Australia’s Largest Christian News Site

“For indeed, as soon as the voice of your greeting sounded in my ears,
the babe leaped in my womb for joy.”
~ Luke 1:44 (NKJV)

If you are pregnant and visit the Medicare website, they will provide information regarding your pregnancy and talk about your baby in the womb. I have a nine-month-old baby boy. When my wife and I went for our twelve-week scan, the healthcare workers talked to us about our baby; they said, “Look, you can see baby’s heartbeat” and “Look, there is baby’s legs.”

However, something very strange happens in regard to language when the child is no longer wanted. Suddenly, you’re not a mother — you’re a woman. It is not a womb; it is a uterus. Personal terms are changed for cold clinical impersonal terms. And as for the baby — it is as if the baby has vanished.

You see, for the abortionists, pregnancy is nothing of any sophistication – it is simply a procedure to be terminated. The tragic reality is that this choice of language – termination of pregnancy, is deliberately selected to dehumanise the child, to other them. To construe them as something different, not really one of us.

As Christians, we also can utilise language. Let me provide you with just one incredible biblical example. In the first chapter of Luke’s Gospel, we read of an encounter of two pregnant mothers – Mary and her cousin Elizabeth (Luke 1:39-45).

Mary is thought to be a couple of weeks pregnant at this point; we know this because of the immediate verses after she hears from the Angel: it says, ‘in those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country’ (Luke 1:39). In other words, she went quickly.

Of course, the text tells us Elizabeth was already six months pregnant at the time of Mary’s visitation (Luke 1:36). Now, we often pass over these verses too quickly. However, the Greek word that Luke uses to describe the baby John is brephos. Why is this important?

Well, this isn’t the only time brephos is used in Luke’s Gospel. He would go on to use that word again in the next chapter. In chapter 2, the Angel appears to the shepherds and tells them to go and visit the baby Jesus. He says: ‘This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby (brephos) wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.’

Now, the word that is used to describe baby John inside Elizabeth’s womb and the word used to describe Jesus outside Mary’s womb is the same word – brephos. Not a different word like we use in the 21st century, not ‘unborn’ or ‘fetus’, no — the same word.

So here is my crucial point. According to Scripture, even though there is a change in age, development and location between baby John inside Elizabeth’s womb and baby Jesus outside in the manger – these different locations have not changed their nature. The world may make distinction, but there is no distinction in God’s eyes.

A brephos is a brephos inside the womb or outside the womb. A baby is a baby in the womb or after birth. As Christians, we know this instinctively, and I am convinced the world does too. However, the pro-abortionists have done their job well in hiding this reality from many vulnerable women. We must pray for this deceptive language to be unmasked, and that people would see no distinction, as does our Father in Heaven.

~ Matthew Cliff
Executive Officer, Cherish Life

Worship:

Prayer:

Gracious Father, thank You that every good and perfect gift comes from You, the Father of lights; You do not change like shifting shadows.

Thank You for Your perfect redemptive plan for humanity, that included the gift of Your own precious Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, Who although being God, humbled Himself and took on flesh as a helpless babe – so vulnerable. Thank you that He grew in wisdom and favour, and He was obedient unto death on the cross, to pay the price of redemption for us all!

Lord, we ask that Your Holy Spirit of Truth be released to those who are needing Your light and truth to lead them out of the narrative that leads to deception for parents and death to the unborn by abortion. In Your great mercy, deliver our nation out of darkness into the Kingdom of Your dear Son. In Jesus’ powerful redeeming Name, we ask, Amen.

Prayer Points:

• It is crucial for Australians to stand united and shout out for the Babies Born Alive through failed abortion to be given life-saving treatment and care and not left to die. Pray for the Senate to vote for the Babies Born Alive Bill. Senator Matt Canavan, Senator Ralph Babet and Senator Alex Antic have co-signed a bill to give babies born alive from abortion a right to life. No More Delay! Let this become a loud election issue for this government. Hear firsthand a midwife’s grief and a Born Alive after a failed abortion story.

• Pray the Love Adelaide — Walk for Life 2024 on Feb 10^th from 10am-12pm will grow in momentum to double last year — that nothing will hinder the church standing against legalised abortion, to add their strength and support to end the abortion crisis in our nation and beyond. Pray for health for everyone, especially the overseas guest speaker, doors of favour to open, more volunteers for the walk and the weather to be favourable.

• We pray for every state and territory of Australia to recognise that every life is a gift from God — for the church to arise in the cause of defending life in the womb from the horror of abortion and come together to stand for life. For greater numbers to be in attendance at the “Walk for Life Adelaide” on 10 February 2024 and “March for Life” Brisbane — date TBA, Mackay “March for the Babies” October, “March for the Babies” Melbourne, Love Sydney Walk for Life — date TBA, Perth’s rally for Life in May, and for all Territories and States to join in and hold a Walk for Life in their city/region.
• Even though every state in Australia has changed Legislation to allow abortion up to birth, we can all work together to change such legislation. It’s all about numbers — Pray that we unify and work together to make abortion unthinkable in Australia. Pray for the number of awakened righteous politicians and leaders in every sphere of influence to increase, and be empowered and emboldened to change the laws and influence this generation with the truth about abortion.
• Ask for many more churches across the nation to be aware of the women in their midst who are suffering through having had an abortion. To have spiritual discernment to identify women with a crisis pregnancy who need the help, hope and love of Jesus to keep the baby or choose adoption into a loving home. That every church be a trusted place of mercy and compassion to be known and operating as Houses of Refuge for the unborn and families. For Hubs of Love to be established in every city and town in the nation.

‘And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.’
~ Galatians 6:9 (NKJV)

May God Bless you as you pray these 21 Days of Compassion and Mercy for the Unborn.