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 According to the most recent numbers from Statistics Canada, 103,768 abortions were performed in Canada in 2003. This is a decrease of 1% from 105,154 in 2002. The rate of abortion fell slightly from 15.4 abortions per 1,000 women in 2002 to 15.2 abortions per 1,000 women in 2003. The number of induced abortions per 100 live births was 31.0 in 2003, down from 32.1 in 2002. Induced abortions continue to be most common among women in their 20s, with that age group making up more than half of women seeking an abortion. In 2003, 2.6 % of Canadian women in their 20s had an abortion.

Sixty-nine percent (69%) of Canadians surveyed in 2003 said they would support Consent Laws in Canada that require a woman's physician to provide her with certain information before she has an abortion procedure. Such information could include details on the stages of fetal development including an ultrasound scan, possible complications and side effects following an abortion, and various alternatives to abortion.

Among women, 34% supported legal protection from conception on, versus 24% among men. Nineteen percent of women and 20% of men supported legal protection after three months of gestation and 11% among men and women supported legal protection after six months gestation.

A Focus Canada poll conducted in October 2005 by Environics Research found that 64% of Canadian women sup-
port legal protection of unborn children before birth.

Once again, 70% of those polled support informed consent legislation for women considering abortion. This would
include telling women about stages of fetal development and all possible side effects and complications and an ul- trasound scan. There is currently no such legislation.

Respondents were also asked about parental consent for girls under 18 prior to an abortion being performed. Fifty-
six percent of Canadians supported a law that would require such consent. At present in Canada, there is no parental
consent required for abortion at any age.

these stats found at: http://www.lifecanada.org/html/resources/polling/Media%20Release_November2005.pdf

Ontario taxpayers paid $400,000 last year to send 56 women to the states for late term abortions.
The Ontario Ministry of Health admitted these figures after stories last week claimed only 15 women were sent from Ontario and 30 from Quebec.

A Day of Remembrance

Unexpected critical words can often be as painful to the spirit as physical wounds are to the flesh.
Once they leave the lips of a friend, co-worker, or relative, your body wastes no time reacting. Your muscles tense, your throat goes dry, and you experience a strange flutter in your heart. With the stinging words left hanging before you, what are you to do? Most of us find ourselves standing motionless and speechless as the verbal perpetrator walks away.

If this scenario is painfully familiar, then count yourself among the millions of recipients of harsh words each day. Though none of us seek out opportunities to criticize or be criticized, there is bound to be tension, conflict, and opposition when humans interact. There is a way to emerge victoriously, however, and it can be found God’s Word. Below are six guidelines to follow when you find yourself on the receiving end of hurtful words.

Ask for God's Help

In the Psalms, we find David’s cries to God for deliverance from his enemies. He wastes no time calling out to the Lord. "O Lord my God, in You I have taken refuge; save me from all those who pursue me, and deliver me" (Psalm 7:1 ). From this verse, we can establish that when facing criticism or harsh words, our first action should be to reach out to God. If the situation does not allow you to step away for a moment of prayer, simply pray silently, "Lord, help me to react in a way that is pleasing to You."

Learn to Control Your Tongue

After praying, you will most likely have to verbally respond to the criticizer. This must be done carefully to avoid interjecting your own fleshly thoughts. Most of the time, self-righteous, condemning words are the first to enter our minds. Our responsibility, however, is to not say them. Psalm 34:13 confirms this by advising, "Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit."

Respond in Love... and Truth

If you cannot speak your mind, then what should you say? The Bible says we are to respond in love. In one of Jesus’ most controversial yet powerful sermons He admonishes, "You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor, and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you" (Matthew 5:43-44 ). You must sort through your thoughts until you can hear God’s gentle voice of guidance. An interesting point is made in William Backus’s book, Telling Each Other the Truth. Backus sites Matthew 18:15 , "If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother" as he points out our responsibility to discuss the issue privately with the person who has offended us. Responding in love does not involve talking behind the person’s back, discussing the issue over and over with co-workers and friends, or internalizing our pain as if the incident never occurred. Instead, we should seek resolution as soon as possible in a Christlike manner.

Do Not Seek Revenge

Though it is often tempting to plot our revenge or plan retaliatory words, you must resist these urges. When your burden has been communicated to God in prayer, it must stay in His hands and His control. "For we know Him who said, ‘Vengeance is Mine, I will repay.’ And again, ‘The Lord will judge His people’" (Deuteronomy 32:35 ).

Choose Forgiveness

When a friend or stranger’s words cause you pain, you may or may not receive an apology from them. Even so, you must make a conscious decision to forgive their transgression. Why is this so important? Again, the Bible contains a clear answer: "For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you" (Matthew 6:14 ).

Examine your own heart

Now that you have effectively worked through your reaction and forgiving the person who criticized you, there is one final, important step. You must stop and ask yourself, "Were any of the critical words or accusations true?"

