Praying like Elijah.

In his book, Miracles in Black, Dr John Wengatz tells of an African convert to Jesus who was left at a new mission station to carry on the Lord's work - among a tribe that still practised cannibalism!

It was the dry season when Joao Mbaxi took over but, soon, the tropical rains would be coming. However, month after month went by without as much as a cloud appearing in the sky. Then came the return of the normal dry period. By this time, everyone was suffering from the shortage of water, and many were on the brink of starvation. In all the years that the tribe had worshipped their ancient gods, the rains had never failed; so Joao was told that he must leave the country - and take "the white man's God" with him!

The courageous disciple refused to go. Then, flushed with anger, the tribal chief warned him: "If your God is as good as you say, and so powerful that He rules the sky, why doesn't He send us the needed showers? If it doesn't rain by sunrise tomorrow, we will drink your blood and eat your flesh!"

Recalling the Biblical account of Elijah (see I Kings 17 and 18; James 5:17-18), Joao went to his hut and prayed for divine help with the same kind of urgency as that of the prophet. Meanwhile, members of the tribe waited for the dawn, when this disciple of Jesus would become the victim of their nauseating practice.

Just before daylight, thunder was heard in the distance, lightning flashed across the sky, and an abundant downpour of rain refreshed the entire region! As a result, Joao was able to continue his work, and witness, for Jesus.

Elijah's God still lives! Let us, therefore, face our moments of crisis with faith instead of fear. Those who pray like the prophet of old will find the Lord pouring out His blessings with the same plenteous supply. Of course, that does not mean that we always receive what we ask for! Almighty God always answers our prayers - but not always in the manner that we want, or expect. However, as we walk more closely to Him, we will be more and more in tune with His will and purpose - and will experience more positive answers to our prayers.

James writes that "Elijah was a man of like nature with ourselves ... and he prayed fervently ..."(5:17). Perhaps part of our problem is that we don't pray with that same urgency with which Elijah, and Joao Mbaxi, prayed!

Euthanasia - gone berserk!

I have never tried to hide my total opposition to both abortion and euthanasia (aka assisted suicide/dying).  I have signed petitions; written to MPs and MSPs; published posts on this very blog; and written letters to various newspapers.   I thought that I was fully aware of most of the issues involved.  However, I have just read an extremely disturbing report on LifeNews.com   I have been unable to confirm the report but, if this is true, then the UK Justice system has, in my opinion, reached a new low.  I have edited the following for the sake of comparative brevity.

"Nancy Fitzmaurice, born blind with hydrocephalus, meningitis and septicaemia, could not walk, talk, eat or drink, the Mirror reported.  Her health was so poor she required 24-hour care and was fed, watered and medicated by tube at London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital. Her health deteriorated and, as she grew, she would scream in agony for hours despite being given morphine and ketamine.

Her mother, Charlotte Fitzmaurice Wise, knew the pain her daughter was suffering was too much for the 12-year-old to bear. She deserved to be at peace and had the right to die, knew her heartbroken mother, who had given up work as a nurse to be with her. (emphases added).   …“The light from her eyes is now gone and is replaced with fear and a longing to be at peace. “Today I am appealing to you for Nancy as I truly believe she has endured enough. For me to say that breaks my heart.  …Her application was granted immediately, setting a precedent. It is the first time a child breathing on her own, not on life support and not suffering a terminal illness has been allowed to die in the UK. (emphasis in the original).

The judge praised Wise for her “love and devotion” towards her daughter… which was shown by her fight to kill Nancy. The judge ruled that she had no quality of life anymore, and therefore, she should be killed by refusing to give her any food or water until she died. It took her 14 days to die. Wise claimed that she wanted to end her daughter’s suffering and give her death with dignity, but she chose to do that by making her daughter suffer a slow, agonizing, painful death. How does that make any sense? (emphasis added).

