Listen to Arnold and Jacob talk about Sanctity of Life Month and Black History Month. Listen to encouraging God breathed ideas.
Summary
This is Jacob Barr, and I’m thrilled to share my experience from a recent episode of the Pro-Life Team Podcast. In this episode, I was joined by Arnold Culbreath, a minister with 37 years of experience and the National Director of Ministry Engagement with the Douglas Leadership Institute. We explored the intersection of Sanctity of Human Life Month and Black History Month, and how these significant periods resonate with God’s Word and can be integrated into local church teachings.
Arnold, with his diverse roles including running Breath of Life, LLC, and serving at People’s Church in Cincinnati, Ohio, shared valuable insights into the sanctity of human life. He stressed the importance of recognizing the value of human life in all forms, and the need for pastors to convey this message through biblically grounded, loving, and grace-filled messages. Arnold emphasized equipping pastors with a biblical worldview to effectively address life issues without being clouded by politics.
We discussed the challenges pastors face in addressing life issues and the importance of presenting these topics with truth and grace. Arnold highlighted the role of the Douglas Leadership Institute in connecting pastors and strengthening their commitment to life issues. He also shared practical ways for pastors and church leaders to integrate the sanctity of human life into their ministries.
The conversation also touched on the significance of Black History Month and its connection to the sanctity of human life. Arnold pointed out the alarming rate of abortions in the African American community and the need for increased involvement and awareness to reverse this trend. He called for a greater focus on celebrating African American influencers who are contributing to history and making a positive impact in their communities.
We wrapped up the podcast with Arnold leading a powerful prayer, seeking God’s guidance and strength for those working on the frontlines of the pro-life movement, including pastors, pregnancy center directors, and advocates. Arnold’s words were a source of encouragement and inspiration, reminding us of the critical work being done to protect and value life at all stages.
Relevant hashtags for this episode would include: #ProLifePodcast, #SanctityOfHumanLifeMonth, #BlackHistoryMonth, #ArnoldCulbreath, #DouglasLeadershipInstitute, #PastoralLeadership, #BiblicalWorldview, #ProLifeMinistry, #ChurchAndLifeIssues, #ProtectingHumanLife, #AbortionAwareness, #CommunityImpact, #AfricanAmericanContributors, #FaithAndAction, #SpiritualGuidance, #LifeAffirmingMessage.
Transcript
The transcript was automatically generated and may contain errors.
Jacob Barr :
Welcome to the pro-life Team Podcast i’m here with Arnold and we’re going to talk about the Sanctity of Human Life Month along with Black History Month coming up in February and how they connect and how God’s Word has messages for you and your local churches that will be relevant to this, to the Sanctity of Life and Black History Month. So Arnold, I am so excited to have you here. Would you mind introducing yourself as if you were talking to an executive director who’s running in a pricing clinic here in the?
Arnold Culbreath :
Us absolutely my name is Arnold Culbreath. I am a minister of the gospel in preaching the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ for 37 years. And I serve as an apostle in the body of Christ. So I basically serve in three threefold capacity. One, I run my own business, Breath of Life, LLC. I also serve on staff as a pastor at People’s Church in Cincinnati, ohio, and I serve as the National Director of Ministry Engagement with the Douglas Leadership Institute.
Jacob Barr :
Awesome and I am so excited to have you on again. I’m excited to hear your insight and wisdom. And so this month is Think to be a Human life month. What is that? As a pastor, as someone who is passionate about life, Tell me, what are your thoughts on the sanctity of human life? What are your thoughts on this month?
Arnold Culbreath :
Well, thank you again for having me on the program, Jacob. And Sanctity of Human Life Month is always very exciting to me. It’s very necessary. You know, we have a lot of focus on a lot of other aspects where people are trying to provide protections for various things, whether it’s saving the whales or saving the turtles or protecting trees and you know, all of that has its place but if we don’t protect humanity, then we’re quite a sad bunch. It is my passion to see the hearts and minds of people wrap around the concept of every month being sanctity of human life months.
Jacob Barr :
And what are some what are some ways that a pastor or a leader can embrace this concept of bringing sanctity of human life into this month or every month? What are some ways what are some practical ways to do that?
Arnold Culbreath :
Ok, I’m glad you asked that question because I have a real passion for pastors, being a pastor myself. And I’ve been working with pastors for a couple decades now on this issue. First and foremost, helping them to realize that life is precious and that it’s given by God and that it should be protected. Therefore, their congregants need to hear an informed, biblically grounded, statistically corroborated, loving, grace filled message concerning this, that that’s one aspect, and in order to help them to do that, it helps pastors when they view this issue from a biblical worldview and don’t allow politics to contaminate that lens.
