The people have given a clear mandate to government to proceed with the legislation to introduce termination of pregnancy to Ireland. So away with the badges and down with the posters! We are now entering a new landscape where the majority of people believe that a woman has a right to an abortion on demand.
This right is part of the new moral authority. I was reminded this week that it includes Gay rights. We added Same Sex Marriage and now Abortion. For some these have been introduced at a snail’s pace; for others the pace has been breath-taking. Have we reached the end of the line? Not at all! This century has seen the removal of so many ethical boundaries that there must be a temptation to remove the lot!

Perhaps on this day of jubilation for women, who see their quest granted for control of the unborn in the womb, we might spare a thought for the child. The weakest in society always have difficulty being heard but were given a voice in this campaign. Unfortunately, it was not amplified by the media although there was some attempt at even-handedness.
The government have said that they want to see abortion become “rare”. This laudable desire has not yet happened in the Western world but they are to be commended on their wish. They must have faith in women not having so many crisis pregnancies in the future.
This is a possibility as we now have a pill for everything except salvation!

Some have recognised that the inclination of every sinful human heart is to find its security and salvation in something apart from Christ. If only pills, therapy, or a surgical procedure could fix our problems then we would not have to deal with the reality of our sins. Our tendency is to try everything else rather that trusting Christ. He said “I am the way, the truth, and the life no man comes to the Father but by me” (St John Chapter 14 verse 6).
He accomplished on the cross the salvation so many are looking for today. It offers that peace of mind which comes from the forgiveness of sins and the promise of his presence in the life surrendered to him. As the Rev. Jonathan Edwards reminded us that, “You contribute nothing to your salvation except the sin that made it necessary.”

This is not a call to be more moral. I am not saying that by the right behaviour you can be saved. Salvation is the gift of a gracious God to the repentant person (Ephesians Chapter 2 verses 8/10). Behavioural changes flow to those who receive the gift.
In the light of this enormous truth, whether or not the result of the Referendum makes you happy or sad pales into insignificance.

As we move into the last week before the Referendum to repeal the 8th amendment to our Constitution, clearing the way for the introduction of a law on abortion, various things are becoming obvious.
Healthcare has become selective. It is to be denied to the unborn child at the mother’s choice. It is enshrined in the slogan “My body my choice”. The unborn baby has no choice!
The unplanned pregnancy has become the crisis pregnancy but no-one asks who created the crisis. Babies are not created without “choice”!
To create legislation to cater for the result of what the Bible terms ‘sexual immorality’ may seem to be a good thing i.e. it helps to clean up the mess – until you realise it sets a new norm for society. The bar is lowered to accommodate what Scripture censures.
For the believer who has the Holy Spirit within him or her the pollution is clear. The practical advice is “Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body” (1 Corinthians Chapter 6 verse 18). This despair need not be permanent. There is a way back through the provision of God’s mercy in providing a Saviour suited to our prodigal needs (St Luke chapter 15 verse 21).
But we live in a hedonist age where instant gratification trumps responsibility. It was for a good reason that the Taoiseach was concerned to pitch the date of the Referendum in university term time to garner the student vote which would favour his introduction of abortion. The current preference for secular humanism was also present in “Sodom…which indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire” (Jude 7).

So what about ‘Healthcare in 2018’? Previously there was Physical health and Mental health. Now, following the UK, we have done away with the distinction which facilitates doctors prescribing abortion. In the UK where they have had many years’ experience of operating the system 98% of abortions come under this conglomerate health reason. In other words, ‘abortion on demand’ and the doctors, in most cases contrary to their Hippocratic Oath, do the killing of the infant in the womb.
No animal behaves in this manner! Sometimes a male swan will kill a cygnet in some bewilderment as to who is in the nest. But nothing comes near man’s premeditated killing of an innocent human life. The tragedy is that those who have had an abortion tend to go on to have others. It then becomes a last ditch form of contraception.
We have no reason to believe that God will answer our prayers for the retention of the 8th amendment. As a country we have turned our back on Him and certainly do not deserve to be heard. But in repentance and faith in Jesus we ask that whatever happens the outcome might be to His glory.

Just as it is the victors who write their biased view of history so it is that it is the Government allied to the media that produce their biased script for the referendum.

