The Bulletin Board:(Please SCROLL DOWN this page to find the article titled on this post in LARGE CAPITAL LETTERS. Thank you.)
PRAY FOR AMERICA: THANK GOD for His many blessings on America throughout it's history. May we then ask that AMERICA once again be a blessing TO GOD, by once again submitting to HIS will in our affairs - both personal and national - that He may truly "heal our land." (2 Chron. 7:14)
URGENT REQUEST: Pray for Brittany Maynard (discussed in past posts #1025 and #1026 and the second article noted below) who plans to commit suicide SAT., NOV. 1. Pray that there are family and friends who will finally persuade her to change her mind.
U.S. Supreme Court has Reconvened: Let's be praying WHENEVER the Court is in session as their decisions can have impact on GENERATIONS to come. The fact that they may have an opportunity this session to actually vote on same-sex "marriage" where it has the same impact on this country that Roe v. Wade did should be motivating enough!
ELECTION DAY, NOV. 4th. Let's begin praying that the American people will have wisdom in voting into office those who will lead our communities and nation with integrity and wisdom from God and DO NO HARM!.
WORLD-WDE PRAYER REQUESTS:
Friday, Sept. 26th - Two Year Anniversary of Pastor Saeed Abedini's Imprisonment in Iran! - [NOTE TODAY'S POST!]
We need to continue to pray for Pastor Saeed - that his health will improve and that he will be re-united with his wife and two young children who live in the United States. [If you have not yet, please sign the petition for his clemency- http://beheardproject.com/saeed#sign]
"Not Everyone Happy with Religious Ambassador Pick," Caitlin Burke,July 29, 2014;
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2014/July/Obama-Taps-Rabbi-for-Religious-Freedom-Ambassador/ "..An estimated 76 percent of the world's population live in countries where religious freedom is restricted. Secretary of State John Kerry said the United States must take a strong stand against those violations. "Around the world repressive governments and extremists groups have been crystal clear about what they stand against, so we have to be equally clear about what we must stand for," Kerry said. "We stand for greater freedom, for greater tolerance, greater respect, for rights of freedom of expression and freedom of conscience," he said A key development in the 2013 report is the large number of displaced members of religious communities, including entire Christian communities in Syria and Iraq that have been forced to flee their homes because of persecution."
SIGN A PETITION TO THE UN FOR THE PROTECTION OF CHRISTIANS :" The church in Syria has shone brightly for 2,000 years. But today violence and persecution threatens its survival. Thanks to an incredible response, Open Doors is helping 8,000 families in Syria survive each month. We believe the signatures and prayers of 500,000 people will encourage the UN to act and protect the rights and lives of all Syrians, especially the vulnerable Christian community." Go to: http://lp.opendoorsusa.org/emails/nov-13-action/save-syria.html?utm_source=action&utm_medium=email&utm_content=button&utm_campaign=november
Of course, let's CONTINUE PRAYING FOR AN END TO THE EBOLA CRISIS IN WEST AFRICA AND THE HEALING OF ALL THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN INFECTED.
PRAY FOR THE CRISIS HAPPENING NOW IN IRAQ (see post #907) Pray that allied forces will be able to drive the group ISIS back (see post #964)
/PRAYER ALERT- UKRAINE: As the Lord leads, please pray:
*For God to suppress President Putin’s ambitions to "restore" the Soviet empire.
*For the people of Ukrainen [esp. for the church 'to be THE church'] as they wait to see if the Russian troops will advance.
*About President Obama and to use wisdom in crafting our foreign policy, and wisdom for his advisers.
Continue to Pray for EGYPT - Continue to pray for the tense situation in Egypt and especially for the Christian believers who are being targeted with violence by Muslim Brotherhood members.]
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"Euthanasia and the Slippery Slope - YOU CAN’T KILL JUST ONE" - By: Eric Metaxas| Breakpoint.org: October 16, 2014; http://www.breakpoint.org/bpcommentaries/entry/13/26243?spMailingID=9685923&spUserID=MTMyMjM2ODE5OQS2&spJobID=401319078&spReportId=NDAxMzE5MDc4S0
News flash: Assisted suicide in the Netherlands is not as bad as the critics had feared. Actually, it’s worse.
When abortion was made the law of the land, critics predicted that the number of “procedures” would multiply across America, that many would treat it as a form of birth control, and that millions of unborn babies would die. “Nonsense,” said abortion supporters. Abortion would be just for the “hard cases” so that a women would be safe from so-called “back-alley abortions.” Abortion supporters accused pro-lifers of using a “slippery slope” argument. Okay—40 years later which was right? Well, it’s pretty obvious: fifty-six million unborn children have been legally aborted since Roe v. Wade in 1973, precisely what pro-lifers predicted. Sometimes the slope actually is slippery.
