Westminster Reformed Presbyterian Church Of the RPCUS

Pray for our Fellow Christian Brother Who is Facing Hanging for his Faith

2011-02-22T08:01:00.000-06:00

Pray for Sayed Musa: Afghan Christian Set to Be Hanged within Days?

The Daily Mall and others are reporting on Said (or Sayed) Musa. Earlier I had posted a link to his letter from prison describing sexual and physical abuse. Here’s the new report:

An Afghan physiotherapist will be executed within three days for converting to Christianity.

Said Musa, 45, has been held for eight months in a Kabul prison were he claims he has been tortured and sexually abused by inmates and guards.

Mr Musa, who lost his left leg in a landmine explosion in the 1990s, has worked for the Red Cross for 15 years and helps to treat fellow amputees.

He was arrested in May last year as he attempted to seek asylum at the German embassy following a crackdown on Christians within Afghanistan.

He claims he was visited by a judge who told him he would be hanged within days unless he converted back to Islam.

But he remains defiant and said he would be willing to die for his faith.

He told the Sunday Times: ‘My body is theirs to do what they want with.’

You can also read the Compass Direct News report, which begins:

An Afghani amputee in prison for his Christian faith since May will face a judge this Sunday (Nov. 21) without legal representation or knowledge of the charges against him, according to local sources.

Denny Burk suggests that if you have Twitter, you post one of the following:

Mr. President, speak wisely and boldly, in private if necessary, for Said Musa, imprisoned in Kabul. http://dsr.gd/ezR3jW @BarackObama

Mr. President, please persuade the Afghan govt. not to execute our brother Said Musa. http://bit.ly/bQ5RLQ @BarackObama Prov. 24:10-12

Update: A valid point by Paul Marshall:

If the actions of a Florida pastor who threatened to destroy a book holy to Muslims deserved public and presidential attention, then the actions of the Afghan government, ostensibly a ‘democratic’ ally, to destroy something holy to Christians, a human being made in the image of God, also deserve public and presidential attention.

Link to original article:
http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justintaylor/2011/02/19/pray-for-sayed-musa-afghan-christian-set-to-be-hanged-within-days/

What to do - When your life is falling apart!

2010-11-19T16:22:00.000-06:00

A Great Sermon by Andrew Quigley in Scotland

From AlbertMohler.com

2010-04-22T12:21:00.000-05:00

Click Here to see the original article:

“The Year of Our Lord” — Diploma Trouble in Texas

The controversy at Trinity University tells us so much about the loss of Christian conviction in colleges and universities, the insanity of secular revisionism, and the contradictions of Muslim students who are offended by the words “the year of our Lord,” but seem perfectly happy to have the name “Trinity University” printed in bold on their diplomas.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

A group of students at Trinity University in San Antonio is petitioning the administration to remove the words “in the year of our Lord” from the school’s diplomas. Senior Sidra Qureshi said she started the petition in order to assure the school’s commitment to diversity. A Muslim student who presides over the “Trinity Diversity Connection,” Miss Qureshi told the media: “A diploma is a very personal item, and people want to proudly display it in their offices and homes. . . . By having the phrase ‘in the year of our Lord,’ it is directly referencing Jesus Christ, and not everyone believes in Jesus Christ.”

According to some accounts, the issue was first raised by Issac Medina, a convert to Islam who graduated in December of 2009. He told the San Antonio Express-News that he was offended by the language he found on his diploma, calling himself “a victim of a bait and switch” because he had been assured that the school no longer held to a Christian identity.

The school’s administration has sent mixed signals of its intention, but a decision by the university’s president and Board of Trustees is expected soon. Sharon Jones Schweitzer, assistant vice president for university communications told The Washington Times that the school will probably remove the phrase from all diplomas. The university’s president, Dennis Ahlburg, defended the wording as “unobtrusive.”

Many of the school’s alumni have protested the proposal, but momentum toward the change appears to be growing on the campus.

There are at least two significant dimensions of this controversy. The first has to do with what this reveals about the loss of Christian conviction and identity among so many church related schools. Trinity University was established in 1869 by Cumberland Presbyterians. The original faculty of five professors taught an inaugural class of seven students. Trustees first located the school in rural Tehuacana, Texas, hoping to put the students far away from the vices and temptations of larger cities.

The university’s published historical narrative explains: “Although religion played a prominent role in a Trinity education, the ethos was broadly Christian and no students were excluded because of religious affiliation.” In 1906 the school affiliated with the United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America.

The decision to move the school to San Antonio came in 1941. In 1969, the school “modified” its relationship to the church by eliminating legal ties to the Presbyterian denomination. The new agreement between the school and the denomination “affirmed historical connections and pledged mutual support.”

This is the language of disengagement and secularization. Gary Luhr, executive director of the Association of Presbyterian Colleges and Universities, told The Washington Times that Trinity University is moving towards a relationship that is little more than a reference to the fact that the origins of the school “involved religion.”

As James Tunstead Burtchaell has documented and explained, “Countless colleges and universities in the history of the United States were founded under some sort of Christian patronage, but many which still survive do not claim any relationship with a church or denomination. Even on most of the campuses which are still listed by churches as their affiliates, there is usually some concern expressed today about how authentic or how enduring that tie really is; and often wistful thinking is all that remains.”

These schools have been effectively secularized, moving from identity as Christian colleges with clear Christian convictions, to church-related schools with ambiguous convictions, to schools with some historic tie to Christianity, but no Christian convictions at all. At this last stage, Christianity is more of an embarrassment than anything else. It seems that all parties related to the controversy at Trinity University are agreed that Christianity plays no official role in the life and work of the school in the present.

No one is claiming that the words “in the year of our Lord” mean anything theological in this context. The school holds to an essentially secular worldview — despite the language of the diploma, the Christian name of the school, and the image of the Bible on the school’s seal.

The second important dimension of the controversy is the insanity of thinking that the removal of the words “in the year of our Lord” will accomplish anything. Sidra Qureshi complains that the words are “directly referencing Jesus Christ, and not everyone believes in Jesus Christ.” Well, if those words offend anyone, how can they not be offended by the name of the university itself? Some have tried to explain the name in terms of the fact that the school had three predecessor institutions and was located in three Texas locations, but no one is denying the central fact that the word “Trinity” is a direct reference to the central Christian belief about God — and about Jesus Christ.

And what would the removal of the words “the year of our Lord” accomplish? That system of calendar dating can be traced back to Dionysius Exiguus, an abbot who in the year 525 constructed a new chart of Easter tables, changing the numbering of the years from the year one starting in 284, the year that Emperor Diocletian ascended to the throne, to what Dionysius calculated to be the year of Christ’s birth. Dionysius referred to the years after the birth of Christ as anni Domini nostri Jesu Christi (the years of our Lord Jesus Christ).

Thus, even when modern secularists try to change the language and dating customs from “A.D.” to “C.E.,” for “common era,” the date itself remains fixed with reference to the birth of Jesus Christ. Instead of “B.C.” for “before Christ,” these new agents of “tolerance” prefer “B.C.E.,” for “before common era.” But, once again, this does nothing to remove the fact that the number of the year points directly to the assumed date of the birth of Christ.

In other words, the only way to fully secularize the dating system is to renumber all the years with some other point of historical reference. Perhaps they would prefer we start with the year of Charles Darwin’s birth, then renumber the years as “B.C,” for “before Charles,” and “A.D.,” for “after Darwin.”

One thing is clear — the university will have to decide quickly what to do in this situation, and they will make their decision in — you guessed it — the year of our Lord, the two thousand and tenth.

Wednesday Night Bible Study Reminder

2010-04-21T11:05:00.000-05:00

Quick Reminder: Tonight is week two of the 'Why We Believe the Bible' series by John Piper. The Bible Study will be lead by Christopher Marks and held in Corpus Christi at 7pm. For more information or directions please contact Christopher Marks at 229-1693. Hope to see you all there!

Hymns & Psalms for This Coming Sunday

2010-04-21T10:53:00.000-05:00

Our congregation is provide with the song selection for each coming Sunday at the beginning of the week in the hopes that they might review and practice the Hymns and Psalms with their family and/or personally so that we all might learn these great songs of praises to our King.

Morning Service:

Trinity Hymnal: 249

Trinity Hymnal: 573

Psalm 119F
Trinity Hymnal: 533
Trinity Hymnal: 503

Afternoon Service:

Trinity Hymnal: 168
Trinity Hymnal: 280 -1st Tune

Click Here for the Trinity Hymnal This link will provide you with the words and a mdi file to listen to the music or have it play along while you sing. Click Here to see an example of Hymn 132...the music file will be at the bottom of the page.

Click Here for the Psalter

NOTE: These links are also permanently listed to the right side of this Blog under Church Links: Trinity Hymnal and Other Resources.

RPCUS-Family Bible Conference in Bluefield, Virginia

2010-04-16T11:02:00.000-05:00

It's that time of year again folks, time to register for the Family Bible Conference in Bluefield, Virginia.

This year's conference is on:

Follow this link for more information and registration. The conference is June 22-26, 2010. Hope you can come!!!

RPCUS- Family Bible Conference http://reformedfamilybibleconference.com/

Joe Morecraft's Tea Party Speech 1/15/2010

2010-04-16T10:29:00.001-05:00

Here's a great message by Joe Morecraft, click here to hear the speech he delivered yesterday.

Joe Morecraft speaking at Carroll County TEA Party from Aubrey Boles on Vimeo.

Blessings,
Actual Link: http://vimeo.com/10970036

Hymns & Psalms for This Coming Sunday

2010-04-14T09:38:00.000-05:00

Trinity Hymnal: 174

Psalm 119E
Trinity Hymnal: 383
Trinity Hymnal: 628

Afternoon Service:

Trinity Hymnal: 32
Trinity Hymnal: 502

Click Here for the Trinity Hymnal This link will provide you with the words and a mdi file to listen to the music or have it play along while you sing. Click Here to see an example of Hymn 132...the music file will be at the bottom of the page.

Click Here for the Psalter

NOTE: These links are also permanently listed to the right side of this Blog under Church Links: Trinity Hymnal and Other Resources.

Remember to Keep Praying for Bowe Bergdahl

2010-04-08T10:58:00.000-05:00

Taliban release video of captured US soldier

Original Article can be found here

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Taliban released a video Wednesday of a man identified as an American soldier captured in Afghanistan last June, showing him pleading for his freedom and to be returned home.

In the video, Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl says he wants to return to his family in Idaho and that the war in Afghanistan is not worth the number of lives that have been lost or wasted in prison. It is the first he has been seen since the Taliban released a video of him on Christmas.

The seven-minute video of Bergdahl shows him sporting a beard and doing a few push-ups to demonstrate he's in good physical condition. There was no way to verify when the footage was taken or if he is still alive.

Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, an Army spokesman, said he could not immediately confirm the authenticity of the video.

"Our thoughts, prayers, and support remain with the Bergdahl family during this difficult time," Garver said.

Bergdahl disappeared June 30 while based in eastern Afghanistan and is the only known American serviceman in captivity. The Taliban claimed his capture in a video released in mid-July that showed the young soldier appearing downcast and frightened.

In the sometimes choppy video issued Wednesday, Bergdahl talks about his love for his family, his friends, motorcycles and sailing.

"I'm a prisoner. I want to go home," he says in the video, which was made available by Washington-based Site Intelligence Group, which monitors militant Web sites. "This war isn't worth the waste of human life that has cost both Afghanistan and the U.S. It's not worth the amount of lives that have been wasted in prisons, Guantanamo Bay, Bagram, all those places where we are keeping prisoners."

At times speaking haltingly, as if holding back emotions, Bergdahl - clad in what appeared to be an Army shirt and fatigues - clasped his hands together and pleaded: "The pain in my heart to see my family again doesn't get any smaller. Release me. Please, I'm begging you, bring me home."

He added that he is strong and is "given the freedom to exercise" and to be a human being, even though he is a prisoner.

Lt. Col. Tim Marsano of the Idaho National Guard said Wednesday that Bergdahl's family was not aware of the new video. But he said the community of Hailey has reminders all over town of Bergdahl's capture, including signs wishing for his safe return and yellow ribbons.

"The community has definitely not forgotten Bowe Bergdahl, and the family continues to appreciate the support," said Marsano. "It's been a difficult nine months. With the support of family, friends and community members, they are doing as well as anyone could expect in this kind of situation."

U.S. officials have said that there were indications as recently as late January that Bergdahl was still alive.

At the end of the video, a speaker, reportedly Afghan Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, demands the release of a limited number of prisoners in exchange for the American.

Military officials had notice prior to the first video of Bergdahl released by the Taliban last summer, giving them time to alert his family before its public release. It was unclear Wednesday whether military officials knew this new video was coming.

Bergdahl, who was serving with a unit based in Fort Richardson, Alaska, was 23 when he vanished just five months after arriving in Afghanistan. He was serving at a base in Paktika province near the border with Pakistan in an area known to be a Taliban stronghold.

Hymns & Psalms for This Coming Sunday

2010-03-23T12:49:00.000-05:00

Our congregation is provide with the song selection for each coming Sunday at the beginning of the week in the hopes that they might review and practice the Hymns and Psalms with their family and/or personally so that we all might learn the great songs of praises to our King.

Morning Service:

Trinity Hymnal: 678

Trinity Hymnal: 454

Psalm 119B
Trinity Hymnal: 626
Trinity Hymnal: 132

Afternoon Service:

Trinity Hymnal: 487
Trinity Hymnal: 488

Click Here for the Trinity Hymnal This link will provide you with the words and a mdi file to listen to the music or have it play along while you sing. Click Here to see an example of Hymn 132...the music file will be at the bottom of the page.

Click Here for the Psalter

Evangelist Vist #2 ~ February 2010

2010-03-23T11:56:00.001-05:00

We were very blessed to have Pastor Stanfield come down from Georgia this past February to teach, visit, instruct, and induct a new member into the Church body. Welcome Kenneth (Ken) B.!!! It was a great time of blessing and fellowship and we look forward to being able to host Pastor Stanfield down in Texas again soon!

Gathered around the table for food and conversation.

Left to right: Sue M., Pastor Jess Stanfield, Kristen D., & JR W.

Right to left: JR W., David M., Garrett R. & Jayme R.

Nancy W. and the

Kidos playing and having fun

AJ with a big smile

Phoebe playing

Cromwell playing

Welcome Ken B. Officially to the body of Westminster Reformed Presbyterian Church!!! We are blessed to have you!

Remember to Pray Against the Health Care Bill...Being voted on today!

2010-03-21T20:07:00.001-05:00

This video is so sad...as professed Pro-lifers compromise...