Jacob Barr :
And is that a. Yeah so what are some of the pitfalls that sometimes pastors might get stuck or get caught by, you know, when it comes to not looking at it the right way or what are some ways around some of those common, you know, common areas that they may end up like what are some of the concerns that a passenger might have or and how do they, how do you get around those preps?
Arnold Culbreath :
That’s a great question for pastors. Our springboard, if you will, our Plumb line, our true north is the word of God, right? So therefore, one of the things we do at the Douglas Leadership Institute is we help Pat to equip pastors with a biblical worldview. What do I mean by that i don’t want to assume that our listeners, our viewers know what that means. That means everything that we do, our thoughts, our motives, our actions, our decisions are screened through the sieve of the word of God, right? What I find too many people doing, and I was just talking to a young mentee about this a week or so ago, is ofttimes we take our opinions and our views and then we try to see if it fits with the word, and if not, we try to finagle and manipulate it so that there’s rationalization for what I really wanted to do already. What we need to do is find out what our thoughts are and what our views are and what is the word of God say about it. Now, that being said, you and I are talking about sanctity of Human Life Month. The word of God is replete. In other words, it’s full it’s chocked full of confirmation revelation of concerning life coming from God, that he is the Creator, and that we His creation, He has we his people, His created beings, ought to value and ought to protect life so first of all, that’s a pastor’s paradigm. And then secondly, how does he or she that pastor present that to their congregation? I’m of the mindset and I’ve adopted this mindset maybe ten fifteen, years ago jacob. I was travelling a lot, doing a lot of pregnancy centre banquets, speaking at colleges and conferences and things like that. And I wanted to really multiply my efforts. In other words, to do work that would have fruit remaining in other words, more long lasting versus one off kind of meetings. Therefore, for a pastor, I think it’s important that he thinks about this issue from this perspective. How do I get a sanctity of life DNA in my congregation from the oldest member to the youngest member? Now let me give you a quick way that can be accomplished. Most churches already have established ministries they have adult or seniors ministry, They have young adults ministry, They have youth ministry, They have children’s ministry, they have women’s ministry, they have men’s ministry these are all pre made formats in any given church where the matters of life, abstinence, abortion, valuing life, fatherhood, motherhood should be talked about. And they’re safe environments where people can share their questions, share their concerns, can share their hurts if they’ve had an abortion, and receive healing and hope.
Jacob Barr :
So how might an executive director provide information or ideas to local pastors on this topic or about sanctity of life? You know what would be a good way for an Executive director to invite a pastor into preaching or including these ideas if they’re not already or maybe including a more full set of these ideas?
Arnold Culbreath :
I’ll give a three fold answer to that question the 1st is I challenge pregnancy center directors around the country and I’ve been working with them for decades, hundreds of them, encouraging them and consulting with them and helping to be a bridge builder between pregnancy help centers and the church. Right so first of all she has to begin praying and having her staff praying for that pastor. So I encourage a pregnancy center directors to put a map. I call it a prayer map, on the wall in their conference room. It shows your general locale. You take a pushpin. Here’s my pregnancy center. Here’s the First Baptist Church. Here’s the Second Baptist Church. Here’s the Third Baptist Church i’m just making up names. Here’s the name of the pastor. Here’s the name of his wife. And by name, begin praying for that pastor and that church and his wife that their hearts and minds would be open to this issue. Because what I find is many people experience resistance in this work because of our human efforts, and prayer is too underutilized in this work so that’s before she knocks on any door. The second thing is that if and when she knocks on that door of that church to try to get in to try to build relationship with that pastor, to try to get a spot on maybe the Sunday morning service or the midweek Bible study to talk about her center and she’s experiencing difficulty. Then there are people like the Douglas Leadership Institute ready and available and we have relationships with many of the pastors around the country and or we’re forming relationships with the pastors. And the difference is I’m not minimizing I’m just talking about differences. Here’s the pregnancy center and her the directors appeal to that pastor. But when we come in as Douglas Leadership Institute we’re talking to him pastor to pastor and that has a different ring in his ears and our Jeremiah One in five project is a powerful project primarily for pastors, not exclusively but primarily and I’ll say more about that in a minute. So sort of first thing she needs to do is pray. Second thing she needs to do after she’s prayed is knock on that door and try to get into that church. And should she experience a difficulty which most executive directors of pregnancy centers experience going in the churches, particularly if they’re churches of people that look like me, reach out to us, reach out to me and we can help you in that regard.
