Caring For Haiti's Orphan's

http://www.gofundme.com/vvqtt8

My wife, LaRee, has volunteered to help at a Christian orphanage in Haiti. During July, she will comfort, care, feed and tend to the needs of children who have nothing and nobody to care for them. 

LaRee is a skilled seamstress and sewing teacher so in addition to ongoing care of children she will be mending and making clothes and teaching orphans how to make their own clothing (an important 3rd World skill) that will serve them well to cloth and support themselves. The Edmonton store CENTRAL SEWING has donated sewing machines that must  be shipped to the orphanage in Haiti prior to LaRee's arrival at the end on June (another cost). If you would like to help sponsor her mission trip by making a donation, click on the link above.

Thank you for any support.

Mark

(Any unused funds will be given to Hands Across The Sea orphanage.)

MOTHER TERESA: "DO YOU KNOW THE LIVING CHRIST?"

I have been told these were Mother Teresa's last prayerful words:

"I worry some of you still have not met Jesus, one-to-one, you and Jesus alone. We have spent time in the chapel- but have you seen with the soul how much He looks at you with love? Do you really know the living Jesus - not from books but being with Him in your heart? Have you heard the loving words He speaks to you?

Ask for the grace; He is longing to give it. Until... you can hear Jesus in the silence of your own heart, you will never be able to hear Him saying, "I thirst" in the hearts of the poor. Never give up this daily intimate contact with Jesus as the real living person - not just the idea. How can we last even one day without hearing Jesus say ''I love you?'' Impossible. Our soul needs that as much as the body needs to breathe air. If not prayer is dead, meditation, only thinking.

Jesus wants you each to hear Him speaking in the silence of your heart. Be careful of all that can block that personal contact with the living Jesus. ''The devil may try to use the hurts of life, and sometimes or own mistakes - to make you feel it is impossible that Jesus really loves you, is really cleaving to you." This is a danger to all of us. And so sad, because it is completely the opposite of what Jesus is really wanting, waiting to tell you. Not only that He loves you, but even more. - He longs for you. He misses you when you don't come close. He thirsts for you. He loves you always, even when you don't feel worthy." When not accepted by others, even by yourself sometimes - He is the One who always accepts you.

Only believe - you are precious to Him. Bring all you are suffering to His feet - open your heart to be loved by Him as you are." He will do the rest."

[Click on image below or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1-xRLmEwNQ for Shawna Edwards singing "Coming Home".]

THE FUTURE IS NOW

In Canada ALL abortions are tax payer funded. Women can have abortions for any reason or no reason, and have as many abortions as they want. There's no legal protection for prenatal life at any point of pregnancy. Canada's Supreme Court made it so.  

Now, thanks again to the Canadian Supreme Court, doctor assisted suicide will soon be legal across the land for any suicidal person with an "illness, disease or disability."[1] The gaping parameters of the high court's low ruling include either physical or psychological pain. The person's condition need not be terminal. 

[NB: Two years prior  to the odious, unanimous 2015 ruling by Canada's Supreme Court favouring assisted suicide for sick, disabled and depressed Canadians (with much public support), the Canadian Parliament gave unanimous support for the concept of a national suicide prevention strategy (with much public support). Why the contradiction? I believe a suicide prevention strategy is intended for healthy and able-bodied suicidal Canadians. Physician assisted suicide is for sick and disabled suicidal Canadians. It boils down to anti-disability bigotry of a majority of Canadians that permeates even the media and highest levels of government and Judiciary.] 

Is this what we call a "civil society"? There's nothing civilized about it. It is moral darkness that will ravage the very soul of any remnants of our once civilized society, a put the lives of the most vulnerable humanity in great peril.

THE FUTURE

Leonard Cohen's 1992 album "The Future" carried a song of the same name. It is featured below. The vulgar words at the beginning have been removed, and I'm sorry to expose you to that even with the bleeps, but the rest of the song has an apocalyptic theme.  The official video (below) removed Cohen's poignant, important lyrics, in the song: 

"Destroy another fetus now,

We don't like children anyhow,

I've seen the future, baby,

It is murder."

The future is now. Good people must stand up for the ancient western code Cohen mentioned -- a code of western Christian civilization that held dear the sacredness of human life.*[See foot note below] Our society is coming apart!

