Dear Planned Parenthood:

Dear Planned Parenthood:

I hear today is your 97th birthday.

Amidst all the shouts of celebration, do you know what I hear?

A baby's cry. A mother's tears. A lost generation weeping.

The cute little cupcake and catchy slogan you advertised today doesn't quite show that, does it?

You claim to care, no matter what, yet you are our nation's largest abortion provider.

Abortion does not equal care.

If abortion were health care, it wouldn't take a baby's life and stop a beating heart.

If abortion were health care, then it wouldn't result in women having physical, mental, and emotional consequences, including post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, depression, and even suicide. 

If you cared, you would know that the right to life is infinitely greater than the right to choose.

I've already heard the argument that abortion is not the only service you provide. Quite frankly, I don't really care. As long as you continue to provide abortion services, you are not an organization that deserves to be supported.

To Planned Parenthood volunteers, workers, doctors, nurses, directors, supporters, or those otherwise involved:

I know what I have said so far seems very harsh. You have to understand that abortion is an issue that I cannot afford to not be passionate and get angry about. Millions of lives are at stake.

However- although I believe there is a place for righteous anger, I do not believe that the solution for abortion is judgment and condemnation. I believe the solution is mercy and compassion.
Why?
Because that is what Jesus Christ showed to me.

Let me back up a little- I deserve to die. You deserve to die. Why? Because we have all made bad decisions and have chosen wrong over right. That's called sin. All of us have sinned- there's no denying that (Romans 3:23). Whether it was one lie or one impure thought or one evil deed or many, we have all sinned. That sin separates us from a holy, perfect God. And because of our sin, we deserve to be punished. That punishment is eternal separation from God when we die (Romans 6:23). That is the worst kind of death.

That's the bad news, but here's the good news!

God loves us. He wants us to have a relationship with Him. He wants us to know Him and to receive all that He offers. But how could that happen when our sin separates us from Him?

He had the perfect solution.

God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to earth. (Guess how? As a baby. And if He would have been conceived in our time under the same circumstances, I'm sure many would have encouraged his mother to get an abortion. However...I digress.) As Jesus grew up, He lived a perfect life. He never swore, never cheated, never stole. On the contrary, He healed the sick; He gave sight to the blind; He made the lame walk; He brought the dead back to life! He was absolute innocence and holiness.
Yet He died in one of the most painful ways possible- crucifixion. He was whipped with a lash made of leather and bone and glass until His back was torn to shreds. He had a crown of long, sharp thorns driven deep into His skull. He was mocked, spit upon, and stripped of His clothes. He laid on the rough, wooden cross as it scraped against his bleeding back and as they hammered a nail into each of his wrists and then through His feet. Oh, can you imagine the sound? Can you imagine the weight He felt as they stood the cross upright and drove it into the ground? He had to push against His already shredded back and force it to scrape across the splintered wood just to take a single breath. He suffered like this for six agonizing hours before He breathed His last.
He was innocent! He didn't do anything wrong! Why did He have to die, especially like that?

He didn't have to die. But He did it for you.

By dying on that cross, He took the punishment that you deserve. That I deserve.

But wait! That's not the end of the story!

After Jesus died, He was wrapped in burial cloths and placed in a tomb.  A large, heavy stone was placed in front of the opening and guards were placed at the entrance so that no one could come and steal the body.
Three days after He was placed in the tomb, some women who were followers of Jesus brought burial spices and ointments to the place that He was buried.
They were shocked to find the stone rolled away and the tomb empty!
More than that, an angel of the Lord was there and spoke to them. He said, "Do not be afraid! He is risen, just as He said He would!" (Matthew 28)
Jesus didn't stay dead...He's alive! He overcame sin and death once and for all!

Now we can know God; we can have a relationship with Him! Now we can live. By entering into a relationship with God, we receive forgiveness for our sins and will spend eternity with Him in heaven.

How can you have a relationship with God? (And let me assure you that you can. There is nothing that is too great for Him to forgive!)

First, admit that you are a sinner who needs saving. Confess to God that you realize you cannot save yourself and need Him to forgive your sin so you can know Him.
Believe that Jesus died on the cross in your place for your sin and took the punishment that you deserve.
(1 John 1:9; John 3:16; Romans 10:9,10)

There are no magic words, no perfect prayer. A sincere prayer from the heart, even if stuttered, is what God wants- not some printed-out prayer that you race through as a "get-to-heaven-free card." That's not how salvation works. It's a free gift- we can't earn it. We won't ever be able to pay Him back for all that He's done.