Ouch again! Though many times words of criticism are simply the product of anger or frustration, we must consider they are sometimes true. God could be using someone to bring a problem area in your life to your attention.

For example, if one morning you arrive at work to your boss’s greeting, "Are you late again?!" it may be time to buy an alarm clock, or to get to bed earlier. Though these words may be unpleasant, they are no less true. As believers, we must always be willing to accept suggestions for improvement as we seek to offer our lives as witnesses for Christ.

God understands the hurt that can result from critical words. Because He is with you constantly, He is witness to every emotion you feel throughout your day. Let His loving presence serve as your strength when you are the recipient of criticism. Instead of internalizing your pain, release it to God who is waiting to turn your sorrows into joy.

After a speech, Pro-Life activist Penny Lea was approached by an old man. Weeping, he told her the following story:

"I lived in Germany during the Nazi holocaust. I considered myself a Christian. I attended church since I was a small boy. We had heard the stories of what was happening to the Jews, but like most people today in this country, we tried to distance ourselves from the reality of what was really taking place. What could anyone do to stop it?

A railroad track ran behind our small church, and each Sunday morning we would hear the whistle from a distance and then the clacking of the wheels moving over the track. We became disturbed when one Sunday we noticed cries coming from the train as it passed by. We grimly realized that the train was carrying Jews. They were like cattle in those cars!

Week after week that train whistle would blow. We would dread to hear the sound of those old wheels because we knew that the Jews would begin to cry out to us as they passed our church. It was so terribly disturbing! We could do nothing to help these poor miserable people, yet their screams tormented us. We knew exactly at what time that whistle would blow, and we decided the only way to keep from being so disturbed by the cries was to start singing our hymns. By the time that train came rumbling past the church yard, we were singing at the top of our voices. If some of the screams reached our ears, we'd just sing a little louder until we could hear them no more. Years have passed and no one talks about it much anymore, but I still hear that train whistle in my sleep. I can still hear them crying out for help. God forgive all of us who called ourselves Christians, yet did nothing to intervene.

"Their screams tormented us . . . If some of their screams reached our ears we'd just sing a little louder."

Now, so many years later, I see it happening all over again in America. God forgive you as Americans for you have blocked out the screams of millions of your own children. The holocaust is here. The response is the same as it was in my country - SILENCE!"

Have you ever wondered HOW people could have stood by and let the holocaust just happen? Do you wonder why the Christians in this story chose to just sing their praise to God a little louder to drown out the victim's cries?

The old man's story is in the past. The past cannot be changed. It is easy to think we would act differently now. But the old man's last words are haunting "It's happening all over again in America with abortion. The Holocaust is here."

As American Christians, we have become so comfortable in our lovely buildings and padded pews. We have beautiful fellowship halls for our many banquets. We have the latest sound equipment for our praise and worship. We have computers to keep our records. We gather together each week and shut ourselves inside our buildings. We raise our voices as loud as we can, all in the name of God.

And yet, in the heavenly realm, our voices raised in praise are drowned out by screams of agony from millions of babies who are being executed before they are born. We can't see them. We can't hear them. But it is happening right now!

Babies are being aborted UP UNTIL THE DAY OF BIRTH in this country. Their organs and brains are "harvested" for use in medical experimentation. In Wichita, Kansas, the smoke stack from the furnace of Dr. Tiller's abortion clinic belches out black smoke and the sickening smell of burning flesh. These are the bodies of 7th, 8th and 9th month old babies being "disposed of".

If the Christians in the old man's church had done something, they would have probably been killed. That is not the case with us. We don't even have that as an excuse for our silence.

Years from now will you be like that old man trying to explain your apathy as millions were led away to slaughter in abortion clinics? Or will you raise your voice and cry out in protest for those who have no voice! The choice is YOURS!

FACTS ABOUT ABORTION

Fact: In the United States it is legal to abort a baby up until the day of birth.

Fact: In the D&X procedure babies are "partially aborted" so the head is still in the cervix but the body is out. While in this position the live baby is still considered an "abortion" therefore a non-person. The live baby's brains are sucked out and the other organs are harvested and sold to "researchers". The baby receives no anesthesia and is alive until the procedure kills him.

Fact: Every day in America about 4,400 babies die painful deaths by dismemberment, chemical poisoning, lethal injections into the heart, being torn limb from limb and now, being partially delivered and having their brains sucked out and their organs sold.

Fact: Abortion has two victims - the baby and the mother. Many women who have abortions suffer both physically and mentally. Depression, anxiety, grief, infection, sterility and even death are not uncommon as a result of the abortion.

Fact: Only 1% of abortions are performed as a result of rape or incest. Most abortions are done as a form of birth control because the baby is "inconvenient", "too expensive", or a "burden".

