Volume 16 Issue 1 - January 2001

LET ABORTION DIE!

"The last enemy that will be destroyed is death." (1 Corinthians 15:26)

Just recently our homeschool, the University of Righteousness, embarked on a unit study concerning the Civil War. As we read books and watched documentary videos, we began to realize how devastating this epic struggle was and continues to be in the history of our nation. The judgments of God that are true and righteous altogether (Psalm 19:9b) are beyond question the source of this tragic conflict. At least, that was the informed opinion of Abraham Lincoln in his Second Inaugural Address. Regardless, this study had a profound impact upon the Thomas Nation as the horrors of this war were revisited.

One incident in the video that struck me was a speech that a black minister, Rev Henry Clangdon, (if my memory serves me correctly) gave to Congress at the end of the war. It was called, "Let Slavery Die." Immediately, I was inspired to take up this theme as it relates to abortion. Thus, on my recent trip to Connecticut to participate in the glorious union of Flip Benham’s son, Jason, and his lovely bride, Tori, in holy matrimony, I scribbled this poem on the "motion sickness" bag. This poetic offering is called "Let Abortion Die." To those who may see some merit to it, please submit it to your church’s leadership to be read for the Sanctity of Life Sunday on January 21st, 2001. My prayer is, God will use this poem to bring a righteous resolve to the heart of His people. One that will purposely inspire the Church to prayerfully desire the death of abortion, instead of tolerating the death of children abortion provides.

"Let abortion die, its bloody reign of tolerated terror end. May it unceremoniously depart, this accepted murder of men. No mourners, no flowers, no eulogy pronounced, No grieving, no tears, just its ignoble epitaph announced.

Let abortion die, may it meet its destined fate. Let it follow the path of every other tyrannical state. No reprieve, no new bills, no more courts to decide, No lawyers, no pundits, no little gods to choose who lives and who dies.

Let abortion die, its covenant with Hell annulled. May history condemn it, the present reject it, and the future be appalled. No memorial, no gravemarker, no inscription to recite, No burial, no honors, just death to this blight.

Let abortion die with all its corruption, deceit, and lies. May it be condemned with extreme prejudice its feigned alibis. No choice, no freedom, no right to kill anymore, No slogans, no pretense, no more innocent blood to seep from this ruthless whore.

Let abortion die with its sickening contamination upon the souls of men. May it pass away swiftly, its existence must not extend. No resuscitation, no reviving, no second opinion sought, No new medical procedures, no medicine. No! it must completely come to naught.

Let abortion die, may it reap what it has sown. This veracious destroyer be destroyed, its cruel heritage become unknown. No mercy, no pardon, and no more bribes, No excuses, no justifications, abortion you have no choice, you simply must DIE!"

TESTIMONY OF RACHEL’S PARK MEMORIAL

A Baby's Cry

The following testimony that is written for your consideration, I commit before God is true. It is given solely for the glory of God and to reveal to men, both believer and unbeliever alike, that the God of Heaven still moves in mysterious and miraculous ways to fulfill His will in the earth. A few months ago in the summer of 2000, my family and I drove to our church, Church on the Rock, located at 4720 N. 19th St. in Waco TX. While I was working in the office, my wife and children remained outside playing on the playground. All of a sudden, a strange occurrence took place. One of my adorable children ran in to tell me, "Daddy, we keep hearing the sound of a baby crying!" All of my children heard it and my wife heard it several times, so I went out to investigate. Sure enough, when I approached the playground, I distinctly heard the cry of a baby. It was clear the tiny infant was in pain, distressed and in need of immediate help. The sound was coming from the lower area of the church's property.

Diligently I began to search and call out to no avail. I then ran inside the church and called the police. When the police and the media arrived, we again searched throughout the wooded area and even drove around the surrounding neighborhood in a great effort to find something even remotely associated with a cry of a tiny hurting baby. We could not find anyone or anything that was the source of this disturbing, haunting cry of a little one. I couldn't understand it, nor even try to explain it. The only suggestions the police offered was "Perhaps the sound was coming from a daycare center close by or a child crying in the neighborhood." The problem with their suggestions was that the cry we heard didn't come from a child, it was clearly the sound of a tiny hurting baby.

