November 2005

November 2005

OSA Regional Event – Wichita, KS

High school students gather outside of Spirit One Christian Center

Wednesday, October 5, 200, marked the beginning of OSA's regional event in Wichita, KS. We met at the abortion mill at Central that is only open every other Wednesday. Pro-aborts were out in full force since they have been asked not to come to Tiller's mill. We then made our way to Tiller's to beseech God to stop abortion in America and to begin at this most heinous of abortion mills.

The people of Wichita were greeted with a dose of the truth about abortion during their morning commute. Faithful Christians braved high winds and cold weather as they stood for Jesus on top of the overpasses.

Jesus went back to school at West High School and impacted the youth despite opposition from school administration. It is sad that people supposedly dedicated to education would oppose truth. Fifteen to twenty Christians handed out hundreds of pieces of literature. We were joined by one courageous high school senior who unashamedly stood with us and passed out our literature to his fellow classmates. One precious young lady mourned the death of her aborted sibling. She missed the sister she would never know. The following day, we visited East High. The response to our “God is Going Back to School” campaign was the most interesting we have seen to date. More on that later.  

Prayer intercession at Tiller's holocaust center was led by Brother Bill Shanks, a pastor from New Orleans. He connected the dots between the sin of abortion and God's judgment through Hurricane Katrina.

On two different days we attended Wichita State University to deliver a strong witness for King Jesus. Students responded to our message, took all our literature, and engaged in intense debate. The combination of public proclamation and one-on-one discussion was very productive. Some students, when led to articulate and defend their pro-choice attitudes, saw the truth of abortion. It is easier to say you are pro-choice when you do not consider that choice is – to kill an innocent child. One young woman who was dealing with homosexual tendencies was brought to an understanding that she was breaking God's law.

Professors brought their students out to mock and antagonize. The truth of God's Word prevailed over those who were wise in their own eyes but truly foolish. Abortion, environmentalism , and evolution were flash points of discussion. To some the Truth was a stumbling block – to others it was the very fragrance of life!

We visited Tiller every day, and Saturday morning was no exception. We also visited Tiller's new chaplain at his home and spoke to his neighbors concerning what this man in their community is involved in. We finished our event with a picnic in the park, thinking that all we had left was a rally that evening and church services the next morning, but God had other plans. We had received word that a student from one of the high schools had gathered together a group to stand against us on Sunday morning at Spirit One Christian Center , pastored by Mark Hollick. The Lord had turned this city “right-side-up” in Jesus' Name! Editorials were flying about our presence at the high schools and WSU. Although the information was not very accurate, Jesus was stirring the heart of the city of Wichita, KS. Below is a report from Kendra Wilcox on that Sunday morning. The opening quotes in her article are taken from editorials written against us. To read these editorials go to www.operationsaveamerica.org.

 Not only did God go back to school, but school came back to Church at Spirit One in Wichita , KS
By Kendra Wilcox

“People are getting meaner and meaner … we have the sick protesters shoving pictures of mutilated, bloody fetuses in the faces of our future leaders.”

 “The biggest problem with these so-called pro-life people is that they are lazy and stingy. I'm sure they have lots of fun marching around a school for an hour or two, feeling self-righteous and holier-than-thou.”

“If you must protest abortion … Just keep it away from the public schools, where teachers have to deal with the aftermath of your destruction and gore.”

So much for tolerance. It's funny how “anything goes” at public schools: Planned Parenthood's embarrassing and sinful concept of sex “education”; homosexuality, lesbianism, bisexuality, and GLBTQ student organizations; school-based “clinics” dispensing prescriptions for abortifacients, condoms, and birth control to minors; the unscientific worldview called evolution; rap music that degrades women and glamorizes crime, violence, and addiction; and social-psychological conditioning. Anything goes, that is, but the truth. Just ask the Spotsylvania, Virginia student, who was made to turn her pro-life T-shirt inside out last year because it caused students to discuss the issue of abortion, if the truth was “tolerated” at her school. The truth is so unwelcome in public schools it is prohibited in the classrooms, hallways, and even on the bodies of students. And last week, when OSA came to Wichita, Kansas, it was rejected on the sidewalk!

Our God is truly an awesome God, and He works in mysterious and miraculous ways. When many of the kids “flunked” the message of the Cross at two of Wichita's local high schools and at Wichita State University, God sent the kids back for some remedial education. He sent them back to the fount of true education and wisdom - -back to the Church.

It was Dr. Benjamin Rush, one of the youngest signers of our Declaration of Independence and a distinguished physician and scientist, who wrote the tract, “A Defense of the Use of the Bible in Schools.” In it he warned:

“I know there is an objection among many people to teaching children doctrines of any kind, because they are liable to be converted. But let us not be wiser than our Maker.… The perfect morality of the Gospel rests upon a doctrine which, though often controverted, has never been refuted; I mean the vicarious life and death of the Son of God … By withholding the knowledge of this doctrine from children, we deprive ourselves of the best means of awakening moral sensibility in their minds … I cannot but suspect that the present fashionable practice of rejecting the Bible from our schools has originated from deists. And they discovered great ingenuity in this new mode of attacking Christianity. If they proceed in it, they will do more in a half a century in extirpating our religion than Bolingbroke or Voltaire could have effected in a thousand years.”

We see that happening today. Our faith is slowly being extirpated from public life and, as a result, we are not awakening “moral sensibility” in the minds of our young people. This generation has no moral compass, no magnet that always points the same way to a place called Calvary . When OSA became the instrument pointing the lost to Christ, many parents and students became angry at the uncompromising message and the intolerance of absolutism. They didn't know their spinning compass was broken and they didn't want to know they were pointed in the wrong direction.

