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As I wrote yesterday, since the election I’ve been pondering where we are as a nation and a world.

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I vacillate between thinking 1) the end of the civilization known as the United States of America is near, 2) the apocalypse is near, and 3) I’m overreacting.

Most often I think it’s a combination of #1 and #2, although I do try to temper myself.

And what if this is so, I’ve asked myself? Where does this leave the pro-life movement? Why is God continuing to allow these millions of abortions – almost half a billion around the world per decade – and with them the worldwide decimation of demographics by age and gender? What is He thinking? How does unfathomable tragedy fit into His plan?

Well, of course I know His thoughts are not my thoughts, and His ways are higher than mine. But I still think about these things. I’ve learned there are four ways to determine the will of God: Scripture, prayer, Godly counsel, and circumstances. So I always do try to keep an eye on what’s going on around me, just in case there is something obvious I can take note of.

So I took all this baggage with me to the summit, knowing I would be in the company of Godly counselors. My takeaways, plagiarizing Mark Harrington of Created Equal in places:

1. My first priority to stop abortion is to my family, my church, my schools, and my community. Were we to each take responsibility for our direct sphere of influence, we might get more accomplished. The world is too overwhelming a place to start.

2.  Introducing Gospel conversations into our outreach needs to be more a point of emphasis.

3. Pro-lifers must consider “evangelizing” the collective Church a priority.

Regarding point #3, a viewpoint was presented at the summit that pro-lifers need to educate the Church on its critical role in stopping abortion. Generally speaking, Christian churches and church members are low hanging fruit to actively join the anti-abortion community.

We may assume church leaders understand their role, but they may not.

Then there are, of course, those leaders who know they should speak out more against abortion but find it unpleasant, for various reasons.

And there are also churches teaching heresy, that abortion is acceptable. In those cases, members are often totally unaware that their denomination supports abortion. We do them no favors by letting them remain ignorant.

So I am very high on a growing movement to prayerfully protest in front of either pro-abortion or apathetic churches. I expect to participate in this endeavor soon.

At the summit we also discussed the possibility of coming persecution. We watched a 20 minute video featuring Mike Spencer of Life Training Institute, who spoke at a 40 Days for Life rally last month. It’s a great speech, and sobering. As Mike pointed out, we may think we would have hidden Jews in our attics during the Holocaust, risking imprisonment and death to do so, but we don’t really know.

“But here’s what I do know,” said Mike. “If I will not stand for the unborn in America when there is virtually no cost for doing so, then I can know with absolute certainty I would not have stood for my Jewish friends and neighbors in Nazi Germany in 1943.”

Reprinted fromJillStanek.com.