I wrote this in August this year:
Much has happened in my little life. Lots of loss but the Lord has been faithful and I'm anchored and closer to Him than ever. I have good friends and a loving family that have been supportive throughout.
My Dad died a year ago August 4th....
My Mom died just a few weeks ago, July 12th. Her first symptom was in March and now she's gone. A measure of comfort I have is that Mom and Dad are together. Mom smiled at something/someone/s when she died. As if she was smiling at us by her bedside and beyond at something very, very wonderful. I think she may have been greeted by my Dad. I'll have to ask when I see them again. I KNOW my Mom is more than fine. That gives me the strength to carry on here
I've lost both my parents in less than a years time. Wow, never would I have thought I'd be in this position. You just never know in this life. They were both in their mid-60's.
Life is a gift. Thank you, Lord, for the loving relationship I had with both my parents. The grief I feel is a result of the love we shared. I'm thankful. Yet, I cry not for them, but for me.
Just lost a good friend this week to a motorcycle accident. She was so supportive to both me and my Mom these last several months. She brought goodies when she visited Mom and enough to feed visitors and staff too. She prayed with and for me and my family. That is valuable and cherished. The last text message I got from her was the evening before her accident. She simply texted 'Praying for you'. She had a big heart and was an encouraging sister in Christ. I will miss the connection we shared of her being there for me concerning Mom. That was a comfort to me. She started out a Vox neighbor and became an offline friend.
In the midst of this incredible loss I feel peace. I don't know what tomorrow will bring but thankful for the peace I have today.
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Today, December 23rd, I just want to let you know that my sweet Grandmother joined my Mom, Dad, Glenda, and many loved ones when she died to this life on October 16th. I miss them all so much. Many here used to pray for the situation with my Grandmother and with my Dad. That's why I'm posting here in the off chance some may see this. If any of you are on Facebook, let me know and I'd love to stay connected with you over there.
I wish those who read this a very blessed Christmas and a new year filled with love and joy.
Psalm 86
(A prayer by David.)
A Prayer for Help
1 Please listen, LORD,
and answer my prayer!
I am poor and helpless.
2 Protect me and save me
because you are my God.
I am your faithful servant,
and I trust you.
3 Be kind to me!
I pray to you all day.
4 Make my heart glad!
I serve you,
and my prayer is sincere.
5 You willingly forgive,
and your love is always there
for those who pray to you.
6 Please listen, LORD!
Answer my prayer for help.
7 When I am in trouble, I pray,
knowing you will listen.
8 No other gods are like you;
only you work miracles.
9 You created each nation,
and they will all bow down
to worship and honor you.
10 You perform great wonders
because you alone are God.
11 Teach me to follow you,
and I will obey your truth.
Always keep me faithful.
12 With all my heart I thank you.
I praise you, LORD God.
13 Your love for me is so great
that you protected me
from death and the grave.
14 Proud and violent enemies,
who don't care about you,
have ganged up to attack
and kill me.
15 But you, the Lord God,
are kind and merciful.
You don't easily get angry,
and your love
can always be trusted.
16 I serve you, LORD,
and I am the child
of one of your servants.
Look on me with kindness.
Make me strong and save me.
17 Show that you approve of me!
Then my hateful enemies
will feel like fools,
because you have helped
and comforted me.
My humble and sincere thanks to all veterans who have served to keep my country and my liberties safe. My heart goes out to all of you, especially to those who have made serious sacrifices. While I go about my daily business and snuggle down safe and sound in my bed, many of you are guarding a wall, battling with the enemy, or rescuing people off rooftops during a natural disaster. Some of you are tipping your last-call glasses of beer down in the halls of the American Legion or the Veterans of Foreign Wars. Your time of service has passed, yet a part of you lives always in the men and women who now serve. Some of you are praying, alone or in groups, that all sons and daughters, wives and husbands, brothers and sisters, and parents are home by the next Veterans Day. You know He can grant your prayers, but it's unlikely given the evil in the world.