In response to the “God is Going Back to School” campaign, OSA members have been accused of many, dare I say, intolerant things. This is as though Christianity and intolerance are mutually exclusive, instead of a hallmark of the Christian faith. Jesus was intolerant of sin, which is why He died for our sins. The label intolerant shouldn't offend , but the accusations that we “intimidated students” or used “Gestapo tactics” in preaching the uncompromising message of Christ are hugely inaccurate. One person even accused us of “yelling hate phrases in the faces” of children. According to the world, we are “hostile” and “self-righteous hatemongers” or “nut jobs” who carried out “verbal morality haranguing.” I'm not sure I even know what that last description means, but it sure doesn't sound politically correct. Verbal morality haranguing? Try working that into your next conversation with a goddess - worshiping abortion supporter (one such worshiper, by the way, was heard humming a mantra outside of Spirit One Christian Center during last Sunday's protest). “Your verbal morality haranguing about the sacrament of abortion is really intolerant.” Hmm … Doesn't have quite the same ring to it when said by a Christian.

Heavy, uncomfortable conviction was being felt in Wichita all week through the powerful working of the Holy Spirit. God then sent the lost to (of all places!) the Church. Last Sunday the theology of the church became biography on the streets as Spirit One members and OSA members ministered to the students, their parents, abortion supporters, witches, and atheists. Donuts were offered to the protestors as intercessors prayed and Pastor Rusty, James, Daniel Sugar, and others shared the Gospel message of salvation. Gentle discussions took place and songs were sung over the loud speakers in between the preaching. One woman was prayed for by Helen, a passionate prayer warrior, as sidewalk counselor Dixie spoke in her customarily soothing and pleading manner. A little later, Linda shared more with the woman. The woman accepted the Lord in the parking lot of the Church! One woman, who works at a local pornography store, shared her personal tragedy that led to her employment. Please pray for her salvation and for her children; she has agreed to meet again with her new Christian friend. The organizer of the protest has also agreed to meet with representatives of Spirit One, so please pray for his salvation, too. At the end of the day's harvest, seven beautiful precious souls were saved. All things considered, I guess “verbal morality haranguing” doesn't sound so bad after all.

GOVERNMENT MONEY CORRUPTS US

OSA Press Release, September 29, 2005

 “When government money enters into the picture of the hurricane relief efforts, you can bet that corruption is not far behind,” said Rev. Flip Benham, National Director of Operation Save America. “The work we Christians do, we do in the Name of Jesus. We don't expect repayment. We have freely received from Him and therefore we freely give.”

“Government money, however, corrupts! And large amounts of government money corrupts absolutely! When the state begins to finance the church, the church becomes beholden to the state. No longer will she exercise her sworn duty to be the moral compass for the government. She will sink into sheepish docility and become a lapdog and rubber stamp in the hands of the government.

“The purity and selflessness we have seen as the Church of Jesus Christ has run to the roar of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita has been nothing less than magnificent. God's church has been the first responder. Those who are there know this to be true. The church was there to meet the physical and spiritual needs of those ravaged by these twin disasters, but soon she will be overwhelmed by the ooze of governmental slime (cash).

“For those of us who have been in this relief battle from the very beginning, no money from the government is desired, and no money is required. Our thanks remains in heaven, and often passes through the lips of so many of those that we have been able to help. What we do, we do in the strong Name of Jesus. He freely gave all for us, and this is simply our way of saying, “Thank you!” to Him. To attempt to pay us for what was freely and graciously given to us by Jesus is an insult both to us and to Him. It would be nothing less than accepting a bribe.”

The Bride of Christ must never be bribed by tasting the forbidden fruit of the government dole.

“Our dependence and trust is in God alone. He is our provider, we need no other. It is God Himself who is reaching out to touch people in this national calamity through His church. It isn't FEMA. It isn't the Red Cross. They cannot save us – oh, they tried to fill that role, but they found that the disaster was simply too big. Perhaps God planned it that way to show us where our real salvation rests – it rests in Him alone.”

A point to ponder: God has more disaster than our federal government has relief!

CITY OF CONCORD TO SUPPRESS FREE SPEECH OF NATIONAL CHRISTIAN GROUP

OSA Press Release, October 14, 2005

The City of Concord, North Carolina, has announced that it has revoked the previously issued permit to Operation Save America for its planned Gospel proclamation this weekend. Criminal charges and arrests have been threatened if the group preaches the Gospel and tests the legality of this reversal. Overturning its previously issued policy, the city has for the first time restricted the free speech of local Christians desiring to proclaim Christ.

Pastor Flip Benham, National Director of the organization, stated, “We have jumped through every hoop the city of Concord has set before us. We have applied for and received the appropriate documents. This arbitrary decision is dead wrong! The City of Concord has violated the Law of God and the Constitution of the United States of America .”

Concord, North Carolina, has revoked all permits to preach or teach in Jesus' Name. “This will not stand!” said Benham. “For Christians to be locked up for meeting on a public sidewalk anywhere in America is criminal.”

Since the late 1980's, Operation Save America, previously known as Operation Rescue, has tested the constitutionality of such free speech restrictions in its stated goal of proclaiming the Gospel of Christ and overturning Roe v. Wade.

Enclosed in this month's newsletter is the 2006 Bible reading schedule. We pray that it is a blessing to you and your family as you learn to read the Bible every day as a family. There is nothing more satisfying to your soul and anchoring to your family than the richness and wisdom of the Word of God.  

Keep storming the gates,

Flip