Though this experience was strange and eerie, to say the least, as the months passed by, we didn't pay it much mind, that is, until recently. The Lord laid on my heart a vision of creating a Memorial to the Unborn called Rachel's Park Memorial based upon the Scripture in Jeremiah 31 where Rachel is weeping for her children, who were no more (Jeremiah 31:15). When I approached my pastor, John Wachsmann, about the idea, we agreed that it should be a permanent site, one located on the same property where months earlier we had heard the cries. Of course, at the time I never made the connection between the cry of the hurting baby and our proposed permanent site for Rachel's Park Memorial.

That all changed two days later, when at our regular Wed. night service, on Dec. 6th, members of our church, Larry and Gavina Thompson, approached my wife during the service with great concern saying, "Liz, count all your children. We just heard the sound of a baby crying near your van." My wife immediately made a diligent search and all of our children were present and accounted for. Gavina then rushed to the different nurseries to make sure all the other children from our church were there and that none had slipped outside where the sound of the crying was heard. None were missing. Coincidentally, our van just happened to be parked near the site that we initially heard the crying of a lost, hurting baby months earlier.

Today, Dec. 7th, in the year of our Lord, 2000, I was made fully aware of the startling manifestation of the second time a cry of a baby was being heard directly from the proposed site for a Cemetery of the Innocents and the Memorial for the Unborn. When the connection was made, the power of God and His anointing absolutely overwhelmed me. I broke and cried uncontrollably for quite sometime. Every person involved that saw and heard these things will testify of God's Spirit falling upon them as well. Needless to say, a great awe has come upon us as we realize that the ground set aside for the consecration of Rachel's Park Memorial had already been hallowed for this purpose by the cry of a baby long before we ever even conceived the vision. A cry from a missing, hurting baby that we believe says, "Remember me and what you have done to me and what you have left undone." May this testimony spread far and wide and may God use it to make Rachel's Park Memorial a reality.

THE VISION OF RACHEL’S PARK

Rachel's Park is designed for the glory of God, a Christian witness to our community, a place to restore the dignity, the humanity, and personhood of the unborn and to provide a place of healing, righteous closure, and merciful resolve to post-abortive parents. Church on the Rock has set apart a piece of their property for a permanent site for Rachel's Park Memorial. We will be clearing the land and preparing the site, starting with two work days on Saturday. January 6th and Saturday, January 20th, 2001 at 9 am at Church on the Rock located at 4720 N. 19th St.

There will be a new driveway and parking lot at the proposed site along 19th St.. A pathway from the parking lot will lead to the entrance of the Park. At the entrance there will be a landscaped area that will have a huge granite stone set up as a memorial. On the stone will be the inscription, "Rachel's Park Memorial," with the verse from Jeremiah 31:15,16, which reads, "A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted for her children because they are no more. Thus says the Lord, refrain your voice from weeping and your eyes from tears for your work shall be rewarded says the Lord."

A pathway will lead from this stone through an entrance way through the Park. It will be made from treated rough timber, which will hang a sign that reads, "Welcome to Rachel's Park Memorial, A Cemetery of the Innocents and a Memorial to the Unborn." The pathway will continue, and on both sides of the pathway, 2000 little white crosses will be permanently planted. These 4000 little crosses will testify of the horrible truth that 4000 little image-bearers of Jesus Christ die every single day in America. The area of the crosses will be fenced in with a sign on each side that reads, "This is hallowed sacred ground. It is consecrated to restore the dignity, the humanity, and personhood of the unborn that this nation has denied. Treat this site with all due respect."

At the end of the cemetery, in the back of the property will be set up a Wall of Remembrance. This is designed to allow post-abortive parents to name their children, honor them, and to prayerfully find repentance, forgiveness and healing in the process. Beyond the wall, we will plant a huge 30-foot lighted cross. Around the cross will be an archway of benches, set up as a prayer and meditation amphitheater. To the left of this back property will be a Pro-life Museum that highlights the history, the procedures of abortion and what God in His word has to say about it. There will be gospel, pro-life and post-abortion literature available for the public. The museum will lead to a prayer gazebo. A sign will be placed in or on the gazebo which reads "A Time to Mourn and a Time to Heal." along with the Scriptural passage of Isaiah 61 1-3.