[Click on image below or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D97OxHZzBeQ for Leonard Cohen, The Future, (1992) ]

__________________________
[*] The last major defense of that western moral code was World War II. The Allies fought against Nazism that directly threatened western Christian civilization. In fact, on the eve of the Battle of Britain, Prime Minister Winston Churchill stood in the British House of Commons and said, 

"I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilisation. Upon it depends our own British life, and the long continuity of our institutions and our Empire. The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned upon us. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war.

If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science."

The great man referred to "Christian civilization" that was eventually saved and paid for with blood and sacrifice. 

They did not fail. Subsequent generations did. We squandered and rejected western Christian civilization and the ancient Common Law that it created and on which our legal system is based. As a result, we are entering the sinister new Dark Age Churchill mentioned.

TO LIVE FOR SOMETHING LARGER THAN SELF-INTEREST

Just over a week ago, I wrote a post under the title "A Child, A Song, And The Weight Of Glory".[1]  It featured Jackie Evancho singing Nella Fantasia. The evening of the concert where she sang that song, back in 2012, at the age of twelve years, she sang another song called To Believe. It had the vocal accompaniment of other children. I want you to listen to it because it speaks to the important truth of living for something larger than self-interest. 

To teach our children the ways of God, and to love God -- through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ -- is the most important truth you can impart to your children. Fathers, take a leadership role in the spiritual development of your children. Lovingly teach them the word of God and to love the Word of God.[2]

[Click on image below or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foUrBztgzZA ]

___________________________________
[1] See http://www.humanlifematters.org/2015/05/a-child-song-and-weight-of-glory.html
[2] See John 1.1.

A YOUNG FATHER'S VIDEO ABOUT HIS BABY

We are approaching Father's Day. Below is a video made by a wonderful dad who really loves his family. The six minute informative video is called We Had a Baby. Hope you enjoy it. There's nothing like family life.

[Click on image below orhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aS45u_K_T8 ]

PAT BUCHANAN ON THE SUICIDE OF A SUPERPOWER

[Peter Robinson host of Uncommon Knowledge, in association with the Hoover Institution, PJMedia and PJTV, 2012, interviewed Pat Buchanan about his book SUICIDE OF A SUPERPOWER. Click on image below or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GG1rFA_QEk , 1hour. Interesting.]

EVERY CHILD HAS A RIGHT TO BE

Every child has a right to be. Every child has a right to thrive

and reach their full potential, whatever that may be. Adults in their world have a responsibility to make sure every opportunity is available to them to reach their potential. But this responsibility falls primary with their mother and father.

It begins at the beginning, with good prenatal and post-natal care. Every child deserves good nutrition and clean air, decent housing and education. Every child deserves access to quality medical care that includes preventive measures such as immunization. Every child deserves encouragement, and nurture and, ideally, a family with a loving mother and father to guide them. They have a right to be included, and experience love, friendship and kinship. 

Every child has a right to know the feeling of warm summer sun, to experience the smell and fresh cut grass and flowers, to breathe in fresh, crisp autumn air and see trees turning colors, and the changing seasons. Every child has a right to life ... a right to be, to experience, to know and to grow. 

Fathers have a critical role to play in his child's life. It begins with love and care in utero. The highest complement a man can give to his offspring is to love their mother. 

If you are a man who is unexpectedly expecting a child, then support and help your baby's mother to make the right choice. The right choice is never abortion. 

Real men care for their children. 

Rise to the call of fatherhood. If you are not willing or unable then let an adoptive couple parent your child. A little life depends upon it. Support a decision for life and let your child live and thrive. Every child has a right to be -- Mark

[Click on image below or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALrJ17qKpHg for the song "A Father's Love" by Gary Valenciano.]

A CHILD, A SONG, AND THE WEIGHT OF GLORY

In 2012, twelve year old singer Jackie Evancho delivered an

exquisite rendition of Nella Fantasia. It is the vocal version of Ennio Morricone's Gabriel's Oboe. Gabriel's Oboe is from the soundtrack for the 1986 film The Mission: A favourite film, and composition, of mine and I've written about it in an earlier blog post.

