A devotion by Isaac Martin

This week at Bethany, we will recognize Sanctity of Life Sunday. For each of us, this may bring up different thoughts or emotions. For some, it may stir passion and energy to see the end of abortion and to see unborn children saved from heartbreaking destruction—and rightly so. For others, it may surface painful feelings or shame because of an abortion in their past, for which there is grace and forgiveness. Or it may stir anger at the way the enemy seeks to destroy life in our midst.

Bethany is a pro-life church, meaning we oppose abortion and euthanasia and advocate for the unborn and the vulnerable in a world that increasingly embraces a culture of death. Yet, if we are honest (speaking to myself here), we can become numb to the weight of this reality. What does it really mean to be a pro-life church and a pro-life Christian? I often find myself passionate about pro-life issues during election years, only to disengage from protecting and providing for the unwanted or vulnerable in real life when it truly matters.

The early Church was marked, identified, and known in the Roman Empire for two things: a vastly different sexual ethic and radical protection and provision for the unwanted and vulnerable in society—particularly abandoned daughters and children-  who were taken in and cared for. What I have been wrestling with is this: Is being pro-life something we are merely loud about (or maybe not even that), or is it something we sacrificially stand for and defend, regardless of personal cost?

Does this mean we vote for pro-life candidates, write our political leaders, and pray that God would break the demonic hold on our nation that seeks to destroy life? Yes! But could it be more than that? This fall, we asked the question “What If It’s True?” in many areas of faith and life.

Jeremiah 1:5 says, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you.”

Psalm 139:13–16 says: “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.”

Church, what if we truly believed this was true? Like, really? What might it change in our lives? It might mean we would be more active and sacrificial in caring for the unwanted and vulnerable.

Bethany has an amazing heritage of adoption, and I sense that God wants to raise up the next generation of adoptive parents. Part of standing against abortion will be opening our lives and homes to vulnerable children whose mothers choose life for their child as an alternative to the enemy’s destructive path.

One of my seminary classes focused on Ethics as Worship, where Dr. Mark Farnham helped us see these issues not merely as topics or causes, but as image bearers who are deeply valuable to God. Bethany has an opportunity to rise to this challenge. Will everyone be able to adopt? No—but that’s the beauty of the body of Christ. We are in this together, and what we do as the unified body of Christ becomes part of our shared inheritance.

We have this opportunity, and I believe these are first fruits: Kyle and Courtney Hurst—our dear friends and Bethany family—have sensed God’s leading to apply through a private adoption agency while they have been waiting for foster placements. God has gone before them, and they have been approved, which means they will be matched with a child. This process, however, comes with considerable financial cost.

I want to ask us, as the body of Christ, to consider some tangible ways to live out the call of Christ in this area. How might we all come alongside them to help care for one child who needs a forever home? May the cause of life not be something we are merely loud about, but something we actively invest in as part of our inheritance here at Bethany. Kyle & Courtney will be sharing more about this with us this Sunday.  And I can’t help but be thankful to our God for the incredible legacy He has given Bethany in this area—and for how He continues to provide us with opportunities to do His will and to be a part of what He is doing.