To those interested in this monumental Christian Pro-life effort, please contact Rusty Thomas at (254) 836-1037. We are creating a separate bank account under Elijah Ministries, in order for those who donate funds to Rachel's Park Memorial to receive a tax-exempt donation. We also need laborers as well, those skilled in areas of carpentry, masonry, landscaping, gardening, painting, etc. Please keep this in your prayers and note the 2 work days, and rally as many people as possible to help. Also, please invite your church, family, friends, and neighbors to the dedication service on Sunday, January 21st at 3 p.m. at Church on the Rock. This will be a time to hallow the ground and dedicate this site to the service of God and His ministry to Mankind.

HOME SCHOOL APOLOGETIC

"Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the door posts of your house and on your gates." (Dt. 6:4-9)

Based upon this passage there are two revelations every Christian needs to know and obey. The first deals with the greatest commandment given from God to man and that is, we are to love Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. The second realization, according to this passage, is the importance of home education in God’s Kingdom. In other words, the greatest commandment is to love God and the greatest application of that commandment is home education. It is clear from this scripture and many others that the parent is God’s ordained teacher to educate their young. Anything less is missing the mark of God’s best for the Christian family. The following is an article written by Phil Lancaster called "Why Home School?" May it inspire you to take a daring step of faith to bring your children home to be educated by the ones who love them the most, God and their parents.

There are many excellent reasons for choosing to teach your children at home. Academically, there is now incontestable evidence that, on average, children who are home schooled fare better academically than children of either public or private schools. This is not surprising since tutoring has always been recognized to be the best method of education.

Socially, home educated children are spared the corrupting environment of the peer-oriented classroom and thus benefit socially. A common myth of our society is that children need to be with other children for extended periods of time to be properly socialized, but this is the exact opposite of the truth. Much time in a peer culture is damaging to children. Socialization is one of the best reasons to home school.

Family. Any home schooling family will tell you that one of the greatest benefits of the process is the way that family bonds are strengthened. Parents and children grow closer through the shared hours of each day. Siblings develop a new love and respect for one another as they live and learn and work together day by day. These families can overcome the family-fragmenting forces of modern life. They have more time together, and love is spelled t-i-m-e.

Spiritually, home educating families prosper spiritually. Parents are able to guide their charges in Godly paths as they protect them from the immorality and falsehood so prevalent in public schools and teach them in the Bible and its application to life. The very process of disciplining one’s own child results in character growth in both the child and the parent.

However: As good as all these reasons are, the very best reason to choose home education has not been listed yet. The Scripture is our wholly sufficient guide for what to believe and how to live in ways that please God. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly equipped for every good work. (2 Tim. 3:16, 17)

Or, put another way, According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue. (2 Pet. 1:3) Or, finally, Your word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. (Ps. 119:105) In other words, in our Lord Jesus and His Word, the Bible, we have all we need for spiritual and moral decisions in life.

The best reason for choosing home education is that it is God’s revealed plan for raising our children. The Bible knows no other system of education. God did not prescribe schools for His people; they were invented by others. The pages of Scripture espouse, by precept and example, a process that closely resembles what we call home education.

The Teachers. Throughout the Word it is the parents who are assigned the role of teaching their own children. The primary responsibility rests on the father. God said of Abraham, For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment; that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him. (Gen. 18:19) Paul gave this guidance under the Holy Spirit’s inspiration, And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. (Eph. 6:4)

Of course, as the man’s helper (Gen. 2:20-23), his wife is also a teacher of the children. My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother. (Prov. 1:8; 6:20) Even the grandparents are to share in the teaching task: speaking of God’s commandments, Moses said to God’s people,...but teach them to thy sons, and thy sons’ sons. (Dt. 4:9)

The Method. God’s method of education is revealed in Dt. 6:7-9. (See above intro.) True education occurs any place ("home and road") and any time ("lie down and get up.") The parents are to be the constant companions of their children, teaching them God’s view of life at every opportunity. Every child of a Godly family will live unceasingly in an environment that is saturated by God’s Word, and his parents will be creating that environment.

Since the purpose of education is to love God with the whole heart and to have His commandments lodged in the heart, the method must be one which reaches the heart. Discipleship-along-the-road living with the two people to whom the child is closest (his parents) is God’s method for reaching the heart of the child.