The word ‘repeal’ has become something of a mantra in the hands of those seeking to introduce abortion. ‘Repeal the 8th’ trips easily off the tongue but it is only part of the story. Their repeal not only involves the 8th amendment but the 13th (Right to Travel) and 14th (Right to Abortion Information). These came about as a result of the X Case where a young girl, who was claimed to be suicidal, had been prevented from having an abortion in Ireland. This was then catered for in the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act 2013. It
made provisions for the finding of the court in the X Case, allowing abortion where the life of the woman was at risk, including a risk of suicide.
These changes permitted abortions in the ‘hard cases’ where medical intervention is required to safeguard the health of the mother. But what of the unborn child. What steps have out Government taken to attend to the child’s welfare? They had the Supreme Court comb the Constitution to see if the unborn child might have any other rights (other than the right to life) and when the answer was negative proceeded to produce this Referendum which attempts to remove from the unborn baby its right to life. So much for Pádraig Pearse’s declaration of the new nation’s resolve to cherish all its children equally!

Just as the word ‘abortion’ has been sanitised and has lost something of the horror which always attends that sad and bloody event so has the ballot paper been shed of any distracting text. We are to be asked a plain ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to approve or not to approve the 36th amendment. But even the sanitised ‘abortion’ word does not make it on to the paper.
We are being asked simply to do our duty and vote ‘yes’ so that the Government can deal with the rights of the mother and her unborn baby without having to trouble us again!
The only answer to all this is a resounding ‘NO’.
Of course the Government is not as insensitive as all that. They have been educated into believing that the child in the womb only becomes human after a certain period. About the length of this period there is a great deal of uncertainty but without any other terms of reference to guide them 12 weeks will do. The fact that science says that all the DNA is present at conception will just have to be ignored. After all humankind is more than a clump of cells!
Of course the Bible agrees with science! David the Psalmist recognised his sin and in psalm 51 we have his repentance. Without mitigating in any his own guilt he saw that he, like the rest of us, had inherited the sin of Adam. This did not happen after a certain period in the womb, and not after 12 weeks, but he writes “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me”. David reckoned that he was present in the womb from conception. He also was given to understand that he, and we all, are a creative work of God. He writes in Psalm 139 verses 13/14 “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”

So what is all the fuss about? We have a tiny percentage of the female population who are pregnant and wish they were not. Surely the charitable thing is to assist both mother and the child to delivery when a decision for the child’s future can be made. The current offer of legally killing the child is not a Christian solution. Vote NO.

The rhythms of nature play out their familiar but often overlooked tune, “While the earth remains, seed-time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease” Genesis Chapter 8 verse 22). By this promise we can be sure the sun will rise tomorrow, not because of the balance of probabilities but because we have a faithful God who is true to his word.
Our friends the House Martins arrived a couple of days ago and promptly started nest-building. The crumbling remains of last year’s nest were removed and fresh mud applied to the nest site. The Martin’s were out-flown by a couple of swallows who arrived in the yard before them. Until quite recently we called them all swallows – they fly so fast we couldn’t tell the difference. But now having recognised the distinctive markings we find it hard to understand how we could have thought they were all the same.
Along with the birds come the weeds and thorns, those emblems of the curse that make life on earth difficult and gardening such a chore (Genesis Chapter 3 verse 17/19). St Paul recognised the full extent of Adam’s sin and sees the curse as subjecting the creation to futility (Romans Chapter 8 verses 18/21).

But there are more distinctive markings in the Bible concerning God’s curse. It was made visible when a murderer was first executed then hung on a tree until sundown in demonstration of God’s disapproval of the criminal’s sin (Deuteronomy Chapter 21 verses 22/23). In the same way the whole of God’s law pronounced God’s curse on anyone who broke any part of it (Chapter 27 verse 26).

Come now to Calvary and look with fresh eyes at our suffering Saviour. The law had become a curse for those who rely on it to save them, because none could keep it – that is except Christ. By his death he redeemed us from its curse becoming himself a curse in our place (Galatians Chapter 3 verse 13).

And finally he took Adam’s curse on the ground with its emblem of thorns placed on his head so that when the number of the redeemed is complete the new creation will become a reality (Romans Chapter 8 verse 23).

The next time we look at a crucifix we will see Christ through new eyes. His sufferings which formerly made us feel sad now are full of meaning. We now see how God can freely pardon all who admit to their guilt, turn from it and put their trust in Jesus.

Distinguishing between Swallows and Martins opens up the avian world a bit more.
Distinguishing between a dead Christ and a Saviour who has cleared the way to God opens up the possibility of personally recognising Him as my Redeemer and Lord.