Jacob Barr :
That’s awesome. So when you were mentioning before about the Bible being chock full of talking about saving lives and.
Arnold Culbreath :
What?
Jacob Barr :
The first passage that came to mind was the when essentially the you know the story of the shepherd who went to go find the one sheep that had gone astray and got stuck in some you know thorny bushes and how the how that shepherd left the 99 sheep to go find the one and what what’s the passage in the Bible that you think of or what what are your thoughts on the passage that comes to mind first when it comes to the Bible speaking about saving lives or and going out to help those who are most in most need and have the greatest need.
Arnold Culbreath :
Well, Jacob, I tell you there as a as a lover and student of the word, there are many passages that come to my mind. I think about broader than a passage and then I’ll get to a passage. Broader than that I look at the forces of darkness, the enemy the devil anti life right Antichrist who has been working to assault into assail and to eliminate life from the very beginning. I mean when we look at the deception of the serpent in the in the garden in the book of Genesis and then we look at God desiring to bring a deliverer onto the scene moses you know in the book of Exodus and the enemy through Pharaoh trying to snuff out human life even at those early stages. Then you go over to you can go to Exodus chapter one and you see kings you know making decrees against pre born life. And you know there were Hebrew midwives in Exodus chapter one. Shifra and Pua were their names and they decided to go against the King’s edict and they were going to stand for life even though they had the opportunity to snuff out life at the birthing stool the Bible puts it you know in the in the, in the birthing room. But they chose to go against that and then you come all the way to the New Testament and you look at Jesus’s birth again, a deliverer, right, Jesus’s birth. And Herod wanting to declare or not wanting, but declaring a death decree to try to snuff out the you know, our Savior and our Lord Jesus Christ. And so that’s been going on for a very long time. But one of the scriptures that stirs in my heart in direct answer to your question is Psalm one thirty nine. And I happen to be reading from the King James Version. It starts out David is the writer, and he says in verse one, oh lord, thou has searched me and known me. Thou knows my down sitting and my uprising. Thou understandeth my thoughts are far, are far off. Thou compasseth my path, and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. Then if you jump down to verse 13, he says, For thou has possessed my reigns, thou has covered me in my mother’s womb, he says, I will praise thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are thy works and that my soul knoweth, right well, so David is saying, God, you formed me in my mother’s womb and you knew me even from my mother’s womb, and I’m going to praise you as a result of that.
Jacob Barr :
That’s beautiful. Yeah this just speaks to the Marvel, the marvelous work that God has done it’s amazing. So one of the things that praise the clinic directors often are faced with is, well, it feels like it’s a it’s an ongoing spiritual War One battle after another. What would you offer some encouragement or something as you reflect on God’s word for how to encourage executive directors who are faced with spirit essentially the yeah the world that they’re working in when it comes to trying to reach abortion minded women and helping them choose life through adoption parenting by using rapport and care and listening and love and free services and all of what they are doing. I feel like there’s they’re constantly effectively like the frontline that you know people in this in this fight and it and it’s and it’s not like they get much rest very often it feels like there’s it’s like an ongoing battle for the most part it feels but God is good when it comes to providing rest and providing help but it’s it doesn’t feel like the battle will never seem to lighten up. Like it doesn’t take a vacation. It feels like it’s just ongoing. What might you say to an executive director who’s going through this battle experience, spiritual battle experience? What would you, what are your thoughts on that?
