- For the Davis family as they grieve the loss of their daughter
- That God will bring good out of this tragic situation
- That the family will feel God’s love through the outreach of others
URGENT PRAYER REQUESTS:
"Missionary in Philippines: 'Bodies Laying Everywhere'- By Dale Hurd and Heather Sells, November 12; http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2013/November/Truckloads-of-Bodies-Filipinos-Plead-for-Help/ - [PRAY that relief supplies will get to the needed area in time to help the tens of thousands who are in great need. PRAY that security can be established in the midst of looters causing problems in the midst of the devastation. - Stan]
NEWS ALERT: Oct. 23: "Christians Fleeing IRAQ Area Once Considered Safe," - CBNNews.com, http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2013/October/Christians-Fleeing-Iraq-Area-Once-Considered-Safe/ PRAY that believers in Iraq will know God's protection and provision; that believers will know[ whether they are called to flee or remain and persevere; and that their persecutors may come to hear the gospel and come to faith in Christ. - Stan]
Continue to Pray for EGYPT - Continue to pray for the tense situation in Egypt and especially for the Christian believers who are being targeted with violence by Muslim Brotherhood members.]
Update on Kenneth Bae: "US Ready to Bargain with N. Korea for Bae's Release,"- CBNNews.com, Aug 14, 2013 http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2013/August/S-Ready-to-Bargain-with-N-Korea-for-Baes-Release/ - The United States is willing to engage North Korea to secure the release of imprisoned American Christian Kenneth Bae. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said the United States is "willing to consider a number of different options" to bring him home.In a video recently released by a North Korean newspaper, Bae requested the United States send a high-ranking official to North Korea to seek his pardon. It is unclear if he spoke of his own volition in the video. Bae, 45, was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for sharing his faith. He suffers health problems such as diabetes and is currently hospitalized.[PRAY for 1) God's healing of and presence with Pastor Bae, 2) His earliest release by the North Korean government, and 3) God's comfort for his family and friends.]
NEWS ALERT: Monday, November 04, 2013 - Saeed's Life in [Greater] Jeopardy After Prison Transfer - CBNNews.com, ; http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2013/November/Saeeds-Life-in-Jeopardy-after-Prison-Transfer/ IRAN - Vigils Mark One Year Imprisonment of Pastor Saeed - CBNNews.com, Thursday, September 26, 2013 - Today marks one-year that American pastor Saeed Abedini has been held in an Iranian prison. He is serving an eight-year sentence because of his Christian faith. It has been a year of torment as he has suffered beatings, physical pain from untreated medical conditions, and separation from his wife and two children... The suffering has not dampened his passion for Jesus. Pastor Abedini has led more than 30 prisoners to Christ during his time in prison. This afternoon, thousands of Americans from coast to coast will pray for his release. Events will be held in 40 states at capitols, city halls, parks and churches. Thousands more will join from 15 nations around the world
PRAY: - For comfort and peace for Saeed’s wife and children here in the U.S.\
- For a strong witness and testimony from Pastor Abedini in the prison where God has placed him
- For Christians around the world who are being persecuted for their faith in Christ
- BOLDly (Beside Our Leaders Daily) for leadership from the White House and State Department in defending the freedoms of Abedini and other Americans
- GO TO SaveSaeed.org to sign a petition over 600,000 others asking for his immediate release
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"Life and Death on Christmas Eve - Reflections on Landon, Belgium and the Christ Child", By: John Stonestreet| Bareakpoint.org: December 24, 2013;http://www.breakpoint.org/bpcommentaries/breakpoint-commentaries-archive/entry/13/24149?spMailingID=7643929&spUserID=MTMyMjM2ODE5OQS2&spJobID=108300804&spReportId=MTA4MzAwODA0S0
The contrast between light and darkness, life and death, is always greatest at Christmas time. But light and life always win.
When my oldest daughter Abigail was born, she spent four days in the hospital's neo-natal unit because of some delivery complications. As first-time parents, we were terrified, but one thing that put the experience into perspective for us was the fact that friends from our church also had a baby in the NICU, and he was there a lot longer than four days—his name is Landon.
Landon was delivered at just twenty-three weeks. A brain injury caused cerebral palsy, and he was on a ventilator for 88 days. It was touch and go whether he would survive.But Landon did survive. Cochlear implants now enable him to hear. And his mother told me that even though he shouldn’t be able to speak, he says more than a hundred words.
I thought of Landon last week when his mom posted a video on Facebook. During their Sunday church service, the children's choir stood to sing Christmas carols. Landon, even though he's not in the choir, spontaneously walked up front and joined the choir, and sang “Angels We Have Heard on High..” All the other kids were neatly lined up, trying so hard to hold their hands dutifully still at their sides, but not Landon. He was bobbing around, arms flailing, singing at the top of his lungs.It was one of the most beautiful sights I’d ever seen. And judging from all the likes and comments on Facebook, many others thought so too.
I couldn't help thinking that had Landon’s condition been diagnosed in utero, and had he been the child of another couple, he never would have drawn his first difficult breath. The sad statistics tell us that most parents abort children with disabilities—even slight ones.
And now, last week, we learned that the Belgian Senate has approved of euthanasia for children. Unbelievably, if sick children decide they want to die, doctors will cooperate. I can't help wondering, how many parents, tired of the care of a sick or disabled child, will suggest to their son or daughter that life is not really worth living. And if it’s like the other euthanasia laws we’ve seen evolve, pretty soon “consent” will be a very squishy concept. Kids like Landon would be even more at risk than they already are.
Children are always inconvenient to someone. Not long after Christ was born, Herod ordered the death of all the baby boys of Bethlehem—because they were inconvenient to his rule. They, like the children in Belgium today, were innocent victims of a very bad law. And so are children in America—more than a million of whom are exterminated before they’re born every year.
The images Belgium's law stirs up in my mind are a stunning contrast to what I saw last Sunday. Landon's parents—courageous, as parents are to be—gave him life, and have traveled with him every step of his difficult journey. And there he was, singing “Angels we have heard on high, sweetly singing o'er the plains”—announcing like those angels did that a Child was born beneath a Bethlehem star.
Landon's mother told me that she didn't know it at the time—but there would have been an opportunity for them to turn off the ventilator in those early NICU days. “I wonder,” she said, “how many NICU parents choose to turn off the vent because of such a bad diagnosis, and miss out on so much joy and learning?”
It's a good question to ponder as we celebrate the birth of this Christ Child, who came to restore and redeem our world, this world, that often sees nothing wrong with killing children. He did it through His own suffering—the only purely innocent suffering that the world has ever known. And His death, to quote from C.S. Lewis in "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe," turns death backwards.
Through the agony this Christ Child endured and his victory in resurrection, death itself dies, and all things will, one day, be made new—including my friend Landon.... As you celebrate the birth of the Christ Child this Christmas, recognize the dignity and value of every human life. And say a prayer of blessing for the caregivers of children with disabilities. As John affirmed, through Christ's suffering all things will be made new. That's a truth worth celebrating!
For Eric Metaxas and our colleagues at BreakPoint and the Colson Center for Christian Worldview, this is John Stonestreet wishing you and yours a merry, holy Christmas.
[bold and italics emphasis mine]
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