Many of you will march in parades -- some of you will be escorted in your wheelchairs -- and be either encouraged by the numbers of people who gather and wave flags along the parade route or disappointed by the numbers, which seem to dwindle more each year. But you should know that the intensity of pride and sincerity of gratitude from just a few who gather are much richer, fuller, and sweeter than all the speeches, blog posts,and five-minute clips on the late news hours.
Some of you are homeless. We can argue about whether you are crazy or on drugs or a victim of the recession or whatever it is that makes you chronically without shelter, but I am at a loss as to how this could happen in my country. With the billions of dollars we borrowed from the Chinese to give to banks and companies who turned around and thumbed their noses at us while they got massages and played golf at an exotic resort, we couldn't spare a couple or three to shelter people who, conscientiously or not, went and stood in the way of bullets when others did not? I apologize to you, for both looking the other way and not being sincere enough to promise you I will not do it again. But I know that you sacrifice to this day for what you did for your country and I live in the grace of your sacrifice.
Some of you are recuperating in a hospital, trying to recover physically, mentally, or spiritually. Some of you are being taken care of by people who care about you, and some of you were forced to endure deplorable conditions at a military hospital, where people were supposed to care for you and try to make you whole as possible, in the name of the American people whom you served. I cannot understand this breach of faith and I'm angered by it, as I believe other Americans were, but like other government-run horror shows it appears to have been easy to sweep under the rug.
I am one of those people who get a lump in their throat when they see an American flag backlit by the sun's rays. A sucker for icons, I get it when anyone plays the national anthem, even though I love "America the Beautiful" a thousand times better, or a color guard comes out onto a baseball field, or some jets fly over a memorial. The arresting sight of a string of motorcycle guards heading to a funeral to protect a grieving family from a bunch of evil nutcase protesters from a Topeka church makes me want to pull in line and follow them to their destination.
But I get downright weepy when I walk through the tombstones of Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery, whether they mark the graves of Civil War soldiers, entire crews of planes shot down in World War II, or soldiers from other conflicts. And, even though some of the graves are for World War II and Vietnam vets from my own family, the the saddest to me are the newer graves of people who have died in recent wars.
I mourn those men and women who kept the wolf at bay.
And thank those who today still keep it from my door.
A one year old boy, who could have a tracheotomy, be taken home from the hospital and live his life, may have his ventilator removed at the wishes of his mother and the HOSPITAL TRUST PAYING FOR HIS CARE, because his severe physical disability has been deemed 'intolerable suffering'. His father disagrees and is fighting for his son's life.
In honor of Reformation Day, the anniversary of when, in 1517 Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the Wittenberg University’s Castle Church door, boldly declaring where the Church needed reform, I'm writing my own thoughts about the Church and some places where we still need reformation. Of course, this post will lead to inclusion of people with disabilities, because, well, that seems to be what I do.
There are two religions in this world. One is based on works, the other on grace. The religion based on works requires its disciples to work through law, rite, or service to make that disciple in right standing with the god of this religion. The God of the second religion, that based on grace, demands perfection unto His Law; however, when man failed and fails, this God has given mankind His own righteousness through His Son, the Second Person in the Trinity that calls Itself God, a righteousness contingent only on faith in this Holy Son and His atoning work on the Cross.
The disciples of this second God- of this One True God- the adopted sons and heirs, join together according to the Word of this God, as one Body, and we call ourselves the Church, with Christ as our Head. Like the followers of the first religion, the Church has a law, the Law of God, though our Law has been fulfilled by this Christ, and we members of the Body now walk by faith in our Savior, Christ Jesus', work and in the Spirit, Who is the Third Person of this Triune God. We perform rituals in our church gatherings as does the first religion, though our rituals, rituals of baptism and the communion of the saints, focus not on our attempts to gain righteousness but rather on the One Who obtained righteousness for us.
And, as do followers of the first religion, Christians, those of the Body, of the Church, we perform acts of service. As is the Law, Christians, attempt to love God and love our neighbors by serving our community and serve others.