Arnold Culbreath :
Sure, absolutely. There’s several thoughts that I have. One is, you know, our weapon. Our with the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, the Bible says, or earthly or temporal. But they’re mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. Our enemy is not an earthly enemy. As diabolical as Planned Parenthood and the abortion industry is, they are not our enemy. It’s the forces of darkness behind them. Therefore, I’m going to go back to what I said a moment ago. Prayer is incredibly important. Ok, so we have to keep our focus on the Lord, right? Because he is in control and he is sovereign. He’s superintending the earth, right? I know there are bad things that happen in the world, and many people have asked that question for eons if God is so good, why does he allow bad things to happen well, because humanity is fallen and humanity is riddled with sin so humanity does a lot of things, but God does not abdicate his relationship with humanity he’s still involved in our everyday affairs, and he uses people like myself and yourself and pregnancy center directors to intervene in the lives of men and women to provide help and hope so I’m going to encourage that pregnancy center director to pray and to keep her focused on the Lord, right. And then lastly, I would say be encouraged i’m a United States Army veteran. So a lot of my imagery, it is relative to military pursuits right now i’m not, I’m not advocating violence in a human context or anything like that. But when you read the word of God, you realize that we’re in a battle. We’re in a battle against light and darkness we’re in a battle against good and evil we’re in a battle against the angelic forces and the demonic satanic forces so we’re in a battle. But as a United States Army veteran, I think about the infantry troops, and they may be in a foxhole in a battle situation and that soldier is firing their weapon, right? And they can’t see the enemy, but they’re firing and shooting and they’re tired they may be thirsty. They may look over in the foxhole and the other soldier that’s next to them has maybe been shot or mortally wounded. And they’re in the battle and they’re laden with anxiety and fear and concern about will this ever end. You know, will I live, will I make it another day. And some of the work that I do and I’m not putting myself on a pedestal. I’m speaking proverbially and I’m speaking prophetically. The work that we do at Douglas Leadership Institute be a national is we get to traverse the nation and almost like the Air Force. So we get to see the battlegrounds. We see legislation coming under attack and being a potentially overturned even with this newest Dobbs case that can potentially overturn Roe versus Wade, we see pastors waking up and beginning to preach and teach life in their churches. You won’t hear about that in the mainstream, in the media, but we see it and we hear it. And part of our job is to radio down to that pregnancy center director in her local foxhole, in her local community and to encourage her Don’t stop. If you’re listening to this, don’t stop. Be encouraged. Continue to move forward because we are winning this battle and ultimately we win the war.
Jacob Barr :
Yeah and that is so important for, you know, i really appreciate and love those words of don’t stop and the way you said that is just so encouraging. And also I really want to reflect back on what you, when you said, you know, the very first thing to do when reaching out to pastors in a local area is to put pens and identify where they are in your area, identify the names of the pastor and the spouse and then to pray over them by name. That is such wise god breathed advice like that’s amazing.
Arnold Culbreath :
And you know what’s so deep about that, Jacob, is most pregnancy center directors and I’m not faulting them i love them i labour with them i just emailed a friend of mine who runs a pregnancy center this morning about a matter that we’re doing here in my city of Cincinnati, ohio, coming up at the end of this month, I’ll be heading up a prayer rumble, an equipping for life prayer rumble and I’ll talk about that in a moment, but for that pregnancy? Center director, they think about the frustration of trying to get into the churches and they’re not having they’re not being granted access. But if you flip that coin upside down, what they don’t think about, and I’m sharing this as a pastor, what they don’t think about is the onslaught of what’s coming up against that pastor on the other side of the equation. That may have nothing to do with pro-life it may have nothing to do with the pregnancy center but the end result is it causes you not to be granted access. But pastoring is not a task for the faint of heart. It is a challenging role. It is it’s a godly and Kingdom assignment and I’m honored to serve in that capacity. But it’s challenging, you know, It’s challenging so pray for that, pastor.
Jacob Barr :
Yeah, that’s really, that’s really good one at my church, just before the new year, we started taking on a new idea of reaching out to our communities and one of the things that we’re doing is each of us are encouraged to pray for the people in our neighborhoods by. You know for example there might be a house with an old car. You know, maybe a there’s an old car on the front and praying for that house based on what I might know and I was like yeah, but being observant and knowing and looking out for like you know this, you know, paying for this house with the person that rides their bike every morning And then as I get to know that person’s name praying for them by name And then as and that and the end result the goal is to invite those people over to eat together and then to essentially build community. And that’s essentially and I feel like, you know, just but it all starts as a prayer it doesn’t start by knocking on the door and saying hey, thanks for to eat. We’re essentially praying for them. And so as we walk through the neighborhood, essentially we’re being encouraged to pray for houses by what we happen to know and so if that church, all you happen to know about that church is the name of the church or that it has, you know, the white building or you know the blue car, you could pray for the white church with the blue car. And then as you get to know that pastor’s name, add that to the list and as you get to know the spouse’s name, add that to the list but starting by praying based on what you happen to know. And then with the expectation that eventually you’re going to be able to spend time, you know, maybe eating lunch or visiting with them in their pastor’s office, I think that is. And then you can essentially, and then you can give all the honor and praise to God because he’s answering those prayers. And so that’s. Yeah and yeah, God’s gonna work. So I want to move on to the next segment, which is how does next month connect to this month? What are your thoughts on the on the Black History Month and how this connects to the Sanctity of Life Month here in January?
