SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — A pastor in Illinois who opened the state House of Representatives in prayer on Friday asked Heaven’s court to judge the state for sanctioning the “destruction of the unborn” through the passage of the so-called Reproductive Health Act.
Corey Musgrave, who leads New Beginnings Church in Fairfield, began by thanking God for his blessings upon the state, including its natural resources, and noted the responsibility of Illinois’ lawmakers.
“God, we thank you for the ability to choose our own direction, even though those choices have consequences,” he said. “All throughout Your word, it is clear You have given us a choice. God, You even said, ‘Today, I give you the choice between life and death, blessings and curses. Now, I call upon Heaven to witness the choice you make. O that you would choose life so that you and your descendants might live.'”
“So God, I confess here today that I have not always made the right choice, and I thank you for being a merciful God who forgives and restores when we turn back to You,” Musgrave continued.
He then lamented that “this state has decided to go its own way apart from You,” and specifically in regard to the murder of the unborn.
“God, none of our evil actions have been hidden from You. You see everything,” Musgrave noted. “Lord, You have told us those things which You hate, and among them are hands that shed innocent blood.”
“I stand here in this House, in this high place in Illinois, and ask You, O God, creator of Heaven and Earth, if there is anything more innocent than a baby that is being created in the womb,” he prayed.
Musgrave quoted from Psalm 139 in noting that the unborn are not hidden from God’s sight.
“The Psalmist exclaimed, ‘You made all the delicate parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank You for making me so wonderfully complex. Your workmanship is marvelous; how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born.'”
He then lamented that despite those who have pleaded for lawmakers to protect those in the womb — referring to calls for the rejection of the Reproductive Health Act — legislators rather decided to pass the bill.
“God, we have made our appeals to the leaders of Illinois this week on behalf of those innocent babies who do not yet have a voice. We have been a voice for those who cannot speak for themselves as You have commanded us,” Musgrave stated. “Those appeals were denied, but we have one final appeal left and that is to the courts of Heaven.”
“God Almighty, I make an appeal to Heaven today, to You the perfect judge, the One who presides over Heaven’s court. I ask you to rise up, O God, and judge Illinois for the sanctioned destruction of the innocent unborn,” he said. “For when Your judgments are in this state, the inhabitants of Illinois learn righteousness.”
He asked God for mercy in the midst of judgment as he concluded his prayer.
“In this House I pray for justice to roll down like water and righteousness like a mighty river. In Your judgment, I pray that You would remember mercy, for we know that You, O God, do not want anyone to be destroyed,” Musgrave said.
“I ask this in the name of Your Son, the One who died for a sinner like me, the One who was appointed to judge the living and the dead. In the name of Jesus Christ I pray. Amen.”
As previously reported, The Reproductive Health Act, presented by Rep. Kelly Cassidy, D-Chicago, declares that women have a “fundamental right” to abortion and that a “fetus does not have independent rights” apart from his or her mother.
“Every individual who becomes pregnant has a fundamental right to continue the pregnancy and give birth or to have an abortion, and to make autonomous decisions about how to exercise that right,” it reads.
“A fertilized egg, embryo, or fetus does not have independent rights under the laws of this state,” the bill states.
It proclaims that the State may not “deny, restrict, interfere with, or discriminate against an individual’s exercise of the fundamental rights set forth in this Act.”
Some interpret the statute as allowing abortion up until birth for any reason as it does not contain language pertaining to limitations, and eliminates language from the current law that prohibits abortion past the point of viability unless “in the medical judgment of the attending or referring physician, based on the particular facts of the case before him, it is necessary to preserve the life or health of the mother.”
The bill passed the Illinois Senate 34-20 on Friday after clearing the House 65-40 on Tuesday. It now heads to the desk of Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who has vowed to sign the legislation into law.
“In Illinois, we trust women to make the most personal and fundamental decisions of their lives — and now, that will be the law of the land, even as it’s under threat in other states,” he said.
Psalm 119:136 says, “Rivers of waters run down mine eyes because they keep not Thy law.”
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