Dehydration and starvation is horrible for a person to endure. The body is about 60 percent water, and under normal conditions, an average person will lose about a quart of water each day by sweating and breathing and another one to three quarts by urinating. In the heat, and under more difficult physical conditions, that amount increases.  If it’s not replaced over time and dehydration becomes severe, cells throughout the body will begin to shrink as water moves out of them and into the blood stream, part of the body’s efforts to keep the organs perfused in fluid. “All the cells will shrink,” said Jeffrey Berns, president-elect of the USoA National Kidney Foundation and a nephrologist at the University of Pennsylvania, “but the ones that count are the brain cells. They don’t operate normally when they’re shrinking.” Changes in mental status will follow, including confusion and ultimately coma, he said. As the brain becomes smaller, it takes up less room in the skull and blood vessels connecting it to the inside of the cranium can pull away and rupture. … Victims’ kidneys may shut down first, as they continue to lack access to both water and salt. The kidneys cleanse the blood of waste products which, under normal conditions, are excreted in urine. Without water, blood volume will decline and all the organs will start to fail. Kidney failure will soon lead to disastrous consequences and ultimately death as blood volume continues to fall and waste products that should be eliminated from the body remain.  In addition to all of those, of course, there are the natural pangs of hunger, and the total lack of nutrition.

So to end a person’s supposed suffering — a person who is not terminally ill, is not on any life support, and can breathe on their own — we must make them suffer a slow, painful, horrific death. But only if they’re disabled, apparently.  ... because this girl, a child, is severely disabled, it’s considered acceptable. Putting a bullet in her head would have been kinder, because it at least would have been immediate. But then we can’t tap dance around the fact that what this mother did is murder.

Wise assumes, as many people do, that a person wouldn’t want to live in such a way. But no one knows how her daughter felt about her quality of life and whether or not she wanted to live. No one knows how her daughter felt in those 14 days that she was being starved and dehydrated. And no one cares. Nancy Fitzmaurice was disabled and could not speak, so she was brutally, cruelly murdered, with the permission of her government. And notice that the suffering Wise spoke of repeatedly was her own, not her daughter’s. She couldn’t bear seeing her daughter like that. She was going through “torture” watching her daughter in pain. So she petitioned the court to get permission to force her daughter to die a slow, painful death instead of seeking palliative care.

It’s become appropriate in the United Kingdom to kill a person now because it’s too much of a hassle to keep them alive. It’s legal for parents to murder their children because they’re disabled, because they can’t speak for themselves, because the parent has decided that their lives are not worth living anymore. And we call it death with dignity."

Is it too much to suggest that this tragic situation is the result of abortion being so accepted as a mother's choice.  Now, we have slipped into the idea that a mother can have her child killed - her choice, not that of the child. Last century, there was an organization that not only advocated the "mercy killing" of the disabled, but also carried it out. They were known as Nazis. 

If anyone can provide confirmation of this report or, indeed, evidence to refute it, please let me know by e-mailing me at the address at the top of the page.  Thank you.

Double standards?!

How many times have you seen a story in the major media claiming that Israel has turned Gaza into an “open-air prison?” How often does the media discuss seemingly arbitrary restrictions that Israel places on specific goods entering the Gaza Strip? Forget about the fact that convoys of trucks carrying humanitarian aid enter and leave the strip every day. Israel even transferred an emergency supply of gas for home heating during the recent winter storm.

The story of Israel blockading Palestinians is part of a narrative with which many journalists are obsessed - despite the lack of accuracy!  How much more useful these journalists would be if they reported on how Syria is starving Palestinians to death with a complete blockade on a refugee camp. But that is exactly what is happening. 

It is reliably reported that more than forty Palestinians have now died of starvation in the Yarmouk refugee camp in Damascus, say activists who are calling on the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) to intervene. Three quarters of the dead have perished in the last three weeks as the situation in the camp, which is home to much of Syria’s Palestinian population, reaches a crisis point after six months of a crippling siege which have seen supplies of food and medical aid blocked from reaching the camp. Conditions in the refugee camp have become desperate since the full government siege began in July 2013. 

The blockade of the area has meant no aid has been able to reach the estimated 18,000 residents of the camp. Christopher Gunness of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees said it isn’t just the lack of food and medicine that is making the situation untenable for residents. “Residents are having to rely on going out on terraces and burning furniture and branches to warm themselves in the open because wood fires cannot be used indoors. There is a very infrequent supply of tap water – reportedly available for four hours only at intervals of three days.”

Israel’s attempts to control material that can be used for weapon making are labelled a “blockade.” Meanwhile, the Syrian Army starves  Palestinians to death and most of the media sit on their hands.

One is obliged to ask: "Why the double standard?"