• Student Handout #5: Every Person Has Worth and Was Created for a Purpose
• Student Handout #6: The Tag on Phrase

Scriptures for Session 3

Objectives:

• Establish the worth of every human being from conception
• Establish that God has a purpose for every person
• Learn God's view of the hard cases; how Scripture answers typical questions

DVD:

The portion for this session is the first half of "Silent Scream" (13:22 minutes). Stop when Dr. Nathanson is through with background information.

Welcome/Prayer/Introductions

Welcome everyone in attendance. Open with prayer. Introduce newcomers. Ask to be sure that everyone has the handouts from previous sessions.

Briefly review the last session. Invite participants to share any reactions or insights gained during the week as a result of the first two sessions of the course.

You now want to set the stage for the first half of the DVD "Silent Scream"

Introduction To The DVD "SILENT SCREAM"

The film is narrated by Dr. Bernard Nathanson who belonged to a group of pro-abortionists who helped legalize abortion on demand in our country. He says himself that he oversaw 60,000 abortions at an abortion clinic in New York City. He admits to getting his girl friend and a wife an abortion and even on one occasion aborting his own child. During the 70's he worked with ultrasound technology, became aware of the humanity of the preborn child and became pro-life. He's given hundreds of talks against abortion.

Dr. Nathanson wrote a book "The Hand of God - A Journey from Death to Life by the Abortion Doctor Who Changed His Mind. "In the book he wrote that he held himself at a distance from the beliefs of any clerics in the pro-life movement----except in their shared detestation of abortion. He writes, "Then I attended an action by Operation Rescue against Planned Parenthood in New York City in 1989. I apprehended the exaltation, the pure love on the faces of that shivering mass of people, surrounded as they were by hundreds of New York City policemen. It was, I suppose, the sheer intensity of the love and prayer that astonished me. They prayed for the unborn babies, for the confused and frightened pregnant women, and for the doctors and nurses in the clinic. They even prayed for the police and the media who were covering the event. They prayed for each other but never for themselves. And I wondered: How can these people give of themselves for a constituency that is (and always will be) mute, invisible, and unable to thank them?"

"I observed a subsequent demonstration in New Orleans and another in a small town south of Los Angeles." (This was Cypress.) " I was shaken by the intensity of the spirituality at these demonstrations. I knew a great number of Catholics and Protestants prayed for me. But it was not until I saw the spirit put to the test on those bitterly cold demonstration mornings, with pro-choicers hurling the most fulsome epithets at them, the police surrounding them, the media openly unsympathetic to their cause, the federal judiciary fining and jailing them, and municipal officials threatening them,----all through it they sat smiling, quietly praying, singing, confident and righteous of their cause and ineradicably persuaded of their ultimate triumph----that I began seriously to question what indescribable Force generated them to this activity. And for the first time in my entire adult life, I began to entertain seriously the notion of God---who had led me through the proverbial circles of hell, only to show me the way to redemption and mercy through His grace. I am no longer alone. It has been my fate to wander the globe in search of the One without Whom I am doomed, but now I seize the hem of His robe in desperation, in terror, in celestial access to the purest need I have ever known."

Show First Half of DVD "SILENT SCREAM" stopping when Dr. Nathanson is through with background information at 13:22 minutes.


DISCUSSION

Invite responses and reactions to the DVD.  Some questions to ask are:

• Did you learn anything new?
• What are the problems that women can face from an abortion?  See I John 1:9 (Be aware that some of the members of the class may have been involved in an abortion.)

Lesson

Handout Student Note #5 and assign members of the group to look up and be prepared to read aloud and discuss the scriptures.

Handout Student Note #6 - Our world is filled with so called "hard cases". Our purpose is to have the students leave the session with a feeling that God is in control and the "hard cases" deserve our love and support and with God's help can be a blessing.

CLOSING MOMENT

Preview with the class areas that will be covered in the next session.

Invite everyone to join hands in a circle. Ask some to briefly pray that each person would come to understand their worth in Christ and their purpose in life.

Close in prayer.

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