
coming to the end..."
After all of the miracles God has accomplished around
the country since September 26, they really think we're
all going to just "go away."
That's OK, we'll let them think that :-)
We won't tell Planned Parenthood that when I was in
Sacramento, California, yesterday, I learned that the
900+ local pro-lifers involved there in the 40 Days for
Life vigil outside Planned Parenthood's newly erected
fence are committed to press on.
To see a short video I filmed of some of the dedicated
volunteers in Sacramento -- including an interview with
81-year-old "Energizer" Bunny Collins who covers the
2 - 4 AM shift everyday, visit:
----> http://40daysforlife.com/blog/?p=42
We also won't tell Planned Parenthood about the flood
of e-mails we're still getting from all over the
country, including these:
"We must continue our prayers, sacrifices and devotion
to the unborn."
"Yes, I believe we should keep the momentum going.
This 40 Days has been great. Much work to do!! All
for the glory of God."
"The only way to win this battle is to not stop, to
not give in or give up. LET'S KEEP GOING UNTIL WE
WIN!"
"During this 40 Days of Prayer and Fasting, the Lord
is inspiring us to continue on. We have momentum and
can 'feel it in the air.'"
"I don't think we should stop. I plan to continue and
urge everyone I know to continue as well. I know that
the only way to overcome hate is with love-the pure
compassion of Christ. When we smile and offer a warm
and trusting hand out to the women and workers of
these clinics, the light of Jesus will penetrate the
darkness slowly but surely. All glory to God."
"With God guiding us, we won't stop until everyone
lives."
But before we all get ahead of ourselves, let's make
sure to FINISH STRONG at the conclusion of this 40 Days
for Life.
Read the national press release that went out just a
few hours ago with one way you can help with that:
http://www.christiannewswire.com/news/866024662.html
Feel free to forward that release to friends, family
members, co-workers, fellow believers, and media
contacts in your community.
First let's make sure that this coming weekend is the
biggest weekend of unified pro-life activity in
American history...
...And THEN we'll let Planned Parenthood and the rest
of the abortion industry know what's in store for them
on days 41 and beyond!
Here's today's devotional...
*******************************************************
40 DAYS FOR LIFE: DAY 37, NOVEMBER 1
Daily Devotional by Fr. Frank Pavone
*******************************************************
INTENTION:
Pray that we may find true freedom by humbly submitting
all our choices to God, and leading others by word and
example to do the same.
SCRIPTURE:
Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild
animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman,
"Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in
the garden'?" The woman said to the serpent, "We may
eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did
say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in
the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or
you will die.'" "You will not surely die," the serpent
said to the woman. "For God knows that when you eat of
it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God,
knowing good and evil." -- Genesis 3:1-4
REFLECTION:
St. John in his first letter sums up the mission of
Jesus by saying, "The reason the Son of God appeared
was to destroy the works of the devil" (1 John 3:8).
What "works of the devil" does Jesus destroy? Jesus
Himself tells us that the devil "was a murderer from
the beginning and does not stand in truth, because
there is no truth in him. When he tells a lie, he
speaks in character, because he is a liar and the
father of lies" (John 8:44).
In one and the same breath, Our Lord calls the devil a
liar and a murderer. Lies and murder go together. The
only way abortion can continue on such a horrible scale
is for it to be covered in lies, sugarcoated with
denials and distortions of truth.
Jesus has come to destroy the works of the devil. "I am
the Way, the Truth, and the Life" (John 14:6). He is
the way to salvation precisely because He is the Truth,
shattering the devil's lies, and because He is the
Life, undoing the devil's work of death.
We see the devil act in in character with lies and
murder from the first pages of the Bible. Adam and Eve
had been told they could eat of any tree in the garden
except "the tree of the knowledge of good and evil."
"In the day that you eat of it," God warned them, "you
shall die" (Gen 2:17). What is wrong with knowing good
from evil? Aren't we supposed to know the difference
between good and evil? Why, then, is this the one tree
of which our first parents were not to eat?
The answer lies in the fact that the "knowledge of good
and evil" here does not simply mean "knowing." It means
that Adam and Eve would think they could decide the
difference between good and evil, that they would be
the ones to determine what was right and wrong, that
they would be the norm of morality.
This is the original temptation. "What's right and
wrong for me is up to me... What's right and wrong for
you is up to you... Do not impose your morality on
me... I will create my own values... I am accountable
to nobody but myself."
In other words, it's all up to my own personal choice.
The original sin is to put choice above goodness and
truth, to abuse freedom by trying to create what is
right rather than submit to it.
Jesus showed us the way of submission to the Father, of
obedience even unto death on a cross. That is why he
was highly exalted. Following his example, and living
in the power of the Spirit, we lead our culture from
the self-exaltation of "choice" that leads to death to
the self-sacrifice of obedience that leads to life.
PRAYER:
Father, save us from the lies of Satan. Save us from
the thought that we can be like you by becoming our own
source of morality. Free us from the desire to exalt
ourselves. Give us the Spirit of your Son, who humbled
himself and was therefore highly exalted by you.
May we find our true freedom by submitting all our
choices to you, and lead others by word and example to
do the same.
We pray in Jesus' name, AMEN.
*******************************************************
Your Brother In Christ,
David Bereit
National Campaign Director
40 Days for Life
3515-B Longmire #316
College Station, TX
77845
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