More difficult days ahead

For Israel, the clouds continue to gather.

According to a poll, 54 per cent of Egyptians want to scrap Egypt's peace agreement with Israel.

Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad promised "a new Middle East" in the near future without the presence of Israel and its allies.

The Palestinian Authority, dominated by Fatah - which is refusing to negotiate with Israel - has signed a peace pact with Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist organisation which refuses to recognise the right of Israel to exist, refuses to renounce terrorism and is sworn to Israel's destruction. The aim is evidently to declare an independent Palestinian state without agreement with Israel and ask the United Nations in September to recognise it.

Says American commentator Joel Rosenberg: "In reality it is a shotgun wedding, at best. Fatah and Hamas leaders have historically not only hated each other but gunned each other down in broad daylight. When Hamas took over Gaza in 2005 and 2006, it set into motion a bloodbath, killing scores of Fatah officials and party members, even throwing some off of high rise buildings."

The United Nations has declared that the Palestine Authority is capable and ready to function as an independent state and is only being held back by the "Israeli occupation," and a sizeable number of nations have suggested that they will support a unilateral declaration of independence.

Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal said last week that if Israel fails to recognise an independent Palestinian state, which must include 100 per cent of Judea, Samaria and the entire eastern half of Jerusalem, Hamas will "add new cards to the resistance."

As Mashaal, who insists on the right of return for large numbers of "Palestinian refugees" while at the same time insisting that any Palestinian state should be Jew-free, continues to insist that he will not negotiate with the Jewish state, this would have to come about by Israel's unilateral surrender to Arab demands.

US President Barack Obama in a speech yesterday proposed a Palestinian state based on 1967 lines. Israel, as America well knows, is unable to accept a Palestinian state on 1967 lines because it would leave an Israel that was indefensible - which means that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be having a difficult visit to Washington today.

Whatever happens, Israel is likely to be blamed - by the increasing number of people like Tom Friedman, of the New York Times. He suggests Israel is an enemy of democracy because it does not "feel the joy of freedom being rung in across the Arab Middle East" - despite the fact that Israel is the only true democracy in the Middle East and the prospect of democracy resulting from the present turmoil in Arab countries is slim indeed. Strange that nobody calls for democracy among the Palestinians.

The stage is surely being set for the next military incursion into Israel. When that happens, those who invade will find, as others have found before them, that they have attempted something more difficult than they expected.

When you know that you know that you know

Talking with a man one day about spiritual things, I mentioned the Bible. "Well, the Bible," he said, "is a book, just like any other book." He was mistaken.

On the night before He died, Jesus prayed for His disciples: not only for His disciples at that time, but also for all those that were to come. In His prayer, he told His Father "Your word is truth" (John 17:17).

In his Institutes of the Christian Religion, reformer John Calvin tells how the Scriptures, although written by men, come to us with authority from God; he says, what's more, that every true believer will come to the certainty that they are in fact the word of God. This conscious realisation, he says, comes by what he calls "the inward testimony of the Spirit."

Says John Piper: "[The Holy Spirit] awakens us, as from the dead, to see and taste the divine reality of God in Scripture, which authenticates it as God's own Word. . . the witness of God to Scripture is the immediate, unassailable, life-giving revelation to the mind of the majesty of God manifest in the Scriptures. . .

"God witnesses to us of his reality and the reality of his Son and his Word by giving us life from the dead so that we come alive to his majesty and see him for who he is in his Word."

Theologian J. I. Packer explains it this way: "Calvin affirms Scripture to be self-authenticating through the inner witness of the Holy Spirit. What is this 'inner witness'? Not a special quality of experience, nor a new, private revelation, nor an existential 'decision,' but a work of enlightenment. . .

"The internal witness of the Spirit in John Calvin is a work of enlightenment whereby, through the medium of verbal testimony, the blind eyes of the spirit are opened, and divine realities come to be recognised and embraced for what they are. This recognition Calvin says, is as immediate and unanalyzable as the perceiving of a color, or a taste, by physical sense - an event about which no more can be said than that when appropriate stimuli were present it happened, and when it happened we know it had happened."(1)

A few weeks before I was converted to Christ I moved to an area where I had not previously lived, but not far from the home of a committed Christian family I knew. I remember one evening I went out looking for a pub. I had difficulty finding one, and when I did, the beer tasted awful.

Almost without intending it, I ended up at the home of these Christians. The conversation quickly turned to spiritual matters. I started asking questions about eight o'clock, and I continued asking questions until midnight. That night I was given answers to my questions straight from the Bible. I clearly remember walking home in the early hours of the morning, saying to myself "Well, either the Bible is true or it isn't: one or the other."

I can't remember exactly at what moment I came to an incontrovertible conviction that the Bible is true, but one thing is sure: the revelation changed my life.

How about you?

(1) J. I. Packer. John Calvin: A collection of essays. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1966, p166

Truth, lies and safe sex

Dr Miriam Grossman, a paediatrician with years of experience, has been invited to speak at a number of meetings in London on the subject of sex education in schools.

Says Andrea Williams, reporting on her blog at Christian Concern on Dr Grossman's meeting in the Houses of Parliament:

Dr Grossman emphasised how sex educators usually claim to provide "non-judgmental" and "comprehensive, medically accurate information" in order to help children make their own informed choices and delay sexual activity - but this is all, in fact, a lie.

In reality, Dr Grossman emphasised, the priority of much sex education in the UK is to promote morality-free sexual "licence." Sex education programmes normalise premature sex and promote the idea that children have a "right" to make their own decisions. Abstinence from sex is not usually presented as an option and the health risks of early sexual activity are downplayed.

Both the general public and school children in particular are often misinformed about the effectiveness of contraception in preventing disease and pregnancy. . .

Young people are often told that using a condom reduces the risks of sexually transmitted diseases and reduces the risks of conception by 98%. However, the truth is that:

* The 98% figure only refers to the risk of pregnancy - not infection. Furthermore, it only applies to circumstances where condom use is "perfect." "Typical use" is more common, where condoms are worn correctly most of the time but are occasionally used incorrectly. In such cases, the risk of pregnancy is reduced by only 85%!

* Even perfect condom use only reduces the risk of herpes by 25 - 50%, chlamydia by 26% and gonorrhoea by 62%. That's little protection at all!

* Condoms have close to 0% effectiveness in preventing the transmission of HPV.

* A girl's immature cervix increases her vulnerability to genital infections. HIV aside, girls and women carry 80% of the burden of negative consequences from early sexual behaviour and multiple partners. . .

