A Personal Story & the Truth About Roe v Wade - Episode 112

Grab the eBook "So Long, Guilt & Shame" here

& sign up for the audio course "Psalm 91 - Pray It & Believe" here

 

 

Well, hey there! Hello hello to ya today.

Thanks so much for joining me for this episode of The Burt (Not Ernie) Show. Today we are going to look at a really amazing verse from the Old Testament book of Esther, and a verse from the New Testament as well. The Bible tells us we are to be doing the work of spurring one another on toward love and good deeds. I’m hopeful that the podcast today is gonna do just that. It’s so very important for you to know that you are not a mistake, you are not here by accident, but that a very intentional God who loves you so incredibly much has purpose for you, for your life, for your days upon this earth. So, let’s chat about that.

 

You’re listening to The Burt (Not Ernie) Show podcast, part of the Spark Network, now playing in the Edifi app. This is episode #112.

 

So here we are, summer of 2022, and the book of Esther, specifically chapter four and verse fourteen, has been on my mind. You probably know this verse, it’s on artwork, social media posts, t shirts, it’s been everywhere like Johnny Cash, ya know? It’s very encouraging, this verse, but first I want to share with you a verse from the book of Acts that goes hand-in-glove with Esther 4:14.

 

Acts 17:26 says this - From one man he has made every nationality to live over the whole earth and has determined their appointed times and the boundaries of where they live. 

And that’s from the CSB. 

 

So, from Adam, way back at the very beginning, that would be the one man God made all mankind from. And God chose our appointed times and the boundaries of where we live. You hear people say I was born too late and in the wrong land, but actually that’s not possible if we believe this verse. 

 

The NKJV reads this way - And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth and has determined their pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings.

 

God determined you would be living in this part of the world at this point in time. It’s very precise, very exact. He chose the boundaries of our dwellings. 

 

You weren’t born at the wrong time. You weren’t born in the wrong part of the world. The right here and the right now, this is where God has you. He is perfect in all of His ways, we sing that as a worship song, but let’s make sure we live like we believe that He is perfect in all of His ways. And all, means all, right? 

 

Esther 4:14, from the Amplified and then I’ll read it from the NLT - 

 

For if you remain silent at this time, liberation and rescue will arise for the Jews from another place, and you and your father’s house will perish [since you did not help when you had the chance]. And who knows whether you have attained royalty for such a time as this [and for this very purpose]?”

 

14 If you keep quiet at a time like this, deliverance and relief for the Jews will arise from some other place, but you and your relatives will die. Who knows if perhaps you were made queen for just such a time as this?”

 

It’s the second half of this verse that I was going to focus on today, but ya know reading it, the first half is crucial. If you remain silent, if you keep quiet, at a time like this…oh it is just so easy for me to kind of play it safe, I guess. To not be quite as bold and direct as I should be. Not talking about being a loudmouth, lipping off, just uncorked all the time. No, I mean when I know the Lord is leading me to write a certain post with some things that are harder to talk about, and rather than try to pretty it up to appeal to the masses, to keep people as comfortable as possible, He wants me to be more direct. Like, this is what the Bible says, So this is what I am going to share. When I fight against that, I do what this verse mentions. I’m trying to remain silent in a way when I want to kind of obey His leading, and kind of talk about that subject matter, but so vaguely that it’s not totally clear what I’m talking about. Knowing the will of God should not be akin to nailing jello to the wall. If He has stated something clearly in the Bible, in His book, His word, then it’s as clear as it needs to be. I can handle it well, I have to be loving and gracious and led by the Spirit of God, but I can’t refuse to do what He says to do, and say my refusal is because I’m trying to be loving and gracious. Truth and love, justice and mercy, these are things that are mentioned side by side in the Bible, and if He is urging me to talk about something in this moment, because this is the era in which I am alive, and I don’t do it… He can just as easily work out His will through someone else. It’s just crystal clear in this verse, and I need to stop dodging the hard things He asks of me. 

 

I’ve heard it said that God is not sentimental, and we often are. He is more willing to move a Saul along and raise up a David while we can hang on to Saul when God has moved on. That’s convicting! And it’s convicting because it’s often true. I’m not convicted of things that aren’t true. That’s not how conviction works. 

 

Who knows if perhaps you were made queen for just such a time as this? And for this very purpose? 

 

Who knows? Well, our God knows. Those two sentences moved Esther to action and everything changed as a result. You may be the one to say the words that spur someone on to the greatest action of their life, or you may be the one who takes action that changes things for, in the case of Esther, an entire nation.

 

Does this maybe sound a bit like our culture in the US? 

 

It sure does.

 

What’s your role? To speak with boldness on issues that will move someone else to do the scary, but right, thing? Or do you need to be encouraged by someone’s words and out of that encouragement will be borne your bravery, your actions that will impact others far beyond just your own corner of the world?