Arnold Culbreath :
Black History Month is an exciting month, February. We spend a lot of time during that month, you know, highlighting the exploits, if you will, of various African American Trail Blazers or those that have impacted history, excuse me. And we generally have a tendency to go navigate toward, you know, Frederick Douglass, hence the name, the Douglass Leadership Institute, Harriet Tubman, you know, Doctor, Martin Luther King, Junior, Rosa Rosa Parks and all of those kinds of figures and that’s honorable. But I want to challenge the listeners to bring that from 50.000 thousand feet down to 30 and maybe even 15.000 thousand feet and think about those African American influencers that are, that are that are a little more accessible to us, if you will. You know, like some of those pastors that will be on that pregnancy center directors prayer born, you know, many of them are we’re every day of our lives, Jacob we’re contributing to history. I mean, I’m not trying to put a spotlight on myself, but i dare to believe that I’m that I’m a historical figure impacting Black History Month and more moreover, history in general. You know, so when we think about hit Black History Month, we think about presidents and we think about, you know, all of this kind of thing but I remember as a kid in school, we had a janitor in our school who was very influential he was always affirming he was always loving. If we were roughhousing or if we were, you know, dilly dallying, making our way toward class, you know, he would get on us all right you all get on in class you know, to me, those are some of the heroes that don’t get celebrated as much i’ll give another example and that is, you know, fathers that are in the home. You know, we think so much about the absence of fathers in the home in the black community and that’s real. That’s real we need to think about that. But there are many of us who have been standing on the wall for a very long time loving our children, caring for our children. And I’m not looking for any special award or commendation for doing that other than hearing the Lord say well done now, good and faithful servant when I get to heaven. But there are many of us that are significantly impacting Black History Month. But check this out. I’m a juxtaposed sanctity of Human life month, January with Black History Month February. Abortion remains the number one killer of black Americans. Abortion snuffs out the lives of more African Americans than any other cause of death. Let me say that another way. You can take all the other causes of death and add them up together, Heart disease, violent crimes, diabetes, HIV, AIDS, etcetera, etcetera cOVID, right. You can Add all of those things up together and then put alongside of it the number of black abortions that happen on a daily basis, weekly basis, monthly basis, yearly basis, and abortions always out pace the other deaths. Now when you combine deaths from all other causes coupled with black abortions which exceed every other people group, right it death in the black community outpaces life. Me say that again i want to be as clear as possible. The number of black deaths from all causes, including abortion, exceeds the number of live black births that occur. We are the only people group that’s upside down, meaning we’re leaving this Earth at a faster, greater rate than we’re coming here. If that continues, then there really won’t be much of A need. I know this might sound sacrilegious, sacrilegious to my black, you know, listeners or those that will watch this podcast but you know, part of my mission in life is to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable so if I agitate you, then I’ve done my job right. But if abortion continues to be the number one killer of black Americans, there won’t be much of A need for Black History Month, because we won’t be here as a people.
Jacob Barr :
That’s very sobering. It’s and that’s and it’s and it is hard to say, but the same time it needs to be said and it needs to be heard because, I mean, how else can someone push to reverse that upside down states unless they identify that there’s a need and a problem and they understand those numbers and how they’re affecting the future of the African American population?
Arnold Culbreath :
And if I can correct something just for a moment or at least nudge on something that you just said a moment ago and you’re speaking to that pastor that may be listening, you said, that’s hard to say. I didn’t find it hard to say at all. I mean it is the moral imperative. It is the biblical mandate that I’ve been given to speak this truth and I have to trust God for the outcome from me speaking that truth and quite frankly, that’s one of the reasons that too many pastors have been muzzled and afraid to speak truth. Yes, there are outside forces, there are disgruntled members there is, you know, the attacks against our religious liberties and all of that stuff. But more often than not, it’s self-imposed limitations, my own fear or hesitancy to preach truth. Now when we preach truth according to the word of God, it must be full of truth but tempered with grace and love. So most pastors, when they hear what we’re talking about today, they then want to preach this message to their congregants from a Hellfire and brimstone kind of a perspective, the poster board of women and men in their pews, which are far more prevalent than what pastors might realize, right? Planned Parenthood says that by age 45 one in every three women will have had at least one abortion. And you and I know that there’s always a man involved. So they’re proliferating our church pews poster board of men and women who have never shared their story or their pain with anybody, Right. So that pastor owes it to God, owes it to himself, and owes it to his congregants to preach truth but you’ve got to do it with love and you’ve got to do it with grace, but you’ve got to do it.