Now let’s talk about euthanasia, also known as assisted suicide, which is making headlines here in the U. S. with the decision of a “vibrant” but terminally ill 29-year old Oregon woman to take her own life.
Will her decision be another step down the slippery slope? Let’s look at what is happening in the Netherlands, which legalized euthanasia, supposedly just for the “hard cases.” Critics there warned the pressure to kill would spread throughout society, that the so-called “right to die” would become a “duty to die,” and that many people not thought to be at risk would face the final kindness of euthanasia.
What happened? According to the Daily Mail, the number of those euthanized in Holland has risen by 151 percent in just seven years, from just under 2,000 to nearly 5,000, with most of the “cases” involving people with cancer. Ninety-seven people, however, were helped to die by their doctors because they had dementia.
“What we are seeing in the Netherlands,” says Dr. Peter Saunders, Campaign Director of Care Not Killing, “is ‘incremental extension’, the steady intentional escalation of numbers with a gradual widening of the categories of patients to be included.”
What Saunders calls an “incremental extension” is, I think it’s fair to say, a slippery slope! The Daily Mail also reports that in 2012, 14 people with “severe psychiatric problems” died by lethal injection. Last year, the number was 42. Similar statistics are coming to light in Belgium and Switzerland. “The lessons are clear,” Saunders says. “Once you relax the law on euthanasia or assisted suicide, steady extension will follow as night follows day.”
Saunders says assisted suicide is impossible to control. That seems petty clear. And who is next? Well, protectors of human life are worried about trends—shall I say “the slippery slope”?—in Great Britain, where it is not yet legal. But a bill is being considered this fall to make it law. Saunders, who also represents the Christian Medical Fellowship, points to a 2005 study from the House of Lords that estimated that a Dutch-type law in Britain would lead to more than 13,000 cases of euthanasia annually. And assisted suicide advocates are doing all they can to make it a reality in the country.
Exit International has actually opened a euthanasia “club” in London. At this “club,” members pay to attend workshops on suicide methods and to access certain online information. Saunders says, “[These] activities present a real and present risk to vulnerable members of the British public.” Indeed they do.
Of course, all this is happening because people have swallowed the false worldview that we control our lives, and that our lives only have meaning if we’re happy and healthy and protected from suffering.
But there’s a reason every Christian tradition condemns euthanasia and suicide. God is the author of life. Our lives—and our bodies—are not our own. We’re stewards of them. And every human life taken intentionally undermines the dignity of all human life. In other words, every life discarded is one more step down the slippery slope. We see it in the Netherlands. Let’s pray we don’t see it here.
[bold and italics emphasis mine]
FURTHER READING AND INFORMATION
"Assisted Suicide 'Out of Control' in Netherlands" - Nick Hallett | Breitbard.com | October 3, 2014;http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-London/2014/10/03/Assisted-Suicide-Out-of-Control-in-Netherlands
"Britain warned, as euthanasia rate in the Netherlands soars" - The Christian Institute | October 6, 2014; http://www.christian.org.uk/news/britain-warned-as-euthanasia-rate-in-the-netherlands-soars/
"30 Logical Reasons Against Assisted Suicide" - Jane St. Clair; http://www.thecompassionatechoice.com/articles/30-logical-reasons-against-assisted-suicide/
Life's Worth: The Case Against Assisted Suicide - Arthur Dyck, Dennis Hollinger, Francis Beckwith | Eerdmans Publishing | November 2002
"Joni Eareckson Tada Pleads With 29-Year-Old Brittany Maynard to Not Kill Herself" - by Sarah Zagorski | Washington, DC | LifeNews.com | 10/16/14;http://www.lifenews.com/2014/10/16/joni-eareckson-tada-pleads-with-29-year-old-brittany-maynard-to-not-kill-herself/
"... Joni Eareckson made the following plea to Brittany in a statement:
“Like many, my heart broke when I watched Brittany’s video in which she outlined her plans to die through physician-assisted suicide. No one — absolutely no one — welcomes the pain that dealing with a terminal disease invariably brings, and it’s clear that this young woman is firm in her convictions.
But if I could park my wheelchair beside her, I would tell her how the love of Jesus has sustained me through my chronic pain, quadriplegia and cancer. I don’t want her to wake up on the other side of her tombstone only to face a dark, grim existence without life and joy; that is, without God. There’s only one person who has transformed the landscape of life-after-death, and that is Jesus, the One who conquered the grave, opening the path to life eternal. Three grams of phenobarbital in the veins will only provide a temporary reprieve. It is not the answer for the most important passage of her life.
The hours are ticking away; please, Brittany, open your heart to the only One who can do something about your pain and your death. Life is the most irreplaceable and fundamental condition of the human experience, and I implore you to take a long, hard look at the consequences of your decision which is so fatal, and worst of all, so final.”
