Devotional Index

August Devotional

Take a Stand for Life

Recently we have had the joy of having a seven week old baby boy placed in our home through foster care. What a difference he has made in our lives. It has been over 23 years since we have had such a little one around. When our children were young, my wife and I were still young. We were just getting to know each other. It's sad to say but I probably didn't spend as much time with my children when they were babies as I should have.

As I look at this little child that God has created I can't imagine doing anything to harm him (Psa. 139:14-16: "I will praise thee: for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.") The Bible says that God knew us in the womb. It says that he fashioned us (Job 31:15: "Did not he that made me in the womb make him? And did not one fashion us in the womb?")

Back in 2004 our daughter delivered a baby boy at nineteen and a half weeks into her pregnancy. Dawson was to small to survive on his own, but to see all the detail that he had at such an early age was just amazing. His little eyelashes and his fingernails were just so perfect. The Bible says that God knew Dawson before all of this detail was formed in the womb (Jer. 1:5: "Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.") Some would just call Dawson a blob of tissue, in fact, the doctor that morning asked my daughter if she would like the hospital to dispose of the "fetus". Science itself has proven that pre-born babies are not just blobs of tissue to be discarded as a bad egg, but are little human beings whose minds and bodies began forming at fertilization. At conception, every detail is there, the color of the eyes, color of the hair and the tone of the skin. At just three weeks the heart beats, the foundation of the brain, the spinal cord and even the nervous system are developed.

Some day I'm going to se my little grandson in Heaven. He is there worshiping the one who made him. The Bible tells us that we were all created in the image of God, even those who were not born into this wicked world we live in (Gen. 1:27: "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.") As Christians we must stand up and tell the truth about abortion, that abortion is murder. It is the taking of another human beings life. God is the giver of life and God is to be the one who decides when that life is over, not the mother, not the father and not some abortionist. We must give out the truth about abortion and pray that God will open their eyes, and that people will do what is right in the sight of God. Lets take a stand for what the Word of God says in a loving and caring way. Let us continue on in the battle for truth. Life is sacred and it belongs to God. Giving of life is his reward. What are you doing with his reward? Are you willing to take a stand? Gal. 6:9: "And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not."

— Pastor Delbert Oatsvall
Senior Pastor, First Baptist Church, New Lisbon, WI