Sweet child, I believe that what you were singing about was a primordial human longing, a desire in the hearts of humanity, that has stretched across the centuries. It is what Solomon was referring to when he wrote that God "has put eternity in their hearts." (Ecclesiates 3.11). It is a desire for the perfect love of God. God is love.[1] He made us for heaven. C.S. Lewis wrote "Now, if we are made for heaven, the desire for our proper place will be already in us, but not yet attached to the true object"[2] 

Whether you knew it or not, Jackie, I believe you sang of the weight of glory that God has placed within you and me and every other human being throughout the ages. It is embedded deep within your soul and is intertwined with the image of God you bear. It's roots began with the first spark of your life (that we commonly call conception).

As beautiful as the music and words are that you sang, they are merely symbolic of  a larger, grander glory that eludes expression and falls short of the real object of perfect love. When the last note fades away, we are still left with that yearning for something and somewhere else. I believe it is heaven. 

Fulton Sheen wrote this: "... the human heart heart is isolated and in agony: it has more love to give than  any earth-bound object can receive -- it clamors to be loved more lastingly and comprehendingly than any human lover. But both the longings -- to love perfectly, to be loved perfectly -- are merely vacuums in man."[3] Ah, the longing for perfect divine love! It can only be found in Jesus Christ and will reach its full potential and reality in heaven.

Unless I am mistaken, sweet child, that is the dream you sang about so beautifully that evening. It is made complete in Jesus Christ. God bless you and keep you in all you do. -- MDP

[Click on image below or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQF-l9NBtX8 for Jackie Evancho singing Nella Fortuna (2012) -- with English subtitles.]

___________________________
[1] 1John 4.8.
[2]C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory.
[3]  Fulton J. Sheen, LIFT UP YOUR HEART.

CHRISTIAN WITNESS IN AN UNCHRISTIAN WORLD

My dictionary defines apologetics as a “systematic and logical 

defence of Christianity against its detractors and unbelievers” In 1 Peter 3.15, Christians are told to be ready to give a reason (apologia) for their hope in Christ.

Apologetics can draw people to Christ as we read in the Book of Acts with Saint Peter on the day of Pentecost. Peter’s sermon was a classic example of apologetics and drew 3,000 people to faith in Christ. Saint Paul’s witness in Athens was another example of apologetics at work. It is documented in Acts 17.17-34.

Apologetics does not always convert people. They must have an open mind and a seeking heart. The most brilliant defence of Christianity will not change the hearts of those who refuse to accept it.  Look at the events leading up to the Martyrdom of Stephen. We read in the 6^th Chapter of Acts that he was “a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit” (verse 5).  People who were opposed to his witness for Christ were not able to resist “the wisdom and the Spirit by which he spoke.”(verse. 10) How did they respond? The shocking answer is found in Chapter 7: They killed Stephen.

Stephen’s words cut deep into the hearts of an unreceptive group of religious leaders in Jerusalem. Anger toward Stephen by the crowd grew to a climax and they turned into a mob.  In what must have been a terrifying moment for Stephen, God gave him a serene vision of heaven.  Looking past the terror of his impending death, Stephen saw to the Glory of Jesus waiting for him.  He said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” (Throughout the centuries, this has been the hope that dissolves fear for believers who die in Christ.)

Those words of Stephen the Martyr were too much for his accusers. They rushed and ceased him, threw him out of the city and stoned him.  As he was dying Stephen was heard praying “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” The stones continued to rain down on him. He fell to his knees and uttered his last words: “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.”

What happened to the murderous crowd as a result of Stephen’s witness for Christ and his brutal death at their hands? We don’t know what happened to most of them but one was a man named Saul ― a terrible persecutor of Christians. He later had a dramatic encounter with Christ on the road to Damascus. He became the great Saint Paul and went to his own death after years of witness for Christ and defending faith in Him (apologia).

Other examples of ancient apologetics include a defence of Christianity (Apologia) by Saint Quadratus of Athens to the Roman Emperor Hadrian in A.D. 130. Justin Martyr left two apologiae. In his book City of God, Saint Augustine defended Christianity against pagan allegations that Christians were responsible for the fall of Rome. Saint Thomas Aquinas defined apologetics as making known the truth of the Catholic Church.

In an era that is increasingly hostile to Christianity – such as the one in which increasing in North America – it is important that followers of Christ be ready to defend the truth of the Christian faith and be prepared to give a reason for the hope that is within them. Don’t expect everybody to accept what you tell them but learn to systematically and logically defend your faith.