However, unlike those following the first religion, Christians are not attempting to earn our place in our God’s Kingdom through this service, though serving God and serving others is part of God’s Kingdom. In fact, daily lawbreakers, we could never serve enough to enter that Kingdom.
Nor are we serving God through our own power or our own nature. We are serving God because we have a new nature, and a new Power- the Holy Spirit, given to us through the work of the Cross, upon our belief in Christ, this work, and the repentance of our sins. We are serving humanity- offering grace and mercy to one another- in response to how we were shown grace and mercy, in response to how we were invited into that Kingdom based solely on the death and resurrection of our King. We love because we have been loved.
Based upon this motivation for service and community within our own Body, we take seriously our Savior’s teachings on service and community. The fourteenth chapter of Luke’s gospel, verses 7 through 24, includes one such teaching. Through instruction and parable, Jesus shares His Father’s desire that, oh, may His house be full! He teaches us that His Father wants those at His table those who cannot repay His kindness- ‘the poor and the crippled and the blind and the lame' (vs 13) (as if people who are not poor or who do not have a disability could pay Him back). In fact, He says to compel them to come, revealing the earnestness of His heart toward the least in this world, those same ‘least’ who will become great in His Kingdom.
How does this teaching apply to Christ’s Church 2,000 years after its original exhortation? It applies the same way. There are still those who are ‘great’ in this world, and those who are poor or who have disabilities are still regarded as ‘the least’. Sadly the world’s view of who is great and who is the least is often paralleled in the Church.
Thankfully, the Spirit of God is working in the same way that He has for 2,000 years. He still convicts the Church, both the individual member and the entire of Body, of sin, and He is convicting me of my exclusionary practices of the ‘least of these’ in my church’s gatherings.
So, what do inclusionary practices of the ‘least of these’ look like? Inclusionary practices begin by being reminded of how all inclusion to the Body begins. It begins with the Cross and how Christ, forgiving us of our sin, reconciles us with God, making us His child and a member of Christ’s Body. We must be reminded that God never needed our able bodies or cognitive awareness or our large bank accounts to forgive us our sin, to give us faith, and to make us one with Him and His community. In that regard, we become aware that we are no different than our poor and/or disabled brother and sister.
When we become aware of the absolute equality with ‘the least’, community- koinonia- the Greek word used 20 times in Scripture for 'fellowship, sharing in common, communion'- makes sense! We are equally created in the image of God, we are equal in our human depravity, and we are equal in that any grace anyone has received has been from God. We are one Body.
Therefore, as one Body, if one member suffers, we all suffer. When one rejoices, we all do. When one holds a banquet, all are invited.
Whether through formal programming, or just meeting an individual or family where he or they are suffering or struggling, any church can do ‘disability ministry’. The call is for all, for all of the Body, to invite, to compel, ‘the poor and the crippled and the blind and the lame’ into the Kingdom of God and sharing a meal- that is, offering them repentance and the forgiveness of sin through Jesus' name, and truly becoming one Body- for the grace of God is for them, too!- in loving response to how the Father first invited us. This is how we reveal the religion of grace to the world.
"'Rational' Suicide Advocates Push Assisted Suicide in Mental Health Journals"- A podcast edition of bioethicist Wesley J. Smith's 'What It Means to be Human'
John Shelby Spong is not my liberator.
This is God's justice. I sinned homosexually. Jesus suffered and died for that sin, removing the wrath of God from me.
'Quality of life'. Brothers and sisters, can we think about that phrase for a moment? Can we think about what we are saying when we are using it? Can we, as Christians, really use that phrase?
A recent study says that ninety-two percent of women who discover they are carrying a child with Down syndrome opt to abort the pregnancy.
Early in Scripture we read a seemingly disheartening command of God. None of the offspring of Aaron, the priests of Israel, who had a disability could go through the veil and approach God’s altar, ‘lest he profane God’s sanctuaries’. (Leviticus 21:23) In addition, for sacrifice, God only accepted ‘perfect’ animals, those without blemish or illness. Yet, even men in ‘perfect’ bodies sacrificing ‘perfect’ animals were not perfect enough to purify us once for all time- as was the perfect sacrifice made by Jesus Christ (Hebrews 7:26-28).