Hymns & Psalms for This Coming Sunday

2010-03-19T09:55:00.000-05:00

Trinity Hymnal: 218 (1st)
Trinity Hymnal: 34
Psalm 119A
Trinity Hymnal: 460 (2nd)
Trinity Hymnal: 449
--
Trinity Hymnal: 584
Trinity Hymnal: 542

Article by Albert Mohler: This is LIFE We're Talking About~Abortion and the Health Care Bill

2010-03-16T09:24:00.000-05:00

Ground Zero for the sanctity of human life is now the U.S. House of Representatives, where the Democratic leadership is pulling all the levers to come up with the 216 votes necessary to pass the Obama health care bill. While most of the nation seems preoccupied with the politics of the issue and the political machinations of the frenzied legislative process, the preeminent issue is abortion and the sanctity of human life.
While President Barack Obama and Democratic congressional leaders have insisted that the current bill is "abortion neutral," it is not. As Charmaine Yoest, president of Americans United for LIfe argues, the bill represents "the single greatest expansion of abortion since the 1973Roe v. Wade decision."
Some background information is in order. Federal funding for abortion is prevented by the Hyde Amendment, passed by Congress in 1976 in order to prevent taxpayer funds from paying for abortions. The concept behind the Hyde Amendment is simple and important. Abortion is a highly divisive issue, and the federal government should not require American citizens to violate their consciences by subsidizing abortions. Just a few months ago, the House of Representatives adopted language similar to the Hyde Amendment in the form of what became known as the Stupak Amendment, named for Democratic Rep. Bart Stupak of Michigan, who introduced the legislation.
The bill currently before Congress does not include the Stupak Amendment, not anything like the Hyde Amendment. When the President and congressional leaders insist that the current bill does not subsidize abortions, they mislead the American public.
The bill requires all Americans to purchase health insurance through qualified government-approved policies. The current version, based on the bill passed by the Senate, would require qualified plans to cover abortion only through a separate policy, paid for with a separate check or payroll deduction. Yet, as Dr. Yoest argues, this leaves plenty of room for American citizens to be coerced into financial involvement with abortion.
At the first level, this is true because the entire health care insurance system, complete with mandates to individual American citizens, would effectively reset the economy of scale, meaning that we will all, in effect, be subsidizing abortion services in an indirect subsidy. More directly, employees of companies that choose a policy with abortion coverage will be coerced into a direct subsidy -- required to pay what would amount to a abortion tax.
There is also the issue of mandated coverage through action of the federal courts. The Hyde Amendment became necessary because the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled in 1996 that abortion must be covered by Medicaid as a "mandatory" category of medical care. The Hyde Amendment is all that stands between that ruling and taxpayer funding of abortion.
The creeping coverage of abortions is what Dr. Yoest has in mind when she writes: "Without specific language prohibiting the practice, history has shown that the courts or administrative agencies end up directing government dollars to pay for abortions."
Beyond all this, the current bill lacks the conscience protections necessary to prevent medical personnel from being required to participate in abortions.
Why are the Democratic leaders so determined to exclude the Stupak Amendment from the bill? The most stunning and revealing explanation comes from Rep. Stupak himself. Consider this:
What are Democratic leaders saying? “If you pass the Stupak amendment, more children will be born, and therefore it will cost us millions more. That’s one of the arguments I’ve been hearing,” Stupak says. “Money is their hang-up. Is this how we now value life in America? If money is the issue — come on, we can find room in the budget. This is life we’re talking about.”
If Obamacare passes, Stupak says, it could signal the end of any meaningful role for pro-life Democrats within their own party. “It would be very, very hard for someone who is a right-to-life Democrat to run for office,” he says. “I won’t leave the party. I’m more comfortable here and still believe in a role within it for the right-to-life cause, but this bill will make being a pro-life Democrat much more difficult. They don’t even want to debate this issue.
This language is nothing less than horrifying. "If you pass the Stupak amendment, more children will be born, and therefore it will cost us millions more."
As James Taranto of The Wall Street Journal insists, this is nothing less than a call for eugenics. Where does this logic lead?
He writes: "In order to be effective, a policy of using abortion as a cost-cutting measure would have to aim at preventing the birth of babies with such pre-existing conditions. The goal would be not a reduction in the number of babies, but an "improvement" in the "quality" (narrowly defined in economic terms) of the babies who are born."
Americans may disagree on virtually every dimension of this health care bill, but there is now about far more than health care. As Rep. Stupak asserts, "This is life we're talking about." Unless adequate protections for the unborn are added to this bill, we are indeed witnessing a radical turn in this nation's moral character. Time is running out. The adoption of adequate protections for the unborn should be beyond debate.
Rep. Stupak's words bear repeating, over and over again. "This is life we're talking about."
_____________________________________
I have refrained from extended comment on the health care reform bills -- not because I do not have multiple concerns about the bills, but because I recognize that committed Christians can and will disagree over the political and policy issues involved. The trip-wire for me is the issue of human life. The current bill spells disaster when it comes to abortion. I cannot remain silent in this crucial moment where the sanctity of human life is at stake.
I am always glad to hear from readers. Write me at mail@albertmohler.com. Follow regular updates on Twitter at www.twitter.com/AlbertMohler.
Charmaine Yoest, "Abortion and the Health Bill," The Wall Street Journal, Thursday, March 4, 2010.
James Taranto, "ObamaCare and Eugenics," The Wall Street Journal, Monday, March 15, 2010.
Robert Costa, "They Just Want This Over," National Review, "The Corner," Friday, March 12, 2010.

Click Here for the original article

For a Little End of the Week Humor...ENJOY!

2010-03-11T19:55:00.002-06:00

Typography from Ronnie Bruce on Vimeo.

The Scandal of Gendercide — War on Baby Girls By Albert Mohler

2010-03-11T09:26:00.002-06:00

The reality has been known for years now, though the Western media have generally resisted any direct coverage of the horror. That changed this week when The Economistpublished its stunning cover story -- "Gendercide -- What Happened to 100 Million Baby Girls?"
In many nations of the world, there is an all-out war on baby girls. In 1990, economist Amartya Sen estimated that 100 million baby girls were missing -- sacrificed by parents who desired a son. Two decades later, multiple millions of missing baby girls must be added to that total, victims of abortion, infanticide, or fatal neglect.
The murder of girls is especially common in China and northern India, where a preference for sons produces a situation that is nothing less than critical for baby girls. In these regions, there are 120 baby boys born for every 100 baby girls. As The Economist explains, "Nature dictates that slightly more males are born than females to offset boys' greater susceptibility to infant disease. But nothing on this scale."
In its lead editorial, the magazine gets right to the essential point: "It is no exaggeration to call this gendercide. Women are missing in their millions--aborted, killed, neglected to death."
In its detailed and extensive investigative report, the magazine opens its article with chilling force. A baby girl is born in China's Shandong province. Chinese writer Xinran Xue, present for the birth, then hears a man's voice respond to the sight of the newborn baby girl. "Useless thing," he cried in disappointment. The witness then heard a plop in the slops pail. "To my absolute horror, I saw a tiny foot poking out of the pail. The midwife must have dropped that tiny baby alive into the slops pail!" When she tried to intervene she was restrained by police. An older woman simply explained to her, "Doing a baby girl is not a big thing around here."
The numbers of dead and missing baby girls is astounding. In some Chinese provinces, there are more than 130 baby boys for every 100 baby girls. The culture places a premium value on sons, and girls are considerd an economic drain. A Hindu saying conveys this prejudice: "Raising a daughter is like watering your neighbors garden."
Midwives even charge more for the birth of a baby boy. But the preference for a boy rises with both economic power and the number of children born to a couple. The imbalance of boys to girls is no accident -- it reflects a prejudice that runs throughout the societies where the abortion and killing of baby girls is considered both understandable and routine.
Add to this the widespread availability of ultrasound imaging services. Even though the governments of China and India have officially declared sex-selection abortions to be illegal, they persist by the millions. (And, interestingly, the magazine notes that Sweden actually legalized sex-selection abortions in 2009.)
This sentence from the investigative report is particularly horrifying: "In one hospital in Punjab, in northern India, the only girls born after a round of ultrasound scans had been mistakenly identified as boys, or else had a male twin."
In other words, even as the spread of ultrasound technology has greatly aided the pro-life movement by making the humanity of the unborn baby visible and undeniable, among those determined to give birth only to baby boys, in millions of cases the same technology has meant a death warrant for a baby girl in the womb.
There are multiple factors that lead to the preference for boys over girls. In China, the government's draconian "one child only" policy has led to both forced abortions and an effective death sentence for baby girls when a couple is determined that, if their children are to be so drastically limited, they will insist on having a son. As the magazine explains, "For millions of couples, the answer is: abort the daughter, try for a son."
Consider this:
In fact the destruction of baby girls is a product of three forces: the ancient preference for sons; a modern desire for smaller families; and ultrasound scanning and other technologies that identify the sex of a fetus. In societies where four or six children were common, a boy would almost certainly come along eventually; son preference did not need to exist at the expense of daughters. But now couples want two children—or, as in China, are allowed only one—they will sacrifice unborn daughters to their pursuit of a son. That is why sex ratios are most distorted in the modern, open parts of China and India. It is also why ratios are more skewed after the first child: parents may accept a daughter first time round but will do anything to ensure their next—and probably last—child is a boy. The boy-girl ratio is above 200 for a third child in some places.
The social consequences of this imbalance are vast and uncorrectable. China and India now face the reality of millions of young men and boys who have absolutely no hope of a wife and family. In China, these young men are called guanggun or "broken branches." Just consider this -- the 30 to 40 million "broken branches" in China are about equal in number to the total number of all boys and young men in the United States.
These young men represent a a looming disaster on the societal level. Young males commit the greatest number of criminal acts and acts of violence. Marriage has been the great taming institution for the social development of young males. Without prospect for marriage and a normal sex and family life, these multiple millions of unmarried young men are becoming a significant social challenge in China and India. Some observers even argue that this may lead to an increased militarism in the region.
Of course, the greatest disaster is personal for the young men and boys who face the future as "broken branches." The parents who insist on having boys are dooming their own sons to lives of brokenness, frustration, and grief.
And the future looks even more ominous for baby girls. Nick Eberstadt of the American Enterprise Institute points to "the fatal collision between overweening son preference, the use of rapidly spreading prenatal sex-determination technology and declining fertility." As the magazine adds, "Over the next generation, many of the problems associated with sex selection will get worse. The social consequences will become more evident because the boys born in large numbers over the past decade will reach maturity then. Meanwhile, the practice of sex selection itself may spread because fertility rates are continuing to fall and ultrasound scanners reach throughout the developing world."
While imbalances such as now found in China and India are unknown in the West, the practice of sex-selection abortion is found here as well. Indeed, there is no current law against the practice in the United States, where abortion is legal for any reason, at least in earlier stages of pregnancy. In reality, sex selection abortions happen here, too. After all, proponents of abortion in the United States infamously insist on a woman's unrestricted right to an abortion "for any reason, or for no reason."
The Economist is right to call this tragedy gendercide -- the targeting of baby girls for death and destruction simply because of their gender. The magazine deserves appreciation for its no-holds-barred report on this tragedy, and for forcing the issue to be faced. Furthermore, The Economistends its editorial with the right message, "The world needs to do more to prevent a gendercide that will have the sky crashing down."
Will reports like this awaken the conscience of the world to the unspeakable crime and global tragedy of gendercide? If not, what will it take? The blood of millions of murdered and missing baby girls cries out to the world's conscience. Will we hear?
________________________________________
I am always glad to hear from readers. Write me at mail@albertmohler.com. Follow regular updates on Twitter at www.twitter.com/AlbertMohler.
"Gendercide," The Economist, March 6, 2010.
"Gendercide -- The Worldwide War on Baby Girls," The Economist, March 6, 2010. The extensive investigative report is available in the magazine's print editions but is available online only to subscribers.

To see the original article click here

Pray for the Christians in Nigeria

2010-03-09T08:33:00.000-06:00

Over 500 Christians were murdered in Muslim machete attacks on Sunday in Nigeria. Click Here to view to full article from Yahoo.

JOS, Nigeria (AFP) – UN chief Ban Ki-moon and Washington led calls for restraint on Monday after the slaughter of more than 500 Christians in Nigeria, as survivors told how the killers chopped down their victims.

Funerals took place for victims of the three-hour orgy of violence on Sunday in three Christian villages close to the northern city of Jos, blamed on members of the mainly Muslim Fulani ethnic group.

While troops were deployed to the villages to prevent new attacks, security forces detained 95 suspects but faced bitter criticism over how the killers were able to go on the rampage at a time when a curfew was meant to be in force.

Media reported that Muslim residents of the villages in Plateau statehad been warned by phone text message, two days prior to the attack, so they could make good their escape before the exit points were sealed off.

Survivors said the attackers were able to separate the Fulanis from members of the rival Berom group by chanting 'nagge', the Fulani word for cattle. Those who failed to respond in the same language were hacked to death.

One local paper said the gangs shouted Allah Akhbar (God is Great) before breaking into homes and setting them alight in the early hours of Sunday. Churches were among the buildings that were burned down.

The Vatican led a wave of outrage with spokesman Federico Lombardiexpressing the Roman Catholic Church's "sadness" at the "horrible acts of violence".

The UN chief told reporters he was "deeply concerned".

"I appeal to all concerned to exercise maximum restraint," he said.

"Nigeria's political and religious leaders should work together to address the underlying causes and to achieve a permanent solution to the crisis in Jos."

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged "all parties to exercise restraint", but also called on the Nigerian government to "make sure the perpetrators are brought to justice."

"The Nigerian government should ensure that the perpetrators of acts of violence are brought to justice under the rule of law and that human rights are respected as order is restored," the chief US diplomat said.

The death toll was initially put at a little over 100 but then shot up. The information ministry said pregnant women were among those killed and around 200 people were being treated in hospital.

"We have over 500 killed in three villages and the survivors are busy burying their dead," said state information commissioner Gregory Yenlong.

"People were attacked with axes, daggers and cutlasses -- many of them children, the aged and pregnant women."

Survivors wail as children, women buried in Nigeria

Much of the violence was centred around the village of Dogo Nahawa, where gangs set fire to straw-thatched mud huts as they went on their rampage.

The explosion of violence is the latest between rival ethnic and religious groups. In January 326 people died in clashes in and around Jos, according to police although rights activists put the overall toll at more than 550.

"The attack is yet another jihad and provocation," the Plateau State Christian Elders Consulatative Forum (PSCEF) said.

However the archbishop of the capital Abuja, John Onaiyekan, told Vatican Radio that the violence was rooted not in religion but in social, economic and tribal differences.

"It is a classic conflict between pastoralists and farmers, except that all the Fulani are Muslims and all the Berom are Christians," he said.

Fulani are mainly nomadic cattle rearers while Beroms are traditionally farmers.

A curfew imposed after January's unrest is supposed to be still in place but Christian leaders said the authorities did nothing to prevent the bloodshed.

The PSCEF said it took the army two hours to react from the time a distress call was put through and "the attackers had finished their job and left".

Witnesses said armed gangs had scared people out of their homes by firing into the air but most of the killings were the result of machete attacks.

