Happy birthday then

Today I am 80 years old. I don't really know how I got here, to be honest. The last 20 years seem to have snuck by when I wasn't looking.

Admitted, there have been signs. Young women have started to offer me their seat on buses, and I have become a depository for old age jokes. Like The older I get, the more time I spend thinking about the hereafter. I walk into a room, and stand there wondering what I'm here after.

You know the sort of thing. 

Looking back over the years, I marvel at God's grace.

Recently I heard a wonderful testimony from a dear woman busy in God's service. When she was younger, she didn't need God. She was all right. She went to church twice a year, and besides, she had a GCE in religious studies.

The first time she went into an evangelical church, she couldn't wait to get out. But she was back the week after. And the week after that. Until she found God and was wonderfully filled with the joy of the Lord.

I was like that. I didn't want God. I wasn't hurting anybody. All I wanted was to be left alone to get on with my life. God spoke to me for months before I let Him into my life. And all He wanted to do was to make me His and bless me beyond anything I'd known.

We're all of us rebels, you see. Adam started it, by deciding he wanted to be able to make his own decisions. without God. And we kept it up. We're all sinners, you see, if only because we haven't given God His rightful place in our lives.

Even after I invited God into my life, I made mistakes. But that was all right too. He's a Father of the perfect kind. 

He's made changes in my life. For the better. He's made me more like the person He intended me to be.

If there's anything commendable in my life, it's not me. It's Him.
    

The life and death story of Melanie Pritchard

When Melanie Pritchard was pregnant, she chose a pro-life hospital to go into to have her baby. That decision was a very important one.

While in hospital preparing for the birth, she signalled to a nurse that something was wrong. She felt she was going to pass out. Suddenly, she slumped to one side. Her husband, who was standing at the foot of the bed, saw her heart rate and blood pressure turn to zero on her monitors. Her skin turned blue. She was not breathing and had no heart rate. She had suffered a cardiac arrest  and was clinically dead.

She was rushed to the operating theatre. Her husband prayed: "God, I know this is more than I can handle, which means You have a plan and a purpose in this, and I trust You; but please, if it be Your will, allow me to hold my wife again." He had never felt more helpless and afraid in his life.

After the baby was delivered by caesarean section, doctors fought for an hour and a half to resuscitate the mother. She had been without oxygen or a pulse for approximately 10 minutes. After repeated use of a defibrillator and using CPR, they got a faint heartbeat.

Her husband went to see their new baby, not knowing whether his wife was alive or dead. As he wiped the tears from his eyes, a nurse asked him the baby's name. "Gabriella," he said, "heroine of God."

Family and friends arrived at the hospital and began to pray. They e-mailed, texted and tweeted people they knew and people they didn't to ask them to pray. A doctor said Melanie had probably had an amniotic fluid embolism, which was usually fatal. He did not expect her to survive and asked the family to say their goodbyes.

During the caesarean, doctors had accidentally cut an artery. They found five litres of fluid in her abdomen, and had to stuff the abdomen with towels to compress the bleeding. They had to leave the abdomen open, with the increased risk of infection. Melanie had two blood transfusions, and was going into DIC, a condition of erratic blood clotting.

Her heart was barely beating. Her lungs had failed, and a respirator was breathing for her. If she did survive, doctors thought she would be brain damaged. She was transferred, in an extremely critical condition, to another hospital which had an ECMO machine, which provides both blood flow and breathing.

She survived an operation to stitch up her abdomen. Then in the next 24 hours, she was weaned off all medication, except pain medication. She was breathing on her own.

Says Melanie: "Words cannot express my gratitude for the multitude of prayers that covered me throughout this traumatic event. I am happy to say the prayers worked! Thanks to the hands of doctors, nurses, many blood donors, and an ever-merciful God, Gabriella and I are alive and well and I have made a full recovery.

"It has been almost four years, and there isn't a day that goes by that I don't thank the Lord for allowing me to survive something very few live to talk about. . . God has the power to take us from the depths of darkness, even the darkness of death, and bring us into the light, and for that, I praise Him!"

You can read the full story here.
  

To Dear 'Daddy' - from a grateful mum

It doesn't cost anything to be kind.

Shanell Mouland has a little blonde daughter named Kate. Kate has autism. The two of them were on a flight home.

Shanell knew there would be a stranger sitting next to Kate. A basketball team got on board. Perhaps one of them might sit next to Kate. They passed by. A few grandmotherly figures got on, but they passed by too.

For a moment Shanell thought the seat would be vacant. Then a man with a briefcase sat there. What happened next made her so grateful she wrote him a blog post, addressed to Dear 'Daddy' in Seat 16c.

"I don't know your name but Kate called you 'daddy' for the entire flight last week and you kindly never corrected her. In fact, you didn't even flinch as you could probably tell that she was not confusing you with her own 'daddy' but instead making a judgment regarding your level of 'safety' for her. If she calls you 'daddy' then you better believe she thinks you are alright. . .

"I had a vision of Kate pouring her water all over your multi-million dollar contracts, or house deeds, or whatever it was you held. The moment you sat down, Kate started to rub your arm. Your jacket was soft and she liked the feel of it. You smiled at her and she said: "Hi, Daddy, that's my mom." Then she had you.

"You could have shifted uncomfortably in your seat. You could have ignored her. You could have given me that 'smile' that I despise because it means; 'manage your child please.' You did none of that. You engaged Kate in conversation and you asked her questions about her turtles. She could never really answer your questions but she was so enamoured by you that she kept eye contact and joint attention on the items you were asking her about. I watched and smiled. I made a few polite offers to distract her, but you would have none of it. . .

"The interaction went on and on and you never once seemed annoyed. She gave you some moments of peace while she played with her Anna and Elsa dolls. Kind of her to save you from playing barbies, but I bet you wouldn't have minded a bit. I bet you have little girls, too. 