[bold and italics emphasis mine]
PRAY FOR AMERICA: THANK GOD for His many blessings on America throughout it's history. May we then ask that AMERICA once again be a blessing TO GOD, by once again submitting to HIS will in our affairs - both personal and national - that He may truly "heal our land." (2 Chron. 7:14)
URGENT REQUEST: Pray for Brittany Maynard (discussed in past posts #1025 and #1026 and the second article noted below) who plans to commit suicide SAT., NOV. 1. Pray that there are family and friends who will finally persuade her to change her mind.
U.S. Supreme Court has Reconvened: Let's be praying WHENEVER the Court is in session as their decisions can have impact on GENERATIONS to come. The fact that they may have an opportunity this session to actually vote on same-sex "marriage" where it has the same impact on this country that Roe v. Wade did should be motivating enough!
ELECTION DAY, NOV. 4th. Let's begin praying that the American people will have wisdom in voting into office those who will lead our communities and nation with integrity and wisdom from God and DO NO HARM!.
WORLD-WDE PRAYER REQUESTS:
Friday, Sept. 26th - Two Year Anniversary of Pastor Saeed Abedini's Imprisonment in Iran! - [NOTE TODAY'S POST!]
We need to continue to pray for Pastor Saeed - that his health will improve and that he will be re-united with his wife and two young children who live in the United States. [If you have not yet, please sign the petition for his clemency- http://beheardproject.com/saeed#sign]
PRAY ALSO : - For comfort and peace for Saeed’s wife and children here in the U.S.\
- For a strong witness and testimony from Pastor Abedini in the prison where God has placed him
- For Christians around the world who are being persecuted for their faith in Christ
- For leadership from the White House and State Department in defending the freedoms of Abedini and other Americans
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2014/July/Obama-Taps-Rabbi-for-Religious-Freedom-Ambassador/ "..An estimated 76 percent of the world's population live in countries where religious freedom is restricted. Secretary of State John Kerry said the United States must take a strong stand against those violations. "Around the world repressive governments and extremists groups have been crystal clear about what they stand against, so we have to be equally clear about what we must stand for," Kerry said. "We stand for greater freedom, for greater tolerance, greater respect, for rights of freedom of expression and freedom of conscience," he said A key development in the 2013 report is the large number of displaced members of religious communities, including entire Christian communities in Syria and Iraq that have been forced to flee their homes because of persecution."
SIGN A PETITION TO THE UN FOR THE PROTECTION OF CHRISTIANS :" The church in Syria has shone brightly for 2,000 years. But today violence and persecution threatens its survival. Thanks to an incredible response, Open Doors is helping 8,000 families in Syria survive each month. We believe the signatures and prayers of 500,000 people will encourage the UN to act and protect the rights and lives of all Syrians, especially the vulnerable Christian community." Go to: http://lp.opendoorsusa.org/emails/nov-13-action/save-syria.html?utm_source=action&utm_medium=email&utm_content=button&utm_campaign=november
Of course, let's CONTINUE PRAYING FOR AN END TO THE EBOLA CRISIS IN WEST AFRICA AND THE HEALING OF ALL THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN INFECTED.
PRAY FOR THE CRISIS HAPPENING NOW IN IRAQ (see post #907) Pray that allied forces will be able to drive the group ISIS back (see post #964)
/PRAYER ALERT- UKRAINE: As the Lord leads, please pray:
*For God to suppress President Putin’s ambitions to "restore" the Soviet empire.
*For the people of Ukrainen [esp. for the church 'to be THE church'] as they wait to see if the Russian troops will advance.
*About President Obama and to use wisdom in crafting our foreign policy, and wisdom for his advisers.
Continue to Pray for EGYPT - Continue to pray for the tense situation in Egypt and especially for the Christian believers who are being targeted with violence by Muslim Brotherhood members.]
"Euthanasia and the Slippery Slope - YOU CAN’T KILL JUST ONE" - By: Eric Metaxas| Breakpoint.org: October 16, 2014; http://www.breakpoint.org/bpcommentaries/entry/13/26243?spMailingID=9685923&spUserID=MTMyMjM2ODE5OQS2&spJobID=401319078&spReportId=NDAxMzE5MDc4S0
News flash: Assisted suicide in the Netherlands is not as bad as the critics had feared. Actually, it’s worse.
When abortion was made the law of the land, critics predicted that the number of “procedures” would multiply across America, that many would treat it as a form of birth control, and that millions of unborn babies would die. “Nonsense,” said abortion supporters. Abortion would be just for the “hard cases” so that a women would be safe from so-called “back-alley abortions.” Abortion supporters accused pro-lifers of using a “slippery slope” argument. Okay—40 years later which was right? Well, it’s pretty obvious: fifty-six million unborn children have been legally aborted since Roe v. Wade in 1973, precisely what pro-lifers predicted. Sometimes the slope actually is slippery.