Always be prepared to share your faith in Christ at the right opportunity. You never know the impact your words and example will have on people. Your witness may not be the final link in the chain of another person’s journey to faith in Christ but make sure you’re not the missing link.

Like Stephen, there is a privilege in being given an opportunity to witness and glorify God in the face of great adversity. In some parts of the world that can mean death. Boldly express confidence in the reality that we will spend eternity with God, through faith in Jesus Christ, can be a powerful opportunity to witness to sceptics and unbelievers.

Personally, I have found more opportunities to witness for the hope

within me since becoming disabled and wheelchair-dependent than when I was healthy and able-bodied. It seems contradictory to a generation of people focused on youth and health.

My circumstances allow me opportunities to speak of faith that transcends physical limitations and focuses on eternal matters.

Use whatever circumstances you find yourself in to defend the Christian hope within you. -- Mark

[Click on image below or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_omAMeVxH8  for "I am not shamed"

DISABLED WOMAN NEEDS YOUR HELP

Maria Victoria Venancio is a 29 year old Edmontonian who came from the Philippines to work in the service industry. In June 2012, she was struck by a truck on her way to work leaving her quadriplegic and unable to walk. Now, the government wants to deport her as a burden, knowing that she will never receive the help she needs in the Philippines. Let's be clear: Ms. Venancio was in Alberta doing a job most Albertans will not do.

With your support, we can help Vicky stay and get the help she needs. I ask Alberta readers of this blog to write to their MLA and Premier-elect Rachel Notley to demand Ms. Venancio be allowed to stay. All readers (whether Albertans or not) can tweet Alberta Premier-elect Rachel Notley @RachelNotley and call upon her to allow Maria Victoria Venancio to stay in Alberta and restore her Alberta Health Care Number so she can receive the care she desperately requires. I want the new premier to know that North America is aware of how we treat people brought here to work in the low paying service industry and are hurt.

For more information about Maria Victoria Venancio's situation see http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/alberta-health-minister-denies-coverage-to-temporary-foreign-worker-1.3019954
"Alberta health minister denis coverage to temporary foreign worker", CBC News, 02 April 2015 

PERSECUTED CHRISTIANS IN NORTH KOREA

Although I usually write about urgent life issues like abortion, euthanasia, assisted suicide and disability, with this blog post I want to feature two videos about persecuted Christians in North Korea. They need our prayers and support. Further, write to your federal elected representatives to lobby North Korea to stop persecution of Christians and release those who are prisoners. I can not image such anguish!

The first video is 19 minutes and the second is 5:00 minutes.

Video 1: Click on image below or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_trSJf7Zec

Video 2: Click on image below or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHONVR1YfWo  (WARNING: It is disturbing.]

'ASHTRAY ANNIE' PLAYS BEETHOVEN

Anne Fischer
(1914-1995)

Anne Fischer was a remarkable pianist who deserved much more credit that she received. At the bottom of this post you will find a 1987 recording of Anne Fischer playing Beethoven's Piano Concert No. 3 in C Minor. She was nick-named "Ashtray Annie" because she was rarely seen without a cigarette except when at the piano. For more about Anne Fischer see "'Ashtray' Annie Fischer was a piano giant. Why didn't more people know this?" The Spectator, (U.K.) 23 August 2014. http://www.spectator.co.uk/arts/music/9292182/ashtray-annie-fischer-was-a-piano-giant-why-didnt-more-people-realise-this/

[Click on image below or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWvfDC2oW6w for Anne Fischer playing Beethoven, Piano Concerto #3 in C Minor, 1987. 38:04 minutes.]

BEETHOVEN AND MOTHER'S DAY

If you look on the mantle behind my picture at the top of my blog

Ludwig van Beethoven
(1770-1827)

you will see a bust of Ludwig van Beethoven. I have mentioned this before but I keep it there to remind me of the capacity of human spirit to overcome adversity. Beethoven suffered from deafness that eventually became near complete and yet he is one of the greatest composers who ever lived! 