"Not long before we landed Kate had reached her limit. She screamed to have her seatbelt off, she screamed for me to open the plane door and she cried repeating, 'Plane is cwosed (closed)' over and over. You tried to redirect her attention to her toys. She was already too far gone at this point, but the fact that you tried to help your new little friend made me emotional. 

"In case you are wondering. She was fine the moment we stepped off the plane. Thank you for letting us go ahead of you. She was feeling overwhelmed and escaping the plane and a big, long hug was all she needed. 

"So, thank you. Thank you for not making me repeat those awful apologetic sentences that I so often say in public. Thank you for entertaining Kate so much that she had her most successful plane ride yet. And thank you for putting your papers away and playing turtles with our girl."

The blog post attracted 750 comments.

The wonder of grace

I have learned a lot about grace in recent years.

You know what grace is. It's God's Riches At Christ's Expense. It's God giving us what we don't deserve. I deserved nothing. He gave me everything.

You may be familiar with the story of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15. He told his father he wanted his inheritance now.

This would be terrible to Jewish ears. It was almost like saying you wished your father were dead. His father might have had to sell his estate at a reduced price to someone who would let him live there for the rest of his life. Whatever he needed to do for his son to have his inheritance, he did it. 

Having received his inheritance, the son went off and wasted it on fast living.

Imagine the father in the story was your Heavenly Father. He couldn't do anything until the son repented and came home. Bur He never stopped looking and waiting for the day.

"When he came to himself." That's the turning point in the story. When the prodigal came to himself, he came home. "Father," he said, "I have sinned. . ." But the father wasn't listening. "Get out the best robe and put it on him," he said. "Put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. Kill the fatted calf."

Now I have a lot of sympathy for the older brother. His attitude wasn't right, but what he said might well have been true. "I've been serving you all these years, and I never disobeyed you. But you never gave me a fatted calf."

Note the father's reply. "Son, everything I have is yours. But your brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost, and is found."

That's grace.

A few kind words. . .

It started as an anonymous act, but the story seems to have taken wings. . . 

 Ashley England went out for a meal in a restaurant on Friday evening with her family, including her eight-year-old son Riley. Riley has special needs. After a while, Riley began to get "a little rowdy."

"The past few weeks have been very hard and trying for us - especially with public outings," said Ashley. "Riley was getting loud and hitting the table and I know it was aggravating to some people."

A waitress walked over to the table with tears in her eyes and a note.

"I'll try to do this without crying," the waitress told the family. "But another customer has paid for your bill tonight and wanted me to give you this note."

The note read: "God only gives special children to special people."

Ashley said the kindness made her cry.

"To have someone do that small act towards us shows that some people absolutely understand what we are going through and how hard it is to face the public sometimes," she said. "They made me cry, blessed me more than they know. I felt like out of all the rude, negative comments that we are faced with, this outweighs them.

"Little did he know what struggles we had been facing lately and this was surely needed at that moment," she said. "Thank you."

A day worth waiting for

I spent a recent afternoon sitting in beautiful sunshine at the edge of a lake in the midst of peaceful countryside, wondering why people would want to shoot one another and blow themselves up.

I had been reading in the book of Revelation how things end up; how, while evil is finally vanquished, the faithful are at the marriage of the Lamb, dressed in robes they don't deserve.

I reckon Paul had it right:

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.

Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that day, and not only to me, but also to all who have loved his appearing.  2 Tim 4:7, 8.

There's a lot of pain in the world, and a lot more pain to come. But there's a day coming when Christ will appear. His reward is with Him.

If you're feeling discouraged, hold on. That's a day worth waiting for.

Grace, grace, such wonderful grace

Susan Atkins, a follower of cult leader Charles Manson who confessed to stabbing heavily pregnant actress Sharon Tate to death in 1969, has died after almost 40 years in prison. She was 61, and had brain cancer.

Her mother died of cancer when Susan was 15. Her father was said to be an alcoholic. While still in her teens, she was dancing in topless bars and using drugs. Then she met Manson.

Over the years she apologised many times for her actions and claimed to have found forgiveness in Christ. The last words she said in public were "My God is an awesome God."

Many people believe she did not deserve forgiveness. They are right. We are all sinners, and none of us deserve forgiveness. If we are forgiven, it is not because we deserve it, but because of God's wonderful grace.

Such amazing grace

When Jesus was arrested, Peter was afraid. So much so, that he denied that he even knew Him.

When Peter realised what he had done, he wept bitterly (Matt 26:75). He had meant to do so much for Jesus. Now he'd made a mess of it all. He wouldn't be able to do much for Jesus now.

When the women went to the tomb on the first day of the week after the Crucifixion, they saw an angel. "He is risen!" the angel said. "He is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go and tell his disciples - and Peter - that he is going before you into Galilee; there you will see him, as he said to you" (Mark 16:6, 7).

And Peter. So Peter wasn't discounted, cast away, forgotten. (Soon, at Pentecost, after his restoration, Peter would preach and see 3,000 converted. But Peter didn't know that yet.)

When the risen Jesus appeared to a group of the disciples on the shore of Lake Galilee, they ate with Him. When they had eaten, Jesus said to Peter, "Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me more than these?"

"Yes, Lord; you know that I love you."

"Feed my lambs.

"Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me?"

"Yes, Lord; you know that I love you."

"Tend my sheep.

"Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me?"

"Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you."

"Feed my sheep" (John 21:15 - 17).

Why did Jesus ask him three times? Peter understood. He was asking him three times because he had denied Him three times. Peter had failed, and that failure had to be dealt with. But not a word of condemnation. Not a word of reproof.

Our failures have to be dealt with too. Sometimes it hurts. But not a word of condemnation. What grace.