Lifesitenews: What Babies Do Before They Are Born

When we read in Psalm 139 “You knitted me together in my mother’s womb”, this is what it’s talking about. Awesome article from Lifesitenews

10 mind-blowing things that happen to babies before they’re born

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With today’s modern technology and medical information, we have a real-time window into the womb. What happens to babies before birth – all the ways they move, grow, and change – is nothing short of amazing.

Here are just 10 things that happen to babies before birth. These 10 things demonstrate their uniqueness, value, and of course, their humanity.

What’s more, each of these 10 things happen in the first trimester – when approximately 90% of abortions in the U.S. occur!

1) “On the first day following fertilization, the human embryo is identifiable as a specific individual human being on a molecular level.”

South Dakota legislative task force, appointed to examine the science behind unborn life, found that “the new recombinant DNA technologies indisputably prove that the unborn child is a whole human being from the moment of fertilization, that all abortions terminate the life of a living human being, and that the unborn child is a separate human patient under the care of modern medicine.”

2) A Baby’s Heart Begins to Beat at 21 Days.

Here is a video of the baby’s heart beating at four weeks and four days, just a little over a week after it began beating.

According to The Endowment for Human Development, “(b)etween fertilization and birth, the heart beats approximately 54 million times…”

3) At 2 to 3 Weeks, a Baby’s Brain is the “First Organ to Appear.”

4) A Baby May Feel Physical Pain as Early as His Fifth Week.

After examining scientific resources and hearing medical testimony, the South Dakota Task Force found that “(the necessary pieces) for pain detection in the spinal cord exists at very early developmental stages.” Babies have also been documented moving away from unwanted or painful touch in their first few weeks of in utero life.

5) A Baby’s Kidneys are Present at Only 5 Weeks.

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A depiction of an unborn baby at about 10 weeks gestation

In fact, by eight weeks old, all of the baby’s organs are in place and only need to be fully developed.

6) A Baby’s Brainwaves Can be Measured at 6 Weeks Old.

See the brainwaves for yourself here.

7) At 6 Weeks, a Baby Will Move Away if His Mouth is Touched.

The Endowment for Human Development has a video of a six-week-old baby responding to touch here.

8) A Baby’s Ear Can Begin to be Seen Around 6 Weeks.

9) A Baby Has Fingerprints at 9-10 Weeks.

These fingerprints will be the same throughout the baby’s life. His permanent identification is already developing. Watch a video and see an unborn baby’s fingerprints here.

10) A Baby Can Suck Her Thumb and Yawn at 9 1/2 Weeks Old.

According to The Endowment for Human Development, most babies prefer their right thumb. At this age, plenty is going on. A baby’s vocal cords are forming, her bones are hardening, and her toenails and fingernails are emerging. See a video of a ten-week-old baby yawning here.

For more on prenatal development, go here.

Editor’s Note: The information here has, in large part, been studied and documented by The Endowment for Human Development (“a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving health science education and public health” that has cooperated with National Geographic to put out a video about prenatal development) and The South Dakota Task Force to Study Abortion.

Are You Being Persecuted?- Rachel Held Evans

A very thoughtful piece from Rachel Held Evans. I especially like this “The whole story of Advent is the story of how God can’t be kept out. God is present. God is with us. God shows up”

 

Are you being persecuted?

There is a pernicious rumor that resurfaces every Advent season and spreads across social media faster than a cold in a kindergarten class. 

It’s the rumor that God can be “kept out” of Christmas. 

You may have heard it from Kirk Cameron or an anchor at Fox News or an army of culture warriors who have once again worked themselves into a frenzy over the “War on Christmas.” Galvanized by fear, they storm checkout counters to demand that clerks issue them a “Merry Christmas” instead of “Happy Holidays” and cry persecution when inflatable manger scenes are moved from public courthouses to private property. They pine after the good-old-days when Christians could force Jewish kids to sing Christmas carols at school and they demand that every gift purchased, every mall opened late, every credit card maxed out must be done so in Jesus’ name or else Christ will be “kept out” of Christmas. They do it because someone told them that God needs a nod from the Empire to show up, forgetting somehow that the story of Advent is the story of how God showed up as a Jew in the Roman Empire.

In a barn.  

As an oppressed minority. 

