Prolife Kitchen Table
Join us as we share information and answer your questions about life issues from fertilization to natural death.
All of the materials used in this podcast are the product of four decades of work and research by Presbyterians Protecting Life – www.ppl.org. This isn’t just a podcast for Presbyterians – all of our materials are useful for anyone with an interest in protecting human life at every stage from fertilization to natural death.
We’ll use both scientific and philosophical sources, and for our Christian listener, there will be plenty of grounding in Scripture and a Biblical worldview. The show notes in each episode contain links to articles and scripture references. With the average 15 minute podcast length, and the addition of the list of scriptures and articles, each episode can be used for older student and adult Sunday Schools, group studies and personal study.
Most of the weekly topics will be available in hard copy from the PPL.ORG website and will cover a variety of subjects. We’ll talk about what it means to be human and how everyone is human from the moment of fertilization, and that our time in the womb is only a stage of development like being an infant, a toddler, a child, an adolescent, a mature adult and, if we are blessed with a long life, becoming elderly and how all those categories are categories of personhood and deserving of life and human rights.
Prolife Kitchen Table
Episode 24 - Breath of Heaven - Baby Chris Week 23
In last week's episode we talked about how attacks on Biblical sexuality are one-and-done for the Enemy, and this week's offering builds on that theme with an article by long-time PPL board President Rev. John Sheldon, on Purifying the Bride of Christ.
Scriptures included in this episode include:
Rev. 21:1-11 Matthew 16:8 Ephesians 5:1-33
Ezekiel 16:33-37 Ezekiel 16:53; 63 Revelation 11:11
Genesis 2:7 Luke 1:5-25 Psalm 139:13-16
Genesis 18:10; 25:23 Psalm 22:10 Jeremiah 29:11
Ephesians 1:4-11; 2:10 2 Timothy 1:9 John 20:22
https://www.ppl.org/baby-chris
Abortion is never medically necessary
Abortion Pill Reversal https://abortionpillreversal.com 24/7 Helpline at 877.558.0333 Email: help@apr.life or Chat at the weblink above
Post abortion recovery for both women and men at https://www.rachelsvineyard.org
Life Training Institute https://www.prolifetraining.com
Charlotte Lozier Institute https://lozierinstitute.org
Guttmacher Institute https://guttmacher.org
Compelled by the gospel, PPL equips Presbyterians to champion human life at every stage. PPL.org
Welcome back to the ProLife Kitchen Table. I'm Deborah Holyfield, and I've been waiting for you to come again, and thanks for sparing a minute to pause and listen to me talk about all things pro life. I'm going to take a minute for some housekeeping first. If you are only listening to this podcast without checking the show notes, you might not realize that all of the resources mentioned in each episode are linked in the show notes, as are all of the scripture references. The scripture references and resources are handy for more in-depth Bible study later in the week or for an adult Sunday school lesson. So we hope that these are helpful for equipping yourself and others with further study. Last week I spoke about how sexuality is one-stop shopping for the enemy. Destroying biblical sexuality attacks both men and women, children, families, and the witness that a godly marriage is to the world about the relationship that God enjoys with God's people. And I spoke about how the Bible is a romantic saga of the way God woos his people, by pursuing them, protecting and rescuing them from those who would harm them, by giving them gifts, by forgiving them when they reject him, and looking forward to the day when we are joined as the bride of Christ to our bridegroom in eternity. This week's article by the Reverend John Sheldon, long time PPO board president, builds on that theme by sharing his thoughts on purifying the bride of Christ. Hear the word of the Lord. Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And he who was seated on the throne said, Behold I am making all things new. Revelation chapter one verses one through two and five. Thanks be to God. One of the Bible's most familiar and beloved metaphors for the church is the bride of Christ. Old Testament prophets Hosea, Isaiah, and Ezekiel are among those who use this picture for God's redeemed people, as do the New Testament apostles Paul and John. God created and instituted the marriage relationship between one man and one woman to reveal Jesus Christ's relationship with his bride the church. As Christ loves his church, so also a husband is to love his wife. As the church honors Christ, so also a wife is to respect her husband. Christians who love Jesus will love his church. Jesus promises to build his church. The gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Building, protecting, and purifying Christ's bride is the point of the apostle Paul's inspired and authoritative teaching in Ephesians chapter five. In the sixth century BC, Hebrew prophet and priest Ezekiel employed the longest allegory of the entire Bible to describe God's relationship with his redeemed people. In Ezekiel sixteen, the prophet portrays God initiating his relationship by taking a freshly born but unwanted female infant, who had been thrown into a dumpster as it were, naked, bloody, with her umbilical cords still attached. God takes this infant, giving it life and nurture. The baby flourishes under God's love and grows into a beautiful young woman. As Ezekiel develops his allegory, the Lord God takes this young woman as his bride, adorning her with the tokens of his love. Sadly, the Lord's beloved wife is tempted by the world's allures. Full of herself and proud of her beauty, she leaves her husband and becomes a wantonly adulterous wife. Read Hosea's similar prophecy. Ezekiel's allegorical bride, Israel, Judah, and Jerusalem, eventually suffers the sad consequences of her sin against the Lord. She is used and abandoned by her callous lovers, represented by Egypt, Assyria, and Babylon. God allows his bride to finally be cast back into the dumpster from which she was once saved. Uncover your nakedness is Ezekiel's phrase to describe Judah's Babylonian exile. The Hebrew word for naked is the same as the Hebrew word for exile. Repentance in the church precedes God's revival in the wider world, and the refusal of the church to repent brings not only the Lord's judgment on his bride, but disaster to the world in which God has sent her as light and salt. Given God's character, it's not surprising, yet still amazing, that Ezekiel's lengthy allegory concludes with the Lord's redeeming grace. The Lord promises to remember his inviolable covenant vows. A remnant will be saved. He will restore his bride to himself, quote, when I atone for you for all that you have done, end quote. Not only will he atone and restore his bride, but will reclaim and restore her sisters, Samaria and Sodom, foreshadowing the coming inclusion of the Gentiles in God's redeeming covenant of grace. Ezekiel's prophecy points to the coming of the Lord Jesus and his atonement for his church, his remnant bride. Jesus knows the many sins and adulteries his church has, does, and will commit, but patiently and steadily he builds his church. Through the work of the Holy Spirit, applying the preached word of faithful pastors, the bride is purified. Like a window lit farmhouse in a dark and moonless field, the repentant church shines out the welcoming light of Christ to passers by traveling through this dark world. But the bride of Christ must confess and receive the Lord's forgiveness for her idolatries, disordered desires, and fears that have led her active and passive acquiescence to the atrocities of abortion, infanticide, and complete neglect of God's command to be fruitful and multiply. Our blessed hope is in that coming day of the Lord when the bride of Christ will be presented to the bridegroom in a magnificent garden wedding held on the grounds of the new earth. She will then become the great wife of the lamb, whose beauty will only increase as she ages. Revelation chapter twenty one verses one through eleven. Presbyterians protecting life seeks to love Christ and honor his bride by calling his churches to which we belong to repent from the passivity and silence in the midst of destructive forces seeking to harm the church. We live in an abortion promoting marriage weakening and child devaluing culture, all of which are antithetical to God's purposes in giving his good gift of life, marriage, and fruitful families. PPL supports local churches in Christ's ongoing purification of his bride, particularly as we think about human sexuality, abortion, adoption, special needs, reproductive technologies, end-of-life issues, and how to be a self-consciously life-affirming church, and provides resources to encourage pastors, elders, and local churches to preach and teach about the sin of abortion lovingly but steadfastly. PPL offers a wealth of resources to help churches apply God's forgiveness and restoration to those men and women graciously led to repentance and a knowledge of the truth about human life. The church and every local church where the true word of God is taught and obeyed is the hope of this fallen world. Invest in your church and let PPL help you to champion human life at every stage for the glory of the returning bridegroom. The wedding supper of the Lamb is a great thing to look forward to, isn't it? Now take a stretch break with me so you can get credit on your Apple Watch for accomplishing something today, and then come back and find out what's happening to Baby Chris during week 23 in the womb.