Dr Grossman warned that if sex educators continue to deny biological truths and encourage "exploration" (read promiscuity), then the health and well-being of our children will continue to suffer. The "safe sex" message endorsed by schools is offering children a false sense of security. This must stop. There is no such thing as safe sex, other than between two people who have saved themselves for marriage.

Christians everywhere should be teaching children that each one of them is a beautiful, unique creation made in the image of God. The way that our children can be safe and free is to truly know this and to keep themselves for marriage.

Let's do all we can to promote God's truth for the sake of our children. Let's claim back our education system; let's expose bad sex education, especially in the forthcoming national curriculum review. Let's bring to society the message of purity, faithfulness, love, truth and hope that is found in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

And a comment on Andrea's piece from a police officer:

We teach our kids not to play with matches, and don't claim "they will do it anyway," and we don't say "we teach them the dangers and let them decide." Sex is like fire, the context can determine if it is safe or destructive. Marriage is the only safe context for sex. Outside of marriage the dangers are there. . . but. . . educators and others refuse to tell the truth about it.

Can anyone say these things aren't true?

And the band played on

Colne, a former mill town in Lancashire, is a rum place. As a rum place, it has form. On his several visits there, John Wesley always met opposition, sometimes violent. On one of his visits, one of his helpers was thrown to his death from a bridge.

But Methodism prevailed. At one time the town boasted the best part of a dozen Methodist chapels.

Wallace Hartley, born in 1878, went to the Methodist day school and sang in the choir at Bethel Independent Methodist Chapel, where his father, Albion Hartley, was choirmaster and Sunday school superintendent. Albion is said to have introduced the hymn Nearer My God to Thee to the congregation. Young Wallace learned the violin from a member of the congregation.

When the Titanic sailed from Liverpool on its ill-fated voyage 99 years ago this year, Wallace was leader of the ship's eight-piece orchestra.

When the Titanic was holed shortly before midnight, the orchestra, who would already have finished for the night, made their way to the first-class lounge. A survivor said one of them told her they were "going to give them a tune to cheer things up a bit."

It was commonly believed that the orchestra played until the ship went down, and that their last piece was Nearer My God to Thee.

Wallace Hartley's was one of only three musicians' bodies to be identified, and the only one to be returned home. A crowd of 40,000 - almost twice Colne's population - turned out for his funeral procession.

A recent book, The Band that Played On, by Steve Turner, speculates that it was Hartley's faith - and that of cellist John Wesley Woodward, a fellow Methodist from Hill Top Methodist Chapel in West Bromwich - that encouraged them to play to the last.

"My feeling is that he was a person of great moral authority as well as a born leader," says the author. "One of the most convincing accounts I read, by one of the sailors, was that at the end there was a lone violinist playing Nearer My God to Thee. I suspect that was Wallace Hartley."

Death of an icon

David Wilkerson, a young pastor in rural Pennsylvania, used to watch television in the evenings to see what young people were watching. One day God led him to stop watching TV and dedicate his two hours' TV time to prayer.

That was how it all began.

One night he was sitting in his study reading Life magazine. "I merely turned a page, and at first glance, it seemed there was nothing to interest me. The page showed a pen drawing of a trial taking place in New York. . .

"I started to flip the page over. But as I did, something caught my eye. It was the eyes of a figure in the drawing - a boy. He was one of seven boys on trial for murder. I held the magazine closer to get a better look. The artist had captured a look of bewilderment, hatred and despair in the young boy's features. Suddenly, I began to cry."

Wilkerson drove 350 miles to New York, met violent youngsters on the streets and started Teen Challenge, a ministry for teenagers, including teenage drug addicts. His book describing his experiences, The Cross and the Switchblade, sold 50 million copies in over 30 languages.

In 1971, he founded World Challenge, which eventually covered ministry outreach, literature and video publishing, evangelism, feeding programmes, drug and alcohol rehabilitation centres and an 8,000-member church in Times Square, New York.

On Wednesday last week he was driving in Texas when his car veered into the opposite lane and collided head on with a lorry travelling in the opposite direction. Wilkerson, who was 79, was pronounced dead at the scene.

The last blog post he wrote said this: "To those going through the valley and shadow of death, hear this word: Weeping will last through some dark, awful nights, and in that darkness you will hear the Father whisper, 'I am with you. I cannot tell you why right now, but one day it will all make sense. You will see it was all part of my plan. It was no accident.'"

Wilkerson's wife Gwen, who several times in her lifetime has beaten cancer, was with him in the car. She was taken to hospital critically injured. A report that she had died the following morning was incorrect. She is in hospital, and expected to recover.

Words to remember

The royal wedding is over. Prince William and Catherine Middleton, now Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, are man and wife. The rain stayed away. The dress was beautiful. Everything went well.

On reflection, one of the day's most evocative moments was the Bishop of London's advice to the couple, in the words of Catherine of Siena:

"Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire."

Could there be better advice to the newly-married pair than that?

Your part in the story

A dear Christian lady named Ruth Wood writes a blog called Comfort Cafe.

In one blog post she remembers hearing Billy Graham say that history is really His story - and she recalls how God writes people into that story.

She considers one or two Bible characters - seemingly ordinary people whose influence did not become altogether apparent until after they were gone. And then one or two more modern examples. . .

"Oswald Chambers travelled and lectured, never famous during his lifetime. After his death, his wife spent the rest of her life publishing her husband's spoken words which she had recorded verbatim in shorthand. My Utmost for His Highest was published ten years after her husband died. During his lifetime, Chambers remained unaware that he had authored a classic that God would use in countless lives.

"Ever heard of Christian Wolfkes? This godly Rumanian cherished a fervent love for Jews and prayed for years that he might win one for Christ even though there were none in his village and he was too ill to travel. Around 1937 a young Jewish man and his wife arrived. The old carpenter prayed many hours for their salvation, gave them a New Testament and eventually won Richard and Sabina Wurmbrand to Christ.

"This couple later stood up to the communist government, and after suffering many years in prison for their faith, Richard wrote the well-known book, Tortured for Christ, and founded Voice of the Martyrs.

"Christian Wolfkes only saw himself as a carpenter who wanted to win a Jew to Christ. He never learned the impact his investment in the Wurmbrands had around the world."

Leaving God to decide where He fits us into the divine narrative, she suggests, gives us freedom from the stress of trying to be spiritually productive. And if we're stressed about how our life is turning out, it might be an idea to wait for the last page of the book.

So. Would you want to live a selfish life, taking every decision with an eye to your own benefit? Or would you prefer to yield your life to the Master Storyteller, allowing Him to fit you into the divine narrative in a way that will bring blessing to others and glory to Him?

