Tuesday, November 16, 2021


Reflections on a busy day at the murder mill 

As I do every Tuesday for my lunch hour, I went to a local abortion clinic in Granite City, IL (Hope Clinic for Women). I’ve been going there for nearly 8 years preaching the Word of God, pleading with women to not murder their babies, offering to adopt their babies and walk with them every step of the way, and offering free ultrasounds (through a pregnancy center close by and a mobile medical unit right on site). 

Today was similar to other Tuesdays in that many women flooded in. In fact, I think there were at least 25 women that I saw go into Hope Clinic for Women. It is one of the largest hubs of murder mills in the central midwest area. Tuesday often brings women who are late term who have come for the kill. It’s terrifying and evil. It’s saddening and maddening all at the same time. 

It was busy. Very busy. I drove up and arrived about 5 minutes before they usually start their “business”. When I walked up to the front of the parking lot, the women flooded out of the cars and lined the sidewalk ready and eager to pay their money, all while putting on their mask, so as to pay their money first, and then enter the murderous building. 

License plates struck me today — as they have been more and more in recent days. Cars today came from Missouri and Illinois (mostly). But there were cars from Minnesota, Arizona, Oklahoma and two from Florida. They drove here, to Hope Clinic, for the purpose of murdering their baby. 

About ten minutes after I arrived, a young lady finally got out of her car, which was the closest parking spot to where I was standing. When she got out, she was about 5 feet from me. I told her that we cared for her, wanted to help her and give her other options, and that babies are murdered here. I was holding a sign that read: “BABIES ARE MURDERED HERE”. And on the back, a sign which read: “IF YOU WERE TO DIE TODAY, WHERE WOULD YOU GO?  REPENT AND BELIEVE THE GOSPEL.”  

The many women that walked in gave different responses.  Some laughed and mocked.  Some yelled in anger. Some were cursing and commanding that we stop talking to them. Many others just ignored. One lady stopped, turned around, read the signs, and saw the mobile medical unit — but still decided to ignore the offer for a free ultrasound and go into the murder mill to kill her own baby. 

Why do I go to such an abominably wicked and divinely abhorred place?  For a number of reasons. 

  1. I go to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.  — Yes, I preach.  I plead. I cry out. I entreat. I summon. I beg mothers, fathers, grandparents, abortion clinic workers, the security guard, the abortionists themselves and even passers-by to turn to Jesus Christ in full surrender and in faith to be saved.  There is no other faithful and full gospel proclamation there.  I go to preach the gospel loudly, faithfully, biblically, persistently, and passionately. 
  2. I go to honor and glorify God.  — I believe that God is glorified when His Word goes forth. God has given me His Word, I’ve eaten and tasted the Truth in the Word and thus I am sent to “go” and I preach His Word so that God may be glorified in how He chooses to use His Word.  I am undoubtedly an aroma of death to death to many — but I pray that God will be glorified in saving some by snatching them out of the fire. 
  3. I go to see babies saved.  — I love children. And I want children to be spared from the murders of abortion. There is no easy and kind way to say it. Abortion consists of the violent, gruesome and blasphemous ripping of children limb from limb in a mother’s womb. It’s vile and evil. And I love children, who are made in God’s image and fearfully and wonderfully made, and so I go to see the weak and the defenseless saved. 
  4. I go to evangelize any and all who will hear. —  Each week I go, I get to plead lovingly and urgently with the security guard. I tell her that I care for her and pray for her often. I give gospel tracts to people who are walking by on the sidewalks.  Often I get to stop cars after they drop a lady off and she goes into the murder mill and the driver will stop, roll down the window, and take a tract from me with some information about a pregnancy resources center in the immediate area. 
  5. I go because hell exists and murderers go there.  —  Evangelism is and must be urgent. Souls are of infinite worth and hell is drawing near. So many people walk into the building whose god is their ‘belly’ and they live for the flesh, they do not glorify Christ, they hate me and the gospel I preach, and they know what abortion is and they cheer the fact that they are murdering their babies. Oh the fires of hell await them, unless God mercifully and effectually intervenes. And how will God do this? Through the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  These people will not come to my church, so I must go out to them and plead with them to come in so that the Father’s house may be full! 
  6. I go because I want to set an example for my church in pursuing the lost in fervent evangelism. — The Word calls me to 'do the work of an evangelist.' I love to go out to the lost and hand out tracts, open air preach, approach students on a college campus and have conversations, go door to door, do chalk evangelism on a busy sidewalk, and more. But I love taking men and women from the church with me to the streets so that we can labor together, in fellowship and with joy, for the sake of the souls of men and women. It is the duty of churches to pursue the lost with the aim to win souls to Jesus Christ. May the Lord magnify His name and spread His gospel through us -- all for His glory.

