and to give us new life, to bring us redemption. God's restorative nature is seen in a passage from Joel chapter 2:
23 Be glad then, you children of Zion, And rejoice in the Lord your God; For He has given you the former rain faithfully, And He will cause the rain to come down for you-- The former rain, And the latter rain in the first month.
24 The threshing floors shall be full of wheat, And the vats shall overflow with new wine and oil.
25 "So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, The crawling locust, The
consuming locust, And the chewing locust, My great army which I sent among you.
26 You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, And praise the name of the Lord your God, Who has dealt wondrously with you; And My people shall never be put to shame.
We can be thankful that God has dealt wondrously with each of us - He has given us the opportunity to accept Jesus as our Savior, to enter into salvation and to experience His redemption. When we make choices that are not pleasing to Him, we can know His forgiveness and be restored to Him.
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In Hosea 6, we can read a passage that can reinforce for us a view of God as the One who restores:
1 Come, and let us return to the Lord; For He has torn, but He will heal us; He has stricken, but He will bind us up.
2 After two days He will revive us; On the third day He will raise us up, That we may live in His sight.
3 Let us know, Let us pursue the knowledge of the Lord. His going forth is established as the morning; He will come to us like the rain, Like the latter and former rain to the earth.
I came across a story recently about a 25-year-old woman who desired to have an abortion, but after taking the mifeprestone abortion pill, had second thoughts, according to an article on the ChristianityToday.com website. She Googled "abortion pill reversal," and found a website called, AbortionPillReversal.com. She called the 800 number and talked to someone who told her about a relatively new procedue involving the use of progesterone. It worked. She is the mother of a 4-month-old son.
This new reversal process has now been used in the saving of 89 babies, according to the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG), which has issued a statement favoring the procedure. The Association has some 2500 members, and so far, over 200 physicians are providing the service to women.
Americans United for Life has been involved in drafting informed consent legislation in Arizona and Arkansas, requiring abortion providers to give pregnant women extensive information about their pregnancy, including the possibility that a chemical abortion might be reversible.
The AAPLOG statement, issued by Mary Davenport and Donna Harrison, states, "Many women are ambivalent about their abortion decision, and there is increasing evidence that many abortions are coerced. These women welcome the opportunity to reverse their initial decision, and should be given accurate information about this process."
Of course, Planned Parenthood is opposed to the use of the procedure - one of its physicians calls it "junk science." And while it is true that there has been one study about it, co-author Dr. George Delgado told the UT San Diego newspaper, according to Christianity Today, “I don’t think there’s any reason to stop what we’re doing now, which is connecting women who have changed their minds with doctors who are willing to help them. As we go along, we can do more comprehensive studies.”
Former Planned Parenthood clinic director Abby Johnson supports the procedure. She says that, "I’ve met several of the women and their babies who have gone through the abortion pill reversal process. It’s just a beautiful thing...," saying that Planned Parenthood offers no hope for those who have taken the abortion pill and felt regret.
The thought of reversing the cruel act of abortion is certainly a hopeful one. And, so far, there is evidence of lives changed because a seemingly permanent decision was followed by another decision born out of regret.
There are several things that come to mind in light of this story:
I am reminded that the trajectory of our lives is determined by the choices that we make. Some of those choices are irreversible, made in a moment, with sometimes life-altering consequences. But, thank God, sometimes there are opportunities to actually reverse our decisions or mitigate the consequences. For instance, this new abortion reversal procedure affirms and preserves life - it can certainly be regarded as a gift of God. And, it brings hope where there was none.
You know, God specializes in bringing hope in hopeless situations. When we have made poor choices and we find ourselves in a desperate state, we can turn to the Lord. He may not reverse what transpires as the result of our errant action, but He can certainly show us a new direction as we trust in Him. Where we have messed up, He can work through us to clean up.