In many of my speeches throughout North America, warning of the perils of euthanasia and assisted suicide, I have often referred to Beethoven. There was a point in his grief journey, as deafness was shutting out his music, when Beethoven was driven to consider suicide. He mentioned this in a letter to his brother Carl. Imagine if assisted suicide had been accepted in his day as a legitimate way of dealing with disability or psychological pain; and imagine if he had given in to that temptation at a low point (with the full support of society and assisted by doctors ).[1] Think of the music we would have missed! 

One my favourite compositions by Beethoven is his Moonlight Sonata -- written in serious deafness. 

The grand piano at center stage
of arts centre named after my mother:
The Eleanor Pickup Arts Centre

My mother was a music teacher. When I was a child I remember a few her advanced students tackling and mastering Movement No. 1 and occasionally No. 2. To the best of my memory, I do not remember any student of my mother's becoming so advanced as to attempt Movement No. 3. Tomorrow is Mother's Day. Although my mother has been dead for 9 years, I would like to dedicate Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata to her memory, and to the concept of human dignity that remains despite adversity and suffering.

[Click on image below or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsOUcikyGRk for Moonlight Sonata in C sharp minor, Op.27, No. 1,2,3. Pianist Valentina Lisitsa

__________________

[1] On 6 February 2015, the Supreme Court in my country of Canada struck down the nations laws against assisted suicide. In a unanimous decision the high court ruled that physician assisted suicide should be available for any "Irremediable" medical condition (including illness, disease or disability) that causes enduring suffering and is intolerable in the circumstances of his or her condition."  This could encompass psychological pain. The high court felt that available treatments need not be be taken. If Ludwig van Beethoven lived today in Canada, can you see how he might be at risk of being assisted in his suicide? 

   

A BATTERING RAM OF LIBERALISM

Alberta's crest
(Try to ignore England's
St.George's flag at the top)

In Canada, the Alberta provincial Human Rights Commission (AHRC) fined a Calgary private school $26,000 for refusing to allow two Muslim students to pray on campus grounds. The AHRC tribunal declared that the Webber Academy caused the two fourteen year old students distress and loss of dignity. Neil Webber, President and founder of the Webber Academy, responded, “We are not discriminating against anybody on the basis of religion. We are a non-denominational school. We’ve operated on that basis for the last 18 years.” Apparently the school tries to create a learning environment that is free from religious influences. The tribunal thought otherwise.

The head of the human rights tribunal ruling stated: “Despite the respondent’s specifically stated goal of making people of all religious backgrounds feel welcome, its actions, objectively viewed, were not welcoming.” I am skeptical about whether 21^st Century representatives of the state ― whether provincial, federal, judicial or quasi-judicial ― are capable of viewing things objectively.

In an era when Christian prayer has been banned from schools, municipal council chambers, and government officialdom of any sort, it is revealing that Muslims’ right to public prayers would be defended. Remember at about the same time as the AHRC ruling, Canada’s Supreme Court ruled against Catholic prayers in Quebec municipal meetings.

If it causes stress and loss of dignity to stop the Muslim’s prayers in a public place, can’t the same be said about stopping Christian public prayers? Someone may say there is a difference between a private school and municipal council meetings, and that is true. The consistent thread, however, is that secular government bodies were passing judgments on matters of faith ― from a perspective of predetermined, arbitrary ideas of pluralism and multiculturalism.  I have a sneaking suspicion that the balances of multicultural pluralism have been weighted.

There’s something much larger at play than legal or policy decisions. In a larger societal context, we are witnessing increasing intolerance of Christianity (and the Bible) and tolerance of other religions and no religion. We do not have genuine multiculturalism. What we have is an entity called multiculturalism used as a battering ram against western civilization in general and western Christian civilization in particular.

American Judge Robert Bork wrote about this within an

educational context in his book Slouching Toward Gomorrah:

“A curriculum designed to foster understanding of other cultures would study those cultures. Multiculturalism does not. … Instead the focus is on groups that, allegedly, have been subjected to oppression by American and Western civilization … The message is not that all cultures are to be respected, but that European culture, which created the dominance of white males, is uniquely evil.”

A radical judiciary and government bureaucracy, media elitists, and select pseudo-experts in education and culture are leading the multicultural attack against western civilization and the Judeo-Christian foundations that made it great. 