Jacob Barr :
That’s good. Yeah it’s yeah, i it’s right because it’s not hard to say when it’s that important and it’s that important for people to hear and understand and it needs to be voiced that’s really good. So I know before you mentioned that you wanted to talk about Jeremiah One and Five, would this be a good time to segue into how that connects with what we’ve been talking about?
Arnold Culbreath :
It’s always a good time to talk about the Jeremiah One and Five project As I lift up my mug, that’s.
Jacob Barr :
Right. So tell us. Yeah, tell us more.
Arnold Culbreath :
In Jeremiah one and five, And you asked earlier what was the scripture that came to mind, I happened to go to Psalm one thirty nine and you so wonderfully went to even, you know, the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. But Jeremiah one and five God is speaking to the prophet Jeremiah and he says to him before I formed you in your mother’s womb, I knew you and I called you to be a prophet to the nation. So in that verse that’s an action-packed verse and all of God’s word is so pregnant with purpose and destiny and information and revelation and ultimately transformation, right. It’s designed to change us we will never change it because it’s immutable right. But we but it will change us so when you look at that verse, you see the purview of god right? He sees all and he knows all. He saw Jeremiah, even in his mother’s womb. The second thing we see is personhood. God acknowledges Jeremiah as a person he said, before I formed you, Jeremiah, in your mother’s womb, I formed you, right so personhood, right? Not a clump of cells, you know. But I mean that there’s some truth to that, you know, even though that rebuttal derived from the abortion industry, a clump of sales. You and I are clumps of sales.
Jacob Barr :
You know, Jacob.
Arnold Culbreath :
You know, some people are just bigger clumps than other clumps but we’re so we see personhood, we see purview from God, and we see purpose. He called him to be a prophet to the nations. Right now, all of us, every created being by God, has a purpose, right? We might not like that purpose, right the mosquito has a purpose. The locust has a purpose. The cow has a purpose. You and I have a purpose and what we have to do, and this is a different podcast, but we need to find out what that purpose is and then live out all our days joyfully and faithfully and passionately carrying out that purpose but we see the purpose of God. So what we’re asking pastors to do is to and pray for an end to abortion i keep talking about prayer and its power, and there are many pro-life advocates that are listening to this whether they’re everyday people that write letters and talk about it, blog about it, post about it on social media, or whether they’re folks that involve and interface with legislation or whether they are pregnancy center director. All of how frequently do I pray for an end to abortion? You know, I’m not saying we’re not working and we’re not laboring, but a lot of times that becomes a fleshly pursuit rather than prayer fueled efforts. Does that make sense? Right So we’re asking pastors to pray for an end to abortion second thing. We’re asking them to preach and to teach that life is sacred and that it comes from God and that it should be protected. And then lastly, we’re asking them to promote the Jeremiah One and Five project by recruiting, by sharing with their past or peers and we already have over 500 black pastors signed up and we have some non pastors signed up. We have everyday folks signed up for our Jeremiah One and Five project and standing with us why is that so important? As I conclude, why is that so important for a pastor? Because when a pastor steps out and sit and begins preaching and teaching on life, not just in Sanctity of Human Life Month but all through the year, he feels, she feels like they’re alone. And when you connect with the Douglas Leadership Institute and our network of pastors, you begin to realize, wait a minute, there are hundreds out there that are standing for life as well. I am not alone and check this out, Jacob. If you were looking for a car and you were going to buy a red car right now, I don’t know what color your car is, but you’re probably not thinking about, you know, some of the other car, right? But then when you say, OK, I’m going to buy a red Toyota right now, all of a sudden you’re seeing red Toyota’s everywhere right once we become aware of sensitive to conscious of life and its value and the assaults against life in the word of God, then you begin to see it everywhere throughout the pages of Scripture. It’s profound.
Jacob Barr :
Well, that’s really good. Yeah so when I started praying for abortion to end, I it was probably 15 plus years ago. And back then I had no idea on how Roe versus Wade would ever get overturned like i didn’t see the pathway, but I was praying. But at the same time it felt like a very it felt like a mountain. Like I was praying for a mountain to be moved like it was this you know, unsurmountable thing it felt like But then today it feels like you know here we are in 2022 and Roe versus Wade is getting turned back to the States and we’re like it’s just it’s epic it’s miraculous it’s God working and here we are today where it’s literally happening and it was it was it was just sort of yeah it’s amazing. It’s amazing that it’s actually happening. And yeah, it’s just amazing. So, oh, I think you’re you might have muted yourself.