It's the Biased Broadcasting Corporation

As a publicly-funded public service broadcaster, the BBC is supposed to be impartial. The BBC claims it is impartial. How it manages to do that in view of the fact that its bias is so obvious is a little difficult to understand.

The corporation is notorious for its bias against Israel. It commissioned a study on its coverage of the Middle East conflict which resulted in the Balen Report. After chiefs read the report, the BBC refused to make its contents public, and is reported to have spent £200,000 in legal costs so far defying an order to make its contents public under the Freedom of Information Act. It is hard to imagine why it would do that unless it were that its contents condemn the corporation for its bias.

On another front the BBC has recently been accused of acting as cheerleader in the campaign to legalise assisted suicide.

On his website, Dr Peter Saunders, of Care Not Killing, gives the background to the charge. The BBC has recently filmed a man killing himself at the Dignitas suicide clinic in Switzerland for a documentary to be screened this summer. The programme will be presented by author Terry Pratchett, a patron of Dignity in Dying (formerly the Voluntary Euthanasia Society) and a campaigner for legalised assisted suicide.

The programme will be the fifth produced by the BBC in three years, says Dr Saunders, presented by a pro-euthanasia campaigner or sympathiser and specifically designed to portray taking one's own life in a positive light.

A BBC Panorama documentary fronted by Margo MacDonald MSP in the lead-up to tabling her euthanasia bill in the Scottish Parliament was screened four times. A 90-minute docudrama starring Julie Walters, telling the story of the death of Bath GP Anne Turner at Dignitas was screened seven times.

The 34th Richard Dimbleby Lecture featured Terry Pratchett making the case for assisted suicide for patients, like himself, with Alzheimer's disease. A hand-picked audience in the Royal College of Physicians signalled their approval as he described himself ending his life by nonchalantly sipping poisoned champagne in his back garden.

BBC East Midlands featured a confession by producer Ray Gosling to smothering a homosexual lover with AIDS. The story turned out to be pure fantasy - "but not until after the BBC machinery had blown it up into a massive international news story just prior to the Director of Public Prosecutions reporting on his assisted suicide prosecution criteria.

"I am also aware of a sixth 'documentary' currently being put together, again presented by a keen advocate of legalising assisted suicide, news of which has not yet entered the public domain.

"During this three year period there has not been one BBC programme presenting the opposite point of view. This is in spite of the fact that all three parliamentary bills attempting to legalise the practice in the last five years have been heavily defeated and despite the continuing robust opposition to legalisation from disability rights groups, medical professionals and faith groups. . .

"What is somewhat ironic about this whole process is the fact that there are strict codes about media coverage of suicide, not only from bodies like the World Health Organisation, but also from the BBC itself (on covering both suicide and criminal acts), which are constantly and repeatedly flouted . . .

"Concerns about the well-documented phenomenon of suicide contagion, especially following suicides carried out by celebrities. . . are simply not part of the narrative when the BBC covers these issues. Instead it has adopted almost a campaigning stance.

"No one is denying that the debate about assisted suicide is crucially important. This is a free democratic society and those who wish to see a change in the law are fully entitled to express their views in the public square. Furthermore it is to be expected that private media outlets will want to pursue a specific editorial line.

"But with an issue as important as this one, campaigners should not have the added advantage of being able to spread their propaganda by using the publicly funded national broadcasting corporation effectively as a private public relations company and press office."

The BBC spends an almost incredible amount of money. In these days of economic difficulty, perhaps something needs to be done about that too.

Just one word made the difference

When Mary Magdalene went to the tomb on the morning of Christ's resurrection and found it empty, she was distraught. Rough hands had taken Him and killed Him; now someone had even taken His body.

Mary stood in the garden, weeping. Through her tears, she saw a man she supposed was the gardener. "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away." The man spoke just one word: "Mary." That one word changed everything.

First, Christ's resurrection is not just a fairy tale. It's one of the best attested facts in history. The Jewish leaders would have loved to have disproved His resurrection. All they had to do to disprove it was to produce His body. They didn't, because they couldn't.

Jesus appeared to His disciples numerous times after his resurrection. On one occasion He appeared to more than 500 people at once. His disciples travelled the world preaching His resurrection, and lost their lives because of their preaching. You don't give your lives for something you know isn't true.

Second, Jesus isn't alive in a general sense. He's alive personally. He knows you by name. If you don't know Him - personally - make His acquaintance. Invite Him into your life.

You may have a problem. Grief, disappointment, rejection. Perhaps more than one. Just remember. One word from Him can make all the difference.

His death and subsequent resurrection is the ultimate proof that God cares.

"If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes to righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made to salvation" (Rom 10:9, 10).

"As many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in his name" (John 1:12).

"Come to me, all you who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matt 11:28).

A question of days

Jesus rose from the dead on a Sunday. It's interesting that every one of the four Gospels makes the point that it was early on the first day of the week that the women came to the tomb and found it empty. The first day of the week, of course, is Sunday.

Jesus had to rise from the dead on a Sunday. He couldn't have risen on a Monday, or a Tuesday. In the beginning, God created the universe in seven days. He worked six days in creation, and rested on the seventh. Jesus rose from the dead on the eighth day: the first day of a new creation.

It is pretty certain though that Jesus was not crucified on a Friday. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that He was crucified on a Friday. People assume that it was Friday. The Bible says it was the day before the sabbath: His body had to be taken from the cross and buried hurriedly because the sabbath was approaching. But there were two sabbaths that week. It was Passover.

Passover always began on the even of the 14th of the Jewish month Nisan, irrespective of what day of the week that date fell. The following day was always a sabbath, in which work was forbidden (Ex 12:16; Lev 23:5 - 8; Num 28:16 - 18). John 19:31 makes it clear that the day following Christ's crucifixion was a high sabbath: the sabbath in connection with Passover.

We could perhaps work out on what day the 14th of Nisan fell in that year - but we don't know for sure in which year Jesus died.

The Old Testament contains many prophecies about the death of the Messiah. They were all fulfilled in exact detail. Jesus Himself prophesied of His death. He told the scribes and Pharisees: "As Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth" (Matt 12:40). If you count the first day and the last day, you can call Friday to Sunday three days. But there is no way you can fit three nights in between Friday and Sunday.

Some Bible scholars believe Jesus was crucified on a Wednesday. The women rested on the Passover sabbath on Thursday, bought spices and ointments to anoint Christ's body on Friday (Mark 16:1; Luke 23:56), rested on the weekly sabbath on Saturday, and went to the tomb early on Sunday.

