God has come among us

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Lutherans For Life

God has come among us …

1101 5th Street • Nevada, IA 50201-1816 888.364.LIFE (5433) • 515.382.2077 • www.lutheransforlife.org

Equipping Lutherans to be Gospel-motivated voices For Life Dear <>, The winds have shifted. The tide has turned. A new day has dawned, and there’s no stopping it now. This is going to be HUGE! The 2016 U. S. presidential election? Hardly. Life-affirming legislation and court cases? No, not that. Historic public support for respecting and protecting every human person? Try again. Congregations educating and communities caring? Donors advocating and volunteers acting? Think even bigger. GOD HAS COME AMONG US – THE ALMIGHTY HAS DESCENDED TO THE EARTH! The Maker and Master dwells in our world! Our Creator has become incarnate, God’s own Son conceived as an embryo in a human womb and born a humble baby Savior. Heavenly help has arrived and abides. He has assumed our flesh and has undertaken our cause. He has located His kingdom, His compassion, and His authority in our very midst. Lord God has gotten Himself involved in our experiences and circumstances. Neither the dread of any doubters nor the desire of all the enemies together can undo it. Sin and death don’t stand a chance anymore. Love can’t fail! Life can’t lose! Lutherans For Life is rushing to share the news of this Christmas Gospel. We are pushing back against suffering, distress, regret, and grief. We’re manning the front lines, meeting violence’s offensives head-on. We’re advancing the leading edge of God’s grace and forgiveness deep into the darkest corners of the devil’s shadowy domains. Join us in this joyful adventure! Enlist in Jesus Christ’s victorious mission! Your Christmas donation will be a partnership that greatly cheers our spirits, but how much happier will it make the hurting hearts to whom we extend heavenly hope! In fact, we’ll get your gift going right to work changing lives and saving eternities! The Most Important Christmas List Our God Immanuel has been among us for more than 2,000 years. His Gospel has been shared across the country and has been shown around the world for centuries already. Yet many of our nearest neighbors and even loved ones still have not themselves unwrapped and enjoyed all the presence of Christ. Lutherans For Life decorates our land year-round with life-giving lights. Although what we hand out may not be the most popular items requested, they remain the most imperative: • Many people hear the pro-life message as angry, legalistic, attacking, accusing, condemning, comparing, competing, demanding, and discriminating. They need to know the life-affirming Gospel of unconditional acceptance and universal worth because of Jesus Christ. Extending the promises of abundant and everlasting life to them also, no matter what they’ve done or what they can’t do, forms our only foundation and whole motivation. • Awareness about life-and-death situations will fade now that elections have concluded. Attention to Please continue reading … CA16

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Lutherans For Life • 1101 5th Street • Nevada, IA 50201-1816 Enclosed is my special Christmas gift to help LFL in reaching hearts with the For Life message.

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You may also donate by credit card by calling 888.364. LIFE or at www.lutheransforlife.org. Lutherans For Life is a 501(c)(3) ministry and contributions are deductible as a charitable donation.

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marriage and parenting, abortion, assisted suicide, and medical embryo destruction will tail off. Enthusiasm for speaking truth and showing love even unto the least will wane for many people. They need to hear how God and His people still hold these matters and their victims close to the heart. They need to feel that His household and family will rescue, befriend, and bless them. • The number of those personally involved in or directly affected by death used as a solution continues to increase. Our Word of Hope Director, Grace Kern, counsels more post-abortive women and men during election years than at any other time because public conversation about it swells. They need to see that Jesus releases them from their shame and relieves their pain because God views them as precious also. • The culture keeps appraising a person’s value by productivity and pressing for looser sexual license. Multitudes are swallowing the falsehood that these approaches will justify and satisfy them. They need to be introduced to the better way of salvation, from Scripture alone by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. Sending us your gift right now makes it possible for us to open all these treasures with them! We still need $293,997 before December 31 to meet this year’s goals. We know that they can count on you. The Twelve Months of Christmas God’s goodness has no end, deadline, or expiration date. The Lord who lives right where we are repeatedly and consistently stuffs our stockings. Look at all He’s accomplished celebrating His nativity for us lately: • Every seminary student of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, The American Association of Lutheran Churches, and Association of Free Lutheran Congregations who graduated in 2016 received our digital Educational Resource Manual. This credit-card-sized flash drive contains many, many articles, brochures, booklets, Bible studies, sermons, services, videos, and presentations organized for easy reference, equipping them and their congregations—some 22,500 Lutherans—to be Gospel-motivated voices For Life! • Over two hundred participants gathered for the 2016 Lutherans For Life National Conference in Bloomington, Minnesota. Attendees represented seven different Lutheran church bodies from every Midwestern state and as far away as Texas, California, Virginia, Canada, and even Latvia. Worship; a firstever children’s workshop; a visit to a pregnancy-assistance center; and expert sessions on disability, fetal development, end of life, creation, and how to have caring and courageous conversations energized all of us to talk about our task and carry it out! • Our workshop and exhibit at the Lutheran Education Association Convocation had an audience of more than 3,000! Teachers, administrators, and aides took great interest in our Owen’s Mission initiative (www.lutheransforlife.org/about/owens-mission) and Teaching For Life tools (www.lutheransforlife.org/ store-teaching-for-life)—including homeschooling families! • We have completed a major update to our Life Team Tool Kits (www.lutheransforlife.org/about/ life-chapters-and-life-teams)! Our newest staff member, Mission and Ministry Director Hilary Murray, is supporting congregations in forming and maintaining Life Teams and Life Chapters that raise awareness and take action locally. The first production run of 50 toolkits sold out in 24 hours! (We’ve made more!) Will you please enable us to invite even more souls into these Christmas festivities? We can’t wait to open your gift and share life from Jesus Christ with each and every endangered one! In truth and love,

Rev. Michael W. Salemink Executive Director, Lutherans For Life P. S. Lutherans For Life is totally donor-supported. That means we don’t receive budgeted funding from church bodies. But with your gift today, we can reach our goal of $293,997—making it LFL’s BEST YEAR EVER!

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___________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________ LUTHERANS FOR LIFE 1101 5TH ST NEVADA IA 50201-1816

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Best Way to Order LFL Resources: At www.cph. org or 800.325.3040. Shipping/handling applies to all orders. Quantity pricing on select resources.