WE WERE NOT SAVED TO BE SILENT

We were not saved to be silent. Christ wants us to take the Good News to the world. He said:

"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them

in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the ends of the age."[1] 

In another place, Christ said that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name. He said we are witnesses to these things.[2] I was not saved to be silent and if you have met the risen Christ and given your heart to Him, then you know the hope and joy that He offers. You were not saved to be silent. 

Not only that, Christ also said, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."[3] Elsewhere we read Saint Paul's words of encouragement to fellow-Christians: "And may the Lord make you increase in love to one another and to all, just as we do to you.[4] [My emphasis added]

If Christ told his disciples to take the Good News to all nations, then surely that also includes our next door neighbor and our own communities. We were not saved to be silent. Our secular culture demands that we keep our faith private, that we 'don't shove our faith down their throats.' It is not Christians shoving our faith down their throats, secularism is being shoved down our throats. Who shall we obey: the secularists or Jesus Christ? 

As I write these words, my teenage granddaughter and grandson are

witnessing to people in the poorest areas of a major Canadian city. They are bold yet tender; their faith is alive and joyful; they want others to know the same life and joy in Christ. They are not only witnessing to addicts and prostitutes and other broken people living in the inner city, they are witnessing to their grandfather. If they can travel a thousand miles to take Christ's Great Commission to the world around them, then surely I can take the Gospel to my comfortable, tidy and well-tended street and community. 

The young teach the old.

MDP
_________________
Notes:
[1] Matthew 28.19-20.
[2] Luke 24.47-48. Cf Acts 1.8.
[3] John 13.34-35. cf. 1Thessalonians 4.9
[4] 1Thessalonians 3.12.

CHRISTIANITY IS PRO-LIFE

This past February, The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' pro-Life blog "Life Issues Forum: How To Build A Culture of Life" had a revealing quote for devout Christians (not just Catholics):

"When someone is facing great trials, we need to meet them where they are, walk with them on their journey, intercede for them, and be open to sharing Christ's love however he directs."

"When a woman becomes pregnant, and her boyfriend threatens to leave if she continues the pregnancy, we need to lovingly walk with her. When parents of young children need a break, we need to consider how we can help and act on it. When family members or friends become seriously ill, we need to assure them that God still offers them something in this life, and they still have purpose. We need to consistently be with them every step of the way."

"Our lives are often changed by the witness of others; so too, others' lives may be changed by our witness and authentic friendship with them. Sometimes our actions speak for themselves; other times, words are needed. Whatever the situation, Jesus knows how to speak to each person's heart; we simply need to follow where He leads."

"Let us go, therefore, and not be afraid. God is always with us."[1]

Christianity is pro-Life. Jesus said: "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full."[2]  Christ did not say he came to give death. That is what the thief of life does: He steals and crushes human potential; he kills and destroys. It is the abortionist, the doctor who euthanizes the sick and disabled who do Satan's bidding. 

Followers of Christ are called to be witnesses for the sanctity of all human life. Life is so sacred that Christ willingly came and died precisely because God loves us so much. He wants us to be with Him forever.[3]  It is through Christians' prayerful and faithful actions and responses to human circumstances that they give their most effective and powerful witness for that love. Yes, we are called to reflect Christ's love and salvation to a lost and hurting world. Every human life has meaning regardless of age or stage. Every human being is worthy of love, care, protection and nurture.

MDP

_____________

[1] Life Issues Form: How To Build A Culture Of Life, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, 23 February 2018. http://www.usccb.org/about/pro-life-activities/life-issues-forum/life-issues-forum-how-to-build-a-culture-of-life.cfm

[2] John 10.10.

[3] John 3.16.

CANADA'S DANCE WITH DEATH

Canada looks glowing as its 2016 euthanasia law (euphemistically and deceptively called "Medical Assistance in Dying"). We think it's a celebration and victory of "Canadian values." Our new god is choice (even over matters of life and death). In his latest article for the American publication The National Review: "THOUSANDS OF EUTHANASIA KILLINGS IN CANADA", Wesley J. Smith gives a more sobering and realistic assessment of Canada's dance with death. See 
https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/canada-euthanasia-killings-increase-steadily/

A THOUGHT ABOUT KINDNESS

"There will be times when you will be sorry about something you said; sorry you stayed too late, or sorry that you went to early; sorry you won something, or lost, but all your life, you'll never be sorry you were kind." -- Unknown

CANADA'S STATE-SANCTIONED EUTHANASIA

As you know, Canada has legalized euthanasia (euphemistically called "medical assistance in dying”). Bill C-14 was enacted under the pretext of assisted suicide. That's not what Canada got. The second federal report on Canada's new assisted suicide law reveals that less than 1per cent of deaths were self-administered. The rest were lethal injections -- administered at taxpayers' expense -- regardless of whether they object! By definition, that's state-sponsored euthanasia not assisted suicide. It is not medical assistance in dying, it is medical killing.  

Being one of the vulnerable target group, I asked my physician to put the note below on my file. I removed her name as a courtesy. She is not one of the killer-doctors.

American readers of this blog should use Canada as a lesson of what not to do. State-sanctioned euthanasia always turns bad.