Today a young man walked with his 3 or 4-year old daughter together with a young mother. She clearly was hobbling along — probably had an abortion yesterday or in previous days but perhaps may have had an infection, and she was very vocal about me shutting up. She yelled and told me to stop talking to her and to leave her alone.  I offered tracts and gospel literature to the man and he kindly took it.  Then, after she went in, he turned back around to head to the car and I was able to give the full gospel with him and plead with him to turn to Christ and find salvation in Jesus Christ alone. 

A tragic day. Death happened inside that building where I was. But I triumph in Jesus Christ who alone reigns sovereignly and supremely over life and over death. 

Continue to pray for those who go to abortion clinics and preach the gospel.  Perhaps you can and should make it a priority in your schedule to go to your local abortion clinic to call out, to cry out for life, to glorify the God of life, and beg dads and moms to not murder their babies.  May God have mercy on our nation!

Wednesday, November 3, 2021


Here is a note of encouragement to our church family that I emailed out earlier this morning.

As I was meditating and praying through 2 Corinthians this morning, I wanted to pass along some thoughts that gripped me.  Here is my heart — and the shepherds’ hearts — as we seek to care for you and labor among you, with you, and for you — and ultimately, for the praise of our God.

2 Corinthians 1:24 — “Not that we lord it over your faith, but we are workers with you for your joy; for in your faith you are standing firm.

In thinking about and applying this verse to our ministry context, I want to give you 4 brief motivations that we have as your elders.  By God’s Grace, we as shepherd elders seek to: 

1)  SERVE YOU.
Paul said that he is NOT lording it over the faith of the Corinthians.  As he teaches and preaches and labors for them and among them, He reminds them that GOD is the one who establishes the believers in Christ. And God has sealed His people and given them the Spirit of God as a pledge.  Paul said that he came to Corinth again to serve them, not to lord his apostolic authority over them. He did not come to roll his authoritarian credentials over them but he came to serve them, to help them, to minister to them, and to aid them in their growth.  Paul had his leadership position and his apostolic authority from God — not self determined by his own whims. Similarly, it is our desire to serve you, not to lord any sort of authority over you.  As your shepherds, we must lead and we must oversee and God has appointed us to make decisions to protect the flock, to uphold biblical truth, and to maintain purity in the Church. But our desire is to serve you, never to lord authority over God’s saints. 

2)  WORK HARD.
Paul told the saints that he is a worker with them for their joy.  Paul expresses his heartfelt desire to be a diligent and driven worker in gospel advancement for their good.  That is the heart of a shepherd.  Our hearts are to work hard together with you for your good and for your welfare. First Timothy 3.1 says that if any man aspires to the office of overseer, it is a fine work that he desires to do! Yes, it is work. It is hard. But nothing brings more joy and more thrill and more excitement than to serve the Lord and serve His people by working hard for God’s glory and for the good and well-being of the saints. And that well-being is for the people of God to grow in Christlikeness so as to walk in holiness, bask in the fear of God, and live with peace and joy on this pilgrimage toward our heavenly home. 