"We were caught unawares ... and as we tried to escape, the Fulani who were already waiting, slaughtered many of us," said Dayop Gyang, of Dogo Nahawa.

Gbong Gwon Jos, a Muslim resident of Dogo Nahawa, told The Nation daily he received advanced warnings of the attacks.

"I got a text message about movement of the people."

Rights activists said the slaughter appeared to be revenge for the January attacks in which mainly Muslims were killed.

Locals said that the attacks on Sunday were the result of a feud which had been first ignited by a theft of cattle and then fuelled by deadly reprisals.

Acting President Goodluck Jonathan placed security services in Plateau and nearby states on red alert to contain the violence before he sacked his chief security advisor.

A Great Hymn of Faith

2010-03-04T10:17:00.001-06:00

"The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the hear; the commandments of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes." Psalm 19:8

This is a beautiful and powerful hymn on the nature of God's perfect law, our standing to it, and how Christ alone kept it, and how through faith in Him we have eternal life! May this great hymn of faith be a blessing to you all!

The Law of God is good and wise
And sets His will before our eyes,
Shows us the way of Righteousness,
And dooms to death when we transgress.

Its light of holiness imparts
The knowledge of our sinful hearts
That we may see our lost estate
And seek deliverance ere too late.

To those who help in Christ have found
And would in works of love abound
it shows what deeds are His delight
And should be done as good and right.

When men the offered help disdain
And willfully in sin remain,
Its terror in their ear resounds
And keeps their wickedness in bounds.

The law is good; but since the fall
Its holiness condemns us all;
It dooms us for our sin to die
And has no power to justify.

To Jesus we for refuge flee,
Who from the curse has set us free,
And humbly worship at his throne,
Saved by His grace through faith a lone.

Amen!

A Gloriously Particular Redemption by Keven DeYoung

2010-03-04T09:27:00.000-06:00

An excerpt from chapter 15 ofThe Good News We Almost Forgot:

*****

The doctrine of particular redemption is worth talking about because it gets to the heart of the gospel. Should we say “Christ died so that sinners might come to him”? Or, “Christ died for sinners”? There’s a big difference. Did Christ’s work on the cross make it possible for sinners to come to God? Or did Christ’s work on the cross actually reconcile sinners to God? In other words, does the death of Jesus Christ make us save-able or does it make us saved? If the atonement is not particularly and only for the sheep, then either we have universalism–Christ died in everyone’s place and therefore everyone is saved–or we have something less than full substitution. If Jesus died for every person on the planet then we no longer mean that he died in place of sinners, taking upon himself our shame, our sins, and our rebellion so that we have the death of death in the death of Christ. Rather, we mean that when Jesus died he made it possible to come to him if we will do our part and come to him. But this is only half a gospel. Certainly, we need to come to Christ in faith. But faith is not the last work that finally makes us saved. Faith is trusting that Jesus has in fact died in our place and bore the curse for us—effectually, particularly, and perfectly.

Reformed people talk of “limited” atonement not because they have an interest in limiting power of the cross, but in order to safeguard the central affirmation of the gospel that Christ is a Redeemer who really redeems. “We are often told that we limit the atonement of Christ,” Spurgeon observed, “because we say that Christ has not made a satisfaction for all men, or all men would be saved.” But, Spurgeon argues, it is the view of the atonement which says no one in particular was saved at the cross that actually limits Christ’s death. “We say Christ so died that he infallibly secured the salvation of a multitude that no man can number, who through Christ’s death not only may be saved, but are saved, must be saved and cannot by any possibility run the hazard of being anything but saved.”

I belabor this point not to belittle Arminian brothers and sisters, but to give Jesus Christ his full glory. Christ does not come to us merely saying, “I’ve done my part. I laid down my life for everyone because I have saving love for everyone in the whole world. Now, if you would only believe and come to me I can save you.” Instead he says to us, “I was pierced for your transgressions. I was crushed for your iniquities (Isa. 53:5). I have purchased with my blood men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation (Rev. 5:9). I myself bore your sins in my body on the tree, so that you might infallibly die to sins and assuredly live for righteousness. For my wounds did not merely make healing available. They healed you (1 Peter 2:24).”

“Amazing love!” a great Arminian once wrote. “How can it be that you, my Lord, should die for me?!” Praise be to our Good Shepherd who didn’t just make our salvation possible, but sustained the anger of God in body and soul, shouldered the curse, and laid down his life for the sheep.

Taken From: DeYoung, Restless, and Reformed

Iron Sharpens Iron Radio Show

2010-03-02T09:02:00.001-06:00

Here is a plug for a very interesting Reformed Radio Show hosted out of New York. It is worth listening to.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Listen to this LIVE, call-in radio/Internet broadcast

MONDAY, MARCH 1st at

OUR NEW TIME: 6-7PM EST

on WNYG-1440AM in New York & Connecticut

or listen WORLDWIDE via

live-streaming at

www.rcnam.com

Then You Must Click on:

"Long Island

1440AM"

when it appears on the screen with 3 other station options

(If you tune in or log in early you will hear

Spanish programming before "Iron Sharpens Iron")

CALL IN

WITH YOUR OWN QUESTIONS

at our New Number:

(631)482-8300

(For those who missed the other End Times presentations all last week on "Iron Sharpens Iron" they are now archived on Free, Downloadable MP3 at www.sharpens.org)

Monday, March 1, 2010

Theonomic Postmillennialism Defended

Guest: Martin G. Selbrede, Vice President of the Chalcedon Foundation (see www.chalcedon.edu).

P.S.: The guest originally scheduled for this broadcast, Willard Ramsey, author of "Zion's Glad Morning" (see http://www.armageddonbooks.com/pmill.html), agreed not to participate in our "End Times Series" after he concluded that his Postmillennial position (unlike that of his replacement, Martin G. Selbrede), is essentially the same as the position already presented by Dr. John Jefferson Davis, author of "Christ's Victorious Kingdom: Postmillennialism Reconsidered", on last Tuesday's broadcast. Pastor Ramsey will be invited back on the program in the near future.

Hymns & Psalms for This Coming Sunday

2010-02-25T08:48:00.000-06:00

Greetings,

Here is the list of hymns and psalms we shall be singing during worship this coming Lord's day. If you would like to review them with your family or learn the tunes you can find links to the Trinity Hymnal to the right of this post.

Morning Service:
Hymn 131
Hymn 2
Psalter 100A
Hymn 367
Hymn 319

Afternoon Service:
Hymn 270
Hymn 285 (1st tune)

Hope everyone's week is blessed and we look forward to seeing you this coming Lord's Day.

Blessings!

A Divine Remedy for Depression ~ Psalm 13

2010-02-24T09:15:00.000-06:00

This is a very powerful sermon by Pastor Joe Morecraft, III and is a must for all Christians.

"But no rift appeared in the artist's black sky of sorrow; she had not yet learned that, in drawing near the hand that holds the rod, the blow is lightened..." ~Augusta Jane Evans in Macaria quoted by Pastor Morecraft

Distinctives of the Reformed Faith, Pt 12 - The Sacrament of Baptism

2010-02-21T11:32:00.000-06:00

Word and Sacraments 33: The Similarities and Differences Between Baptism and the Lord's Supper

2010-02-20T11:29:00.000-06:00

REMINDER: Watch ABC 20/20 Tonight as they are featuring Hannah Overton's Story Again

2010-02-19T12:03:00.001-06:00

For those of you who may not know of Hannah Overton, she is a homeschooling mother of 6, who was wrongly convicted in the accidental death of Hannah and Larry's 5th child, Andrew Burg, whom they were in the process of adopting. Hannah has been in jail for two almost three years now. Please pray for this godly mother who has been sentenced to life in prison without parole. May God grant her justice and be pleased to set her at liberty soon. Click Here to read more of Hannah's story and be sure to watch the ABC 20/20 special tonight at 9pm Central Standard Time.

Word and Sacraments 23: Improving Your Baptism

2010-02-19T11:28:00.000-06:00

Word and Sacraments 22: The Recipients of Baptism - Part IV

2010-02-17T11:27:00.000-06:00

Word and Sacraments 21: The Recipients of Baptism - Part III

2010-02-16T11:25:00.000-06:00

Word and Sacraments 20: The Recipients of Baptism

2010-02-15T11:24:00.000-06:00

Word and Sacraments 19: The Recipients of Baptism

2010-02-14T11:23:00.000-06:00

Word and Sacraments 18: The Mode and Objects of Baptism

2010-02-13T11:22:00.000-06:00

Word and Sacraments 17: The Mode of Baptism - How Much Water Should be Used?

2010-02-12T11:21:00.000-06:00

Good Insight...Wholehearted Christianity

2010-02-11T20:13:00.000-06:00

My dad used to say to me, when I was a kid, “Listen, son. Half-hearted Christians are the most miserable people of all. They know enough to feel guilty, but they haven’t gone far enough with Christ to be happy. Be wholehearted for him!”

I used to roll my eyes when you said that. I don’t any more.

By: Dr. Ortlund

And a thoughtful comment worth sharing...by Robert Lombardi

Half hearted Christian is really something of a misnomer. You either have a renewed heart or a dead heart. There’s no middle of the road heart. Thinking about Pilgrim’s progress, the half-hearted Christian would have been one of those guys coming from the alternate routes and eventually wandering off the path or finding out that they didn’t have their certificate in the first place.

Listen to how Spurgeon describes miserable Christians:

“… trials make more room for consolation. There is nothing makes a man have a big heart like a great trial. I always find that little, miserable people, whose hearts are about the size of a grain of mustard-seed, never have had much to try them. I have found that those people who have no sympathy for their fellows — who never weep for the sorrows of others — very seldom have had any woes of their own. Great hearts can only be made by great troubles. The spade of trouble digs the reservoir of comfort deeper, and makes more room for consolation. God comes into our heart — he finds it full — he begins to break our comforts and to make it empty; than there is more room for grace. The humbler a man lies, the more comfort he will always have.” – Spurgeon

God comes into your heart and will clean out that junk and make more room for Him: that’s comforting.

You can read the original article by clicking here

John Piper: God's Glory in his Creation

2010-02-11T19:44:00.000-06:00

Word and Sacraments 16: The Mode of Baptism - How Much Water Should be Used?

2010-02-11T11:21:00.000-06:00

Living by Faith

2010-02-10T14:39:00.000-06:00

There is an humbling and inspirational message by a fellow Christian and his struggle with a life threating brain tumor. Check Here for the full story and updates. May God grant that we all have such a solid faith in Christ and the Biblical truth...God does all things for His glory and our good...

Word and Sacraments 15: The Purposes of Baptism

2010-02-10T11:20:00.000-06:00

Word and Sacraments 14: The Purposes of Baptism

2010-02-09T11:18:00.000-06:00

In the Interest of Justice Meeting

2010-02-09T09:31:00.001-06:00

In The Interest of Justice

Heads up Corpus Christi and those living in the Coastal Bend area! In the Interest of Justice will be meeting on Tuesday February 23rd at Annapolis Christian Academy. So mark your calendars and make plans to attend.

Date: February 23rd

Time: 7:00pm

This month the topics are on: Texas' State Judiciary and Legislature and their interaction.

Guest Speakers: Judge Tom Greenwell of the 319th District Court and Texas House of Representative District 32 Todd Hunter.

Judge Tom Greenwell is one of our Honored judges and State Rep. Todd Hunter is on the Judiciary Committee in our State legislature. This will prove interesting and informative, don't miss it!

For more information contact: 888-455-4845 or www.itij.org

You can also pick up fliers from the Church to distribute to friends, family, Co-workers, etc.

A Forgotten Voice by Kevin DeYoung

2010-02-09T09:14:00.000-06:00

Theodorus Jacobus Frelinghuysen was born in 1691 in West Friesland and died in New Jersey in 1747. He received ordination in the Dutch Reformed Church at the age of twenty-six and served for two years in his native land. At twenty-eight he was approached by Classis Amsterdam to see if he was willing to take a church in Rarethans (Raritan). Frelinghuysen accepted, assuming Rarethans was in the Netherlands, but the Classis meant the Raritan Valley in New Jersey. Convicted by Psalm 15:4–“God honoureth them that fear the Lord. He that sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not”–Frelinghuysen took the charge, misunderstanding and all, and moved to the New World.

From the beginning of his ministry in the Mid-Atlantics to his death, Frelinghuysen was controversial. He preached emotional sermons, prayed free prayers, practiced church discipline, and aimed squarely at the conversion of sinners. His messages were experiential, fruitful, and popular. He could also be an irascible fellow.

Three centuries later, he is remembered (if he is remembered at all) as the forerunner to the revivals that swept through America in the middle decades of the 18th century.

During the heyday of the Awakening, George Whitefield, the most celebrated preacher of his century, met Frelinghuysen and later wrote about the encounter in his Journals:

Among those who came to hear the Word were several ministers whom the Lord has been pleased to honour in making them instruments of bringing many sons to glory. One was a Dutch Calvinistic minister, named Freeling Housen, pastor of a congregation about four miles from New Brunswick. He is a worthy old soldier of Jesus Christ, and was the beginner of the great work which I trust the Lord is carrying on in these parts. He has been strongly opposed by his carnal brethren, but God has always appeared for him in a surprising manner, and made him more than conqueror, through his love. He has long since learnt to fear him only who can destroy both body and soul in hell.

Frelinghuysen’s influence was not confined to Whitefield. The Dutch preacher was instrumental in the ministry of Gilbert Tennent and highly respected by Jonathan Edwards as one who laid the evangelical groundwork for God’s blessing. Frelinghuysen was truly the “beginning of the great work.”

I’m no expert on Frelinghuysen, not even an amateur. But I’ve read just enough of his life and his sermons to spot several valuable lessons.

1. Dead orthodoxy is deadly. It can be hard for those who bemoan the atheological nature of today’s church (as I do) to admit it, but it’s true: orthodoxy can be dead, and when it dies it is deadly. Frelinghuysen encountered Reformed churches filled with self righteousness and empty formalism. They had the appearance of godliness, but knew not its power. His emphases on conversion and piety were not always welcome, but they were necessary. Let us not be so afraid of emtionalism and subjectivism that we mistake lifeless orthodoxy for faithfulness.

2. Tradition is a wonderful servant but a terrible master. Frelinghuysen followed the Three Forms of Unity. He often preached from and referenced the Heidelberg Catechism. He was, gladly, a confessional Calvinist. He believed in harnessing the power of tradition.

But he was not a slave to traditionalism. In objecting to Frelinghuysen’s insistence on using free prayers and his collaborating with other evangelicals, Classis Amsterdam hurrumphed, “We must be careful to do things in a Dutch way in our churches.” The Dutch leaders did not like his deviation from the liturgy, nor did they appreciate his enthusiasm and the subjective nature of his preaching. They wanted a Dutch preacher who stuck with the Dutch ways.

Frelinghuysen did not reject his Dutch Calvinism, but he wanted to do more than carry on a tradition. He wanted to preach the new birth. As such, he was willing to partner with those who shared his theological convictions and ministry goals, regardless of denominational attachment, ethnic or linguistic background, or social distinctions.