To the applause of a few poor shepherds.

The whole story of Advent is the story of how God can’t be kept out. God is present. God is with us. God shows up—not with a parade but with the whimper of a baby, not among the powerful but among the marginalized, not to the demanding but to the humble. From Advent to Easter, the story of Jesus should teach us that God doesn’t need a mention in our pledge or on our money or over the loudspeaker at the mall to be present, and when we fight like spoiled children to “keep” God in those things, we are fighting for idols. We’re chasing wind. 

Full article here

 

Right For the Job

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I lashed out and bought a new bike on Monday.

For the last couple of years I’ve been riding a mountain bike. It’s a fine bike and will definitely get you places. We’ve spent many hours together, and even shared one nasty spill.

No matter how I practised, though, there was a limit to the speed I could consistently ride at on the open road. No matter the conditions or my fitness level, it seemed that over a longer distance about 20 km/hr was the limit, and more often my average was 18-19 km/hr.

Maybe I could have refined my technique or strengthened my leg muscles. But there was no escaping the fact that my bike was not designed for speed on the open roads. It was designed for strength and traction on dirt tracks.

So I bought a road bike.This bike is light- under 10 kg. It has ridiculously thin wheels and tyres with no tread to reduce the friction with the road. The tyres are inflated to 120 psi, again to reduce friction. It has dropped handlebars to allow you to lean into the wind and minimise air resistance. The gears are optimised for normal road conditions. Everything is engineered for the purpose of efficient riding over long distances.

Just riding this bike in a gentle way, just getting used to it, I achieved speeds close to 30 km/hr and an average of 25 km/hr over a distance of 21 km. I know I can go faster and farther on this bike. Riding in a three day, 300 km charity ride suddenly seems realistic.

My new bike does better on the road because it was designed for that purpose. It wouldn’t last 5 minutes if I took it into the bush, because that’s not what it was designed for.

You and I were designed for relationship with God. We work best in that environment. Talking to God, listening to God, reading His Word, finding His purpose for our life- that’s how humans work best.

The trouble is that we all want to do it our own way without reference to God. We want to ride our road bikes through the bush and wonder why the tyres are shredded and the frame is bent.

Take a look at the world- race riots in the U.S., ISIS running amok through Iraq and Syria, Boko Haram in Nigeria, crime and destruction, relationships breaking down, lawless children, drugs, hurting people, grieving people… the harvest of suffering just goes on and on because people refuse to live their lives in relationship with the Creator.

Christmas is coming, the awesome celebration of a God who came into the world to redeem a lost people. If you don’t know Him, go and find Him.

Life is so much better.

Sorry, The Impossible Word For Many

All too often we see fake apologies in the media given by celebrities as a part of their branding efforts.

The cause is often that the person involved has been caught out saying or doing something that some people find offensive.

For example celebrity non-entity Red Foo was chastised for appearing in a song that is pretty well offensive to every human being on the planet. So he “apologised” to his fans (not to women who might have felt demeaned or genuinely outraged by his song). The apology was meant to sidestep an angry petition demanding his removal from X-Factor. It was not a recognition that the song portrays women as just objects of sexual gratification, but an attempt to placate fans and keep the money rolling in.

Football players who misbehave while drunk often get to read a fake apology usually to stop the sponsors from withdrawing their support.

I guess all of us try this on with God too- a form of words that we hope diverts wrath but with no real intention of changing behaviour.

So what does a “fake” sorry look like and how is it different to a real sorry?

A fake sorry is big on the word “if, but a real sorry is unconditional. “I am sorry IF my actions offended anyone” is not real sorrow at all. A real sorry recognises that serious hurt has been caused and unconditionally apologises.

A fake sorry is all words (usually written by someone else!), but a real sorry leads to a change of heart and actions. Sometimes we say stupid things or do things without thinking how they affect others. Real repentance means we have learned something and we will not want to do it again.

A fake sorry leaves people apart, but a real sorry draws people together. Saying “sorry” is not about  making me look better than I really am, but about genuinely wanting to repair a relationship. After saying the words, we will want to ask “How can I make this better?”

If you hurt someone,”sorry” is the starting point not the ending point.

That’s why christians are so big on repentance as the start of the journey with God. we have all sinned and we all need to be put right with God. The place to start is saying “sorry” to God and then living a life of walking in friendship with Him (that is, a life of obedience to His ways.)