3)  GIVE YOU JOY.
Paul said that he is a worker for their joy. In an amazing clarification, Paul affirms that he is not in leadership for power, or for honors, or for recognition. Rather, he does what he does for the enhancement and increase of their joy in the Lord. As the believers suffer, God called Paul to help them in their perseverance through difficulties for their joy.  As God brought blessings and favorable circumstances into their lives, Paul endeavored to help them process and think through such occasions in a way that would glorify God and maintain a God-Centered joyfulness.  So also with us as your shepherds, we are committed to working hard, together with you, for your joy in the Lord.  As Paul said to the Philippians: “Rejoice in the LORD.” Don’t rejoice in the things that you can tangibly see here and in the passing pleasures of this realm. But we resolve to honor God and aid you in rejoicing in the unshakeable truth and rock-solid beauty of God’s character, Christ’s salvation, and the Spirit’s power. 

4)  EQUIP YOU TO STAND FIRM.
Paul poured out his heart by telling the believers that he found great joy and comfort in knowing that they are standing firm in their faith.  In the body of Truth, in systematic theology, that he had taught them, they are now standing firm and resting upon it.  This brings great joy to a shepherd to know that saints are standing upon, grounded in, and unmoved in their confidence in “the faith”.  Our commitment, as shepherds of CFBC, is to teach the “full counsel of God” so that you will grow deeper in precise systematic theology, so that your worship of the Triune God will be transcendent, captivating, and biblical. And we want you to stand firm on the Lord and on the Truth (=“the Faith”) in the ever-so-changing days in which we live. We want you to stand strong, to stand firm, to stand courageous, to stand boldly, to stand vocally, and to stand worshipfully on the Lord.  The LORD is my rock and my salvation, of whom shall I be afraid?  Stand firm knowing that it is on Christ the solid Rock that you stand. All other ground is sinking sand!

Tuesday, August 17, 2021


Here is a game plan for holiness from the psalmist's example (from Psalm 119).

 

1. RUN AWAY FROM SIN!  (Psalm 119:37).  Fighting sin demands a holy resolve to flee and forsake its temptations. The psalmist begs with God to pass his eyes over, to turn his eyes away from sin. The heart of the psalmist reveals a desire to follow God and this shows itself in a fear of indulging sin.  Every child of God must strive to emulate the psalmist’s example. We must seek the Lord and His power to turn away from sin. And therein rests the hope.  You can’t do this on your own. You cannot fight sin nor turn away from sin in your own human strength. See how the psalmist pleads with God to literally ‘cause his eyes to turn away/pass by’ sin. He recognizes that sin is ‘vanity.’  The Hebrew word is emptiness, vanity, worthlessness.  How amazing that a child of God understands that sin promises a lot but delivers nothing. Sin promises pleasure but provides pain. Let our hearts burn with a prayerful determination to run away from sin and its temptations even from the very first instance. 

 

2) RUN HARD TO SCRIPTURE! (Psalm 119:38).  How important for every believer to run hard to God and to His Truth. Amazingly, sheer willpower to flee sin is a noble desire but it’s still insufficient to produce real, lasting change. One must replace that temptation to sin with a greater pursuit of godliness. And here, the psalmist recognizes that he must be established, yes he must stand firm, in the Word of God.  How about you?  When you are tempted (with your eyes, your mouth, your lips, your heart, your mind, your body), do you actively seek Christ’s Truth as your great shield, protection and joy?  If you are to follow and glorify God in a life-pursuit of holy living, yes you must run from sin but you must run to Truth. And bless God, He has provided all that is needed in His promises, in His Word, in His Scriptures. The particular word that the psalmist uses here refers to the ‘utterances from the mouth of God.’  What a great concept. Run away from sin and hard hard to the sweet utterances of Almighty God as revealed in His Word.