3. God blesses preaching that is scriptural, personal, and evangelical. Some sermons don’t translate well to the printed page, but Frelinghuysen’s still burst with life. When they are not catechetical, his sermons invariably work from a single text and pulse with numerous biblical allusions and references. He knew his Bible, trusted it implicitly, and preached from it explicitly.

Besides being scriptural, Frelinghuysen’s sermons are evangelical in the best sense of the word. Nearly every sermon I read dealt with the sinfulness of man, the holiness of God, the reality of heaven and hell, and the necessity of receiving the gospel and experiencing the new birth. This is preaching God can use. And did. More than 300 were converted under Frelinghuysen’s ministry.

His sermons were also intensely personal. I don’t mean Frelinghuysen used personal illustrations or got “authentic.” He did something better. He spoke directly to his hearers. He wasn’t afraid to warn, plead, and cajole. For example:

Oh, that you could be aroused! Seek the Lord, I pray you, while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near. For you cannot be assured of your life for a moment. Avail yourself, then, of the present moment. The Lord may be found right now, but you do not know how long that will last. Right now He invites you to come so that He may offer you His favor and grace. He stands with open arms and waits. Do not let this season of grace–the time in which He may be found–pass you by.

Does the preaching in your church (my church!) sound like this? Are we preaching the gospel to our people or merely explaining what the gospel is about? No amount of structural tinkering or missional activity can replace the personal, passionate, pleading of robust gospel preaching.

4. Do not neglect the third mark of the church. To the chagrin of nearly everyone, Frelinghuysen reintroduced the practice of church discipline. He set high standards for the Lord’s Table. The Supper was not a converting ordinance, but a meal for the truly regenerate. Following 1 Corinthians 5 and Matthew 18, Domine Frelinghuysen put unrepentant sinners out of the church, a practice that encouraged holiness and outraged many of his people.

5. Fear God, not people. Many of his contemporaries deeply despised Frelinghuysen. “I am the man everyone talks about,” he wrote about himself, “beloved by many, hated by many more.” Despite the onslaught of criticism and opposition, he pressed on with courage. His motto: “I seek not praise. I fear not blame.”

6. Doctrinal fidelity and evangelistic fervor do not have to be at odds.Frelinghuysen did not accept that head and heart had to pull in opposite directions. He embraced traditional Calvinist theology, utilized zealous frontier-style preaching, accepted confessional standards, and labored earnestly for conversions. He held together diverse inclinations that don’t have to be apart.

7. Passion and courage are no excuses for a harsh spirit. Like all heroes (save one), Frelinghuysen had his weaknesses. In fact, he probably had more than most. He was a hothead and seldom irenic. He was harsh toward his opponents and judgmental at times toward his congregation. His demand for a heart-experience kept from the Table some Christians who made a solid profession and were not living in immorality, but could not live up to Frelinghuysen’s subjective standards. Later in life, he became more aware of his character flaws and realized that some of the “persecution” was owing to his own prophetic bullheadedness. Likewise, he was sorry he had labeled so many of his colleagues “unconverted.”

Frelinghuysen, with his gifts and guffaws, has something to teach all of us, the conservative formalist, the liberal traditionalist, the passionless preacher, and the professional pugilist. Most of all, we ought to give thanks for this man used by God to light a spark that the Spirit fanned into the flames of the Great Awakening. As a pastor in the same denomination as Frelinghuysen, I am especially grateful for his commitment to Calvinist doctrine and evangelical proclamation. I encourage all Christians, especially those in the Dutch Reformed tradition, to listen to the forgotten voice of this neglected forerunner.

See the original article on DeYoung's blog.

Facebook

2010-02-08T22:43:00.000-06:00

Westminster Reformed Presbyterian Church of the RPCUS is now on Facebook! You can follow us on Facebook by Clicking Here or searching for us on Facebook.

Praise God for Those Who Take a Stand

2010-02-08T11:35:00.000-06:00

http://www.focusonthefamily.com/

Word and Sacraments 13: The Nature of Baptism

2010-02-08T11:11:00.000-06:00

Poems by Becky Morecraft...Wife of Pastor Joe Morecraft

2010-02-07T19:21:00.000-06:00

Taken from Becky Morecraft's Blog, Grace Notes:

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2010

Why I Write...epic poems and other things

(What follows is the preface to an 'epic' poem I penned for Vision Forum's quadricentennial celebration of the settlement of Jamestown in 2007. I say 'epic' because of its unsuspected length (I didn't intend to make it this long), not because I believe it equal to others dubbed as such. In this preface, actually written several months after the poem itself, I open my heart to you, my reader. Follow me into my childhood haunts and track the simple workings of my brain that lead me back home, always, over and again.)

Preface and Acknowledgement

In June of this year, [2007] I was privileged to write the original, more prosaic version of the poem that follows this preface, for Vision Forum’s 400^th Jubilee Celebration of Jamestown’s settlement. The following paragraphs give some background for the direction the poem took when, at last, I found a poetic ‘voice’ to tell the story. Before I read the poem to the gathered audience under the big white tent, I said something like this in introduction:

Recently I spent a week at the beach with my children and grandchildren. They love to hear my stories and ballads and asked to hear favorites every day. I come from a long line of storytellers and can anticipate the request of each one–little four-year old Anita wants princesses because she imagines she is one; for Jane, at six, exciting stories of adventures, battles and horses and scary beasts are perfect;Jessie and Izalou, at age two, are happy with attention from Grandmommy. Every night at bedtime, their sleepy eyes expectantly searched my face as I told them all their favorites, along with my own favorites--stories about when I was little, growing up in the rugged mountains of Virginia. Ballads and hymns taught me by my mother, passed on from hers, sang them to sleep.

My husband and I had brought stacks of books with us for further research on the settlement ofJamestown in preparation for our participation in Vision Forum’s celebration of the event two weeks later. As we read the rich history of all that occurred during those early years, much of it from first-hand narratives, and began sharing incredible accounts of God’s hand of providence with our children and grandchildren, a picture emerged to me of a grandfather reliving with his grandchild events through which he had struggled: I had found the “voice” I had prayed for to tell these remarkable stories of our nation’s beginnings.

The realization that this voice was a strong one from my childhood gradually dawned on me as the grandfather in the poem began to take on flesh and blood through his stories. The voice wasn’t vague but was one that is forever enshrined in my heart: the voice of my own story-telling grandfather.

How can the scope of the drama of Jamestown be conveyed in mere words? The bravery and horrors, the battles and intrigue, the romance, ingenuity and tragedy that played out on the stage of history, both in England and Virginia; while overarching and under-girding each scene the mighty hand ofProvidence worked through the perseverance of men. How could this grand history be recounted so as to engage the minds of the young and capture the consciences of those caught unaware of history’s power to inspire? It helps to have been bathed in a stream of epic tales since childhood as I was, virtually breathing in with the crisp mountain air a reverence for the land, sinful man’s losses and righteous men’s crosses, the poignancy, passion, and final redemption or damnation all men face. My grandfather often quoted from Longfellow, Life is real! Life is earnest! And the grave is not its goal. ‘Dust thou art, to dust returnest’ was not spoken of the soul,(from A Psalm of Life, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow).

My grandfather was small of stature, but I never knew that until I saw pictures of him when I was grown up. Maybe the reason he seemed bigger than life to me was because of the gargantuan stories he read and told me when I was a little girl–-I was riveted by selections he chose from La Chanson de Roland, Beowulf, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Spencer’sFaerie Queen, Milton’s Paradise Lost, and Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. A former schoolteacher turned Presbyterian preacher, he showered me with a plethora of stories from history and literature. On Sundays after Granny’s home-cooked lunch, he’d quiz us on Bible trivia and check up on our memorization (and comprehension) of the Westminster Shorter Catechism. Of course, we read the Bible--the book of Job was our favorite to read aloud because of its majestic, poetic descriptions of God’s creation and its happy ending! I delighted to hear him read or quote poems by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, William Wordsworth, Sir Walter Scott, Robert Louis Stevenson, Robert Service, and Rudyard Kipling, to name a few favorites. This rich heritage is better far to me than chests of gold!

The clank of the old Royal typewriter keys as Grandpa carefully prepared hissermons each week and the pungent smell of the mimeograph ink mingled with the scent of the dust of the decades clinging to his old books will forever remain in my memory. He let me help make the Sunday bulletin on Saturdays in the summer. The heat of that cramped, third-story office in the manse intensified the sounds and smells that seemed to seep into my pores, enveloping me like a mantle. I never felt that I was interfering; rather, as he talked and listened to me, always giving me real work to do, no matter how small the job, we became a team. I was helping my grandfather and I was content.

Gradually and steadily, under his wise and loving tutelage, together with that of my parents, theologically, morally and historically, I formed a solid personal identity and found a foothold in the rapidly moving current of history. This firm foundation is the bedrock, the base upon which I have built my life and it is broad and strong enough to hold future generations.

I adored my grandfather--we were “kindred spirits”; and I loved my Grandpa’s dad. Great-Grandpa Charles had a snowy beard and hair that curled in soft clouds around his gentle face. He always carried peppermints in his pockets for his grandchildren and often entertained us with little songs or stories. One evening, when just a hint of frost was in the air, he sat rocking on the back porch where the nearby Golden Delicious apple tree spilled its juicy treasures for our eager mouths. The shadows made by the trees as the sun set behind the craggy cliffs across the little river a few hundred yards away were creeping across the lawn. I munched my apple and decided to try to make conversation.

“Gonna be gettin’ cold soon, Great-Grandpa,” I ventured. “Want me to fetch your shawl?” When he didn’t answer, I got up from my seat on the painted porch floor where I’d been dangling my legs, enjoying the peace of the quiet Sabbath afternoon and touched his arm.

“Great-grandpa, did you hear me?” His head was bowed onto his chest and his whittling knife slipped soundlessly to the floor a-top curled shavings from the toy he had started for me. On the backside of the blade, I could see the worn place his thumb had made. It was our last moment together: Hush’d is the harp: the Minstrel gone, (from The Lay of the Last Minstrel, by Sir Walter Scott). I was seven years old and thought it was tragic that my great-grandpa had died so suddenly and alone. But now, more than fifty years later, my perspective has broadened.

I am a grandparent, six times over, so far. I have five “born” grandchildren and one due early next year. I pray that I may live to a ripe old age and see them become strong, Christian warriors as my children, their parents have grown up to become. But I have come to realize that there was a blessing attached to my kind great-grandfather peacefully passing on to glory as he watched me happily swinging my short legs out into the future. The length of our days holds much less importance than the heritage we leave our children who will either bless or curse our memory. A long life can be one of misery if fraught with bitterness and discontentment from a rebellious heart; while a life dedicated to the glory of God and trusting in Providence, even though it may be short, will be a blessed one through submission to God’s sovereign hand and faithfulness to His revealed will in Scripture. As we read history with a Christian mind, these parallel truths stand out in bas-relief.

Belief in God’s sovereign purposes accompanied by daily discipline and devotion to duty kept the fear of death at bay for my grandparents and many of the original settlers. Arms become steeled for battle when such a belief is strongly held and life-altering decisions become plain, if not always easy to make. For a man, woman or child devoted to duty, as it is properly understood, death is not the greatest enemy. Are we not stirred to perseverance by the boy, who, faithful to his father’s orders, stayed at his post on a burning ship? “The boy stood on the burning deck, whence all but him had fled…,” (fromCasabianca, by Felicia Hemans). My own son, John Calvin, memorized this poem from his McGuffey Reader, as did my grandfather almost a century before him! Courage and faithfulness were stamped on the consciences of generations of brave men and women who inspired their children and grandchildren to embrace heroism and virtue, not only through their own daily examples, but also through the tools of Scripture, true tales from history, stirring poetry, music that inspires the heart and great literature. Our current age and culture, in large part, seems to have cast these standards off as outdated sentimentalism.

Such a faithful man was Matthew Maury of Virginia, who in a letter to the Grand Admiral of Russia in the mid-1800’s, declining his invitation to continue his studies in oceanography at St. Petersburg, gave his reasons: I am contending, as the fathers of the Republic did, for the right of self-government, and those very principles for the maintenance of which Washington fought, when this, his native state, was a colony of Great Britain. The path of duty and honor is therefore plain, (from Library of Southern Literature, VIII, pp. 3453-3454, quoted by Richard M. Weaver in, The Southern Tradition at Bay, p. 169).

We are called quite simply to be faithful; not necessarily to accomplish feats of grandeur and achieve fleeting fame, but to stand at our post, relying on the grace of an all-sufficient God, and be faithful as they were who came before us, those who realized the joy of triumphant perseverance! Not cruel fate, but kind Providence guides our fragile bark through the tempests and squalls to safe haven. Death’s neither early nor too late: our times are in His hands. Be faithful: this our only task. He’s wiser Who has planned. --RBM

My great-grandparents, Charles and Sarah (Raines) Anderson, blessed us with my wonderful grandfather, their son, Elihu Hiram Anderson, faithful minister of the Gospel, educator, storyteller, balladeer and godly example. I am grateful for the legacy of his sterling character, his love for the Lord, the testimony of his life’s diligent work, and for the stories, poems and songs he passed on to both my mother and me, as well as hundreds of friends, students and parishioners who were privileged to know him. I could never adequately thank my unforgettable grandmother, “Granny Anne,” Anne (Fuller) Anderson, his wife, who was everything a grandmother should be; nor her daughter, my mother’s sister, my Aunt Virginia Belle, who taught me to read in a little two-room wooden school house on Prater Creek. I loved cuddling in her lap as a very little girl and hearing her gentle voice read poems as steam from her cup of tea made sweet-smelling curls in the air.

My mother was delighted to hear of the poem project I had undertaken for our state and nation’s 400^th birthday. I watched excitedly as she turned the pages, reading each line for the first time as familiarly as if she’d written it herself.Suddenly she stopped and said, “Honey, I’ve heard about these events before.” Her china blue eyes opened wider and she snapped her fingers–“I know where!” she exclaimed and raced back to her bedroom to return with an antique book across whose faded cover I could barely make out the title: To Have and to Hold, by Mary Johnston, an up-dated copy of which I had just read during the week at the beach because of the history of the settlement of Jamestown it contains. “My dad, your grandpa, read this book over and over and had practically memorized it. He told it to me from memory as we walked to school together when I was just a small child. It was one of our favorites.” My mother had often told me how she stayed beside him from the time she was a toddler, following after him at his chores, listening to his songs and stories, begging for more as they walked together several miles each day, to and from the little mountain school where he taught his own and local children.