 

We aren’t here at this moment in time by accident. This is not by chance. We need to know that God is involved in the details and the specifics of our lives, and that He is well aware of what’s taking place, what’s shaping up, in the places where we live. ARe we praying about our role in this world? Or are we praying and asking God to bless us in this world? Not wrong to ask for Him to bless us, He loves to, His word is super clear about that. But are we asking how we can bless others and honor Him in our current culture? Taking a hard stand based on God’s word can be tough, but doing it in a way that is vulnerable enough to let people see who you really are, it can be hard to do. We have the New Testament as a guide for how to do the hard stuff of ministry. And as disciples, we are commissioned, not asked if we feel like it if we get around to it sometime before we leave this planet could we maybe…no, that’s not what it means to be commissioned. We are under orders from the boss, we are not our own bosses anymore. Our lives are hidden with God in Christ Jesus. We are not our own, we were bought with a price, and that price was the precious blood of Jesus. 

He has the right of way in our lives. We are to yield to Him. So, He put us here at this time. In this country. And this stuff, specifically Roe v Wade, is happening right now. Would you be willing to pray about this moment in time, what’s happening now and what will happen in the coming months? It’s not my place to tell you what to do, that would not line up with yielding to the Lord. But the Lord did put it on my hard to cover this subject on the podcast. 

 

I am going to share a bit of my personal testimony, and then I’d just like to pray for our country. 

 

I was very, very liberal. Really like intensely liberal. Not raised in a Christian home, but raised by a single mom who was a feminist. She wanted her girls to be feminists too. She really thought it was going to help us, protect us from some of the hard stuff she endured and honestly she was rebellious against her parents and didn’t want to follow them in their walk with Jesus. My siblings would all agree with that, all six of us, and that’s not me dishonoring my mom. Not at all. She would have told you that straight up, just as she told so many people that very thing. So my husband and I, we live in Wichita and way back in the early 90s there was what is known as the Summer of Mercy. You may have heard of it. Wichita was, for quite a long time, the abortion capital I believe of the world. And that summer there were protests and they were intense and all summer long, like the main highway through the middle of town they had it blocked if you couldn’t drive, it was all summer. And one day while driving my car, my husband was in the passenger seat and he leaned over and he tapped the horn in support of the protestors, the pro life people. I went off. I mean, really went off. We were on the opposite side of the city from our home, our apartment, and I very nearly threw him out of the car and left him there. I was enraged. How dare he use my horn in my car that I paid for to support something I, an extreme feminist who was pro choice, I mean it was a long rest of the day. Because I meant it. Well, fast forward about a year and half later, the Lord had been working on my heart, doing all kinds of things, and that’s another story for another day, or a lot of stories I mean I was pretty hard hearted, really dug in, so it wasn’t just bam I saw the light. No. I was just a mess, way too hard for one moment to impact me. But about 18 or so months later, in a different apartment, I was watching a tv preacher. And I prayed for forgiveness for all my sins, and I really wanted to be forgiven, I did not choose my way anymore, I chose Jesus and I surely did mean it when I made Him Lord of all my life. I fully yielded the right of way to Him when I prayed that day. As soon as I finished that prayer, like boom said amen, I did a total 180 degree turn around in my thinking. One of the biggest things that I instantly thought differently on was this issue, a woman’s “right” to choose. All those years of being so dug in, so hardened, just vanished in one split second. Gone forever. 

 

People who knew me then were pretty shocked. I was so different in how I thought, and subsequently the way I lived, the way I spoke, every big and every little thing was impacted, I had people tell me they knew God was real because how else could I change so dramatically, so instantly? 

 

I just knew in that moment how my thinking on this issue had been so far off from how God views this issue. I understood what child sacrifice is to Him. How it breaks His heart. For the mother and the child, and the fathers too. I’ve never had hate toward women in this position, which is another sign that God did a powerful transformative work in my life. But I have had grief and prayed so much over this really terrible terrible evil, and it is an evil, you may never listen to me again because I just said that abortion is evil. I did not say women who have had abortions are evil or unforgiveable so that’s not what I said. The actual act, it is truly evil. God did not so totally and instantly change my mind because it’s not a big deal. My mind, my thinking, changed because God changed it. And I am not a one-off. What God thinks on a matter is really the end of the matter, and when we ask Him to change our thinking so that we follow Him as disciples, right we are the followers not the leaders, when that change happens, it is because He made it happen. I could not have changed myself. The Lord did it. 

 

That’s my personal change of heart about this very relevant right now in June of 2022 issue. I have prayed so much for the unborn, for the women in this country who are so hurt, going through such difficult times, for all those who have been wounded by having abortions, that the church Jesus’ church would be a safe haven and a place of hope and healing for them. Yeah, I’ve prayed. I’ve prayed. And a few days ago, I stood in awe. 

 

Not everyone feels like this is a hopeful moment. But it is. It is. Keep it hopeful for those who need hope! And you are allowed to rejoice and thank God for this miraculous change. This kind of thing does not happen. And it did happen. In the 49th year it happened. And what’s the 50th year according to the Bible? The year of Jubilee. Thank God for what He has done, is doing, and will do. And ask Him what you ought to do in this moment in time. You are not here by chance. He may well have something for you to do that will reveal His love and His hope to those who need it so very much right now.

 

Thanks for listening today, and thanks for praying today. 

Our nation needs to be covered in prayer.

We need Jesus. We need more and more Jesus in America right now.

 

God bless you.