 

3)  RUN DEEP IN CHRIST!  (Psalm 119:39-40).   The psalmist prays that he longs for God’s precepts and he recognizes the need for God to revive him in the Word.  He needs revival. He needs God to come, to invade, to revive, to quicken, to satisfy him again — in the perfect righteousness of God.  Oh Christian, can you relate?  Do you need heart-reviving?  Do you need God to revive you and give you fresh life?  Do you need fresh reminders of Christ’s righteousness to sweep over your soul again so that you remember your position, rest in His grace, and rejoice in His security?  Run deep in Christ’s righteousness.  Run deep in prayer seeking true revival.  May the Lord help us with this game-plan for holiness.  We must RUN AWAY from sin.  And with that we must HARD HARD to Scripture.  And that must propel us to RUN DEEP in Christ and in His heart-reviving work! 

Thursday, April 15, 2021


 Below is a 5-part podcast series on Family Worship

Part 1:  The purpose/reasons for family worship  |  LISTEN

Part 2: Singing hymns  |  LISTEN

Part 3: Reading Scripture  |  LISTEN

Part 4: Praying together  |  LISTEN

Part 5: Keeping the long-term perspective in mind  |  LISTEN

More resources can be found here on family worship. Here's a brief video that may be helpful also.

Wednesday, February 24, 2021


Why I Do Abortion Mill Evangelism

Geoffrey R. Kirkland

I subtitle this article: “Urgent Gospel Preaching & Warnings To Those Going to Murder Their Children.” Why do I engage in this kind of urgent evangelism at the very doorstep of Satan’s foothold? Because souls are on the brink of eternity. Babies are about to be ripped apart. And murders are committing abominable and unjust atrocities inside the doors. At least, near me, few others stand and speak the biblical gospel at these Satanic places, so I go. And I go and preach. And I pray. And I weep. And I plead. Why?  For at least 6 reasons.

1. Because God utterly abhors this and I hate what God hates.   (ABOMINATION) — The Bible reveals that He hates the killing of innocent and defenseless children to pagan gods (Lev 20; Jer 7; Prov 24 & 30). God even says that such atrocities “never even entered His mind.” When God declares that he utterly abhors the killing of children, this affects me as a man saved by God. This affects me because I am called to love what He loves and to hate what He hates. As I grow in Christlikeness and as my mind is renewed by the Word of God into conformity to Christ, I increasingly hate what God hates — and this includes abortion. So I go because abortion is abominable.

2. Because souls must be reconciled to God & murderers, fornicators and liars don’t go to heaven.   (HELL) — I also go to the murder mill because I firmly believe that there is one way souls can escape eternal hell and that is by the gospel of Jesus Christ alone. All must be reconciled to God by faith alone in Christ or they will perish under God’s eternal and infinite wrath. Scripture unambiguously affirms that murderers, fornicators and liars do not go to heaven, but their part will be in the Lake of Fire. So I go urgently because sinners are approaching eternity and walking the tightrope over the flames of hell underneath them. And they must come to Christ or they’ll perish.

3. Because it is the gospel of Jesus Christ ALONE that saves dead souls.    (RECONCILIATION)  — Firmly do I believe that there is one remedy for desperately wicked sinners like me and you. And that is the gospel of Jesus Christ alone. Nothing else can save a guilty soul. Nothing else can pardon a ruined rebel. Jesus Christ who lived a righteous life, died a substitutionary death, appeased God’s furious and just wrath, and rose from the dead victoriously is the only way to salvation. No other way to go to heaven exists. No merit, no work, no deed, no self-confidence in human achievements can ever bring a man to God. Thus, it is the preaching of the gospel that sinners at the abortion mill need. They need Christ. They need the summons to repent and turn away from their sins and murderous desires and to trust, submit, surrender, and follow Christ alone — right now! So I go because I believe confidently and supremely in this gospel.

4. Because very few others are there.    (NEED) —  I praise God for faithful evangelists who frequent murder mills and proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ.  And I am thankful for many others who do stand on sidewalks. But at the abortion clinics in the general vicinity near where I live, there are very few men who are boldly standing and proclaiming the gospel. So there’s a need. Souls need to hear of Christ and they need to be warned of their sin, and they need to be summoned to a gracious Savior.