Even though my mother had heard this story about the settlement of Jamestown more than seventy years ago from her father, it had left a lasting impression on her. Again I realized that my own grandfather was indeed the model for the one in my poem. He passed on to my mother, not only the history of Jamestown’s settlement through Mary Johnston’s wonderful book, (who’d gleaned many historical facts from herfather, Major John Johnston, CSA, and her cousin, General Joseph Johnston, CSA); but he continually inculcated in her a love for great literature and true history, along with a love for beautiful words and songs and ballads, all sifted through the grid of Biblical truth which retains only that which is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, of good repute, excellent, and worthy of praise..., from Phillipians 4:8. My mother, persevering at her post, has joyfully instilled a vital appreciation of this legacy in all of her children.

How can I find adequate words to thank you for making my heritage a treasure to me, dearest of all mothers, Anita (Anderson) Belcher? Not only have you passed on the legacy left to you, but you have added to the rich mixture your ownwonderful writing-–your poems, songs and stories, as well as scores of family histories procured through interviews for our county newspaper for over thirty years. You still share all of these, through God’s blessing on your long life, with your (soon-to-be) thirteen great-grandchildren. They just as eagerly gather at your feet as we, your children and grandchildren do, we who rise up and bless you. We stand in awe at your abilityto make every moment of life a treasure, though tempted and tried and oft made to wonder, (from an old mountain hymn,Farther Along). Days spent with you are strung like pearls on a string and worn as a prize around our necks. All who know you are encouraged to faithfulness and blessed by your godly wisdom and example. “[S]he has learned much who knows the pain of struggle,” (Mult ad apris ki bien conuist ahan, -–La Chanson de Roland, Stanza CLXXXIV, line 2524). You are my role-model, the greatest woman I know; in large part because you give all glory to God and humbly see yourself standing as a sentinel on the land where God planted you, guarding the heritage left you as a sacred trust. And you love the land attached to our history.

People who give up their own land too readily need careful weighing, exactly as do those who are so with their convictions. I am …sure that one of the deepest mysteries, one of the great, as it were, natural beauties of the heart, …lie[s] in one’s love for his own land, (from an essay by Stark Young, quoted by Richard Weaver in The Southern Essays of Richard Weaver, p. 22). Our land has always been important to my mother and father, as it was to the settlers at Jamestown; for it represents, not only a connection with the past, but is a sign of God’s covenantal blessings on the future of a man and his family. God’s blessings on His people were always tied to a “promised land.” In Deuteronomy 1:8, God spoke to Moses, commanding him:Behold, I have set the land before you: go in and possess that land which the LORD sware unto your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give unto them and unto their seed after them, (The Geneva Bible, 1599, Tolle Lege Press edition, 2006).

When my mother’s last parent passed away many years ago, without hesitation she gave up what remained of the monetary inheritance to her sister who lived many miles away in another state and asked to keep the land. My father and his father built the house I grew up in that still stands on ground adjoining Grandpa Anderson’s, given to them by Grandpa when they married over sixty years ago. A few miles hence, each of my brothers was given a parcel of land that we have been told my father’s family inherited as part of a large land-grant bestowed upon our ancestors by an English king more than ten generations ago. Why and exactly to whom we do not know. I used to fantasize as a child that an English cousin would show up at our door and cry out, “Ah, Lady Rebecca! At last we have found you,” thereafter informing me of a vast estate and title I had inherited from some forgotten ancestor. (I hope it’s in the Cotswolds!) Maybe a little work on our family history will give us missing pieces to the puzzle of the land-grant, although I’m not holding my breath for the ancestral estate and title.)

Thank you, “Papa C.,” Clynard C. Belcher, for keeping the land my mother inherited as well as the land given you by your mother and father, Marion Calvin and Una (Puckett) Belcher.No place on earth do I love more sincerely…, (from Virginia’s state song). We are grateful beyond measure to you for defending our land and liberty during World War II, where you fought in Europe in the 3rd Battalion Headquarters, 70^th Division of General “Blood and Guts” Patton’s Army, “The Trailblazers.” We are proud of your courage, Papa, and grateful for the stand you took when our freedoms were threatened, even giving up the opportunity for a college education to enlist at eighteen. I love remembering your wonderful tales of when you were a boy as we were growing up; and your singing us to sleep at night with your deep bass voice and guitar, painting cowboys and yellow roses on the walls of our minds, –RBM. As we snuggled under quilts our Granny Anne had made, you tucked us in tightly with the warmth of your love and protection. Thank you for sharing your faith with us from the time we were babies and for reading from God’s Word to us, without fail, every morning and evening of our lives as we were growing up. Humbly thanking God for the blessings our heritage rendered, you constantly encourage your family--four generations so far-–to be a thankful people, as we gather in the shade of the tall trees you planted as saplings when we were babies.

Thank you, Mama and Papa, for guarding the candle of faith and keeping the wick well-trimmed, from Candle of Faith, on the recording, Arise! Shine! by Judy (Belcher) Rogers. And thank you for reaching out beyond our family to those lost in darkness, whether a biker who stops by your house in the “gap” at the top of your steep mountain for a drink of cold water, or those families whose needs you have met through your prayerful, “hands-on” evangelistic efforts throughout your lives to the present day, helping to establish at least four mission churches in our county. You turned down several promotions, Papa, in order to stay where God had planted you; and, together with Mama, you continue to minister to those God places around you.

Along with, Richard Hakluyt, more responsible than any man in history for the founding of Jamestown, you admonish those who seek riches above the honor of God:

…Godliness is great riches, …if we first seeke the kindgome of God, al other thinges will be given unto us, and that as the light accompanieth the Sunne and the heate the fire, so lasting riches do wait upon them that are jealous for the advancement of the Kingdome of Christ, and the enlargement of his glorious Gospell: As it is sayd, I will honour them that honour mee…, (Richard Hakluyt, quoted in The American Dream, by Stephen McDowell and Mark Beliles, p. 45).

We were planted here on Virginia soil over ten generations ago. Our familee overspreads land that has been in our family throughout its long history. This is sacred ground to me, solid as the everlasting hills, my terra firma. My prayer for our children and theirs, “…children yet to be born,” (Psalm 78:5-7), is that we will continue to dedicate ourselves and our families to passing down the candle of faith through the generations. And not some vague faith in an ephemeral “god” of our own making who is disinterested in his creation; rather, we must hold fast the treasure of a strong and vibrant faith in the God Who really exists, Who thunders from Heaven and Who has spoken in His Word and through His only Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, the King of men and Lord of history. We must be careful to instruct our children in the “doctrines of our holy religion,” as we have vowed to do. Otherwise, the faith of their fathers will devolve into an empty spiritualism that is void of truth and therefore ineffectual. Ours must be an informed and passionate faith in a covenantal God that is carefully guarded and yet held aloft to light the paths of those who would otherwise walk in personal, familial and cultural darkness.

The flame of faith will be fed by “war stories” from our lives and the lives of those throughout history who have stayed at their appointed posts, regardless of the cost, such as those men who, one-hundred and sixty-nine years after the settlement of Jamestown, declared our independence from England: …for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor, (from The Declaration of Independence). Steadfast commitment to duty, to Christ and to the welfare of future generations marked true heroes and heroines of America’s great past. When we tell their stories to our children, these heroes still speak through us as their history ‘comes to life’ through our words. With all my heart, I pray that I have achieved something akin to this goal through my humble and inadequate tribute to the persevering men and women who “dug our roots in deeply” at Jamestown.

Along with great stories from history that illustrate God’s providential dealings, tell your own stories of God’s hand inyour life and in current events. My own dear children and nieces and nephews, (whom I love like my own children), in the midst of your productive lives, don’t forget to leave time tosit out on the porch, singing the moon up, telling your children and grandchildren stories about when you were little...,–RBM (from the preface to my book of poems, Roots and Vines). Remember God’s providence in history as you tell the great stories you have learned, look for it in your own lives, and by His grace, persevere!

Thank you, my precious children and your godly spouses, (I still want to be like you when I grow up), Anne Elizabeth andDr. Grant Jones Scarborough; Joey (Joseph Charles, IV) and Jennifer (Pabsch) Morecraft; John Calvin and Kim (Pepper) Morecraft, and Mercy Rebecca Frances Morecraft ________?; thank you for sitting still and listening to all those stories and books and songs when you were little and for passing them on now to our grandchildren, our darlings Jane Elizabeth, Anita Katherine and Jessica Lucille (Jessie) Scarborough; John and Kim’s precious Izalou Sutton Morecraft and your new-born brother, Asa Raines Morecraft; as well as baby Joseph Charles Morecraft, V, (Charlie), by God’s abundant grace making an appearance in history in February, 2008!

Our grandchildren already love hearing the stories and songs we’re passing on to them. On a recent visit, our oldest granddaughter, Jane, (who is named for a dear friend and descendant of Pocahontas, Jane Brown, as well as for Lady Jane Grey, courageous queen of England for nine days), absolutely fell in love with John Smith. After hearing his stories from us for four days, she borrowed my camera and took photos of a book cover with his face on it to carry home with her and post on her bedroom wall! Think of that: not a cultural idol, but John Smith! I pray that my grandchildren will reverence these treasures and tell my great-grandchildren the stories and songs they’ve learned from Granddaddy and me--the ones we learned from our great-grandparents and parents and from great, reliable books--in a way that will engage the hearts and minds of our future generations and cause them to love their godly heritage: Oh, Lord, may Your favor rest upon us – show your glory to our children, (from, Psalm 90, on the recording, Never Be Shaken, by Judy (Belcher) Rogers).

In God’s perfect timing and by His gracious providence, the man who was to become my husband came to our tiny mountain hamlet in Virginia to live with my grandparents the summer I turned fifteen. He came to assist my grandfather, whose health was failing, in his ministry at Dickinson First Presbyterian Church. Now, for over forty years, God has blessed my appreciation of great books, my love for history, and a vision for the expansion of His glorious kingdom to grow daily through the faithful teaching, preaching and consistent example in godliness of this mountain of a West Virginian, my beloved husband, Dr. Joseph Charles Morecraft, III. His patience with me is unparalleled, except perhaps by Job himself. Thank you, my dear Mentor and personal Prophet, for your immense thoughts and practical suggestions; thank you for crying and laughing and living history with me.

Thank you, precious Mercy, our laatlammetjie (Afrikaans for ‘late spring lamb’ and pronounced, laht-lahm-uh-kee), not only for filling in for me all these weeks--for cheerfully and skillfully shopping, cooking, cleaning, and so much more; but most importantly, for being a shining star in the lives of all you touch. (For you will shine like stars in a crooked and perverse generation, Phil. 2:15, sung by Judy Rogers on a recording). Thank you for esteeming and loving your mommy and daddy and submitting, in the major as well as the minor, to your father’s will with a glad heart. I am especially grateful to you just for putting up with the umpteenth “final version” of this poem for months, as well as applauding a little too loudly when I was really finished (stop laughing–-you’re right—I haven’t “abandoned” it yet!).

I gratefully acknowledge the incomparable assistance, inspiration and support I continually receive from my best friend and sister, poetess, songwriter and singer, Judy Rogers, (www.judyrogers.com), my ‘meter maid,’ and her long-suffering husband and faithful pastor, Wayne, a.k.a., ‘Robert E. Lee,’ Rogers, (www.sermonaudio.com/calvin1509); as well as invaluable suggestions from my faithful friend, Gail Pinckney Moore, college roommate, superior educator, wife of a true hero, Lt. Colonel E. Ray Moore, (www.exodusmandate.org), and life-long pal. Thank you more than mere words can convey for your prayers, help and encouragement. Especially I thank Zemmie and Enoch Fleck, for your patience and technical assistance during the ‘trial runs,’ making copies ad infinitum. I am deeply grateful to my kind writing friends who, through their suggestions have helped make my original, very rough drafts, if not quite a silk purse, at least a much more presentable ‘sow’s ear.’ Thank you sincerely for your many readings and comments, Judy Rogers, Gail Moore, Carmen Friedrich, Susan Burns, Ina Painter and Jennie Chancey.Without consultation, plans are frustrated, but with many counselors they succeed, Proverbs 15:22.

God is good. May He receive all the glory from this work of love, attempted originally for our dear friend and esteemed brother, Douglas Winston Phillips, Esq., a warrior for King Jesus, of whom the world is not worthy. We consider it no small honor to engage the enemy on the battlefield of this world alongside you. I pray that God will be pleased to wield His mighty sword in the defeat of His enemies in our children’s lifetime. May this tribute to our founding fathers atJamestown be a tool that God will use in the struggles in which we are engaged; not physical battles such as the settlers at Jamestown waged against flesh and blood, but against our deadliest foe, the spiritual evil that darkens men’s minds--materialism, lethargy, error and intellectual arrogance. May God be praised as we raise Christ’s victory banners aloft in our brief moment of time, passing them along with the candle of faith, down through generations of children who, by grace alone, will love their heritage and gratefully praise the God of all ages Who gave it to them.

Soli Deo Gloria!

Tim Tebow

2010-02-07T18:37:00.002-06:00

God’s Faithfulness Spans The Ages

2010-01-29T11:09:00.000-06:00

“Retracing Rev. William Audiss’ Beautiful Steps”

By Rev. John M. Otis

Great, great grandson of William Audiss

Churches of the Reformed Faith for many years have sung the great hymn Great Is Thy Faithfulness based upon Lamentations 3:22,23 – “The Lord’s lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, For His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; Great is Thy Faithfulness.” Faithfulness is one of God’s glorious perfections, and being that God is eternal, His faithfulness spans the ages. This perfection is also beautifully portrayed in Psalm 90:1-2 – “Lord, Thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were born, or Thou didst give birth to the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, Thou art God.” One of the main tenets of Covenant theology is that our God’s faithfulness is generational. This great truth is reflected in the wonderful promise that God made to Abraham in Genesis 17:7 – “And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant to be God to you and to your descendants after you.”

One of the great privileges and blessings in my life unfolded not long ago when I had the opportunity to retrace the steps of the preaching circuit of my maternal great, great grandfather, and to preach in the old Methodist Chapel that he preached in for thirty years before immigrating to America in 1871 with his wife and ten children. William Audiss, a Primitive Methodist circuit preacher, was born in Lincolnshire County England in 1821. He was converted to Christ during a Primitive Methodist revival meeting in 1839 at Little Hale Methodist Chapel in Lincolnshire County. This chapel was first established in 1837. William Audiss in 1840 was burdened to preach the Gospel, which he faithfully did for thirty years in England and then for another thirty-one years in Wisconsin.