We must face a hard truth. Christians will increasingly face hostility. We are seeing this throughout Canadian and American society. Christianity and Christian morality are anathema to many who wield power. Professing faithful Christians will be eliminated from public service by subtle and clever ways. We are already seeing this being played out in the political arena. For example, Canadian federal Liberal Party leader Justin Trudeau has declared that all Liberal candidates in the next federal election must support abortion rights. This action will effectively stop many Catholic and evangelical Christians from running for the Liberal Party.  The liberal media regularly mock evangelical Christians and attack their beliefs as oppressive and dangerous to liberty, in what one television executive called a “licence to overkill”.  In other words, the liberal media can overstate anything and get away with it.

In a horrible legal ruling, the Canadian Supreme Court recently struck down Canada’s laws on assisted suicide. Many Christian physicians are afraid if they refuse to participate in helping suicidal sick people kill themselves, they may face persecution. Already, Saskatchewan physicians are worried about whether conscience rights will be respected and some have voiced their fears to me.

Do not take this lightly. All I hold dear is crumbling before my eyes. The sanctity of every human life and the previous Christian moral consensus that governed western culture for hundreds of years, and even the foundations of the family are being swept away. I fear we are at the threshold of a New Dark Age.

What are faithful Christians to do? Remain faithful and witness for Christ even in the face of withering opposition. Ultimately there is no neutral ground between truth and falsehood, right and wrong, or good and evil. Remember, our Lord warned his followers, “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.” (John 15.18) The servant is not greater than the master. If we do not stand for the truth of Jesus Christ and His Church, who will? 

Mark

[This posting was republished with permission by Stephenson County Right to Life, Rockford, Illinois. See http://prolifecorner.com/a-battering-ram-of-liberalism/]

LIGHT YOUR LAMPS FOR LIFE IN THE COMING DARKNESS OF DEATH

There are dark days ahead for sick, disabled and depressed people in Canada. The Supreme Court recently struck down the nation's laws against assisted suicide. The high court's judges unanimously supported this terrible  decision. What sort of society helps suicidal people kill themselves?!

The high court defined the scope of assisted suicide to include an "illness, disease or disability" that causes "enduring suffering that is intolerable to the individual the the circumstances of his or her condition." It also includes those people suffering "psychological pain". Assisted suicide would be an option even if the person has refused available treatments. 

It should be noted that less than two years earlier Canada's

Parliament unanimously supported the idea of a national suicide prevention strategy. Parliament supported suicide prevention while the Supreme Court supports assisted suicide. What's worse is that the vast majority of Canadians support both! Why the difference? Suicide prevention is intended to save suicidal healthy and able bodied people, assisted suicide is intended kill off suicidal sick and disabled people.

Am I wrong? How else should someone like me (incurably ill and disabled with advanced multiple sclerosis) interpret the apparent contradiction between the highest legislative and judiciary bodies in the land?

What will happen to conscience rights for physicians who refuse to participate in assisted suicide or refer patients for assisted suicide? Will their professional or licencing organizations support

conscientious objectors? It's dicey. Already I have been told by some physicians of their fears conscience rights will not be respected. Will the Canadian Medical Association and their provincial/territorial counterparts protect conscience rights of their members? What about nurses? 

How will provincial governments in charge of health care delivery respond? Will they willing go along with the killing? Yes they will. They already violated the sanctity of human life by paying for all abortions for the past forty years. They pay for killing at the beginning of life, why not the end of life? At some point, the grades or distinctions of barbarism cease become murky. A deadly Rubicon has been crossed! Welcome to 21st Century Canada.

Yes, there are dark days ahead. But Christians must collectively

light lamps of love with life-affirming action. Our light of Christian love will shine in the darkness of our culture. We can start outreaches of care and inclusion for the sick and disabled in much the same way as Christians established pregnancy care centers for women in crisis pregnancies in the 1980s. That is a template. The care is different but the Christ-centered love and concern are the same. Remember, love is a verb.

Establish Christian suicide hotlines and advertise them broadly. Connect suicidal people, and their families, to Christian Counselling and appropriate palliative care resources with up-to-date pain management. Make your churches welcoming, accessible and barrier free to people with disabilities. Reach out to families in crisis and invite them into the tender care of your church communities. Establish rosters of church-based trained volunteers to provide respite care for families facing a death or profound disability of a family member. Provide ongoing grief counselling.