Others prefer to believe that Jesus was crucified on Thursday, with the Passover sabbath on Friday and the weekly sabbath on Saturday. That way, Christ's body would be in the tomb for three days - from Thursday to Sunday - and three nights - Thursday night, Friday night and Saturday night.

Although the Passover lamb was not killed until the 14th of Nisan, it had to be chosen on the 10th of Nisan and examined to see that it was without blemish (Ex 12:3 - 6). Jesus, our Passover lamb, was presented to the people as He rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. After examination by the Jews, Herod and Pilate, he was crucified four days later.

So what day of the week did Jesus die? I don't know. The Bible doesn't say. It isn't important. If it were important, the Bible would say. What is important is the fact that He died.

We were all sinners. We had all fallen short of God's standard. We were separated from God. God needed someone who would live a life without sin and give that life in our place, that God's righteousness and God's justice might be satisfied as well as His love. That need was met in Jesus.

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life" (John 3:16).

"Scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love towards us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Rom 5:7, 8).

There's love for you. When I didn't know Him and didn't want Him, He died in my place.

Giving in to tyranny

Last year a Florida pastor named Terry Jones planned to hold a burn-a-Koran day on the anniversary of 9/11. After leaders the world over condemned the idea, he agreed he would not burn copies of the Koran, then or later.

Not so long ago, however, he supervised the burning of a Koran by another pastor, one Wayne Sapp. Afghan president Hamid Karzai denounced the incident and called for the pastor to be brought to justice. Following Karzai's announcement, riots erupted all over Afghanistan.

In Mazar-i-Sharif, a mob of 3,000 protestors overran the United Nations compound, killing Gurkha guards and shooting dead and slitting the throats of UN staff. As a result, the Florida pastor faced widespread condemnation.

I do not agree with burning copies of the Koran. Before joining in the condemnation, however, there are a couple of things to be borne in mind. First of all, the people murdered were not only innocent of burning a Koran, they were not even Americans. "For radical Islamists," said the New York Daily News, "anyone will do. The randomness of the crime underscores the utter irrationality of those who committed it, not to mention the masses that tacitly lend them support. . .

"It is one thing to say that Jones' Koran-burning was a stupid and offensive thing to do. . . It is another thing entirely, however, to move to the accusation that Jones is culpable for the murderous acts of people half way around the world. People who riot and murder at the burning of a book do not need a pretext to act like savages. That's exactly what they already are."

Enraged over the burning of a Koran in Florida, wrote Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch, Muslims have murdered about 20 people in Afghanistan and five in Pakistan - none of whom ever burned a Koran or had any acquaintance with the men who did.

These killers are monstrous. They have assassinated innocent people for something they couldn't conceivably have had anything to do with. And yet instead of calling them monstrous and demanding that Islamic leaders stop inciting and approving of such behavior, Western government and media elites are blaming not the murderers and rioters, but the man behind the Koran-burning. . .

Thus Guardian editor Matt Seaton explained that Jones was to blame because his Koran-burning was "done knowingly involving reckless endangerment, and quite possibly wishing for this kind of bad result." This assumed that the Muslims who were rioting and killing over the burning of a book half a world away had no control over their reactions, and thus could not be held accountable for them. . .

Barack Obama reacted the same way when Jones threatened to burn a Koran last year. He said "this stunt that he is talking about pulling could greatly endanger our young men and women who are in uniform. Look, this is a recruitment bonanza for al-Qaeda. You could have serious violence in places like Pakistan and Afghanistan". . .

Obama could have said "While I disapprove of this Koran-burning, in America we believe that freedom of expression is a fundamental bulwark against tyranny and the hallmark of a truly free society, and it requires us to put up with things we don't like without responding with violence". . .

He could, in short, have used Jones' barbecued Koran as a teaching tool to demonstrate why free societies are preferable to sharia states. But instead, Obama and the media are effectively reinforcing the principle that violent intimidation works. . .

Those who censor themselves today to keep from offending Muslims may wish in the not-too-distant future that they had stood up more robustly for the freedom of speech when it was threatened. But by then, there might be no chance to get that word out.

Giving in to tyrants never was a good idea.

So will the NHS survive?

Health Secretary Andrew Lansley wants a revolution in the way the National Health Service is run - and he is meeting opposition. Left unreformed, one newspaper says this morning, it is impossible to see how the NHS could survive. But would a change in the way it is run alter the disasters routinely occurring throughout the service?

According to the Nursing and Midwifery Council, serious complaints about nurses have doubled in two years. The eighth annual staff survey of some 165,000 employees showed widespread concern about standards of care.

A Daily Mail review of a book shortly to be published - How We Treat the Sick, by Michael Mandelstam, said to be an expert on the NHS - provides a litany of neglect and abuse in hospitals.

A 17-year-old with meningitis was moved to two different wards by bed managers until the doctors treating her couldn't find her. She died. One woman died after being treated for six days with drugs meant for another patient. Twelve doctors failed to pick up the error.

Once upon a time patients didn't have bedsores. Now they are endemic. Between four and 10 per cent of patients develop at least one; with elderly patients with mobility problems, the figure can be as high as 70 per cent. An 86-year-old ex-serviceman was left screaming in agony in a Leeds hospital with multiple bedsores, one the size of a fist. His hip bone was exposed.

At least 400, possibly 1,200 patients at the mid-Staffordshire Foundation Trust died through lack of care.

Matrons have been abolished; ward sisters, whose word once was law, have lost their authority. The problem, suggests the reviewer - himself a doctor - is not doctors and nurses, but chief executives carrying out Department of Health orders about finance.

Would someone please come along and save our NHS?

Better dead than old?

Nan Maitland travelled from Britain to Switzerland, it transpired this week, to avail herself of the services of a suicide clinic. She was 84. She was not terminally ill. She suffered from arthritis, but was active. She decided to kill herself to escape the "horrors" of old age.

She was one of the founding members of an organisation called the Society for Old Age Rational Suicide.

Accompanying her to the abortion clinic was Dr Michael Irwin, another founder of the society. He was struck off the medical register six years ago for attempting to help someone commit suicide. He is said to have helped nine people kill themselves, and appears to have done everything he can to push the limits of current legislation.

Campaigners would have us believe they want assisted suicide to be legalised in Britain to help people with terminal illness who are in intractable pain. Not so. They want assisted suicide for whoever wants it, whenever they want it.