For fifty-eight years William Audiss kept a spiritual diary of his preaching in England and in Wisconsin. This diary remained a mystery to me until my maternal aunt revealed its existence to me about twenty-five years ago. My aunt, Lola Audiss Richardson, while visiting the old family farm in Wisconsin was made known of its existence by her brother Eldon Audiss. As told by my aunt, now eighty-six years old, the diary had been given to him as the eldest son by his father. It had been stored in a chest carefully wrapped in a plastic bag. Because of Lola’s strong faith in Christ, her brother showed her the diary and wanted her to have it. As she read it, tears came to her eyes as the remarkable story began to unfold. William Audiss’ love for Christ and passion to see souls saved was glaringly obvious. My aunt had been given a priceless spiritual treasure. As my aunt revealed the diary’s existence to her four daughters, they eventually collaborated together to type it into a booklet as a gift to their mother. It was titled, God Bless This Little Boy: The Diary of William Audiss (1821-1902). Soon afterwards, my aunt Lola sent me a copy of the booklet, knowing that I now was a minister of the Gospel. I have never forgotten the words my aunt Lola said to me about the diary as we were commiserating about how the Lord had marvelously drawn each of us to saving faith. She said, “Nephew John, I believe you and I are Christians today because of the faithful prayers of our godly ancestor. He believed in the power of prayer and committed his children into God’s hands.” As I read the diary, I fully concurred with my aunt’s sentiments. Here is what William Audiss entered into his diary, while still in England – “I feel and increasing desire for the conversion of the young people. It is on these that depends our future posterity. The conversion of my own children has become my daily prayer. I hope they speedily be converted and become more useful than I have been” (May 4, 1862). He also writes, “Amongst the many pleasing incidents that afforded me pleasure at this time was a letter from my two daughters, who were living with a lady in London, that they had been to the Primitive Methodist church to hear the gospel and that God had saved them and they had joined the church and were trying to do what they could to advance the cause of Christ in that great city. This caused me to shed many tears of joy and to praise God for answering prayer in the conversion of two of my children. Hallelujah. My daily prayer is that God may save all of my children, which is ten, and I believe He will because He has promised and I believe His Word” (June 11, 1865).

While my great, great grandfather was not from the Reformed tradition, and despite being of the revivalist tradition as the Primitive Methodists were in the early 19^th Century, it is noteworthy that he speaks in some ways as one who understood certain aspects of covenant theology. Though he didn’t mention Acts 2:38-39 in his entry about believing that God will eventually save all his children, he clearly states that “God promised and I believe His Word.” The promise he probably was referring to is what Acts 2:38-39 states, “ And Peter said to them, ‘Repent and let each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and your children, and for all who are far of, as many as the Lord our God shall call to Himself.” He did baptize children as a minister; in fact, he baptized his grandson, William Alfred Audiss (my grandfather) on September 6, 1885 in Wisconsin. All that he says in his diary is, “ Moundville, John 3:16 and afterwards administered the right of Christian baptism on Frank Elmer Mason and William Alfred Audiss (born March 31, 1885). It is ironic that my grandfather was born on the spiritual birthday of the Rev. William Audiss, who states that he was converted on March 31, 1839. While we know that physical baptism does not inherently save any man, we do know that God’s covenantal promises do flow in generational terms. And if we are faithful to raise our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, and bathe them in prayer, we should normally expect to see our children saved.

Since my reading of William Audiss’ spiritual diary, I thought that it would be a marvelous thing one day to travel to England and try to retrace all the towns that he preached in. About five years ago, using the diary (which is very detailed in where he preached), I used the Internet to see if those towns still existed, and sure enough, I found everyone one of the forty-three towns he preached in.

As wonderful an idea that it was of retracing those footsteps and reading about some of the amazing stories that happened in some of these towns, I figured that it was just a pipe dream. Then, God providentially began to move very recently to bring the dream to a reality. Since I have a small publishing ministry, I decided to eventually reprint the diary into an actual book with additional information so that it would have a more lasting form for future generations. I had not talked to or seen my aunt Lola for about 35 years, since she lived on the West coast. I called her on the telephone to reestablish our communication and to tell her that later in the year I was going to put the diary into a book, and was there any other additional information she might have on William Audiss. She sent me a booklet she had that was done in 1987 on the 150^th anniversary of the establishing of Little Hale Methodist Chapel by a gentleman in England. It was wonderful to talk with my godly eighty-six year old aunt after all those years. When I concluded our phone conversation, the desire to get to England became more intense than ever. I told my wife later that day that someway, somehow I needed to find the financial resources in the next couple of years to get to England; otherwise, at fifty-seven years of age, I might not ever make it. Then, the hand of God became manifest.

It was less than a week later that I received an unexpected telephone call from a gentleman from Ireland. He had heard onsermonaudio.com my radio interview on Freemasonry where I was the guest on a New York City Christian program in December of 2007. The program was featuring my upcoming book that I was publishing on Freemasonry. This man from Ireland asked me if I would be willing to go to London, England and participate in a televised debate with a leading English Freemason on English Christian television. The debate was on whether Freemasonry was compatible with the Christian Faith. Since I was publishing a book on the issue and was involved in this subject on a denominational level as far back as 1985 with the Presbyterian Church In America, he thought I was a natural choice. I said I would come, but he said, “There is a hitch. I would have to pay my own way to England, for the station did not have the financial resources to bring me from America.” I said, “That is a big hitch, for I don’t personally have the financial resources to do this. I told him that if God wanted me to come, then the Lord would have to provide me some financial benefactors to make it happen.” Well, within a week I had my benefactors.

Since I was going to London, there was no way that I would get that close and not retrace those footsteps of William Audiss. Lincolnshire County is about 125 miles north of London in the Eastern center of England. As I researched the geographical location of all the towns in Lincolnshire, the only way I could make this happen was to take a train from London to Nottingham, rent a car there and drive to Lincolnshire County forty miles away to begin to retrace those steps. Yes, I would be renting a car in England where the steering wheel is on the opposite side of the car and where they drive on the left side of the road with who knows what kind of traffic laws. The idea of trusting myself not to unconsciously and instinctively default back to driving on the right side was rather an intimidating thought. But, as the old adage states, “Where there’s a will, there’s a way.” I must say that I was frequently praying, “Lord, protect me and protect the English from this American driver.” In a period of three days, I put 327 miles on that vehicle retracing those spiritual footsteps of my great, great grandfather.

I was determined to be prepared. I had printed out detailed maps of Lincolnshire from mapquest. Many times, those maps saved me from becoming really lost. One of the most incredible things is that Little Hale, Lincolnshire, England had not changed virtually at all in its road infrastructure in over 167 years! In one of my resource materials from my aunt, there was an 1841 map of Little Hale, England with William Audiss’ name on it where he rented some property. I brought up Little Hale, England on Google Earth with a satellite picture of the little town (still no more than about 350 people after 167 years). I was dumbfounded in what I saw. I could virtually superimpose the 2008 map of Little Hale over the 1841 map. They were virtually identical! The same bends in the road and number of roads had not changed in 167 years. Even the pasture lands surrounding the town were essentially the same. It was like stepping back in time nearly two centuries.

The story becomes even more amazing. On the 1841 map, it showed approximately where the Methodist Chapel was located. After 167 years, I figured it was long gone. I thought about standing in the spot and doing open air preaching like my great, great grandfather. But, as it would turn out, there would be no open air preaching, for the chapel was still in existence and was functional! I discovered this fact from research on the Internet from the local historical society in Lincolnshire. I brought up the local historical society for the purpose of finding if they had some archived information on Little Hale Chapel. Lo and behold, I discovered that the historical society holds frequent meetings in Little Hale Chapel. So, I knew that it was still existing. There was a telephone number and an email address of the secretary of the society, a Mr. Alf Wilkinson. Praise God for the Internet. I called Alf and told him who I was and that I was coming to Little Hale to retrace my ancestor’s steps. I said, “ I want to personally give them a diary that they probably have no idea that exists, which would have great historical significance for the area.” He responded, “You mean, the diary called ‘God Bless This Little Boy’ done for Lola Richardson?” I was almost speechless. How could he have a copy of this diary? Later, I would find out how he acquired a copy. Also, Alf Wilkinson told me that he and his wife were actually two of the six members of Little Hale Chapel!

From the diary, William Audiss mentioned that on September 26, 1841 he preached two sermons on the Lord’s Day at Little Hale Chapel. I realized that I was going to be in the area on September 26. Would it not be incredible if I could preach in the same chapel that my ancestor oversaw for thirty-one years on the anniversary of messages he gave 167 years ago? I asked Alf if I could have the honor of conducting a special service in the chapel on a Friday evening. He said he would check with the congregation and the circuit and get back with me. A few days later, he wrote saying that they would love to have me preach to them and that they would advertise the event for local Christians to attend – that the great, great grandson of one of Lincolnshire’s most beloved preachers, who was also a preacher, would give a message at Little Hale Chapel. Not only was I going to retrace the footsteps of William Audiss in Lincolnshire, but I was going to stand in the same pulpit and preach the Gospel he preached 167 years ago. My dream was becoming greater than I had ever imagined.

I was to preach at 7:30 P.M., but I would get another pleasant surprise. An eighty -year old lady, Mabel Priestley, who was from a long-standing family in Little Hale, would say to me, “Pastor Otis, would you like to see where Rev. Audiss lived in town and where his wheelwright shop is?” She said, “It is less than a five minute walk from here.” I was able to see the exterior of the house where he lived with his young bride starting in 1847 and the wheelwright shop next to it. The boards of the wheelwright shop looked like the original boards with the old nails. Not only did I not know whether the chapel was still in existence, but I had no idea that his house and workshop were still standing. William by trade built wagons during the week, and preached on the Lord’s Day. He would regularly walk 10-20 miles and even further every Lord’s Day to preach in one of the chapels throughout the county. William Audiss would write, “I am now 21 years of age and now free from the bond with an ungodly master. That yoke is now gone. The past three years have been a time of persecution, temptation, sorrow and trial, and very laborious. I was working hard all the week at my business, and then traveling on Sunday to preach the gospel, many journeys from 10 to 20 miles on foot, and preaching twice, and sometimes three times, and many of the appointments at this time were in the open air, and I had very little help. The preacher had the singing, praying, and preaching to do and sometimes lost a meal time at that. Coming home at midnight, faint and weary, but had to be at work at six o’clock the next morning. Many times I felt more fit for medical aid and rest than work. But God was my great help – physically and mentally. I never lost an hour’s work by my hard labours on the Sabbath day. But I got a great many wonderful blessings, and saw many souls converted to God. Hallelujah” (December 2, 1842).

I had brought with me a digital camcorder to document all my journeys, and I was filming all of this unfolding of history. Mabel had given me a key to the chapel earlier, so I re-enacted what it would have been like for William Audiss with his family to walk out of his rented house, check out the wagon shop, and walk down the same road on Chapel Lane to the chapel and preach.

Concerning his preaching circuit, his modus operandi was to go to a town sometimes with a fellow brother Primitive Methodist and simply start singing hymns and then preaching in the open fields. Crowds would gather, and interested persons would be encouraged to go to a local house for a prayer meeting and love feast where personal evangelism would continue. It was in this context that William Audiss said many souls would be converted.

From his diary, William Audiss recorded just prior to his immigration to America that within the thirty-one years of ministry in Lincolnshire County, he had visited 43 towns, and preached 1708 sermons. Concerning the miles traveled, he states, “The miles I traveled to and from these places was 10,504 miles and the most part on foot, but I have never regretted. I shall never repay the good Lord for what He has done; for if I had my life to do over again, I would do more if I could” (1871).

The story of William Audiss’ life and the impact upon future generations is surely a tale of God’s faithfulness that spans the ages. He would passionately describe his first conviction of sin as a nine year old boy, where at a Primitive Methodist prayer meeting he remembered them praying for him, “God bless this little boy.” Though William’s parents were not Christians, he recalled visiting his godly grandparents as a child. William would write, “They, being good old Christian people, and as all good old Christian people do, before they retired at night had family worship. The old gentleman read the scriptures and then they both prayed and very earnestly prayed for their children, and particularly did they pray that God would bless this little boy and make him good and make him a blessing in the world. This made me feel as before and to wish I was a Christian. I was now about ten years of age “ (1840).

William would describe how he fell into the ways of the world until he was 18 years old. He mentioned that on a Sabbath Day in 1839 that he and others bent on religious persecution would attend a little cottage in Helpringham (only a mile from Little Hale) were an old Primitive Methodist preacher would preach in a most earnest and faithful manner, warning sinners to flee from the wrath to come and pointing them to the Savior of sinners. During my visit, I found the little chapel in Helpringham where William Audiss felt the conviction of sin. As I was filming the place of this little chapel, I could not help but see the contrast between it and the massive 14^th Century edifice only a hundred yards away of a now Church of England building. In a town of less than a thousand people stood this incredible ancient church building. A stranger in Helpringham earlier in the day told me, “Yes, that is a beautiful piece of architecture, but nothing much is happening inside.” Within a radius of 10 miles and in small towns were no less than about ten of these massive 14^th Century church buildings. Apparently, the Lord of the manor during the Middle Ages had these churches built for his manor’s inhabitants.

William Audiss would describe how God would direct a good Christian man to speak to him about his soul. The man would invite him to a revival meeting at Little Hale Chapel. It would be in the Little Hale Chapel where on a Sunday night that God would burden his heart to repent of his sins and give his life to Christ. William writes about that evening “O, give me the blessing of pardon – the evidence of my acceptance and I will give my soul, body, and all that I have and are to Thee, and I will serve Thee the best I can all the days of my life. And while thus wrestling with God, and consecrating my all to Him the burden of my heart rolled away. And such a flood of joy sprung up in my heart I have never been able to describe. This I believe was the new birth the Savior taught Nicodemus, when He said, ‘the wind bloweth where it listeth and Thou hearest the sound thereof , but canst not tell whence it cometh, and wither it goeth so is everyone that is born of the Spirit.’ (John 3:8). Old things were cast away and all things became new. I then could sing with others. My soul is now united to Christ, the living vine. His grace I long have slated but now I feel Him mine. I was to God a stranger until Jesus took me in, and freed my soul from danger and pardoned my sins” (1839).

While his theological education obviously could have been much expanded and improved, for he was without any formal training, William Audiss made the most of the light that was entrusted unto him. His preaching and others like him of the Primitive Methodists focused upon exposing their listeners to the reality of their sins and calling them to repentance and faith in Christ. Essentially, he would be viewed today as fundamentally an evangelist. In his own words, he said, “A great deal of our work was missioning new places, holding our services in the open air until we could do better” (September 3, 1854).

One of the most powerful entries in his diary was when he was engaged in open air preaching in the town of Orbling, which was about five miles from Little Hale. As I visited that town, I went to an open field nearby to get a sense of what it must have been like for William Audiss to arrive in a town and start preaching in the open field. The following is one of the more powerful stories of his preaching. William Audiss writes, “Billingboro and Orbling, 10 mile walk, spoke twice. These were Mission places. Preached in the open air, two large congregations; powerful time. Whilst I was singing down the street of the latter place an old magistrate offered an ungodly man a sum of money to go and drive me out of the town. He accepted the offer and started to do his work. But when he arrived I was preaching and God was wonderfully blessing the Word. The Word went with power to his heart. He was thoroughly awakened to a sense of his danger and returned home with a determination to lead a new life. A short time later, he got converted and afterwards became a local preacher. Glory to God, one more soul for Christ. Hallelujah” (December 26, 1841).