5. Because I love children.   (CHILDREN)  — I have children. I get the heart of a Father that tenderly is full of affection for my own kids. Jesus welcomed all the little children to come to Him. He said that the kingdom of God belongs to such as them! The heart of Christ loving and yearning for children is also a heart that I can relate to because I have children that God has graciously given me. So I go because I don’t want innocent babies murdered in the wombs of their mothers. I don't want skulls crushed or body parts ripped limb from limb. I want the womb of a mother to be the safest place for a baby. So, still yet another reason, I go and preach because I love children.  

6. Because time is short, eternity is long and Jesus said: “GO”.  (OBEDIENCE)
— Each week I make it a priority in my pastoral work week duties to preach the gospel at a murder mill because time is short. Eternity is coming. And Jesus commanded all of His followers to go (not sit) and make disciples. That includes evangelism and proclamation. Young mothers walking into those places don’t realize how short their lives are and how long eternity is. They don’t know that God’s sword of raging anger is about to fall upon them. So I go to urgently warn and lovingly summon them to the Savior. Jesus said “GO” so I go. He said: “Compel them to come in” so I go obediently to my Savior and proclaim the gospel for His glory and for the good of souls.

Tuesday, February 23, 2021


What To Repent Of.

Geoffrey R. Kirkland


This brief article seeks to help in knowing what to repent of.  On a recent prayer walk as I was pouring out my heart to God for more holiness and for our church congregation, I was praying through these four points. May they be a blessing to you as well.

1. I repent of the littleness of my love
May our hearts burn with greater love for Jesus Christ.  Think of how the Bridegroom loves the Shulammite in the Song. And think of how great Christ’s great love is for His Bride, the Church. Let it be your prayer that you confess the littleness of your love for Christ and plead for greater affections and more zealous desires for Him.  Those who love Him abide in Him and keep His commandments. Let this prayer be true of you and may you grow in your passion in loving Him who is altogether lovely and full of beams of excellencies. 

2. I repent of the coldness of my heart
Think of the many times that you have been cold in your heart toward Scripture, toward God, toward Truth, toward perishing sinners, and toward godly living.  Confess your sins to the Lord. Ask for His mercy that He would re-kindle the flame of love that your heart would be warmed by His love and that you would love Him as He ought to be loved, that you would study Scripture as your chiefest joy, that you would pray for and evangelize sinners with God-magnifying confidence, and that you would walk in holiness so as to be pleasing to Him in all things. Confess your sin and seek to walk in truth and pray for Him to meet with you as you commune with Him.

3. I repent of the pridefulness of my heart
We all have the roots of pride still residing in our hearts. Our many sins that we commit come from the same root of self-magnifying, God-debasing pride. O let us repent and confess this sin. Let us come to God in earnest prayer and in desperate prayer clinging to His grace and His power to enable us to walk in humility just like Jesus Christ did. Implore God to remove jealousy, covetousness, lust, grumbling and complaining, and arguing with others. These sins arise out of the pridefulness in our own hearts.  Seek to walk in humility as you go to Calvary and remember what Christ did for you — for your sins — and seek to have the mindset of Jesus Christ as your own each day, by God’s grace.

4. I repent of the self-confidence in my ministry
God has allotted a particular charge and calling to every single Christian. Every child of God has a mission that He has given to us. We are to fulfill that and live obediently to God. One sin that we all have is to dwell in self-confidence and to rely on self. This manifests itself practically in prayerlessness and thanklessness.  If we pray little, then we are depending much on self.  If we are thankless, then we are in that moment not recognizing all that we are and have comes from God but rather we think that we are entitled to blessings in life. Come again to the Lord humbly and ask for His forgiveness. Receive His powerful and sufficient grace. Seek to be confident in God and seek to slay all confidence in self. Let us be desperate for Him and lean on His power.  
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