Planned Parenthood, you say you support the right to choose.

Folks, God did give you a right to choose, but it's not the kind that you're thinking of.
He gave you the right to choose to live life with or without Him.
Oh, I hope you choose life with Him!
I hope this all makes sense to you!
I want you to know Him and to live.
I also want you to encourage others to choose life- both physical life for their babies and eternal life through Jesus Christ.

As an organization, I must admit that I will be thrilled if you don't make it to your 98th birthday.
As individuals, I hope you find and accept the life Jesus has to offer you.
Jesus, please open their eyes.

Sincerely,

Ashlyn

They Are Waiting

Throughout today and this week I have heard one word consistently repeated, and with a great heaviness:

Obamacare.

Socialized, federally operated medicine.
And with it, above all interests political and personal, one resounding horror has been growing and weighing on my heart and mind.
That my tax dollars will be going to fund the one thing I hate most and have sworn my life to seeing ended:
The merciless murder of innocent lives that is abortion.

This thing God has burdened my heart with.
This purpose has He set my life apart for.

And my heart was beginning to despair...
Shame on me!
I had forgotten- I let my eyes wander to the waves of wickedness around me and taken them off of Christ. I was beginning to sink, when He breathed the sweetest hope back into my soul.

He told me, reminded me-
That the Lord in Heaven laughs at the works of evil men. He sees their end, and He has the victory!
And through Christ this victory is mine!!

Oh, fellow fighters of this good fight! Fellow soldiers in this battle for the lives of the unborn! Hear this beautiful truth:
Abortion may be legal.
You may be forced to pay for it.
But if those girls are being told the TRUTH, and shown the Love of God for them and the precious life that grows inside them,
It. Won't. Matter.
If they KNOW that they carry a BABY, not a clump of cells and tissue,
If they SEE that they are loved, and their baby is loved,
That they have worth and PRICELESS VALUE in Our Heavenly Father's eyes,
And that their baby will be loved and cared for, one way or another, through motherhood or adoption,
That above all CHRIST JESUS loves them and gave Himself for them, dying on a cross to redeem them from their sins,
Many of them WILL CHOOSE LIFE for their baby!!

I have to tell you about a dream I had the other night.
I dream quite a lot, and usually pretty vividly, but this one was unlike the dreams I usually have, and I know it was from God.
I dreamed my whole life.
I could see things past, things going on presently, and some things in the future.
I saw me working for my family business, and going to a new church and making friends- all of which are things I am doing right now.
I saw me talking to old friends, and I had to let go...say goodbye, to some people. And it was hard, but the Lord was standing behind me as I did, and I felt that He had His hand on my shoulder, turning me away from those things or people I was saying goodbye to, and turning me towards a new life, and new people.
And suddenly I was standing in a brightly colored room, looking down into a baby crib.
There in the crib a baby girl was laying. She was beautiful- with large, bright eyes and dark hair, and was wearing a pink dress, with soft pink boots and a pink bow in her hair. She couldn't have been more than a couple months old, if that. Certainly nowhere near old enough to talk! But she turned and looked at me, stretched out her tiny hand and said, "Don't forget us."

My heart broke.
I had become so wrapped up in how busy my life was, that while I had not forgotten this campaign, I will confess to you that it had been pushed to my back burner somewhat lately. And while I've been feeling quite convicted about it, I still kept pushing it off and procrastinating...
And there, in that dream, God snapped my heart back to attention. And intention.
I had not stopped working, but I had ceased to be intentional.
I had not stopped praying, but I had lost the fervor and burning passion that made me start this thing in the first place.
And I need to confess that publicly.
And apologize. To the Lord, first and foremost, and then to those precious little ones who are waiting for me!
They have no voices, but I hear them.
I hear them and my heart feels their searing pain...as their lives are severed from them, and their mothers look at me with their broken, hurting souls .
Waiting for me.
To speak for them and to them.
To pray for their salvation- from death, and from an eternity without Christ!
To fight that they might know the truth and be spared!

Some of them are waiting for you.