God loves Gammy
This week we heard of how an overseas surrogate mother refused to have an abortion when the parents found out one of her twins was unwell.
Doctors discovered that the child had Down syndrome and serious medical problems.
At birth, the biological parents brought the healthy baby girl to Australia, but they abandoned her unhealthy brother, ‘Gammy’.
Our society is right to feel outrage and compassion at this behaviour.
But sadly, it highlights a double standard.
Many parents choose to abort healthy and unhealthy babies because they feel it’s too inconvenient to raise them.
We feel anger for baby Gammy, but we should also feel outrage for the countless babies killed each year through abortions.
God fearfully and wonderfully made each of us in our mother’s womb (Psalm 139:13-14), so we should show love and protection to the unborn babies who miss out on the legal right to life.
As our society drifts away from trusting in God’s word, we move further away from love and care for the weak and vulnerable.
Yet, we know that God will bring justice when Jesus returns to judge the living and the dead.
And with that justice there is also mercy for each of us, if we seek forgiveness by trusting Jesus and his death for us.
Pray for an end to the Iraqi persecution
The Archbishop of Sydney, Dr Glenn Davies, has joined calls for prayer and international assistance for Iraqi Christians facing severe persecution, even death, for their faith.
“It is an outrage that a community established in the early centuries of the Christian era should face expulsion from their own land, simply for their faith.” Dr Davies said in a public statement.
In Mosul, near the ruins of the ancient city of Nineveh, the militant Islamic group ISIS gave Christians an ultimatum: convert to Islam, pay a “protection tax” or face death.
Churches have been looted, burned or occupied. Christian homes have been marked with the Arabic letter “N” (for the word ‘Nasrani’ which translates to ‘Nazarene’, a follower of Jesus). Thousands of Christian families have been driven from the city.
The Archbishop called on churches to pray for peace and justice in Iraq and also for Palestinian Christians caught in the conflict on the West Bank and the Gaza.
“We have entered a period of significant suffering for Christians around the world: from Iraq to Syria and from Egypt to Sudan.” the Archbishop said. “While the Cross is the symbol of suffering for all who are followers of Jesus of Nazareth, we have a responsibility to stand with our brothers and sisters in the face of such unmitigated persecution.”
© Copyright - Oak Flats Anglican - Wordpress Theme by Kriesi