A CHRISTMAS GIFT FOR HURTING PEOPLE: THE BEYOND SUFFERING BIBLE

 

This Christmas the Beyond Suffering Bible is a great gift you can give to people affected by disability or chronic conditions who need the infinite hope only God can give to those who suffer.

This unique and critically important New Living Bible includes Book Intros, profiles, devotionals and connection points developed under Joni Eareckson Tada’s inspiration, hard-won insights, and oversight and leadership. 

The Beyond Suffering Bible was carefully crafted by her team at Joni and Friends at Agoura Hill, California in partnership with Tyndale House Publishers to specifically address the needs of people affected by disability and those facing chronic conditions. 

The Beyond Suffering Bible was first published eight years ago, and I had the privilege—at Joni’s request—to give input to its development. Upon its release, Joni sent me a copy with a note:

Dear Mark… I am so grateful for your endorsement and words of encouragement about the new Beyond Suffering Bible. … My heart is filled to overflowing with joy when I think of the many caregivers, special-needs families, people with disabilities and countless others who will be encouraged by God’s Word, as well as the many notes, essays and references in The Beyond Suffering Bible. … [T]hank you for being part of the team who is
helping to make this happen.”

Is there someone in your family or community who might benefit from the Beyond Suffering Bible? Order a copy today from Joni and Friends at https://joniandfriends.org/product/beyond-suffering-bible/ or a kindle version on Amazon. It may be the most significant Christmas gift you give this year. Click on the link below for a message from Joni at the time the Beyond Suffering Bible was first published—Mark Davis Pickup

BEAUTY AND TRUTH IN A BLEAK MIDWINTER

 

In the bleak midwinter

Frosty wind made moan 

Earth stood hard as iron

Water like a stone

Snow had fallen

Snow on snow, snow on snow

In the bleak midwinter, long, long ago

I’ve never left North America. All my nearly 72 years have been lived on the western Canadian prairies, thirty-seven in the French-Canadian community of Beaumont Alberta, known for its historic Catholic church at the top of the hill. Beaumont means ‘beautiful hill’. My wife and I raised our children in our little house at the bottom of that beautiful hill. 

The city spreads out from the church at its center. For over a century, beautiful frosty Christmas Eve midnight Masses have been celebrated, reminding people that Christ must be our focus of Christmas. Sub-zero temperatures do not stop the faithful from midnight Mass on December 24^th. Winter wind may frost the stained-glass windows but inside the old church, the light of Scripture, sacred traditions of the Season and carols warm the hearts of the people. 

We know that our hope stems from a small stable in Bethlehem for there could be no Calvary without a Bethlehem. Jesus Christ, the second member of the Trinity, chose to leave the Godhead and take the human form of a servant to pay the price for our sins on the Cross and give us the ability to be reconciled to God through faith in Christ.* 

Heaven cannot hold Him

Nor earth sustain

Heaven and earth shall flee away

When He comes to reign

In the bleak mid-winter

A stable-place sufficed

Lord God Almighty, Jesus Christ

This was the divine plan since the Fall of man in Eden from the intimacy of a Holy God from humanity and continues to this day. We must not allow the festivities and jolliness of Christmas to lead us from that colossal cosmic birth of Mary’s beloved Christ child.

Angels and archangels may have gathered there

Cherubim and seraphim thronged the air

But only His mother in her maiden bliss

Worshiped the Beloved

With a kiss

When I consider the magnitude of what happened in Bethlehem and the unfathomable Love behind it, I can scarcely take it in. All I can do is give Christ my broken body and heart and surrender everything in my life to His divine will, content with whatever it might be.

What can I give Him.

Poor as I am?

If I were a shepherd, I would give a lamb

If I were a wise man, I would do my part

Yet what I can, I give Him

Give my heart

If you have not given your life to Jesus Christ, I invite you to seek Him. He’s at the door of your heart.** Open it to Him to come in and your life will change forever. It’s only a prayer away. Hear In A Bleak Midwinter, by Celtic Winter at the link below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xborgn0TOm0

___________

* Matthew 20.28, Luke 22.27, Philippians 2.7. 