It's not too long since America's Washington state legalised assisted suicide. BioEdge reports the results of the first year under the state's Death with Dignity Act - and some concerns that the law is not operating with the safety and true voluntary choice that were promised.

Of those who died in the first 12 months, serious pain did not seem to be a great concern. Ninety per cent were concerned about lack of autonomy, 64 per cent about lack of dignity and 87 per cent about losing the ability to participate in activities that made life enjoyable.

No doubt the number of people taking advantage of the law and the reasons they are permitted to do so will both increase, because that's what happens.

Which is why - as well as the fact that vulnerable old and sick people would feel pressured to opt for their lives to be ended - that the legalisation of assisted suicide must not happen here.

Death of a lovely lady

In my last post I mentioned a Scottish evangelical Christian who was killed by a terrorist bomb last week in Jerusalem. Let me tell you a little more about her.

Mary Jean Gardner, born in Kenya, moved to Scotland in her teens. She studied at St Andrews University and the Bible Training Institute in Glasgow.

A quiet, gentle woman, she had worked for Wycliffe Bible Translators for 20 years in Togo, translating the New Testament into a local language. She arrived in Israel in January to take a Hebrew course at the Hebrew University before returning to Togo to translate the Old Testament.

One day last week was a day off. Mary travelled by bus into Jerusalem to meet a friend who was visiting Israel. Late at night, she had not returned to the place where she was staying.

Halvor Ronning, director of the Home for Bible Translators, telephoned the hospitals to see if her name was on the list of people wounded in the bomb blast. It was not. Police took him to identify the dead woman. It was Mary.

"Her face was untouched and natural," he said. "She had absorbed much of the impact and protected the others who were hurt but not killed.

"All major newspapers in Israel carried Mary's story, also on their websites. Israeli radio and television mentioned Mary as well. Suddenly Bible translation was world news.

"It has been amazing what an impact Mary's death is having here in Israel on the Hebrew University students and personnel, the media, even the usually cynical reporters as they consider Mary's dedication to the translation of the Bible.

"Several of the teachers came to be with the students for a number of hours. One of them came for the scheduled Hebrew class but only to read psalms together with them in Mary's memory.

"One of the lecturers said 'I have never sensed a stronger witness to the power of the Scriptures to influence lives than by Mary Gardner's attitude to the Bible and her commitment to the translation work.'"

Wycliffe executive director Eddie Arthur, who described Mary as "a lovely lady," said "I cannot tell you how highly regarded she was. She was an extremely gutsy person, highly intelligent, with huge drive and the ability to stick with the project for 20 years in far from comfortable conditions."

Mary, who was in her fifties, was unmarried. Her parents Tony, aged 82, and Jean, aged 81, still living in Scotland, said they were devastated by the loss of their daughter in such a tragic and unexpected way.

"Mary was a very special person and we thought the world of her. She was devoted to her work and was well liked wherever she went. We are proud of her and all that she has achieved in her life and feel truly blessed to have had her in our lives."

Terrorism on the increase

A terrorist bomb exploded at a bus stop in one of the busiest parts of Jerusalem last week. It was detonated as children were on their way home from school. A Scottish evangelical Christian was killed in the blast. More than 30 people were injured, some seriously, including some children.

During the past two weeks there has been an increase in the number of rockets and mortar bombs fired from Gaza at towns and cities in southern Israel, with 50 mortar shells fired in a period of about 15 minutes one morning.

Israeli ministers warned that Israel must retaliate soon.

Why do Palestinians fire rockets from Gaza at civilian centres in Israel knowing that Israel will retaliate? Because it's good publicity for the Palestinians. When Palestinians fire rockets into Israel, the Western media don't report it. When Israel retaliates, the story is all over the Western media and Israel appears to be the aggressor.

Which brings to my mind an interview with Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu broadcast by the BBC two years ago, the last time Israel responded to thousands of rockets fired into Israel with a major military incursion into Gaza.

The interview went as follows.

Interviewer: How come so many more Palestinians have been killed in the conflict than Israelis?

Netanyahu: Are you sure that you want to start asking in that direction?

Interviewer: Why not?

Netanyahu: Because in World War II more Germans were killed than British and Americans combined, but there is no doubt in anyone's mind that the war was caused by Germany's aggression. And in response to the German blitz on London, the British wiped out the entire city of Dresden, burning to death more German civilians than the number of people killed in Hiroshima. Moreover, I could remind you that in 1944, when the RAF tried to bomb the Gestapo headquarters in Copenhagen, some of the bombs missed their target and fell on a Danish children's hospital, killing 83 little children. Perhaps you have another question?

Some positive news from a terrible tragedy

Even with all the pictures and the yards of reporting, it's difficult to imagine how the Japanese are coping with the loss of loved ones, loss of homes, loss of possessions and the threat of radiation, not to mention the terrible cold.

More than 9,300 deaths have been reported, with 13,786 people still missing. The World Bank this week estimated the damage caused by the earthquake and tsunami at $235 billion.

The mainstream media will report all the crises and catastrophes, but it will have little to say about the spiritual climate. The Japanese are traditionally resistant to the gospel; of Japan's 127 million population, only a tiny percentage are Christians. But there are reports from Japan that there is a change now in centuries-old attitudes.

Said Warren Janzen, international director of the Christian organisation SEND International: "The governor of Tokyo, Shintaro Ishihara, stated publicly that the disaster was a punishment from heaven because the Japanese have become greedy. To have a public figure of his stature make a statement like that opens up a public discussion on spiritual things.

"Some of our missionaries are going out on the street, talking to random people, talking about the earthquake, the tsunami, and the nuclear situation there. People are engaging in spiritual conversation with strangers. That's just not typical."

The leader of a Japanese Christian aid organisation sent this plea to Barnabas Aid: "Pray for the churches in northeastern area. Many churches lost their pastors, members and buildings. Pray that they can stand strong in faith in Christ who stood on the raging water and who calmed the sea. This could be a wide open gate for the Gospel. We will conduct our rescue/relief mission through local churches. Need a lot of prayers from Barnabas Aid. Thank you so much."

People who have followed the news will know of "the Fukushima 50," the 50 workers at the Fukushima nuclear plant who chose to stay behind when everyone else left and have worked around the clock to cool overheating reactors. Five are believed to have died already; 15 are injured. Others of them have said they know the radiation there will kill them.

One of them, a project manager named Naoyoshi Sato, who has been overseeing the laying of 5,000 feet of power cable in Number 1 nuclear reactor in an attempt to get a cooling system working again, is a Christian, reportedly from Fukushima's First Baptist Church. He has already been exposed to lethal radiation levels.