Offer life with dignity -- even when life is near its end. Offer life with dignity -- even when a life has despaired of life. Offer the hope of a Christian life with dignity -- even when a person wants to die and is about to pitch themselves into the dark abyss of suicide. Hold up life as a right, not death.  

There are dark days ahead but we can be beacons of light pointing to a better way -- the way of Christ. I write these words from authentic personal experience. I have known dark days too, yet in the midst of sickness, disease and disability I have seen the light of Jesus Christ. 

Mark

"You are the light of the world. A city

on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people

light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead

they put it on a stand, and it gives light to

everyone in the house. In the same way,

let your light shine before men, that they

may see your good deeds and praise

your Father in heaven." -- Jesus

       (Matthew 5.14-16)

THE BIBLE AND ABORTION

(This Bible study is for my evangelical brothers and sisters.
It uses the Protestant Bible.)

“Your eyes saw my substance, yet being unformed. And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them.” – Psalm 139.16

What does the Bible reveal about the value of prenatal life? Does God care about the unborn child developing in the womb? If God cares, should we? Let’s examine these questions, and others, in order to give us a Biblical perspective in establishing our Christian view about abortion.

Who creates life? (See Genesis 1.26-27, Genesis 2.4-25, Genesis 5.2, Psalm 100.3, Isaiah 43.7, Job 10.9-12 & Job 33.4) 

Who is the work of God’s hand? (Isaiah 64.8, Job 31.15)

Does God value life? (Deuteronomy 4.32, Psalm 8.4-5, Exodus 20.13, John 3.16, Ecclesiastes 11.5, Hebrews 2.6-8.)

God’s loving hand in forming us: (see Jeremiah 31.3, Isaiah 46.3, 49.5)

God sanctifies life in the womb. (Jeremiah 1.4-5, Psalm 22.10b, Psalm 139.13-16.) God even mentions the unborn baby by name (Isaiah 49.1.)

(nb: Nelson’s Women’s Study Bible comments about Psalm

139.13-18: “God has His eye on us before we were born. These verses avow that personhood does exist from the time of conception. The psalmist affirms God’s knowledge of his life from the pre-embryonic stage through death. The Lord weaves and knits together our beings in the wombs of our mothers (v.13). . . . We are in a real sense “prescription babies” in that God has a custom design for every individual, equipping each for specific achievement and purpose (see Isaiah 43.7; Romans 9.20, 1 Thessalonians 1.4).Even the greatest tragedies can be overruled or transformed to good within the providence of God (Romans 8.28). . . . Even our worst negative traits can be transformed into positive qualities (Romans 12.2)

God love all humanity. (See Malachi 2.10. Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Commentary^[1]  states about this passage that “the use of the term create calls to mind the great creation text of Genesis 1.26-27. Deal treacherously: Because God is the Creator of all humanity (Genesis 1.27), He requires that humans deal equitably with one another.”)

What if the unborn child is unwanted? Well, God answered that too. (Isaiah 49.15-16. Again Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Commentary states about this passage of Scripture, “The Lord says: I will not forget you. The nuance of the verb suggests an even stronger assurance, “As for Me, I am unable to forget you.”)

How then should we respond? (Proverbs 24.11-12, 31.8-9)

It’s an interesting point that we find a comment in Amos 1.13 about God’s anger with the barbaric ancient wartime practice of opening pregnant women and ripping out their baby. This is Nelson’s Woman’s Study Bible comments about this passage:

"Ripping open pregnant women was a means of controlling the population in neighboring Gilead, alludes to a common wartime atrocity in the ancient Near East. A sword was used to slash open the stomachs of pregnant women and rip the unborn baby from the womb (see 2 Kin. 8:12; 15:16; Hos. 13:16). This barbaric practice is documented in an Assyrian text praising Tiglath-pileser I (about 1100 b.c.) and in Homer’s Iliad, which advises that not even “the manchild whom his mother bears in her womb” be allowed to escape from battle. Amos cited this atrocity as evidence of the depth of depravity of those who consumed the poor, the weak, and the helpless. For any society, killing the unborn child is the ultimate sin against the helpless."