Arnold Culbreath :
You said a number of things as you were sharing in Matthew chapter 17. Let me find it here, Jesus says to his followers in Matthew 17 and 20. He says, because he says, truly, I say to you, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you will say unto this mountain, remove hints to Yonder place, and it shall move, and nothing shall be impossible to you. So you made the analogy of Roe versus Wade being a mountain. And God encourages, invites and challenges us, I dare say, commands us to pray for those various mountains so that those mountains will be removed. Now, Roe versus Wade isn’t the ultimate mountain, you know, because what people need to realize is if Roe versus Wade is overturned tomorrow and that authority is then moved back to the states, well then we’ve still got a lot of prayer and pressure to put local judges and legislators to uphold that law. We’ve got states like Ohio, where I live, Georgia, that have some of the most pro-life laws on the books. But if the judges won’t uphold them from the bench, it really doesn’t make any difference so let’s continue the battle in the political realm that’s necessary i’m excited there are many organizations, even our counterpart organization, the Douglas, excuse me, the Frederick Douglass Foundation, which is a different organization, but it’s a sister organization to the Douglas Leadership Institute, Frederick Douglass Foundation. And if people want to learn more about it, they can go to FDF National working on political things. But what we do on the five O 1C3 side, the Douglas Leadership Institute side, is we prevail upon the hearts and minds of men. And if we can get the hearts and minds of men and women to change it really doesn’t matter what the laws are on the books. I’m going to do right because conscious demands that I do it.
Jacob Barr :
Yeah, and you’re right, abortion is different than Roe versus Wade praying to end abortion is a matter of changing the hearts and minds of people. Yes. And Roe versus Wade is going to make it. Well, taking away that federal ruling by the Supreme Court and putting it back into the state’s hands and then lawmakers may make a law regarding abortion that would be where laws usually come from but yeah so like people might travel from a where abortion is outlawed to California or somewhere to but it’s not like yeah so it’s going to make it harder for someone to get one but it wouldn’t make it would still be accessible and it we still and the and the work is not done you know because abortion will still be in our land And yeah because Texas has made it so that people essentially can’t get an abortion after six weeks in Texas. What we’ve what I’ve heard or seen is that people are travelling, travelling across state lines and that the number of abortions hasn’t. Overall, has it necessarily decreased because of that but people are traveling to a neighboring States and then that’s where,
Arnold Culbreath :
Yeah and to and to broaden that, you know, we’ve got hordes of let me, let me do use a different adjective. We’ve got multitudes of post abortive men and women, that is men and women that have had abortions that are hurting and that is a continuation of the work that is some of the vile fruit or results of abortion that still needs much work and if you’re listening male or female, and you’ve had an abortion, you need to know that God loves you. That even as I talked about Jeremiah 1-5 being a verse of purpose where he called Jeremiah to be a prophet to the nation’s you have a purpose as well. And just because you committed that act does not mean that your purpose and your god’s desires for you, God’s dreams for you are canceled. There’s a scripture in the Bible in the book of first John verse one, excuse me, chapter one, verse nine, first John one and nine. It says if we confess our sin, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So if you’ve had that abortion, confess that before God lay it out before him, He will forgive you. And the shed blood of Jesus Christ at the cross covers you from your sins. So post abortion becomes an important part of that continued work. And then on the flip side of the coin, we’ve got to continue work to train our young people to keep themselves sexually pure until marriage and maybe they’re not so young people they might be a 30, a 30 year old that hasn’t married yet to keep themselves sexually pure again, I’m using the Bible as the Plumb line. I’m not this isn’t my opinion saying it you would be right to keep yourself sexually pure. The Bible demands it. Right so again, biblical worldview, not the court of public opinion right and people say, well, abstinence education doesn’t work. No, it’s not abstinence education doesn’t work. It doesn’t work If you don’t work it. You know, if a person is not having sex, Jacob, this is going to be, this is going to blow somebody’s mind. If a person isn’t having sex, the chances of them getting pregnant are pretty good, right? The chances of them getting a sexually transmitted disease and watch this, the chances of them having all of those emotional scars and baggage as a result of what comes out of sexual activity before marriage right now, I’m not saying baggage is a person engaging in sex, getting pregnant and then having a baby i’m not saying that’s baggage, that pregnancy, that conception may have been a surprise to those parents, right? But it’s never a surprise to God.