“Remember that in a race everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize.  You also must run in such a way that you will win.”  --1 Corinthians 9:24

If you participate in an athletic event, you must play by the rules.  You can’t make your own.  You can’t say, “If I hit the ball eight feet, then that is a home run.  These are my rules.”  That is not the way it works.  You must play by the rules.  Even if you hit the ball out of the park, you still must cross and touch every single base.  If you miss one base, that home run doesn’t count, and you are disqualified.

For example, if you want to compete in track and field in the Olympics, then you must play by the rules.  One rule is that athletes are prohibited from using drugs like steroids to enhance their performance.  We remember the 1988 Olympic games in which Carl Lewis won the gold medal because Ben Johnson was disqualified for steroid use.  Johnson didn’t play by the rules.

In the same way, this race of life we are running has a rulebook.  It is called the Bible.  It is not for us to pick and choose what parts of the Bible we like.  You can’t say, “I like certain truths in the Bible.  I like the part about God’s love and forgiveness.  But this part about denying yourself and taking up the cross… that must not be in the original language.  I don’t believe it.”  You can’t do that.  If you are going to run this race, and run to win, then you must play the rules that God has given to you in Scripture.  We must play by the rules, or we will be disqualified.

Copyright © 2005 by Harvest Ministries.  All rights reserved.  Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996.  Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189.  All rights reserved.

 "What is written in the Law?" he replied. "How do you read it?"

 He answered: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'"  "You have answered correctly," Jesus replied. "Do this and you will live."

But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" In reply Jesus said: "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. 'Look after him,' he said, 'and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.' "Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?" The expert in the law replied, "The one who had mercy on him." Jesus told him, "Go and do likewise."

 Bystanders ignore plight of burning homeless man

Wednesday, December 14, 2005     by Maurice Bridge, CanWest News Service

VANCOUVER -- St. Paul's emergency nurse Christine Wellstead has seen some pretty rough things on the job, but nothing has shaken her as much as the callous indifference she witnessed Monday night as bystanders ignored an unconscious homeless man wrapped in a burning comforter.

Wellstead was on her way home from work around 10:30 p.m. when she stopped at Starbucks at 19th and Cambie for a coffee. Smelling smoke, she walked outside to see what was burning, but all she could see was a woman sitting at an outside table, talking calmly on her phone as clouds of smoke rolled past her.

"She's on her cellphone, having her coffee and she's sitting amongst this acrid smoke," she said.

Looking further, Wellstead found a man slumped on a bench in a nearby alcove on the side street, wrapped in a comforter that was on fire.

"It was smouldering, and it was by his face," she said. "It was all orange, and there was smoke. I threw the blanket on the ground and tried to wake him up, but he didn't wake up."

She ran back into Starbucks for water to put out the fire, and that's when she got a real shock.

She said another woman customer standing at the counter told her: "Just leave him alone, he's a homeless person," Wellstead recalled. "I looked at her and I said, 'What are you talking about?'

"And she says, 'He's homeless, just forget it.' "

Appalled, Wellstead rushed back out with water to douse the fire and still couldn't wake the man, so she ran inside again and asked a barista to call for help.

"I said, 'You'd better call an ambulance, because I can't wake him up,' and the lady [customer] said, 'Don't call the hospital, they don't want him,' and I just looked at her, and I said, 'I work at the hospital and yeah, we want him.' "

Wellstead finally woke the man and got him sitting up as they waited for the ambulance. He told her he was prone to seizures and believed he had one while he was smoking, wrapped in his comforter against the night chill.

Wellstead said she didn't believe he suffered serious burns. The fire and ambulance crews who answered the call were great, she said, and treated him with respect as they took him away to St. Paul's Hospital.

The ambulance service confirmed a man was taken to St. Paul's after the incident. CanWest News could not obtain information on his condition Tuesday.

The well-dressed customer who made the callous remarks sat alone in her car at the curb, sipping her coffee and watching as the event unfolded.

Wellstead went home, but she was still upset Tuesday morning. "I can't get my head around it," she said. "I'm so upset. I was almost in tears.

"I know there are a lot of homeless people here and I know some of them can be annoying, but this was a human being.

"His blanket was on fire."

We need to be concerned at the mounting indifference in our society. As Paul has said to the church in Corinth, "Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death." (2 Cor 7:10). We also need to repent of our own lack of action where we could have helped friends or people that were in need. What is more, since we are "Ambassadors in Christ" (2 Cor 5:20) and "Children of Light" (Eph 5:7-11) , how can we remain silent in the face of injustice in our society towards the poor and the oppressed?

Loving Father, please forgive me for not having loved my neighbor as myself. I pray that you would grant me boldness and fearlessness to be your ambassador of love towards those who are suffering and to speak out against injustice so that your name be glorified. Help me also to encourage others to do the good works that you have prepared for us! Amen.