William Audiss would make the decision to leave England after much prayer and God’s providential provision in the sale of his business when very difficult economic times swept England, affecting his wheelwright business. Apparently, many had immigrated to America, and some of his relatives had immigrated to Wisconsin.

A very touching entry in the diary are comments about his last two sermons in Little Hale Chapel. He preached on Ezekiel 33:7-11 and Hebrews 13:14. William writes, “Here I tried to remind my dear friends for the last time that I had acted as a watchman over them for 24 years. I had tried to live before them as a Christian man. I had faithfully warned them of the consequences of sin, even eternal damnation. I had showed them again and again that God had no pleasure in the death of a sinner, but would rather they would all return, repent, and live. I told them that they knew I had pointed them again and again to the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. And now for the last time in this world, I exhort you one and all to that Saviour who will save to the uttermost all who will come unto Him. My dear friends, I beg of you to meet me in Heaven. This was an impressive time, many wept and many promised they would meet me in Heaven” (April 16, 1871).

In 1871 William Audiss with his wife and ten children would get on a train at Heckington Station, only about three miles away, and go to Liverpool to set sail for New York and then eventually to Wisconsin. I saw the train station, and it probably has not changed much in 150 years. I videoed the area like all the others, taking footage of the railroad tracks that would take him to the New World, where a new legacy would begin for another 31 years before his death in 1902. He would never return to England, but his legacy had been left. The Sleaford Gazette, a local newspaper, would carry his departure, mentioning that there were many who bid his family farewell with many tears, that they would be sadly missed, as indeed they were (Sleaford Gazette, May 6, 1871).

So, what would I preach on as the great, great grandson on the 167^th anniversary of some sermons he preached in Little Hale Chapel? I must preach on God’s faithfulness that spans the ages, for His covenantal faithfulness to one of His servants. In my sermon, I had to refer to Psalm 127:3-5 – “Behold, children are a gift of the Lord; the fruit of the womb is a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one’s youth. How blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them. They shall not be ashamed, when they speak with their enemies in the gates.” I said, “If I could speak to my great, great grandfather, what would I say to him? I would say - Great, great granddaddy, one of the arrows that you shot into the future so many years ago has traversed the great ocean and found its mark in the land of your origin. Your great, great grandson has brought back to this place the Gospel you loved so much. The circle has been completed.”

I had brought to England forty copies of literature that I had written on knowing the Gospel, a Gospel tract, and a booklet on being prayer warriors for God. I said that I was not taking them back to America, but would you see that they are distributed throughout the county. I was told sometime later by Alf Wilkinson that they were all distributed per my request. I would leave a copy of the bookDelivered By Angels: God’s Providence For An American Soldier In Iraq that I co-authored with my son Brian Otis about God’s faithfulness to spare my son in the war in Iraq. I left it for Alf Wilkinson as the secretary of the historical society to put it in their historical archives with these words in the front cover of the book – “"This book was written by Brian Otis, the great, great, great grandson of the Rev. William Audiss and presented to Little Hale Methodist Chapel on September 26, 2008 by the great, great grandson - Rev. John M. Otis."

We have lost the importance in our culture of diaries. Maybe its due to the onset of modern technology. However, we each should leave some kind of written legacy for our posterity, particularly those of us who are preachers. Generations yet to come need to know the past that has played such a vital role in creating present realities. It is one of the reasons why I have for years emphasized a writing ministry. Not only can I minister to more people, but I can leave a legacy for my own posterity long after I have gone the way of all men. Future generations need to know the battles that I fought for His sake. Faithful stories need to be remembered so that our glorious God receives all the praise.

A reporter for the Sleaford Standard, the new name for the same newspaper that carried the story of William Audiss’ departure from England, would take a picture of me in front of Little Hale chapel and write a very nice article in the October 8, 2008 edition with the title – “Preaching Runs In the Family: American minister follows in relative’s footsteps.”

Several Scripture passages are noteworthy regarding my trip to England. Psalm 45:17 says, “I will cause Thy name to be remembered in all generations; therefore the peoples will give Thee thanks forever and ever.” The diary of Rev. William Audiss was more than a documentation for himself of his ministry. I don’t know if he fully realized the magnitude of his diary when he decided to keep it for fifty-eight years. I have an inkling that he did it also for future generations to know of God’s faithfulness to him. He knew as he wrote that the children are the future. God would preserve that diary for over a century and a half so that grandchildren and great, great, great grandchildren would know of the power of God that saves souls. His posterity has come to understand and relish his memory. How true are the words of Psalm 102:18 – “This will be written for the generation to come; that a people yet to be created may praise the Lord.” My aunt Lola would shed tears as she would discover for the first time about her great grandfather. I would shed my own tears as the great, great grandson would read and marvel of his dedication, zeal, and faithfulness to preach the Gospel. God would raise up through his bloodline another preacher in myself, who would cross the vast waters to the Old World, proclaiming the faithfulness of God to the place of origin. In my presence, God would confirm to the world that His faithfulness to William Audiss indeed spans the centuries.

Romans 10: 14-15 states, “How then shall they call upon Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring glad tidings of good things.” For three days, I traveled 327 miles following the beautiful steps of my great, great grandfather. I beheld with my own eyes the legacy that he left. I would remember what Psalm 44:1 says, “O God, we have heard with our ears, our fathers have told us, the work that Thou didst in their days, in the days of old.” I have remembered; I have marveled; and I have indeed given thanks to our great God. May I be found faithful to the end as was my great, great grandfather. May others yet created remember all our days of old and the battles we fought in our time for His glory.

*** For those interested in seeing the sermon Rev. John M. Otis preached in the pulpit of his great, great grandfather in Little Hale, Lincolnshire, England, it can be viewed on pastor Otis’ church website at www.westminsterrpcus.org.

NewsNote: Mugged by Ultrasound by Albert Mohler

2010-01-28T11:06:00.001-06:00

One of the most important books of the twentieth century was a memoir about an intellectual and moral conversion. The book was Witness by Whittaker Chambers, and in it he chronicled his abandonment of faith in communism. But Whittaker Chambers had not only believed in Communism -- he had been a Soviet spy. The brutal realities of the Soviet regime became too much for Chambers to ignore or deny, and thus he abandoned Communism and wroteWitness as his testimony. Even now, more than a half-century after its publication, the book makes for compelling reading.

The same is true for an article that just recently appeared in The Weekly Standard. In "Mugged by Ultrasound," David Daleiden and Jon A. Shields reveal a reality becoming more and more common -- abortion workers turning pro-life.

Abortion activists, they note, are usually detached from the actual process of abortion. Thus, they can hide behind arguments about a woman's "right to choose" or "reproductive freedom." But, as Daleiden and Shields explain, those who are actually performing the abortions cannot hide from the horrible reality, and some of them cannot handle the horror. Eventually, "a noteworthy number have found the conflict unbearable and have defected to the pro-life cause."

Daleiden and Shields trace some of these defections to two developments that changed the experience of providing abortions. First, the usual means of aborting second-trimester fetuses around the time of Roe v. Wade (1973) was saline injection. But, that is no longer the case. Those abortions are now done by "dilation and evacuation" (D&E), which involves the dismemberment of the fetus within the womb. For doctors and others involved in a D&E abortion, there is no way to escape the horrifying reality of that procedure.

They write:

Such studies are few. In general, abortion providers have censored their own emotional trauma out of concern to protect abortion rights. In 2008, however, abortionist Lisa Harris endeavored to begin “breaking the silence” in the pages of the journal Reproductive Health Matters. When she herself was 18 weeks pregnant, Dr. Harris performed a D&E abortion on an 18-week-old fetus. Harris felt her own child kick precisely at the moment that she ripped a fetal leg off with her forceps:

Instantly, tears were streaming from my eyes—without me—meaning my conscious brain—even being aware of what was going on. I felt as if my response had come entirely from my body, bypassing my usual cognitive processing completely. A message seemed to travel from my hand and my uterus to my tear ducts. It was an overwhelming feeling—a brutally visceral response—heartfelt and unmediated by my training or my feminist pro-choice politics. It was one of the more raw moments in my life.

Lisa Harris charged that the abortion industry had “not owned up to the reality of the fetus, or the reality of fetal parts." Amazingly, Harris remained in the abortion business, but she could not deny what she knew about the killing of the unborn

Daleiden and Shields tell of Paul Jarrett, a doctor who did leave the business after performing 23 abortions. Jarrett explained why: “As I brought out the rib cage, I looked and saw a tiny, beating heart . . . and when I found the head of the baby, I looked squarely in the face of another human being—a human being that I just killed.”

The second development that has changed the moral landscape of abortion is the ultrasound image. Bernard Nathanson, who at one time was performing more abortions than anyone else in the Western world, famously converted to the pro-life cause, largely prompted by seeing ultrasound images of unborn babies. Nathanson, who once aborted one of his own children, could no longer deny the reality. Daleiden and Shields make clear that Nathanson has been followed in this defection by others:

The most recent example is Abby Johnson, the former director of Dallas-area Planned Parenthood. After watching, via ultrasound, an embryo “crumple” as it was suctioned out of its mother’s womb, Johnson reported a “conversion in my heart.” Likewise, Joan Appleton was the head nurse at a large abortion facility in Falls Church, Virginia, and a NOW activist. Appleton performed thousands of abortions with aplomb until a single ultrasound-assisted abortion rattled her. As Appleton remembers, “I was watching the screen. I saw the baby pull away. I saw the baby open his mouth. . . . After the procedure I was shaking, literally.”

David Daleiden and Jon Shields have done a masterful job of explaining why these two developments have altered the landscape of abortion in America. The defection of so many abortion providers and of those involved in that industry is a story that must be told. At a very important level, this is truly heartening news in the midst of tragedy.

We must also see clearly that the revulsion toward abortion that marks these defections is based in truth -- the truth that the inhabitant of the womb is not a mere "fetus," but a baby. Paul Jarrett looked into the face of "another human being—a human being that I just killed." Joan Appleton "saw the baby open its mouth."

Similarly, the ultrasound image reveals the undeniable humanity of the baby within the womb. This remarkable technology saves lives -- just by revealing the baby in all of its humanity.

From a Christian perspective, the recognition of the baby's humanity must be traced to common grace and general revelation. The womb is revealed to be inhabited by a human being who deserves nothing less than our full protection and respect. The heart and mind cannot deny what the eyes have seen.

The late Irving Kristol once explained his own intellectual conversion as having been "mugged by reality." Daleiden and Shields get it just right when they describe these former abortion providers and workers as having been "mugged by ultrasound." May those muggings be multiplied -- and may they spread to the American public as well.

________________________________

I am always glad to hear from readers and listeners. Write me at mail@albertmohler.com. Follow regular updates on Twitter at www.twitter.com/AlbertMohler.

David Daleiden and Jon A. Shields, "Mugged by Ultrasound: Why So Many Abortion Workers Have Turned Pro-life," The Weekly Standard, January 25, 2010.

The original article can be found here

Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector, Part VII

2010-01-24T08:20:00.000-06:00

Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector, Part VI

2010-01-23T08:19:00.000-06:00

How the States Define Life...

2010-01-22T09:07:00.002-06:00

Accusing and Excusing for 37 Years

Alabama defines person to include an unborn child in utero at any stage of development, regardless of viability.

Alaska provides that a defendant convicted of murder in the second degree or murder of an unborn child shall be sentenced to a definite term of imprisonment of at least 10 years but no more than 99 years.

Arizona define negligent homicide, manslaughter, first and second degree murder, and specifies that the offenses apply to an unborn child at any stage in its development. The law states that for the purposes of punishment, an unborn child shall be treated like a minor under 12 years of age.

Arkansas defines “person” to include an unborn child in utero at any stage of development. “Unborn child” means a living fetus of 12 weeks or greater gestation.

California defines murder as the unlawful killing of a human being or a fetus with malice aforethought.

Florida defines murder as the willful killing of an unborn quick child by any injury to the mother.

Georgia stipulates that a person commits the offense of feticide if he willfully kills an unborn child so far developed as to be ordinarily called “quick” by causing any injury to the mother of such child. The penalty for feticide is imprisonment for life.

Idaho declares that murder includes the unlawful killing of a human embryo or fetus under certain conditions. The law provides that manslaughter includes the unlawful killing of a human embryo or fetus without malice.

Illinois includes the following as criminal offenses: intentional homicide of an unborn child; voluntary manslaughter of an unborn child; involuntary manslaughter of an unborn child; reckless homicide of an unborn child.

Indiana defines feticide as the intentional termination of a human pregnancy with an intention other than to produce a live birth or to remove a dead fetus.

Iowa provides penalties for the nonconsensual termination or serious injury to a human pregnancy.

Kansas makes it possible to charge someone with murder, manslaughter, vehicular homicide or battery for killing or harming a fetus. It provides the definition of “person” for those specific crimes, including the definition of an unborn child that includes any stage of gestation from fertilization to birth.

Kentucky allows the state to charge an individual with a separate crime for terminating a fetus during the commission of an act that injures or kills a pregnant woman.

Louisiana defines feticide as the killing of an unborn child by the act, procurement, or culpable omission of a person other than the mother of the unborn child. State law defines “person” as a human being from the moment of fertilization and implantation and also includes a body of persons, whether incorporated or not. “Unborn child” means any individual of the human species from fertilization and implantation until birth.

Maine defines the crimes of murder, felony murder, assault, aggravated assault and elevated aggravated assault against an unborn child.

Maryland establishes that a prosecution may be instituted for murder, manslaughter, or unlawful homicide under certain conditions for an act or failure to act that causes the death of a viable fetus.

Massachusetts rules that a viable fetus is within the ambit of the term “person” in the vehicular homicide statute.

Michigan defines manslaughter as the willful killing of an unborn quick child by any injury to the mother of such child.

Minnesota provides penalties for an assault to a pregnant woman and subsequent harm to an unborn child.

Mississippi includes the death of a fetus in wrongful death statute as murder or manslaughter.

Nebraska defines murder of an unborn child in the first degree, murder in the second degree, and manslaughter.

Nevada defines manslaughter as a person who willfully kills an unborn quick child by any injury committed upon the mother of the child.

North Carolina states that any person, who in the commission of a felony, causes injury to a woman, knowing the woman to be pregnant, in which injury results in the miscarriage or stillbirth by the woman is guilty of a felony that is one class higher than the felony committed.

North Dakota defines the murder and manslaughter of an unborn child and provides penalties.

Ohio law applies to a person which includes an “unborn member of the species Homo sapiens, who is or was carried in the womb of another.”

Oklahoma defines unborn child as a human being.

Pennsylvania defines homicide of an unborn child. An individual commits criminal homicide of an unborn child if the individual intentionally, knowingly, recklessly or negligently causes the death of an unborn child.

Rhode Island stipulates that the willful killing of an unborn quick child by any injury to the mother of that child is deemed manslaughter.

South Carolina provides that a person who commits a violent crime that causes the death of, or injury to, a child in utero is guilty of a separate offense and that the person must be punished as if the death or injury occurred to the unborn child’s mother.