** Revelation 3.20.

THE GREAT FAMILY OF THE HEAVY HEARTED

 

I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) in 1984. It was so aggressive that my doctor doubted I would live more than a couple of years. Disease rampaged through my brain and brainstem with terrifying neurological symptoms and horrible creeping paralysis that rendered my legs useless and my right arm heavily compromised. For many, many years, I was in a full electric wheelchair. Had it not been for the love of God and my family, I might have given up on life. 

Still, there are some griefs that cannot be expressed. They are unique to the sufferer. So too, there are some griefs unique to their loved ones and they cannot be expressed either. What bridges these two solitudes is the transcendence power of love. Yes, I learned early that the embrace of a loved one, during times of deepest sorrow, was more effective therapy than any psychiatrist. It is the embrace of a loved one that gives us entrance to what Helen Keller called “the great family of the heavy-hearted". She said,

When it seems that our sorrow is too great to be borne, let us think of the great family of the heavy-hearted into which our grief has given us entrance, and inevitably, we will feel about us their arms, their sympathy, their understanding.

I have an old photograph. It is a picture of my grandson comforting me with a hug in my sorrow just before he had to leave me.
Two kindred hearts that just knew. But knew what? We both whispered to each other “I love you." That's what. He waved goodbye and was gone. I wept. Life and creeping paralysis seemed less lonesome when he was with me.

Soon, he would need love’s courage as a salve for his own young broken heart. He’s autistic. The world can be so cruel to those who are different. During his carefree days as a tiny child, life seemed safe. He would sit on my lap as we whirred in my electric wheelchair to explore our little town’s playgrounds. 

Twenty-two years have passed since that photo was taken. Our warm little town grew into a city where people do not know each other anymore. My small grandson grew into a young man. He has come to know the hard edges of life for people with challenges. I know that pain. 

He knows the ache of loneliness when old friends stop calling. It’s not that they're unkind, just hard to find. Yes, I know that pain too.
He has discovered the frustration of not being able to do things other young people do with ease and his question that seems to echo into empty air: Why? Through my many years of paralysis, I asked that question too. 

He knows the bewildering isolation of being socially awkward—always being the odd man out, a round peg in a world of square holes, looking into a void of a tenuous future of a solitary existence that weighs heavy on his broken heart—a heart that yearns for the solidarity of human companionship. I weep again because I wish he did not experience those pains that the great family of heavy-hearted people have known throughout the ages. 

I will soon be gone; my life in this world is almost finished. I am an old man. My body has been ravaged by 40 years of devastating neurological disease that has left my brain with too many scars to count, a mini-stroke and cancer (as I write these words, I am about to have more biopsies). I worry for my grandson. I take comfort in knowing he knows Christ.

God is the Father of the great family of the heavy-hearted to which my anguishes have been given to Christ’s salvific suffering. The great family of the heavy hearts can be an anteroom to heaven's divine love. With God we are never alone. 

Long ago, I gave my defeat and sorrow to Him who took my broken, heavy heart into His broken body. His words came to me: "Be still and know that I Am God." (Psalm 46:10)

I remember again the hard-won wisdom of Helen Keller’s words: “When it seems that our sorrow is too great to be borne, let us think of the great family of the heavy hearted into which our grief has given us entrance, and inevitably, we will feel about us their arms, their sympathy, their understanding.”

There is a greater family of the heavy-hearted that Jesus’ grief gives me entrance, through faith in Him as my saviour. He has been my companion through mountains of grief. I have felt about me His arms, His sympathy, His understanding. 

Lord, be with my grandson in his solitude of sorrow. Show him the divine consolation You have given me. Let him also feel about him Your arms, Your Sympathy, Your understanding. Show him he is not alone in his autism. You are with him. Teach him (as You taught me) to use his disability as a witness for You. He will discover, like I have, that there is purpose and meaning to be found in our suffering. My every Why has been answered in the truth and reality of Jesus Christ. — Mark

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” — Jesus Christ (Matthew 11:28-30)

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/

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.

