FROM PHYSICAL BROKENNESS CAN COME SPIRITUAL HEALING

God can use us in any circumstance in which we may find ourselves, even dire circumstances. Dire circumstances and pain are teachers, if we listen for God's voice. I have been chronically ill and physically disabled with severe multiple sclerosis for over 36 years—more than half of my life. Strangely, I have been more use to God disabled than I ever was able-bodied. It was at a certain point of disability and sorrow that I asked God what He wanted me to do? He led me to speak out across North America about disability inclusion and against an emerging cultural acceptance of euthanasia.

And so from 1994-2018 I spoke to anyone who would listen to what I had to say. I spoke to community groups, colleges and universities, politicians at provincial, state and federal levels, evangelical and Catholic groups, churches, medical professionals, disability organizations, legal organizations—literally anyone and any place that invited me. Unless speaking about public policy in government settings, I used every opportunity to witness for Christ. Today, I was sent a link to a 2016 presentation I gave in Ottawa, Canada, to the annual conference of the Catholic Organization for Life and Family (COLF). They asked me to speak on the subject of "I AM MORE THAN MY DISABILITY." Click on image below. 

[NB: Notice the first inklings of my useless right hand awakening from MS paralysis.) I did not know then that a prayer not yet prayed was being answered ever so slowly. By 2019 I was walking after decades of paralysis in my legs, and regained full function of my right arm and hand.)

 

AMERICA AT THE ABYSS

The following video was sent to me by Facebook.  It speaks to America about the horribly high stakes of the November election. It calls the nation to a national day prayer 40 days before election day. I urge you to watch it. What is at state this election is nothing less that the heart and soul of America. 

You know which party stands against biblical values and against a Christian world view. Christianity lies at the foundations of America. Please see the video here: "The Return." (There are forces at work to silence any call to repentance, including blocking this video. You may find that it's censored and unavailable when you try the link.) 

It is a critically important message to the nation for a spiritual and moral about-face, in what people of previous times called revival. And it is something that has weighed heavy on my heart. Thirteen years ago I wrote these words for the cover for this blog:

“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?” 

America now stands at the edge of that abyss of that New Dark Age; Joe Biden and the Democrats will bring it to America. But there is still hope: National Christian revival. God's people must witness to their neighbours and other fellow-citizens about God's love for them and encourage them to give their lives to Jesus Christ. Spiritual awakening!

Look at a coin. What does it say? "In God We Trust." In your hand lies the answer to America's future prosperity and happiness.

MDP

Storming the gates of secular Babylon

We are approaching the 2nd anniversary Terri Schiavo’s state sanctioned execution. What was Terri’s crime? Her disability fell below an arbitrary level of 21st century public acceptability. She bore silent witness to America to be a society of justice, mercy, and love for life.

She was dragged to the abyss of death by court sanctioned starvation and dehydration. Her situation demanded justice; her predicament cried for mercy; her humanity called to a nation’s allegiance to protect and treasure the Right to Life (even for the weakest), -- as was proclaimed at the birth of America.

Those who espoused Terri’s contrived right to die seemed to believe it’s better to be dead than disabled. Based on some passing remark Terri made back when she was in her twenties, her estranged husband said she didn’t want to live with profound disability. Who does? But that did not mean she was better off dead.

Love is the final arbiter

I am seriously disabled with MS and I wish it were not so. But disability (or ability) does not decide the value of life. It never has. Love is the final arbiter of life’s value. I want to love and be loved, I want to be valued and included in the lives of my family, and spend time with my grandchildren. I want to receive the Body of Christ and bask in His eternal love. Love is the glue of human and divine connection. I have those things. And so my life is worth living despite increasing paralysis, the contraptions of disability the slow, unstoppable physical degeneration. My future may be as disabled as Terri Schiavo. The difference is that she was robbed of the human love of her family … and they were robbed of her love. An estranged husband’s infidelity was portrayed a fidelity, his abandonment as love.

Bioethicist and Judge reveled in the logic of spiritual darkness; savage and savants, they hovered over a voiceless and defenseless woman. It was a bitter foretaste of things to come for the disabled and deranged, those born too young or those who live too long. Tiger and tyrant, will deliberate and pontificate on which lives meet arbitrary standards for quality and which fall below.

We the people

It can be stopped by good and decent people. Their weapons are the ballot, their wallets and their voices. Vote in only those who believe in the dignity and equality of all human life. Politicians who will not protect the Right to Life are unfit for public office. Media that promote abortion and euthanasia should be boycotted and (using the liberal tactic on themselves) shouted down and protested at every turn.

We the people can turn around the dissolution of western Christian society by secular elites of the judiciaries, bioethics, education and media.

Nothing less than the value of every human life is at stake! If we will not stand up for the value of human life, and the previous Christian consensus many of us held dear, what will we stand up for? It is time for Christians to stop the madness of secular North America and take back the culture. Do not overlook the magnitude of what is unfolding before our eyes. The blood of over 50 million aborted children cries to our consciences. The blood of Terri Schiavo (and millions of disabled people yet to be euthanized) will either serve as a rallying cry or indictment of North American society.

Strengthen the things that remain of a former Christian consensus. Reclaim what has been lost. The culture itself is dying. Storm the gates of the secular Babylon!

Mark Pickup