South Dakota defines homicide as murder in the first degree to include the death of a person or any other human being, including an unborn child.

Tennessee defines “another” and “another person” as a viable fetus of a human being when any such term refers to the victim of any act made criminal by the provisions of the law.

Texas defines an individual as a human being who is alive, including an unborn child at every stage of gestation from fertilization until birth.

Utah declares that a person commits criminal homicide if he intentionally, knowingly, recklessly causes the death of another human being, including an unborn child.

Virginia declares that any person who unlawfully, willfully, deliberately, maliciously and with premeditation kills a fetus is guilty of a Class 2 felony.

Washington declares that a person is guilty of manslaughter in the first degree when he intentionally and unlawfully kills an unborn quick child by inflicting any injury upon the mother of such child.

West Virginia recognizes an embryo or fetus as a distinct unborn victim of certain crimes of violence against a person, including homicide and manslaughter.

Wisconsin declares that any person who intentionally destroys the life of an unborn quick child; or causes the death of the mother by an act done with intent to destroy the life of an unborn child is guilty of homicide.

*****

On January 22, 1973 the Supreme Court, in Roe v. Wade, determined that abortion is a “right in the concept of personal ‘liberty’ embodied in the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause; or in personal, marital, familial, and sexual privacy said to be protected by the Bill of Rights or its penumbras.” In the 37 years since Roe, 50 million unborn children have been killed in their mother’s womb–more than a 9/11 massacre for 13,514 straight days.

*****

“They show that the work of the law is written in their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus” (Romans 2:15-16).

Note: The state laws are taken from the website of The National Conference of State Legislatures, Fetal Homicide Laws.

Original Post by Kevin DeYoung

Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector, Part V

2010-01-22T08:18:00.000-06:00

Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector, Part IV

2010-01-21T08:17:00.000-06:00

Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector, Part III

2010-01-20T08:16:00.000-06:00

Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector, Part II

2010-01-19T08:15:00.000-06:00

Oliver Cromwell-Death Mask

2010-01-18T21:27:00.004-06:00

Since we are listening to the series on Oliver Cromwell, I thought it was interesting that Doug Philips had this post up on his blog. Pastor Morecraft has personally shown us this death mask before, he comment? "Ugly Cus' wasn't he?" All in all it is pretty neat. And, Morecraft has this death mask housed on a book shelf in his library at Chalcedon.

Holding Cromwell's Head

It was my distinct pleasure to spend an hour in the pastor’s study of Dr. Joe Morecraft, host of the 40th Anniversary Chalcedon Conference, who handed me a copy of the death mask of hero Oliver Cromwell.

The death mask was taken at the moment of death and has been preserved over the years. Upon the return of Charles II to England and his assumption of the throne, Cromwell and his daughter were disinterred, their corpses decapitated, and their heads placed on the gates of London where they remained for some time. Notwithstanding their posthumous desecration by King and Anglican elite, Cromwell remains one of the great figures in the history of Christendom.

-Doug Phillips of Vision Forum

Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector, Part I

2010-01-18T20:11:00.000-06:00

Trinity Hymnal and Other Resources

2010-01-17T20:46:00.004-06:00

"Sing Praises to Our God,

O' Sing Praises to the King all Ye His people"

Here are some links we thought would be helpful for not only the members of Westminster to have, but any Christian who loves to sing the praises of God. These links can also be found under our 'Church Links' section of this blog so you can share them with family and friends.

Singing is a very important element our worship. At Westminster, we utilize several resources as aids for worshipping our Lord and Savior. Each week, the hymns selected for Sunday's use will be posted on this blog. If you are unfamiliar with the words or tune, make sure to click on the hymn, where you'll be able to view the words (in many cases) and listen to the tune.

This can also be a tool you can use in privet or family worship as you train yourself and teach your children to have a love for singing the praises of our God!

Trinity Hymnal: http://www.opc.org/hymn.html?list_type=numerical

Words and tunes (in MIDI format) are available.

Trinity Psalter: http://www.lifefebc.com/resources/midipsalter.htm

Tunes are available in MIDI format.

RUF Hymnal: http://www.igracemusic.com/hymnbook/home.html

Words, music, and tunes (in MP3 format) are available.

Charles I and Oliver Cromwell ~ By Joe Morecraft

2010-01-17T20:07:00.005-06:00

Oliver Cromwell

Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland.

King Charles, I of England

This, and the following messages are taken from the 'History of the Reformation' by Dr. Joe C. Morecraft, III. They are a great resource for any Christian or student of history.

You can find the whole series on Sermon Audio. There is the brief introduction to this amazing series posted on Sermon Audio:

The Reformation comes alive in this fascinating study of its history.

In 49 messages, Joe Morecraft covers the most important people and events of the Reformation. Beginning with the Westminster Confession and ending with the lives of many of the Westminster Divines, he covers the Scottish Covenanters, John Calvin, John Knox, Oliver Cromwell as well as some of the Reformation's darkest villains like Bloody Mary and King James I.

This series is a must listen for any serious student of church history as well as those who just love the stories of the faithful men and women who worked, many of them suffering great persecution, to return the Church to faithfulness.

Part Two on Tiger Woods

2010-01-06T09:02:00.000-06:00

Prayer Request

2010-01-05T10:40:00.002-06:00

On Sunday we asked for prayer for a young man who is a POW in Afghanistan.

Here's a little bit of personal information his sister shared on the Prayer Blog, Pray for My Brother:

PFC Bowe Bergdahl US Army

My brother needs Jesus and he needs to come home quickly and safely. He has been a POW in Afghanistan since June 30, 2009. He is the only POW the USA has there.
The badger is my mascot because they hold fast. That is what I try to do, hold fast to the Word of God, the Way of Jesus and the Truth of the Spirit.
Please leave a prayer in the comments section.

Send thoughts and prayers to the family at either of these emails:
iamskybadger@gmail.com

sheriff@blainecounty.org

Thank you so very much, I and my family appreciate your support!
God bless you.

You can keep up with the latest information by visiting these Blog Sites: Pray for My Brother, Bows for Bowe, & Support Bowe. Thank you for your prayers on behalf of Bowe and his whole family.

A Powerful Call of Repentance to Tiger Woods

2010-01-04T08:32:00.002-06:00

Amidst the Tiger Woods scandal this was a refreshing call to turn to Christ for forgiveness and redemption and deserves to be passed on.

The Right to Life

2009-12-29T13:02:00.002-06:00

This is particularly important as our Nation is about to pass a "Health Care Bill" that will destroy life, both un-born and Old.

From Kevin DeYoung's Blog:

Why I Made a (Small) Year-End Gift to a Crisis Pregnancy Center, and You Should Consider Doing Something Similar

This is heart-wrenching. So be prepared. You may have heard something about this story, but the firsthand account is especially moving.

From the January 2010 issue of First Things, page 70 in Joseph Bottum’s “While We’re At It.” The comments at the end are mine.

*****

It’s hard to keep up the illusion of abortion as a positive good when the ugly reality of it is always lurking just behind the abstract idea. The wall of illusion came crashing down for Abby Johnson when, after working for Planned Parenthood in Texas for eight years, she witnessed an actual abortion on ultrasound. In a television interview, she explained, “It was actually an ultrasound-guided abortion procedure. . . . Any my job was to hold the ultrasound probe on this woman’s abdomen so that the physician could actually see the uterus on the ultrasound screen. And when I looked at the screen, I saw a baby. . . . I saw a full side profile. So I saw face to feet. . . . I saw the probe going into the woman’s uterus. And at that moment, I saw the baby moving and trying to get away from the probe. . . . And I thought, “It’s fighting for its life. . . . It’s life, I mean, it’s alive.”

After some additional questions, Johnson went on to say: “And then, all of a sudden, I mean, it was just over. . . . And I just saw the, I just saw the baby just literally, just crumble, and it was over. . . . I was thinking about my daughter, who’s three, and I was thinking about the ultrasound I had of her, and I was thinking of just how perfect that ultrasound was when she was twelve weeks in the womb. And I was just thinking, “What am I thinking, ‘What am I doing?’. . . . I had one one hand on this woman’s belly, and I was thinking, ‘There was life in here, and now there’s not.’”

And that was it. Any illusion Johnson had about what abortion really is was over. She quit her job and began working with the pro-life organization that protested at her former clinic.

*****

Abortion is not just one issue among many. We are not just arguing about different means to a shared end. We are arguing about the “right,” pulled out of constitutional thin air, to end a life. Abortion is the deepest social injustice because the human is helpless and innocent. It is the gravest tragedy because the procedure Abby Johnson describes is purposefully lethal and perfectly legal.

Lord, haste the day when the collective ignominy our nation feels toward slavery and racism will be felt concerning this evil as well.

And until that day, let every Christian light a candle and curse the darkness that makes its flame necessary.

Protestant/Catholic Seminar Part 6: Rome's Veneration for Mary

2009-12-14T07:57:00.000-06:00

This is the Final part in a Seven message series on Protestants & Roman Catholics:

Protestant/Catholic Seminar Part 5: Rome's View of the Mass, Penance, and Indulgences

2009-12-13T07:55:00.000-06:00

This is the Sixth part in a Seven message series on Protestants & Roman Catholics:

Protestant/Catholic Seminar Part 4B: Rome's View of How Men Are Saved (Emphasis on Purgatory and Indulgences)

2009-12-12T08:54:00.001-06:00

This is the Fifth part in a Seven message series on Protestants & Roman Catholics:

Protestant/Catholic Seminar Part 4A: Rome's View of How Men Are Saved (emphasis on justification and works)

2009-12-11T08:52:00.001-06:00

This is the Fourth part in a Seven message series on Protestants & Roman Catholics:

Protestant/Catholic Seminar Part 3: Refuting Rome's View of Apostolic Succession and Papal Supremacy

2009-12-10T10:51:00.001-06:00

This is the Third part in a Seven message series on Protestants & Roman Catholics:

Protestant/Catholic Seminar Part 2: The Issue of Authority

2009-12-09T10:49:00.000-06:00

This is the Second part in a Seven message series on Protestants & Roman Catholics:

The Steven Curtis Champman Family: A Story of God's Amazing Grace in Personal Tragedy , Part 5

2009-12-08T09:30:00.000-06:00

Protestant/Catholic Seminar Part 1: Introduction

2009-12-08T07:31:00.001-06:00

We are taking a brief break from Pastor Morecraft's series on the Psalms to share with you a very relevant Seminar by Pastor John Otis, hosted and sponsored by Westminster Reformed Presbyterian Church, on Protestants & Roman Catholics. It is a great look in to the nature and origin of these two different theological views and is a fantastic study tool for any Christian. Please take the time to listen to these messages. There are 7 messages and they will be published over the next seven days. If you wish to listen to all of the messages at once please follow this link. If you have any questions regarding this material or would like additional information please email: WestminsterChurchCC@gmail.com

Here is Pastor Otis' brief introduction and explanation of the series which is found on Sermon Audio:

"This is part 1 of a seminar titled Protestants and Catholics: What Makes Us Different? It is listed as a 6 part series, but there is a part 4A and 4B in the messages on how Rome Views salvation. So, there are actually 7 messages. I quote extensively from Catholicism's authoritative catechisms and church councils. I discuss in the entire seminar why Protestants have reacted so strongly to Catholic teaching. In this introduction we look at what brought about the Protestant Reformation and some of the attempts to reconcile both groups." -John Otis

A Divine Remedy for a Declining Culture ~Psalm 12

2009-12-07T21:06:00.000-06:00

Evangelist Vist #1 ~November 2009

2009-12-07T11:29:00.001-06:00

Each quarter of the year a different member of Presbytery, as of October 12th, 2009, will come down to Corpus Christi to teach, visit with the families, and check on the status of this Church plant. This past November we were exceedingly blessed to have Pastor Jeff Black come down from Virginia. Upon his arrival on Friday night we held a large Texas style Bar-B-Que over that the M.'s house! To which all the Church was invited.

The Yellow Rose of Texas

These roses were the center piece of the feast

The Men at table

From Right to Left

Teaching Elder Jeff Black, Robert L.D. M., Ken B., Christopher Marks

David M. & Calvin M.

Some of the ladies got comfy on the couch together

Cromwell M.

Little Miss Phoebe R.

Digging into the BBQ

Noah and Kristen D.

Yummmm!

The Next day some of the families escorted Pastor Black up to San Antonio to visit the Alamo and the River Walk

The Six Flag that flew over Texas

France, Spain, Mexico, Republic of Texas, the Confederate States of America, and the USA

A guide at the Alamo gives a great narration on the battle of the Alamo and the events leading up to Texas' fight for freedom

Mural of the six Spanish missions, of which the Alamo was one

Part of the River walk

Cromwell enjoys a snack of goldfish within the Alamo walls...

Texas sized Goldfish

He is then shocked to see lives ones swimming around in the little stream that runs through the plaza of the Alamo

Roots on the River walk

Christopher, Jennifer, and Cromwell M.

Monument to the defenders of the Alamo

"Give me Liberty or Give me Death"

We are very thankful that Pastor Black was able to come down and look forward to having him and his family down again in the future. The messages he preached will be posted here as soon as they become available on Sermon Audio.

Blessings from Texas!

The Steven Curtis Champman Family: A Story of God's Amazing Grace in Personal Tragedy , Part 4

2009-12-07T09:23:00.000-06:00

A Remedy for Escapism ~Psalm 11

2009-12-06T21:01:00.000-06:00

The Steven Curtis Champman Family: A Story of God's Amazing Grace in Personal Tragedy , Part 3

2009-12-06T09:21:00.000-06:00

A Prayer for the Collapse of Humanism ~Psalm 10

2009-12-05T20:59:00.000-06:00

The Steven Curtis Champman Family: A Story of God's Amazing Grace in Personal Tragedy , Part 2

2009-12-05T09:17:00.000-06:00

To see part 1 of this amazing testimony Click Here

Adoration of God's Justice ~Psalm 9

2009-12-04T20:58:00.000-06:00

The Steven Curtis Champman Family: A Story of God's Amazing Grace in Personal Tragedy

2009-12-04T08:59:00.007-06:00

This is an amazing testimony of God's amazing grace, providence, trail by fire, forgiveness, and restoration from a family who suffered a devastating loss of a family member...and still give God the glory.

I would encourage you to take the time to listen to this interview with the Chapman family done on Larry King Live, soon after their adopted daughter was killed after being accidentally run over in the family's driveway with an SUV driven by her older brother. It is an amazing story of how one family dealt with grief and how through Christ alone...they overcame and are overcoming while giving glory to God!

This is part one of the interview...you can either find the rest of the interview by following the links on YouTube or wait for the whole series to be posted there over the next few days.

Westminster Reformed Presbyterian Church Of the RPCUS

Pray for our Fellow Christian Brother Who is Facing Hanging for his Faith

What to do - When your life is falling apart!

From AlbertMohler.com

Click Here to see the original article:

“The Year of Our Lord” — Diploma Trouble in Texas

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