Finally, forgiveness is a gift that God wants us to experience. When we sin, we know we have an advocate, the Lord Jesus Christ, who wants to deliver us from the power of that sin and to enable to walk in the forgiveness that He has extended by His blood, shed on the cross for you. We can know peace in the place of guilt and shame. He can cover our past mistakes - we don't have to be held in bondage by those actions. There may be consequences and we may possess scars, but He can mitigate the pain and bring restoration to us. The moments of our lives are permanent; they only occur once, but we serve a God who can take what seems permanent and rearrange it for His glory.
1 Come, and let us return to the Lord; For He has torn, but He will heal us; He has stricken, but He will bind us up.
2 After two days He will revive us; On the third day He will raise us up, That we may live in His sight.
3 Let us know, Let us pursue the knowledge of the Lord. His going forth is established as the morning; He will come to us like the rain, Like the latter and former rain to the earth.
I came across a story recently about a 25-year-old woman who desired to have an abortion, but after taking the mifeprestone abortion pill, had second thoughts, according to an article on the ChristianityToday.com website. She Googled "abortion pill reversal," and found a website called, AbortionPillReversal.com. She called the 800 number and talked to someone who told her about a relatively new procedue involving the use of progesterone. It worked. She is the mother of a 4-month-old son.
This new reversal process has now been used in the saving of 89 babies, according to the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG), which has issued a statement favoring the procedure. The Association has some 2500 members, and so far, over 200 physicians are providing the service to women.
Americans United for Life has been involved in drafting informed consent legislation in Arizona and Arkansas, requiring abortion providers to give pregnant women extensive information about their pregnancy, including the possibility that a chemical abortion might be reversible.
The AAPLOG statement, issued by Mary Davenport and Donna Harrison, states, "Many women are ambivalent about their abortion decision, and there is increasing evidence that many abortions are coerced. These women welcome the opportunity to reverse their initial decision, and should be given accurate information about this process."
Of course, Planned Parenthood is opposed to the use of the procedure - one of its physicians calls it "junk science." And while it is true that there has been one study about it, co-author Dr. George Delgado told the UT San Diego newspaper, according to Christianity Today, “I don’t think there’s any reason to stop what we’re doing now, which is connecting women who have changed their minds with doctors who are willing to help them. As we go along, we can do more comprehensive studies.”
Former Planned Parenthood clinic director Abby Johnson supports the procedure. She says that, "I’ve met several of the women and their babies who have gone through the abortion pill reversal process. It’s just a beautiful thing...," saying that Planned Parenthood offers no hope for those who have taken the abortion pill and felt regret.
The thought of reversing the cruel act of abortion is certainly a hopeful one. And, so far, there is evidence of lives changed because a seemingly permanent decision was followed by another decision born out of regret.
There are several things that come to mind in light of this story:
I am reminded that the trajectory of our lives is determined by the choices that we make. Some of those choices are irreversible, made in a moment, with sometimes life-altering consequences. But, thank God, sometimes there are opportunities to actually reverse our decisions or mitigate the consequences. For instance, this new abortion reversal procedure affirms and preserves life - it can certainly be regarded as a gift of God. And, it brings hope where there was none.
You know, God specializes in bringing hope in hopeless situations. When we have made poor choices and we find ourselves in a desperate state, we can turn to the Lord. He may not reverse what transpires as the result of our errant action, but He can certainly show us a new direction as we trust in Him. Where we have messed up, He can work through us to clean up.
Finally, forgiveness is a gift that God wants us to experience. When we sin, we know we have an advocate, the Lord Jesus Christ, who wants to deliver us from the power of that sin and to enable to walk in the forgiveness that He has extended by His blood, shed on the cross for you. We can know peace in the place of guilt and shame. He can cover our past mistakes - we don't have to be held in bondage by those actions. There may be consequences and we may possess scars, but He can mitigate the pain and bring restoration to us. The moments of our lives are permanent; they only occur once, but we serve a God who can take what seems permanent and rearrange it for His glory.
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