If these murderers aren't savages, then what?

Bear with me for a moment while I recall the details.

At Itamar, near Nablus in Israel, intruders got into the home of Rabbi Udi Fogel (36), his wife Ruth (35), and their six children. In the main bedroom, the intruders found Udi and his three-month-old baby daughter Hadas asleep. They slit their throats.

Ruth came out of the bathroom, saw what was happening, and was stabbed to death. In another bedroom they found 11-year-old Yoav, who had been reading in bed, and stabbed him to death. They killed his four-year-old brother Elad with two stabs to the heart.

Somehow they failed to notice a six-year-old and a two-year-old, who were asleep elsewhere in the house.

A 12-year-old daughter Tamar, who was out at the time, returned home and found the front door locked on the inside. She persuaded one of the children missed by the terrorists to open the door, went inside and discovered the bloodbath. The two-year-old was covered in blood, saying "Wake up, Daddy, wake up."

The girl reportedly ran from the house screaming. She later promised to be a mother to the other two surviving children.

When news of the murders reached Gaza, there was celebration. Members of Hamas gave out sweets in the street.

The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the military wing of the so-called moderate Palestinian party Fatah, released a pamphlet taking responsibility for the attack, but then retracted it.

Members of the Brigades' leadership said the perpetrators of the attack belonged to Hamas. The attack was not sanctioned by the Fatah leadership, they said, but Brigades leaders had planned the attack and aided the Hamas operatives' escape.

Reporting the murders on her blog at the Spectator, a horrified Melanie Phillips wrote of "the moral depravity of the Arabs" and the difficulty of a peace agreement with "such savages."

Now guess what. A certain Inayat Bunglawala of Muslims4UK, said to have been set up "to celebrate the UK's democratic traditions and promote active Muslim engagement in our society," has complained about her remarks to the police. ENGAGE, an organisation described as dedicated to promoting greater media awareness, political participation and civil engagement amongst British Muslims, has complained about her remarks to the police, the Press Complaints Commission and the Equality and Human Rights Commission. Miss Phillips is to be investigated.

The way we're going, it won't be long before not only Muslims won't be able to complain about Muslims, but non-Muslims won't be able to complain about Muslims either.

Love is the difference

According to tradition, John, the disciple who wrote John's Gospel, spent his last days at Ephesus. When he was very old, the disciples there used to carry him into their meetings. When asked if he had anything to say, he would say "Little children, love one another."

In John 13, that same disciple wrote "Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come that he should depart from this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end."

The thing about Jesus is that He will love you to the end. His love is without conditions. Nothing you can ever do will make Him love you more, and nothing you ever do will make Him love you the less.

The same chapter tells how He washed the disciples' feet, including the feet of Judas Iscariot, who He knew would betray Him.

Later in the same chapter, Jesus told His disciples "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 have love for one another."

That's what makes Christianity different from everything else. And Christians - true Christians - different from all others.

It's time to do something about jihad

Over the past decade, some 30 Muslim graduates or students at British universities have been involved in Islamic-inspired terrorism.

Writes Melanie Phillips:

So why is it that, with the Security Service periodically issuing chilling warnings that it's monitoring more than 2,000 dangerous Muslim fanatics and dozens of terrorist plots, Britain is still failing so dismally to curb its home-grown industry of Islamic terrorism and extremism? . .

Most of the British establishment is in denial about what it is up against. Our leaders know there is a major threat of terrorism.

But they remain wilfully blind to the fact that the terrorists' ultimate aim, the Islamisation of Britain and the West, is being pursued by Islamic groups that are not violent, as well as those that are. . .

The establishment is so heavily imbued by a deadly cocktail of political correctness, multiculturalism and 'human rights' law that, far from curbing Islamic extremism, it has actually fanned the flames.

Over the past decade and more, the judges have made it all but impossible to police Britain's borders against undesirables or throw extremists out of the country.

Universities have shamelessly refused to crack down on extremists on campus, even though countless Muslim students are being radicalised there by Islamist speakers with no fewer than four university Islamic Society presidents having been involved in major acts of terrorism.

Idiotically, politicians cravenly attempting to defuse Islamic rage by appeasing the Muslim community have funded organisations that have turned out to be extreme.

Even more extraordinarily, to this day the Government is employing radical Islamists in Whitehall as political advisers on curbing Islamic extremism.

The core reason for this supine approach is that the establishment refuses to acknowledge that Islamic terrorism is rooted in religious fanaticism - an extreme interpretation of the religion that dictates Muslims must impose Islamic law throughout the world.

While most British Muslims most certainly do not accept this interpretation, it is rooted in theology and history, and is supported by the major religious authorities in the Islamic world.

So truly moderate Muslims cannot make their voices heard. The extremists therefore have the whip hand. And the way they intend to achieve their ends is through a pincer movement comprising both terrorism and cultural infiltration to gain social, economic and political power.

The threat of violence makes it more likely they will succeed in infiltrating British institutions. And that in turn makes it even harder to curb radicalisation. It also galvanises the extremists, who perceive correctly that the society they have in their sights has no stomach for the fight. . .

Because our political and security establishment has defined extremism as involving violence, it is blind to the steady process of Islamisation that is taking place.

Astonishingly, it is tolerating - and even encouraging - the relentless incursion of Islamic religious law. Yet this is inimical to British values, and not just because it denies the human rights of women, homosexuals or anyone who wants to renounce Islam.

Fundamentally, it does not recognise the superior authority of the law of the land, against which it therefore asserts itself.

But it is a fundamental principle of a democratic society that there must be only one law for all. And yet in Britain today, blind eyes are being turned to sharia courts meting out not just family law judgements that oppress women, but even criminal sanctions, too.

In addition, there has been in this country an enormous growth of Islamic banking - despite the fact this serves as an umbrella for the financing of Islamic terrorism and is a vehicle for putting yet more pressure on British Muslims to subject themselves to sharia law.

Almost every week, more examples surface of the way in which British culture is giving way to Islamic practices. As a recent BBC Panorama programme demonstrated, some Muslim schools are teaching their pupils to hate 'unbelievers' - all under the nose of Ofsted, the schools watchdog organisation. . .
In short, Britain is being steadily Islamicised, and the establishment appears paralysed like a rabbit caught in the headlights.

It's time to do something about jihad. While there's still time to do something about it.

Good news and bad news

What a week it's been! Thousands killed by earthquake and tsunami in Japan. A state of emergency in Bahrain. Fierce fighting in Libya. All sorts happening in the UK.