If you would like me to speak about the perils of assisted suicide or euthanasia, from the perspective of someone who is disabled and has been incurably ill for more than 35 years, send me an email at HumanLifeMatters@shaw.ca 


Mark Davis Pickup

WHEN DESPERATE PRAYERS SEEM UNANSWERED

"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" It was in his terrible agony of being crucified, Jesus cried those words of abandonment.[1]  Christ was abandoned by his friends -- except John and, of course, his mother. He was abandoned by the fickle crowds that -- one week earlier -- heralded his entrance into Jerusalem with jubilant shouts of "Hosanna in the highest!" Then the one who lived in perfect fellowship with God felt alienated from God.

Christ cried those heart-breaking words because he felt abandoned by God at the very moment he needed his Father most! Why? Because Christ took on the weight of the world's sins.[2]  In God's perfect holiness, He had to turn away from the great body of human sin, even when borne by His only begotten son.

Abandonment 

Do you feel abandoned by God in your pain? Does it seem that God does not answer your desperate prayers? Christ understands. He has been there. God does not turn away from us, although it certainly may seem that way at a critical moment of crisis.

I think we can begin to understand why the door to God's comfort and consolation seems to have slammed shut when our need for Him is most desperate. The key lies in the word "desperate."

C.S. Lewis wrote about this aspect of grieving. He explained that in

most things, we can't get what we want if we want it too desperately, or at least not get the best of it. Lewis used the analogies of not being able to see clearly when our eyes are filled with tears; that really delicious drinks are wasted on a ravenous thirst. I think he was right. It is the drowning man, flailing frantically in wild panic, who cannot be rescued, lest he drags down the rescuer and himself. 

We've all heard accounts of firefighters finding bodies of victims piled at the exit of a burned out building. The chaos of panic prevented orderly evacuation. Everyone perished beneath the exit sign. 

Sleepless nights

I know the stark terror of sleepless nights. I remember (more than 35 years ago now) the feeling of being abandoned in my anguish, staring out the kitchen window at 3:00am, while everyone else in the house slept peacefully. The fresh shock of being told I had an incurable, degenerative disease filled me with a strange mixture of numbness and panic. The only sound was the steady ticking of the mantle clock in the living room. As I looked into the backyard bathed in silver-blue moonlight, I was struck by the contradiction of the tranquillity around me and the terror within. I wanted to run away. But run where? The terror was in my own body!

My future had stretched out ahead of me, full of promise. Suddenly, it was all in ruins, or so I thought. My desperate prayers were unanswered, or so I thought. I felt deserted and alone. I remember looking up at the ceiling and saying to God, "If this is the way you treat your friends, no wonder you have so few of them."

Do you see the problem? This was no way to approach the sovereign God of the universe! I was angry that my agenda had been derailed. I demanded to be delivered back to my former self (disguised as a prayerful petition). God was only welcome on my terms. (I suppose Christ could have rightfully responded, "If this is how you treat your friends ... ."

Pray another prayer

I needed to place my sorrow before God, and honestly, humbly pray another prayer, with a different heart. In the hours leading to his crucifixion, Christ prayed, "My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will."[4] Christ asked three times that his cup of suffering be removed, and yet each time qualified his request with a willingness to submit to his heavenly Father's will, whatever that might be. Christ's request was not granted but an angel was sent to strengthen him in his suffering.


If God had granted Christ's earnest prayer request, the stain of humanity's sin would have remained. Even now, centuries later, it is only through faith that Christ's blood shed at Calvary has paid the penalty for our sins, are we reconciled in repentance to God.

Jesus spoke of people opening the door of their hearts at the sound

of his voice.[3] But how can a man hear Christ's voice if he is screaming in terror, confusion, desperation or anger? The man is pounding on the inside of a door only he can open.

Sometimes the most effective prayers are not what we say but how we listen. Sometimes God wants us to be still so he can calm our hearts. Only then can He speak to us at our deepest level. God wants us to utterly surrender every corner of our being to Him. He wants us to trust Him regardless of our circumstances.

There are times when suffering has a far greater benefit than deliverance from it. We must quieten our hearts, humbly seek God, and submit to his will, whatever that might be. Perhaps it is at the apex of suffering, and the door to God seems to have shut, that the seed of real faith can germinate. It is when all evidence of God's presence seems to have vanished that we have a unique opportunity to cry out with the great family of sufferers throughout the ages: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me" -- yet still choose to believe and obey.

MDP
____________
Notes.
[1]Matthew 27.46.  Cf. Psalm 22.1.
[2]See Isaiah 53.5; 2Corinthians 5.21; Galations 3.13; 1Peter 2.24, 3.18; 1John 3.5.
[3] Revelation 3.20.
[4] Matthew 26.39

THIS IS MY FATHER'S WORLD

"Was not this narrow enclosure, with the sky for a background, enough to enable him to adore God in his most beautiful as well as

in his most sublime works? Indeed, is not that all, and what more can be desired. A little garden to walk, and immensity to reflect upon." -- Victor Hugo

That is the case for me, except I can not 'walk' in my little garden.  
Still, I can tend to my enclosure with a tall hedge that gives a place of solitude, my little sanctuary, to adore God.

Be content with your life. Blossom where God plants you. He is our consolation, the final reality.

Although I am in the autumn of my life, the perpetual summer of God's love glows in my heart. This is my Father's world. See video below courtesy of Fountainview College.