The animals sacrificed were a foreshadow and type of this perfect sacrifice to come. The sacrificed animals and the men entering into God’s holiest place on Earth had to be as perfect as they could be to mimic the Christ. However, neither were really perfect.
All priests had to offer sacrifices for themselves before offering sacrifices for the people, for these priests sinned. Because of this sin, their bodies wouldn’t remain perfect forever. They would with age begin to wither, fail, and die. Had they not been sacrificed the bodies of these perfect animals, also, would also have grown old and died because sin was in the world.
God considered, for the Old Testament system of sacrifice, disability ‘profane’. God always considers sin profane. Could disability be profane because it is a result of sin in the world?
Yet, God doesn’t shun the person with the disability. He still refers to Himself as their God, as the God Who sanctifies them. (Leviticus 21:21, 23) In His same grace and mercy, God doesn’t shun His sin-drenched people.
God is a God of both justice and love. God hates sin. Sin must be atoned for. However, God loves His people, and for His Holy namesake, forgives His people for their sin, sending His own Son as atonement. For we His people cannot atone for ourselves.
We are not saved by our own righteousness. Our righteousness is like filthy rags. The only righteousness we have to offer God is that which was imputed to us by Christ at His sacrifice. The only sacrifices we have to offer God are a broken spirit and a contrite heart. God draws near to the humble. God knows we are weak, that we are only dust. He takes pity on the weak, and, while He demands us to do so, also, as Job found out, caring for the weak- the blind and the lame- did not even make him righteous ‘enough’. (Job 29:15)
There is hardly a greater a symbol of weakness than disability or illness, and these people to whom God seems most drawn. While they were forbidden to enter the holy of holies, God comes to them. To people like Paul who know that because God’s grace is made perfect in our weakness, when we are weak they are strong. The only strength that is to be relied upon is God’s, as the only righteousness that is to be counted is Christ’s. It is God Who opens the eyes of the blind and the deaf, makes the lame man leap, and the tongue of the mute sin for joy (Isaiah 35:5-6), and in His justice, Jesus came to open the eyes of the Spiritually blind. (John 9:39)
Interestingly, God calls people to weakness- before He calls us to stand and to run. He calls us to repentance, to a time of contriteness and humility at salvation, making us His. When we are God’s we rely on God’s strength, and, therefore, must die to our own.
In our weaknesses, God glorifies Himself. It was because of a bodily ailment that Paul first preached the Gospel to the Galatians. (Galatians 4:13) God is just as glorified by leaving Paul with his ‘thorn’ in 2 Corinthians 12, as when Jesus gives glory to Him through the healing of a man born blind in John 9.
God receives glory in His compassion for the suffering and the hurting. Jesus, for instance, Who only did the work that He saw His Father doing first, (John 5:19) ministered to and healed people with disabilities, illnesses, and sin. He was filled with compassion for the widow whose only son had passed away. After raising the son from the dead, He returned him to His mother. This most compassionate act caused the people to cry, “God has visited His people!” (Luke 7:11-18)
In the resurrection of Christ, those of us called by God unto salvation, having had our spiritual eyes opened, have hope of an end to suffering. Our physical weaknesses will have an ending. We will not always be disabled, old, and emotionally vulnerable. Most excitedly, in our new bodies we will no longer battle with sin. One day, we will be perfect (1 Corinthians 15).
However, even in our perfect bodies in our perfect Home, human beings, once being imperfect, children of wrath and enemies of God, we will always remain dependent on Christ and His perfect sacrifice. Upon Christ, who embraced weakness by putting human flesh and dying our death (Philippians 2:5-11) , to bring us to God (1 Peter 3:18), to give us eternal life (John 3:16), which is knowing God (John 17:3), forever in perfect harmony with our Creator.
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