Now let’s talk about euthanasia, also known as assisted suicide, which is making headlines here in the U. S. with the decision of a “vibrant” but terminally ill 29-year old Oregon woman to take her own life.
Will her decision be another step down the slippery slope? Let’s look at what is happening in the Netherlands, which legalized euthanasia, supposedly just for the “hard cases.” Critics there warned the pressure to kill would spread throughout society, that the so-called “right to die” would become a “duty to die,” and that many people not thought to be at risk would face the final kindness of euthanasia.
What happened? According to the Daily Mail, the number of those euthanized in Holland has risen by 151 percent in just seven years, from just under 2,000 to nearly 5,000, with most of the “cases” involving people with cancer. Ninety-seven people, however, were helped to die by their doctors because they had dementia.
“What we are seeing in the Netherlands,” says Dr. Peter Saunders, Campaign Director of Care Not Killing, “is ‘incremental extension’, the steady intentional escalation of numbers with a gradual widening of the categories of patients to be included.”
What Saunders calls an “incremental extension” is, I think it’s fair to say, a slippery slope! The Daily Mail also reports that in 2012, 14 people with “severe psychiatric problems” died by lethal injection. Last year, the number was 42. Similar statistics are coming to light in Belgium and Switzerland. “The lessons are clear,” Saunders says. “Once you relax the law on euthanasia or assisted suicide, steady extension will follow as night follows day.”
Saunders says assisted suicide is impossible to control. That seems petty clear. And who is next? Well, protectors of human life are worried about trends—shall I say “the slippery slope”?—in Great Britain, where it is not yet legal. But a bill is being considered this fall to make it law. Saunders, who also represents the Christian Medical Fellowship, points to a 2005 study from the House of Lords that estimated that a Dutch-type law in Britain would lead to more than 13,000 cases of euthanasia annually. And assisted suicide advocates are doing all they can to make it a reality in the country.
Exit International has actually opened a euthanasia “club” in London. At this “club,” members pay to attend workshops on suicide methods and to access certain online information. Saunders says, “[These] activities present a real and present risk to vulnerable members of the British public.” Indeed they do.
Of course, all this is happening because people have swallowed the false worldview that we control our lives, and that our lives only have meaning if we’re happy and healthy and protected from suffering.
But there’s a reason every Christian tradition condemns euthanasia and suicide. God is the author of life. Our lives—and our bodies—are not our own. We’re stewards of them. And every human life taken intentionally undermines the dignity of all human life. In other words, every life discarded is one more step down the slippery slope. We see it in the Netherlands. Let’s pray we don’t see it here.
[bold and italics emphasis mine]
FURTHER READING AND INFORMATION
"Assisted Suicide 'Out of Control' in Netherlands" - Nick Hallett | Breitbard.com | October 3, 2014;http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-London/2014/10/03/Assisted-Suicide-Out-of-Control-in-Netherlands
"Britain warned, as euthanasia rate in the Netherlands soars" - The Christian Institute | October 6, 2014; http://www.christian.org.uk/news/britain-warned-as-euthanasia-rate-in-the-netherlands-soars/
"30 Logical Reasons Against Assisted Suicide" - Jane St. Clair; http://www.thecompassionatechoice.com/articles/30-logical-reasons-against-assisted-suicide/
Life's Worth: The Case Against Assisted Suicide - Arthur Dyck, Dennis Hollinger, Francis Beckwith | Eerdmans Publishing | November 2002
"Joni Eareckson Tada Pleads With 29-Year-Old Brittany Maynard to Not Kill Herself" - by Sarah Zagorski | Washington, DC | LifeNews.com | 10/16/14;http://www.lifenews.com/2014/10/16/joni-eareckson-tada-pleads-with-29-year-old-brittany-maynard-to-not-kill-herself/
"... Joni Eareckson made the following plea to Brittany in a statement:
“Like many, my heart broke when I watched Brittany’s video in which she outlined her plans to die through physician-assisted suicide. No one — absolutely no one — welcomes the pain that dealing with a terminal disease invariably brings, and it’s clear that this young woman is firm in her convictions.
But if I could park my wheelchair beside her, I would tell her how the love of Jesus has sustained me through my chronic pain, quadriplegia and cancer. I don’t want her to wake up on the other side of her tombstone only to face a dark, grim existence without life and joy; that is, without God. There’s only one person who has transformed the landscape of life-after-death, and that is Jesus, the One who conquered the grave, opening the path to life eternal. Three grams of phenobarbital in the veins will only provide a temporary reprieve. It is not the answer for the most important passage of her life.
The hours are ticking away; please, Brittany, open your heart to the only One who can do something about your pain and your death. Life is the most irreplaceable and fundamental condition of the human experience, and I implore you to take a long, hard look at the consequences of your decision which is so fatal, and worst of all, so final.”
[bold and italics emphasis mine]
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