Jacob Barr :
Yeah, That’s good. Well, i just really appreciate you sharing your thoughts today and I’m would you would you wrap up our podcast with a prayer that this will these ideas and words will resonate and help and bless the executive directors who happen to hear or the pastors that will you know maybe the executive directors will pass this link on to a pastor in their area to be an encouragement and to help just sort of help connect their local pastors with these topics that are helpful to share with the body of Christ would you? Yeah, sort of cover our ending in prayer.
Arnold Culbreath :
Absolutely, Absolutely. I would be honored. And before I do that, with this being Sanctity of Human Life Month, we always have we’re coming up on the what is it the forty eighth or is it the forty ninth annual March for Life i’m looking it up because I’ll be there in Washington, DC forty ninth march for life. And not only do we do it nationally in our nation’s capital, but we also in Washington DC But there also happens at many state houses across the nation as well as in local areas there are pregnancy centers that pull together local marches for life. I want to encourage listeners i want to encourage pastors to participate in some of those March for Life related activities. You don’t have to be a scheduled speaker to be there, just be there and I and I and now I want to prevail. Jacob, if I could be so bold upon my African American brothers and sisters that are listening. I want to encourage and I want to challenge you to begin to get more involved in March for life and pro-life related matters. There are many folks like the 40 Days for Life campaign that just quietly, peacefully pray in front of the abortion mills of our land. And with abortion being the leading killer of black Americans, we need African Americans out in front. Just praying. Just quietly praying it’s not a big hoopla. You’re not shouting, you’re not calling the women murderers that are going and if you’re doing that, I encourage you to stop the calling the murders that are going into the abortion where you’re just praying to to shift the heart and mind of that young woman, that young man, that parent that’s pushing that child into abortion so Sanctity of Human Life Month, get involved. Let’s pray, Father, I thank you and we praise you for today. We thank you for this podcast god, I thank you personally and specifically for Jacob Barr and this podcast oh God, I thank you for its reach. I thank you for its impact. I thank you for its influence. And now God, we pray particularly over this particular episode. God use it to touch, to encourage, to challenge, to change hearts and minds. Father, I pray that those that are that are already thoroughly pro-life Father would be encouraged by what was shared. Father, I pray for those that as the late pro-life trailblazer, Doctor Jack Wilkie who I had the privilege of working with for eight years would call the mushy middle those in the middle that are, you know, acting almost proverbially as though they’re Switzerland father, god i pray that you would move them off of the fence and you would pull them over into the fray that they would get involved. And Father, we pray for those that are all the way on the other side of the issue, that Scotchly and dogmatically believe that it’s the woman’s right to choose and all of those kinds of things. God, we pray for a woman’s right to choose as well. We just pray that she would choose life oh God, it’s Deuteronomy 30 and 19 declares you set before it’s life and death, blessing and cursing, therefore choose life that both we and our seed may live. God, I pray for that postal board of woman or man out there. Comfort them. Encourage them. Use their testimony to strengthen others. We lift up that pregnancy center director that’s out there that’s tired, That’s weary in the work oh God. Strengthen them. Encourage them. Help them to have healthy boundaries regarding a work and rest. Oh God, may they genuinely take an off day oh God not call it an off day and still do a whole lot of work oh God, you created the world in six days and took a seventh day to rest oh God not because you were tired, but to be to it’s for us to gain fresh insight it’s for us who are tired to gain rest father, God and father lastly, I pray for that young person that’s never engaged in sex. With all of the pressure from the media and visual images and social media, father and peer pressure help them to stand and help them to realize they’re not weird, They’re not some freak God Raise up pastors that are that are. I’m not going to say fear less, because a lot of the work we do as pastors, you have fear, but you do it anyway. So, God, I pray that you would anoint pastor, that you would strengthen them, that you would help them to connect with us at Douglas Leadership Institute, that we might be able to encourage them, fortify them, and be colleagues Along with them. We thank you and we praise you. In the mighty name of Jesus Christ, our Savior, our Lord, our Master, we pray amen.
Jacob Barr :
Amen. That was Arnold i want to say thank you for providing truth wrapped in love and care. And i know this will be a blessing to those who hear this message and these thoughts and ideas and so I just want to say thank you for being willing and yeah, essentially sharing this amazing, encouraging stories of God’s word that are going to help encourage and build up people as they does it reflect on yeah, what God is saying through your voice so.
Arnold Culbreath :
That’s really awesome. You are welcome. I encourage people to go to our website dlinstitute.org DL for douglasleadershipdlinstitute.org and they can find our Jeremiah One and Five project there. Very simple sign up process you don’t have to be a pastor, but we would welcome you and be encouraged stay in the fight we win.
Jacob Barr :
Awesome.