There isn't time to talk about it all, but I can mention one thing that, for me, is a concern.

Two months ago I wrote here about graphic, sexually explicit literature approved by some local authorities for use in sex education for children as young as five years old. That same literature has now been exposed by the Daily Mail and the Telegraph.

Brenda Almond, a professor of moral and social philosophy, wrote in the Daily Mail as a consequence: "It is parents who best understand what their children need to know - and when - not people with improbable ideas about education, and certainly not government ministers. . .

"Sex education needs to be taken out of primary schools altogether and responsibility for it should be handed back to parents. Children, after all, belong to their parents; they are not the property of the state.

"We need to stop assuming that early sexual activity is inevitable and accept that too much sex education - delivered too early - might actually be encouraging it.

"Only then will we be able to get back to the really important thing: letting children be children. They'll grow up fast enough as it is."

Education Secretary Michael Gove has now said he will not accept attempts to change the Education Bill to introduce compulsory sex education to primary schools. That's the good news.

The bad news is that the Government is devising a new sexual health strategy which it is said will go even further than the approach by the last Labour Government. One of the team devising the strategy will be Brook's national director, Simon Blake, who is in favour of a young people's sexual free-for-all. The Government is also reviewing its sex education guidance for schools, and is working closely with the homosexual campaign group Stonewall.

Write to your MP and point out that more and more sex education at younger and younger ages is not lowering rates of teenage pregnancy and sexual infection, but having the reverse effect.

If you have children at school, let me repeat my previous advice: ask their school what they are being taught in sex education and ask to see materials used. If you have concerns, talk to the head teacher or school governors. Don't rant and rave; express your concerns politely and ask for change. You may be surprised at the effect it will have.

Remembering Fat Tuesday

Russell Moore is an American Bible teacher who grew up in Mississippi, where some of the folks were Catholic, and some Baptist.

"Around me," he writes, "I saw Catholic casino night fundraisers and Baptist business meetings, and neither looked much like the Book of Acts. When it came to the divide between Catholics and evangelicals, we knew there were some big differences which resulted in the Protestant Reformation and all, but day to day those differences seemed to my friends and me to amount to little more than who had a black spot on their foreheads once a year and whose parents drank beer right out in the open."

Much of the differences between Catholics and Baptists, he says, were summed up on what the British call Pancake Tuesday and Americans know as Mardi Gras. Or Fat Tuesday, if you prefer.

"Some of the older Baptists in my community," he says, "downright hated the whole idea of Fat Tuesday. They knew that Mardi Gras was the day before Ash Wednesday. After Mardi Gras was the beginning of Lent, the forty days of fasting rooted in Jesus' time without food in the wilderness temptations. And they saw this party as blasphemy.

"'Those Catholics, they just go out and get as drunk as they want to, eat till they vomit,' I remember one neo-Puritan naysayer lamenting. 'They're just getting it all out of their system before they have to get all somber and holy for Lent.'

"As the years have gone by, I've concluded that we Baptists had Mardi Gras too. This phenomenon was seen in Baptist churches dotted all over the South. Mardi Gras Protestantism didn't celebrate a day on the yearly calendar, but on the calendar of the lifespan.

"The cycle went like this. You were born, then reared up in Sunday school until you were old enough to raise your hand when the teacher asked who believes in Jesus and wants to go to heaven. At this point you were baptized, usually long before the first pimple of puberty, and shortly thereafter you had your first spaghetti dinner fund-raise to go to summer youth camp. And then sometime between fifteen and twenty you'd go completely wild. . .

"After a few years of carnality, you'd settle down, get married, start having kids, and you'd be back in church, just in time to get those kids into Sunday school and start the cycle all over again. If you didn't get divorced or indicted, you'd be chairman of deacons or head of the Woman's Missionary Union by the time your own kids were going completely wild.

"It was just kind of expected. You were going to get things out of your system before you settled down. You know, I never could find that in the Book of Acts either."

British evangelicals are a bit like that. (I hope I don't get too pointed here.) They buy a Bible for each of their children and take them to church for an hour each Sunday. Then when the children get to 13 or 14, they decide they are not going to church any more, and parents are left with some years of heartache trying to win them back again.

Some youngsters will do their best to kick over the traces no matter what. If you are parents with rebellious teens, don't feel condemned. I understand. I feel for you.

But it does take more than the gift of a Bible and an hour's exposure to Christian doctrine each week to keep them on the straight and narrow. It takes love, it takes discipline, it takes personal example, it takes personal instruction, and it takes patience. Christian friends can help too.

Whatever young teens may think, God made us. He made us to worship Him. Because He made us the way He did, the only thing that will satisfy is a life of personal relationship with the living Lord. Without that, there will still be an emptiness inside.

Do continue bringing up those youngsters to a life of relationship with Him. They are infinitely precious. They deserve to have lives that are effective; lives that satisfy.

Why Christians should pray for Israel

One thing that has caused incalculable damage both in the Christian church and in the world outside it is replacement theology. Replacement theology, also known as supersessionism, is the idea that the Jews are no longer God's chosen nation, Israel has been replaced in God's purposes by the church, and God's promises to Israel are now transferred to the church.

To some people it might seem reasonable, but it has one great drawback: it isn't true.

The Bible makes it abundantly clear - for instance, in Romans 11 - that God has not cast away His ancient people. Many, it is true, are away from Him because of unbelief, but God has kept a remnant for Himself. When the Jewish leaders rejected their Jewish Messiah, God did not cast them away. He used the occasion to allow Gentiles into His salvation.

Romans 11 uses the olive tree as a picture of the blessings, first promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, now available for both Jew and Gentile (vv15 - 25). The Gentiles' ministry is now to provoke the Jews to jealousy (v11). Alas, we Gentiles have never been good at that.

One day, nevertheless, God will turn to the Jews with a national salvation (vv25, 26). That will be something. Meanwhile, God's promises to Israel still stand (v29).

Rather than denigrate the Jews, Christians should pray for them, for a variety of reasons. Here are some:

1. The Bible commands it (Psa 122:6).

2. We owe an incalculable debt to the Jewish people. The patriarchs were Jews. The Old Testament prophets were Jews. Jesus is a Jew. The New Testament as well as the Old was written by Jews (with one possible exception). The early apostles, who not only risked their lives but gave them to bring us the gospel, were Jews. All the knowledge of God that I have has come to me, directly or indirectly, through the Jews. But for the Jewish people, I would have no Bible and no salvation.