WE SPOKE OF LIFE AND DEATH, LOVE AND HEARTBREAK ... BUT MOSTLY WE TALKED ABOUT LOVE (BOTH HUMAN AND DIVINE)

 

A number of years ago, my wife LaRee and I delivered an address to one of Calgary Alberta's largest churches, Centre Street Church. We were asked to speak about our lives together. We have experienced the full spectrum of Life issues: abortion, incurable illness, disability, euthanasia and end-of-life issues. It was an honour to be with our brothers and sisters in Christ at Centre Street Church. The congregation gave us a standing ovation. I hope you will also enjoy it.  

Sadly, four years later Canada legalized euthanasia. 

If you would like to hear what we said, click here or here https://cschurch.ca/sermon/the-sanctity-of-human-life

Mark

FOR THE SAKE OF OUR CHILDREN

 The HumanLifeMatters blog has enjoyed over 1,300,000 visits from people across North America and beyond. I’m going to put it all on the line with this post. If Google suspends or confiscates my blog, so be it. I may be silenced by censors at Google, Facebook and X, but I will not be silent, especially when it comes to the mental, physical or spiritual health of children.

Pedophiles are now trying to sanitize their perversion and develop an air of acceptance for their abhorrent and devilish predilection for having sex with children. They have developed a new euphemism to mask their sick deviancy and moral corruption: “minor-attracted.” They would like it to become part of our vernacular. No!

Euphemisms are meant to hide or disguise something offensive or evil and make it sound innocuous or even altruistic. For example, to avoid the ugly word abortion, people who advocate it refer to reproductive rights, or the right to choose but avoid what the choice is between: The choice to kill one’s unwanted unborn child, or let the baby live. Canada's euphemism Medical assistance in dying (MAiD) avoids the repulsive words euthanasia or assisted suicide of sick or disabled people. Euphemisms hide monstrous actions or ideas behind pleasant words to placate and convince people to accept what was previously disgusting or unacceptable. Massage the message.

Pedophiles are using the template of the 2slgbtq2s+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, two-spirit, and additional people who identify as part of sexual and gender diverse communities). Pedophiles want to include their initials “m.a.” (minor attracted) with the alphabet crowd—identifying as part of the sexually “diverse communities.”

For the sake of preserving our children’s innocence and protecting their gentle hearts, souls and bodies from predators who would hurt them for their own sexual gratification, society must not allow any normalization of pedophilia. As parents, grandparents, and citizens we must aggressively and publicly oppose pedophilia and its acceptance.  

We must rise up at this desperate time because our previous great Western culture—the greatest in history— is crumpling. We must reclaim what has been lost and fortify what remains against the hidden and overt left-wing woke agendas of Kamala Harris and the Democratic Party, Justin Trudeau and Canada’s Liberal Party, and their toadies in the mainstream media. We must demand—in the streets if necessary—that gender ideologies in school curriculums be removed. They only serve to confuse children needlessly. For the sake of catering to a tiny number of genuinely gender-confused children, they attempt to confuse all children. The odd gender-confused child needs counseling therapy not affirmation or spreading a transgender message that has morphed into a social contagion. 

Citizens and people of good will! Demand that female-only safe places (like washrooms and change rooms) be safe places exclusively for biological females. The feminist movement fought for safe places for women. Now the most basic of safe places for women are being invaded by males pretending to be females. Stand with resolute determination to keep our women and daughters safe in places made for them only. Lobby to keep women's sports only for women. Stop drag queen story hours. They are intended to introduce normalize transvestism, men with sexual fetishes, and grammatically incorrect idiotic preferred pronouns. 

Stop this madness! Let’s return to some semblance of sanity and normalcy. Use your vote and influence with your families, neighbourhoods, and communities to oppose the sort of horrifying world we are barrelling toward faster than we could have imagined.

MDP