When we do the fake apology with God, and try to impress Him with our spirituality, that is called religion. God describes those things as filthy rags, or in Paul’s words “a pile of crap.”

Yes “sorry” is a hard word for many to say. But a genuine repentance can open the doors to healthy relationships with people and with God.

More Boko Haram Savagery

It seems that Boko Haram is increasing its power in the face of a pathetically weak Nigerian military.

From the ABC:

 

Boko Haram seizes Nigerian town of Chibok, hometown of kidnapped schoolgirls

Updated about an hour agoSat 15 Nov 2014, 7:19am

Boko Haram has seized the town of Chibok in Borno state, northeast Nigeria, from where 276 schoolgirls were kidnapped more than six months ago.

“Chibok was taken by Boko Haram. They are in control,” Enoch Mark, a Christian pastor whose daughter and niece are among the 219 teenagers still being held, said.

Mr Mark and the senator for southern Borno, Ali Ndume, said the militants attacked at about 4:00 pm on Thursday, destroying communications masts and forcing residents to flee.

Mr Ndume said that he had received calls from fleeing residents saying the town “was now under [Boko Haram] control”.

“There is no telephone service now in Chibok, which is why it took time before the reports reached me,” he added.

Boko Haram fighters stormed the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok on the evening of April 14 this year and forced students onto trucks in a mass abduction that caused global outrage.

Fifty-seven managed to escape.

The group’s leader, Abubakar Shekau, claims to have carried through his promise to marry off the teenagers still being held and said that they had all converted to Islam.

 

More than six months on, talks aimed at securing their release are at an impasse, despite government claims last month to have brokered a ceasefire deal with the militants and peace talks.

Mark said the attack on the town appeared to come after Boko Haram overran the towns of Hong and Gombi in neighbouring Adamawa state following the group’s ouster from the commercial hub of Mubi.

“They came in and engaged soldiers and vigilantes in a gunfight,” he added.

“Some of us managed to escape. All the telecom towers in the town were destroyed during the attack with RPGs (rocket-propelled grenades).

“No one can say what the situation is in the town in terms of destruction to property.”

Nigeria’s government has been heavily criticised for its response to the mass abduction, its failure to free the girls as well as its apparent inability to protect its citizens.

Last Monday, 58 boys were killed when a suspected Boko Haram suicide attacker detonated explosives at a school in Potiskum, Yobe state.

AFP

Running From Isis

From “Sojourners

Six weeks after ISIS overtook their village outside of Mosul, Iraq, Sief and Jacob Jebrita said they received an official cease and desist letter from the terrorist group saying their work was forbidden under Islamic law. The two brothers, partners in a small photography and videography business, lost their sole source of income. But that was just the beginning.

Sief Jebrita, who fled Iraq after ISIS took over his village, with his sons.

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Sief and Jacob shared their story while sitting in St. Mary, Mother of the Church in Amman, Jordan, with a delegation of religious media. The church, led by Fr. Khalil Jaar, has become home to more than 150 Iraqi Christian refugees who have fled their homes while ISIS continues to push through the region.

Because of their Christian faith, Sief, Jacob, and their families were targeted by ISIS. They told me of a soldier ripping an earring out of a girl’s ear, slicing it open because it was not acceptable for her to wear jewelry. As ISIS militants forced people out of their homes, they would not allow them to bring anything with them at all except the clothes on their backs. They told me the story of one mother walking with her little boy who was forced to leave behind his bottle of milk after a soldier knocked it to the ground and shouted at them. As the situation worsened, they said they saw Yazidi men killed for refusing to accept Islam, and Yazidi woman sold into slavery in Mosul – $500 for younger women and $100 to $300 for older women.

During the initial fighting to overtake their village, the brothers said that two of their neighbor’s children were killed. While the community was literally burying its dead, the militants attacked a second time. That was when the brothers decided to take their families and leave immediately, first to Erbil, where they were assured they could return home if only they paid a tax. But both told me that they knew in their hearts that they could never return.

“We can’t go back because not only of ISIS, but because our neighbors have turned against us too,” Sief lamented.