Our educational method must reflect a Biblical understanding of truth and life. The Greek/Western worldview sees truth as ideas that can be reduced to printed pages and considered in abstraction in a classroom. In the Biblical/Hebrew worldview, truth is personal (Jesus said, "I am the truth." Jn. 14:6); while it can be expressed in the statements of Scripture, it is always connected to life and conduct (speaking the truth in love. Eph. 4:15). Truth is not only something we can know, it is also something we can and must do (1 Jn. 1:6) God’s truth is only communicated truly in the context of relationship. God did not just give us the written Word of truth, He gave us His Son and fills us with Himself (Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. 1 Jn. 4:15).

The Content. All education should focus upon the Lord God: who He is, what He has said, and what He has done. Fathers are instructed concerning children to...bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord (Eph. 6:4), not the instruction of the world or of mere men, but "of the Lord.:"

That is not the only use of the Scriptures. Ps. 119:105 presents one of the broader purposes of the Bible. Your Word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. God’s Word is intended to illuminate the world we live in so that our walk is pleasing to God. The purpose of a light is to shine on an object so that it can be discerned more clearly. Similarly, the Bible is meant to "shine" on anything we encounter in the world so that we can understand it from God’s perspective. This means that beyond studying the Bible itself, we should use the Bible as our lens through which to view any other subject in life.

The second component of study in a Godly education is what Ps. 78 calls the praises of the Lord, and his strength and his wonderful works that he hath done. (v.4) To study these works of God we must, of course, begin with the Bible itself which reveals His mighty works of Creation and Redemption. This study will lead us beyond the pages of Scripture to the whole wide world that God made and sustains by His power. History, science, geography, law, art, music, mathematics, language- any subject area is a study of the works of God since it is He who created this world and guides the history of men in their scientific, cultural, and civil endeavors. Each of these subject areas must be approached in the "light of the Word, if it is to be properly understood. The Bible should not only be a subject in the curriculum; its truths should permeate every other area of study, providing God’s perspective on every subject.

That is why many home educators abandon the traditional school-subject approach to teaching in favor a "unity study" approach which takes into account the inter-relationship of the disciplines. Children thus engage in academic study in the same manner in which they experience the rest of the world-encountering the connectedness of the various elements of life. Such an approach not only respects the nature of the content of education, it also is most compatible with the discipleship method of teaching: learning from real life as it is encountered "along the road" every day.

The Goal. Education ought not to be seen as an end in itself. Nor should it be viewed in terms of mere academic or social preparation for life. Knowledge, by itself, is nothing and leads only to pride. (Knowledge puffeth up. I Cor. 8:1) We could give our children the very best academic preparation in the world, and only end up making them more effective instruments in the devil’s hands. No, God has something higher in mind.

Understood in its broadest terms, education is character training. God is in the business of transforming people. He is creating a people who have a living relationship with Himself. The beginning of the process is simply to take God seriously in everything or, as Scripture has it: the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. (Prov. 1:7; 9:10) The end of the process is mature people who know God; and who, knowing Him, love him; and who, loving Him, obey Him in all things.

That path of safety and blessing is always that which adheres most closely to the revealed will of God. Home education as we practice today falls short of the perfect pattern set forth in the Scriptures, but it is certainly a big step in the right direction- because home education is God’s idea.

ELIJAH MINISTRIES ITINERARY 2001

As the year 2000 fades into history and the year 2001 bursts forth upon us, we are truly anticipating great opportunities to serve our Lord for another year. We will continue serving under the leadership of Flip Benham, the National Director of Operation Save America. There are already two events planned for this year. In July, we are heading back to Wichita on July 15th-21st, to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the "Summer of Mercy." The theme for this national event is "Let’s Finish It." Later on in the year in October, we are heading back to Willow Creek Church in Chicago for a week long event to unveil "God Is Going Back To Church" campaign.

We have tentatively planned 3 Kingdom Leadership Institute conferences this summer. Once we know the exact dates and locations, we will pass that information on to you. Obviously by the articles in this newsletter, Elijah Ministries is expanding our work load just a little by taking on the vision of Rachel’s Park Memorial. It is a monumental task, but one we know that God has ordained. This is the year, we also are seeking to expand the effectiveness of the writing ministry. Plans are being drawn up to author some books and some more plays. Locally, we, by God’s grace, will continue to storm the gates of hell at our local death camp through Operation Full Court Press. There are many other avenues to serve the Lord’s purposes this year, but this will suffice for now. Please keep us in your prayers and consider helping us financially on a monthly basis. Together we can create crowns to cast at our Master’s feet.

IN KING JESUS’ SERVICE,

Rusty Lee Thomas