“Our once great western Christian civilization is dying. If this matters to followers of Jesus Christ, then we must set aside our denominational differences and work together to strengthen the things that remain and reclaim what has been lost. Evangelicals and Catholics must stand together to re-establish that former Christian culture and moral consensus. We have the numbers and the organization but the question is this: Do we have the will to win this present spiritual battle for Jesus Christ against secularism? Will we prayerfully and cooperatively work toward a new Christian spiritual revival ― or will we choose to hunker down in our churches and denominationalisms and watch everything sink into the spiritual and moral abyss of a New Dark Age?” - Mark Davis Pickup

Saturday, October 19, 2024

EUTHANASIA AND THE DISABLED: AN INTERVIEW WITH WESLEY J. SMITH

“We live in a time in which eliminating suffering is considered by many to be society’s ultimate purpose. Too often, this leads to policies that eliminate suffering by eliminating the sufferer.

"Still, for those not experiencing intense pain or anguish, arguing for improved care instead of increased access to assisted suicide or euthanasia can seem like a blithe platitude. “If you were really suffering,” I have heard repeatedly in my more than thirty years involved with these issues, “you would sing a different tune.”"

"Perhaps. But many people who suffer intensely sing from the same songbook. One, is my good friend and guest for this episode of Humanize, Mark Pickup. Pickup has experienced the intense terror and anguish caused by disabling and progressive multiple sclerosis over several decades. Yet, in the midst of his intense pain, he became one of North America’s most prominent public speakers seeking to help others maneuver their way through travail and to find meaning even in the most difficult life circumstances. He is also a noted Christian apologist."

"Pickup has addressed politicians in Canada and the United States, churches and denominational leaders, universities, high schools and community groups, hospital medical staffs, local, state, and provincial pro-life conventions as well as keynote speaker to U.S. National Right to Life Prayer Breakfasts (2001, 2005, and 2010). Pickup is extensively published in Canadian and U.S. media and has appeared on innumerable radio and television programs warning against a cultural drift toward euthanasia acceptance. Mark has received numerous awards for his work including the Monsignor Bill Irwin Award for Ethical Excellence (Canada) and a Governor General’s Medal for community service. He writes the Human Life Matters blog that deals with issues of the sanctity of human life and other matters of cultural concern.” — Wesley J. Smith, Lawyer and author Wesley J. Smith is Chair and Senior Fellow at the Discovery Institute in Washington, DC.

Hear his interview with me at https://humanize.today/podcast/mark-davis-pickup-on-living-with-intense-suffering-and-experiencing-a-miraculous-healing/

Thursday, October 3, 2024

OUR INABILITY TO GIVE OR RECEIVE PERFECT TRUE LOVE

Jesus was asked, “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. The second is like it: ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments.”[1]


To be a follower of Christ, the Lord asks us to totally surrender our lives to Him and be willing to accept whatever that means or where He leads us. It is so hard. That’s why most people only give their lives to Him when they have exhausted all other options, and their lives are in shambles. I was one of those people. By the time I’d made a complete train wreck of my life, I didn’t have much to give God, but I gave the shards of my broken life to Him. He accepted me. 


I could not fathom such love as what I experienced with that life-changing first encounter with Christ, on a cold Canadian January night in 1980. The warmth of His love took over my heart that was as cold as the frost on the windows,[2] My soul was filled to its brim and overflowing with a warm flood of His love and forgiveness of me and my litany of sin. I thought I would burst with divine ecstasy! It was (and remains) the same love experienced by billions of people throughout the centuries. Saint Clement 1 (35-99 AD) said, 


“Who can express the binding power of divine love? Who can find words for the splendor of its beauty? Beyond all description are the heights to which it lifts us. Love unites us to God,”.


There it was in the first century—unmistakable divine love of God, its beauty and power beyond description. I wept with primordial joy that existed, not from my birth, but eons before I was created in my mother’s womb. Is that the binding power of love Saint Clement wrote about? It create a bond not bound by time or place. 


Love for God and our neighbour is incomplete and faltering, at times halting, at times gushing, but always falling short of perfect love of Christ. Perhaps that is because we are incapable in our present state of experiencing the truest love of all: God. That will only be experienced in eternity. 


True love has certain characteristics. Saint Paul told us in 1 Corinthians 13. Saint Clement also addressed authentic love:


“[I]t cancels innumerable sins, has no limit to its endurance, bears everything patiently. Love is neither serval nor arrogant. It does not provoke schisms or formed cliques, but always acts in harmony with others.”


Pretty daunting with flawed human capabilities.  Saint Clement said it cannot be without Christ.


“By it all God's chosen ones have been sanctified; without it, it is simply impossible to please Him. Out of love the Lord took us to Himself because He loved us and it was God's will, our Lord Jesus Christ gave his life's blood for us — He gave His body for our body, His soul for our soul.” 


Therein lies the key to our ability to truly love our spouse, our children, our neighbour, our community, and our nation, but most of all to love God with all our heart mind and soul. Without Christ it is impossible. The light of His sublime Love will envelope His people forever.

Mark



[1] Matthew 22:36-37. Cf. Deuteronomy 6:4-5, 10:12, Matthew 22:38, 1John 4:31.

[2] 1John 4:7-12.