They spoke sadly of how all the people in their village, Muslims and Christians, had lived together peacefully. But when ISIS came, everything changed. They acknowledged struggles between Christians and Muslims have existed since 2001 – but not like what is happening now. They said their neighbors shunned them, possibly out of fear or apprehension of being seen as abettors.

So with only the barest of possessions, they left Erbil and eventually made it to Jordan, where they ended up at Fr. Jaar’s parish. Sief underscored that this is a tragedy for all Iraqi people, not just Christians. All are suffering at the hands of ISIS. Every night the refugees gather to pray and discuss their situation, trying to figure out what do to next. They are no longer living in constant fear — and they appreciate the generosity of Fr. Jaar and the Jordanians — but no one wants to go back. No one trusts the government — or the neighbors who turned against them.

But despite everything, they believe that from this terrible situation, God can make something good.

One night when some of the men began to despair at how much they had lost, an older woman they thought was sleeping suddenly sat up and said, “Do you want a clearer miracle than this? We have lost everything, but we did not lose our faith.”

With the help of Fr. Jaar, the Christian community in Amman, the Jordanian government, and the support of one another, they are acclimating to their new life. Fr. Jaar said any country would be lucky to receive these families — that they are good people with much to offer. He does not consider them refugees but guests.

I found the courage and fortitude of these displaced Iraqi Christians inspiring. Despite the hardships they faced and the daunting challenge of creating a new life in a new land, they remain faithful.

“This is the time to be strong, to love and help, and to be in solidarity with all people.” Jacob told me through an interpreter.

Amen.

Cynthia J. Martens is Senior Director of Circulation and Production for Sojourners.

Crazy Dreams That Might Come True

Yesterday I received one of those emails that sparks something crazy in a person.

Watoto, the organisation that supports orphans in Uganda and raises awareness by sending teams out to perform concerts around Australia, invited me to this event:

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I love riding my bike.

I’ve always wanted to see the Great Ocean Road.

Raising money for Watoto would be a good thing.

The organisers look like they are fair dunkum

The ride is about 300 km from Geelong to Warrnambool- about 100 km a day. I’ve often thought about doing a really long fund-raising ride (even back when we lived at Hay I fantasised about that) and I’ve felt like 100 km a day would be challenging but possible.

The good thing about this event is that it caters for all ability types, even the cyclically challenged like me. They also supply support vehicles and mechanics.

Of course reality is that I have never in my life ridden more than 25 km in one go, so I have to ask myself if my body (and more importantly my will power) is really up to this. I would have to get used to hill climbs, so maybe a few trips up the Nandewar Ranges would be on the cards.

So why haven’t I signed up already?

Well I’ve never been a sporty person and so in one sense this is so not me.

I guess I really need to know if it is God calling me into this- or at least it is something He thinks is OK.

Really, deep down the one thing that would stop me is fear of failure. I’ve had those times when my stomach has got into knots because I’ve pushed myself too hard. What if, when it comes down to it, I try and fail? What if I have to pull out half way?

I suspect that most of what stops me from doing a lot more outrageous things than I do is that fear- fear of looking stupid, fear of not being good enough, fear of saying the wrong thing. So dreams never turn to reality.

Well I guess I won’t know what I can do if I don’t try.

More thought and prayer required!

Prayer and Money

One of the things that the Lord has been teaching me over a long period of time- like two decades- is that we can totally trust Him for the things that we need. For many years we were not able to draw any salary from the church, but God provided in different ways and we lacked nothing.

Since the church has grown over the last few years, there has been more money available but there are still times when things seem to close in. It’s good at those times to really seek the Lord for that need.

Last week was one of those times. I could see bills piling up, commitments that needed to be met and a seemingly small income. So I did what I do in these places- I prayed. It seemed that I should pray for an offering of $2500, and I did this at least four mornings. I felt good about it, peaceful that God had answered my prayer.

Sunday morning’s offering was $1800 which was good- at the top of what we expect to get. Another $200 from night church and a little from the bookshop took us to $2077 which I banked on Monday. A good result, but $500 short of what I was expecting.

This morning as I started to pay the bills I noticed something odd. The balance that I had on my computer was significantly different to the online balance from the credit union. I did a reconciliation and discovered that I had recorded one payment of $500 twice. That was the $500 we were seemingly short.

God is so good!

I wonder what I should be praying for this week.