December 22, 2017

Abortion

Supreme Court Will Decide if Illegal Immigrants Have a “Right” to Abortion by Dave Ankdrusko

Forced Abortions and Sex-Selection Abortions Still Done in China Under Two-Child Policy by Steve Ertelt

Blessings with Disabilities – You Can’t Put a Price Tag on What’s Priceless by John Stonestreet & G. Shane Morris – “We live in a world that’s constantly calculating the value of people with disability, even though we know that they’re priceless.”

Devotional

My Angel – “Sometimes I wake up with gratitude for those who love me. Sometimes I wake up expecting them to be grateful for me. How wildly we swing in our hearts for each other.”

End-of-Life

No, most people aren’t in severe pain when they die by Samuel Allingham, Sabina Clapham, and Kathy Edgar

Dying Alone – America’s Demographic Future? by Eric Metaxas & Roberto Rivera – “Can you imagine a world where old people die alone at home, and no one notices? We’re already there.”

Couple Married for 71 Years Dies Within Minutes of Each Other

Family Living

Video: Children With Down Syndrome Create Christmas Nativity

1.77 Kids Aren’t Enough – The Consequences of a Shrinking Population by John Stonestreet & G. Shane Morris – “America is shrinking. I don’t mean we’re getting shorter, I mean that we aren’t having enough babies. Here’s why that’s bad news.”

“Miscarriage and abortion are sisters” reveals a truth about humanity by Tim Thomas

Estrangement Doesn’t Just Happen to “Bad” Moms — It Happened to Me Too by By Sheri McGregor, as told to Ashley Edwards Walker – “A few days before my son’s wedding, I asked if he was certain he wanted to tie the knot. Then, I got a call back that no mother of five ever imagines.”

Music

Handel’s—and Jennens’s—“Messiah” – Apologetics thru Art by Eric Metaxas – “’Messiah’ may be the greatest work in the canon of Western music. You know the composer—Handel. But do you know the author?”

No One Writes Great Christmas Songs Anymore by Addison Del Mastro – “But maybe those midcentury classics weren’t really Christmas songs at all.”

Luther’s Christmas Pageant – adapted by Professor Emeritus Arnold Koelpin

Political

Senate Republicans Ready An Abortion Flip-Flop In Obamacare “Stability” Bill by Christopher Jacobs – “Senate Republicans should not worsen the spectacle of rationalizing bad policy by attempting to render seven years of arguments they made to the pro-life community meaningless.”

How A Judge Halted The Trump Administration’s Abortifacient Mandate Exceptions by Margot Cleveland – “The judge crystalized not just that elections have consequences but that so does the reach of government, legislative abandonment, and the ideology-imposing of unelected judges.”

Sexual Purity

Assault in Our Wounds by James M. Kushiner – “Sex needs to be put in its place. In this season, we are reminded that all our hope hangs on the promise, ‘A virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, the greatest Gift of all, who has instructed us through the law and the prophets and his teachings on the paths of righteousness and holiness. Too hard for us? Who then can be saved? With God, even this is possible and our wounds may be healed.”

An Important Letter to a Would-Be Adulterer by Peter Heck

Crazy College Courses and the Religion of Sex by Frank Turek

Worldview and Culture

Revolution or Reformation? – Siberia Letter of Rev. Alan Ludwig – “This October marks the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. Coincidentally, October of this year is also the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution. Both events are being widely celebrated around the world—obviously, by very different groups. The question arises, ‘Which of these two history-changing events has had and will have a greater impact on Russia and the world?’ In the final tally, will the revolutionary Gospel of salvation by grace alone through faith in Christ be more world-changing than the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917?”

The Image of Christ This Christmas by Laura Allnutt

A Culture in Need of that Manger Scene by Kathryn Jean Lopez

Just FYI, Words Mean Nothing Anymore by Peter Heck

Video: Loud Symphony Note Makes Woman Scream During Concert

*****

Gary Bauer: “Several Hollywood celebrities and comedians are putting on a special Christmas performance [this] week benefiting Christian orphanages. No, wait, that’s not it. They are helping to raise funds for persecuted Christians in the Middle East. Oh, sorry, wrong again. Unbelievably, their Christmas celebration is being used to raise money for the nation’s largest abortion provider, Planned Parenthood. If King Herod were alive today, he’d have a photo on his wall signed by Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood. In an attempt to kill Jesus, Herod ordered all babies two and under to be murdered. Richards does him one better. She promotes destroying innocent babies before they can take their first breath out of the womb.”