3. When the Jewish leaders finally rejected their Jewish Messiah, He told them "You shall see me no more till you say 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!'" (Matt 23:39). We may be taken to be with the Lord, but Jesus will not return to earth at His Second Coming until the Jewish leaders are ready to receive Him - and receive Him they will (Rom 11:26). Because He will not return until the Jewish leaders are ready to receive Him, praying for the Jewish people, apart from all the other reasons, is in Christians' self-interest!

Goodbye to Christian Britain?

The newspapers have gone to town with the case of Owen and Eunice Johns, a Christian couple who were not allowed by their local authority to continue as foster parents - to children under 10 years old - because they were not willing to promote a homosexual lifestyle to a young child temporarily in their care.

The High Court was asked for a ruling.

Two judges decided that if children were placed with foster parents with traditional Christian views there might be a conflict with the local authority's duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of children;

that equality laws concerning sexual orientation should take preference over laws regarding freedom from religious discrimination;

that a local authority can require positive attitudes to be demonstrated towards homosexuality;

that the Johns were not being religiously discriminated against because they were excluded from fostering due to their moral views on sexual ethics, not their Christian beliefs; and

that Article 9 of the Human Rights Act provides only a qualified right to manifest religious belief, particularly so where a person in whose care a child is placed wishes to manifest a belief that is inimical to the interests of children.

The Telegraph called it "the new Inquisition" and "a disgrace." Michael Kelly at the Scotsman called it "downright insulting to traditional Christians and their beliefs." Melanie Phillips called it "a grotesque judgment" and "utterly appalling."

Said Andrea Williams, of Christian Concern: "If Christian morals are harmful to children and unacceptable by the state, how many years do we have before natural children start being taken away from Christians?

"Britain is now leading Europe in intolerance against religious belief."

Under a heading "Christianity isn't dying, it's being eradicated," Cristina Odone wrote on her Telegraph blog: "It's official. Britain is no longer a Christian nation. In banning Eunice and Owen Johns, a devout Christian couple, from fostering children, Lord Justice Munby and Mr Justice Beatson declared that we live in a secular state, and the Johns' religious convictions disqualified them from raising citizens of that state. . .

"As the judges wagged their fingers about the secularist principles that, they claim, define the nation (and which 'ought to be, but seemingly are not, well understood'), they were not describing the status quo: a strong majority of Britons still consider themselves to be Christian. Instead, they were making clear their desire to steer this country in a direction of their own choosing - one that matches the views of an increasingly strident group that is determined to scrub Christianity from public life. . .

"According to our learned judges, 'the aphorism that "Christianity is part of the common law of England" is now mere rhetoric.'"

This is, says Ms Odone, "excruciatingly unjust." Unfortunately, she doesn't offer a remedy.

Waiting for Mummy to come home

The ability of human beings to live a purposeful, worthwhile life under the most difficult of circumstances is amazing.

Unborn babies are aborted because of trivial physical handicaps - yet a young girl with three limbs amputated - after meningitis, as I recall - was playing happily a few months later as though nothing had happened.

One of the most difficult conditions to cope with must be locked-in syndrome, where people are mentally aware but unable to speak or move, in chronic cases, except to blink their eyes. French journalist Jean-Dominique Bauby, who was able to move just one eye, dictated a book a letter at a time by blinking to indicate the letter he wanted as friends recited the alphabet. The book, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, received rave reviews.

A recent survey of chronic locked-in patients in France - 65 of them - showed that seven per cent were interested in euthanasia. Ninety-three per cent were not. Only 28 per cent were unhappy.

The Daily Mail found a 27-year-old locked-in patient near Stockport. Michelle Wheatley, who has two young children with her partner Rick Blease, was feeding one of the children breakfast two-and-a-half years ago when she started to scream with pain and have fits. She was taken to intensive care and put into an induced coma.

A neurologist diagnosed a brain stem stroke, decided the damage was irreversible and said Michelle would die. She is in a nursing home, fed by a tube into her stomach and fitted with a tracheotomy tube to drain fluid from her chest.

She opens her eyes for "yes" and closes them for "no," and "speaks," like the Frenchman, by blinking to choose a letter at a time. Asked if she is happy, she opens her eyes wide. Yes, she's happy. Asked if she has ever wanted to die, she closes her eyes tight. Never? She closes her eyes again.

"Nobody should say that another person's life isn't worth living," she spells out. "You don't know, until it happens to you, how you'll feel.

"I do feel happy most of the time. I enjoy music, films, seeing the children. Most of the time, life is good. We all have our off days, don't we?"

"She's determined to get well again," says Rick. "And already we are seeing massive improvements. Right from the start I refused to accept she would die. I knew she'd improve and she has. The children know their mummy is very poorly - but they also know she'll come home."

A life well lived

Maxine Hargreaves, wife of the Rev George Hargreaves, leader of the Christian Party, has died, aged 50, after several years of serious illness.

She had stood as a Christian Party candidate for a local council, the Greater London Assembly, Westminster and the European Parliament, sometimes while seriously ill, believing that she had to stand for Christ "no matter what."

Andrea Williams wrote on her blog at Christian Concern shortly after attending the funeral service:

At the service we heard a recording from her saying 'The type of Christianity that Jesus died for wants our blood, our everything.' I knew Maxine a little. I wish I had known her more. There were 1,000 people at the service. Her life and her ministry changed a community. She modelled how to live and how to die. She modelled that we, Christ's followers, must pour ourselves into His service and that from such obedience will follow transformed lives and communities because of Him, the source of life and joy.

What was the message from the service? 'Precious to the Lord is the death of His saints.' In this context, precious means excellent, worthy and honourable. It is hard to fathom why Maxine died so young. But her good friend who spoke at the service, Celia Collins, said 'Follow this God with faith or reason Him out with doubt. We walk by faith and not by sight. Maxine is in a better place.'

Maxine started Hephzibah Ministries. . . this ministry reached out to the community in Hackney, providing food, shelter, counsel, internet cafe. She pastored a church with George. She started the East London Christian School. . . The children from the school sang and recited poetry. They were a great testimony to the work of Maxine.

Over and over again people spoke of her love and obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ, her stand for truth, her courage and determination, her thirst for righteousness. Her challenge was 'You're not here on earth just to be blessed by God, you've got business to do. Don't compromise truth. Get ready because you do not know the moment you will die. God wants us to think like Him, not how we think.'

I am moved. I am humbled. I am in awe and stand amazed at a life well lived. She was a hero.

I didn't know Maxine Hargreaves. But as I read Andrea's tribute, I had tears in my eyes.

The world could do with a few more people willing to live for Jesus like that.