The same Study Bible goes on to comment about the Sanctity of human Life:

“God places special value on human life (Gen. 1:26, 27; Ps. 8:4–6). Human life is sacred because the man and woman alone were created in the image of God, and that life deserves protection. God commands His people to protect and defend innocent human life (Ezek. 16:20, 21, 36, 38). Under the Mosaic Law, the murder of another person deserved punishment by death because of the value of the life that was destroyed (Gen. 9:6; Ex. 20:13).”

“Scripture extends this special status and protection to human life in every stage of development and need (Is. 46:3, 4). The unborn child shares in God’s image (Ps. 139:13–16) and is protected under Old Testament law (Ex. 21:22–25). Believers are exhorted to defend and care for the sick, the elderly, and the poor (Lev. 19:32; Deut. 15:7, 8). No one is excluded from protection and care.”

“Throughout history this biblical view of the sanctity of all human life has faced opposition—most notably from those who advocate a “quality of life” viewpoint, suggesting that human life must possess certain qualities and abilities before it can be considered truly valuable and worthy of life sustenance. According to this distorted humanistic view, if the unborn child, the handicapped infant, or the elderly person does not possess these qualities, that individual is not entitled to the protection which Scripture or the Law would give.”

“The Bible rejects this “quality of life” view. The value of human life does not depend upon the person’s functional abilities or independent viability but is assured because of the image of God which is found in every human life. God does not measure the quality of a human being before He bestows His image. God calls upon us to extend our care and compassion to every life He has created, in every stage of development and in every need.”

Some people cite Exodus 21.22-25 in a mistaken view that God places less value on the unborn child. In fact, this Scripture says the opposite:

“If men fight, and hurt a woman with child, so that she gives birth prematurely, yet no harm follows, he shall surely be punished accordingly as the woman’s husband imposes on him; and he shall pay as the judges determine. ^But if any harm follows, then you shall give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe. ^[3]

 The Evangelical Commentary on the Bible says the following about the passage above:

“Of special interest to many Christians are verses 22-25. Unfortunately, most translations leave the reader with the false impression, which has led in turn to the wrong application of this passage to the abortion issue. In short, this law deals with the results of a pregnant woman being struck (accidently) by two men who are fighting. The result of this unfortunate attack is a “miscarriage” according to most English translations. The text continues: “[If] there is no serious injury, the offender must be fined. . . . if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, eye for eye ...” (v.23). This has often been interpreted to mean that a miscarriage occurred. Then the issue becomes how the mother was affected―the implication being that the fetus really did not matter; it was not considered a human and the focus of attention was the mother. This passage is often conveniently used by advocates of abortion to say that since God did not demand punishment for the loss of the child, then the fetus did not have image-of-God status.”

“However the Hebrew of 21.22 literally reads “and hit a pregnant woman so that her child(ren) come forth, and no harm follows, the one who hurt her shall be fined.” Here the King James and New International translations are helpful. The Hebrew word for miscarriage is not used here. Our text portrays a woman being struck and then delivering prematurely.”

“The very passage used by some to support abortion, in fact, goes in the opposite direction. In this case the woman is accidently struck, but if she or the child dies as a result, then the guilty party could be sentenced to death. This is the only instance in the Torah where involuntary manslaughter calls for the death penalty. Generally the guilty party was to receive refuge from “the avenger of blood” and was not put to death (Deut. 19.4-10). Injury to the unborn is the only exception. The reason seems clear enough: God places high value on the unborn. The law always expresses concern for those least able to defend themselves.”[4] [ Emphasis added.]

Did Moses’ great instructions to the Israelites have any application to our generation?

“I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you,

that ^tI have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing;

therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; …”^[5]

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^[1]Radmacher, E. D., Allen, R. B., & House, H. W. (1999). Nelson's new illustrated Bible commentary (Is 49:15). Nashville: T. Nelson Publishers.

^[2]Thomas Nelson, I. (1997, c1995). Woman's study Bible . (Amos 1:13). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

^[3]The New King James Version. 1982 (Ex 21:24-25). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

[4] James K. Hoffmeier, “Exodus” in Evangelical Commentary on the Bible, ed. Walter A. Elwell (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1989) p. 56.

^t Deut. 30:15

^[5]The New King James Version. 1982 (Dt 30:19). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

See short video showing development of human life in utero development. Click on image below or  this link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAZRS5yZHGY