SPEAKER_00:Presbyterians Protecting Life has the resources you need to equip yourself and your congregation to champion life at every stage. We have answers to your questions, referrals to specialized care like abortion pill reversal and post-abortion recovery, current statistics and information, discussion starters, and devotionals to help you think about and share about pregnancy and abortion, adoption, foster care, and even suicide, assisted suicide and end-of-life challenges. Visit PPL.org to learn more.
SPEAKER_01:This week's Baby Chris Devotional Number 23 is called Breath of Heaven. Hear the word of the Lord. Mom might even be able to see the outline of his hands and his feet as he pushes against her stomach, stretching his muscles and changing positions. Although he has been breathing amniotic fluid in the womb, blood vessels and lung cells are continuing to develop so he will be ready to breathe air from the moment that he's born. Surfactant is forming to help his alveoli to open after birth so his lungs will not collapse and stick together. If we wanted to measure life by the number of our breaths, young children take about 44 breaths per minute, and an adult at rest breathes about 16 times per minute, 960 breaths an hour, and so on. A person who lives to age 80 will take about 672 million seven hundred and sixty eight thousand breaths in his lifetime. Saving our breath is so important we learn to administer the Heimlich technique when someone is choking, and CPR to breathe for cardiac and accident victims until first responders arrive. We ask our government to protect our air quality. We steer clear of toxic fumes, we discourage smoking, we get pneumonia shots, we get allergy tests, all to have healthy air for our lungs to breathe. Deep breathing alters the pH of blood, reduces blood pressure, aids in pain management, helps to relax our brain, and while we are asleep, breathing is an involuntary reflex. Called the Jewish scriptures and the Jewish understanding that life begins at first breath. These are usually people who would never use Scripture as a reliable source for any other reason, except to try to disprove a Christian prolife position. It is true that Genesis chapter two verse seven says that God breathed life into dust that became Adam. But the prototype human is surely not a good example for when life begins through natural human procreation, believing that it is the same as believing that God is still mixing up mud in the womb to form each new person. A second volley points out the reanimation of dry bones in Ezekiel's vision of the valley of dry bones. Should we take a prophet's vision of animated adult skeletons as biblical proof that life begins at first breath? Or what about John's vision of the resuscitation of the two slain witnesses in Revelation chapter eleven? Should we expect that because they stood up when the breath of life entered them, that it means that babies who are breathing amniotic fluid in the womb aren't alive until we add outside oxygen, or that all dead people can be revived by administering oxygen? All such attempts to use wooden literalism to pierce holes through the biblical theme that human life begins at fertilization fail to take into account the call stories of the prophets, John the Baptizer and the Apostle Paul. They omit the multiple references to God creating life in the womb, not after birth, and the prebirth destiny stories like Isaac, the twins Jacob and Esau and King David, and the distinctive destinies of the elect of God. The poet Maya Angelou once said, Life is not measured by how many breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away. Surely one such moment was experienced by the apostles, when Jesus breathed the Holy Spirit onto them, animating their spirits, and another when a believer, submerged in the waters of baptism, emerges to that first breath of new life in Christ. And then there is the singular moment when a mother and father have their breath stolen by their crying newborn's first gulp of air. Hear the word of the Lord. And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit. John chapter 20, verse 22. Thanks be to God.
SPEAKER_00:We hope you enjoyed this week's reflection. We encourage you to share it and join us next time on ProLife Kitchen Table. May God bless you.
