Respect Life Sunday

The pastor of my church here in Alpena, who is from Africa,  preached this morning about the tragedy of taking innocent human life or abusing men, women, and children made in the image and likeness of God. He said it is terrible that we allow babies, who are vessels of the Holy Spirit, gifts from God made in His image, to be dumped in dumpsters. He said we all of us must preach that God is good, and that all human life come from God. He said he did not know, until he read about it the other day, that some oral contraceptives result in the death of an innocent human life in the womb. He said we must all pray for forgiveness that we allow these things to take place. We must pray for our sisters, daughters, brothers, boyfriends, parents and grandparents who may have been involved in the tragedy of abortion. It affects all of us! None of us want to have the Kingdom taken away from us because we failed to seek forgiveness for our sins. God says, "If my people, who are called in my name, will humble themselves, seek my face, and turn from their evil ways, then I will hear from heaven and bring peace to their land."

One way that many people in Alpena, including my family, will be joining in solidarity with all of you in GR is through participation in the annual LifeChain that will gather along US23 this afternoon.

Let us all pray that healing will come to our land, the peace will be restored to our nation, that forgiveness will be sought by men and women who have given over to sin and death. Let us pray for an end to abortion and all other acts of violence against those created in God's image and likeness.

Here is the prayer from today's devotional, written by Fr. Ben Sheldon of Presbyterians Pro-Life:

Gracious and merciful Father, we gladly embrace your
Word that counsels us to care for the least of your
children, and we renew our dedication to defending
the unborn and all whose right to life is compromised
by our godless society's selfish lack of concern.
Free us from our own failures and sins so that we
will be truly pro-life in every area of our lives.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.