The joy of Christmas has the hope of the ages

The Christmas Season is meant for inexpressible joy. After all, Advent marks the coming of Jesus Christ to earth to save humanity from the penalty of sin and evil. It should be a joyous time as we contemplate this colossal event that was so immense that even the heavens were shaken and altered at what was happening. His birth had been foretold by the prophets and awaited by all creation.

Christ was born into poverty; the Saviour of the world was placed in a manger -- probably little more than a feeding trough for animals! It was all Mary could give him, other than to lovingly wrap the holy infant in swaddling clothes.

I have often wondered what the Virgin Mary must have thought miraculously giving birth in a stable to God's Son. She knew who she carried for nine months and gave birth to! The angel Gabriel previously appeared to her and said:

"Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end." (Luke 1.31-33.)

The newborn Son of the Most High was laid in a manger not a royal nursery, amongst the smell of straw and animals not surrounded by palace guards. How could this be? A stable is a long way from the throne of David! And yet the Blessed Virgin Mary believed and trusted God.

(On a different dimension -- more real than any earthly reality -- I believe a legion on angels watched over the Christ child.)

When Joseph and Mary presented Jesus in the temple for circumcision and consecration to the Lord, the righteous and devout old man Simeon was filled with the Holy Spirit. He took the baby in his arms and prayed to God: "Now Master, you may let your servant go in peace, according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation, ... a light to the gentiles, and glory for your people Israel."

Then Simeon turned to Mary and said, "Behold, this child is destined for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be contradicted (and you yourself a sword will pierce) so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed."

And so it was -- and still is today. Christ reveals thoughts of many hearts of men and women in how they respond to Him. His truth brings reconciliation to some and enmity to others. Where people stand with Jesus determines where they stand before God. I have said in previous blog postings that Christ's internal light is the source of revelation for all those who place their lives, faith and hope in Him. Those who receive Christ at a deep internal level rise above themselves and are transformed. Their prayer becomes Thy will be done, not mine.

And they mean it. They are content to accept God's will, whatever that may be. Living in anguish within the will of God is better than living in comfort outside the will of God. It sounds strange, but it is true.

I know this from personal experience. It took much of my life -- along with a sea of tears and a trail of regret and sorrow -- to finally learn it. It may sound contradictory, but one's heart can be broken and ripped into shreds, laying open and bleeding while at the same time knowing the peace and joy of Jesus Christ.

I do not know how it's possible but it does happen. I have experienced it and so have millions of other people.

Sometimes we witness this apparent contradiction at the deathbed of a Christian. He may be racked with illness or pain and sad to leave his family, yet there is joyous expectation of eternity with Christ that overshadows all his earthly concerns.

That brings me back to Christmas. What began in a dank and humble stable 2,000 years ago transformed the world and changed the lives of countless millions of people who believed in Jesus Christ. The joy of Christmas has the hope of the ages. The meaning behind Christ's birth can give meaning to our lives and deaths.

MP

Speaking up for one poor woman appointed to die

"Open your mouth for the speechless,

In the cause of all who are appointed to die."

Proverbs 31.8

Thanks to the help of my good friend, retired Canadian Member of Parliament and now international human right champion, David Kilgour of Ottawa, I have a new contact for people interested in trying to save Asia Bibi from a death sentence. You can email Pakistan's Ambassador at the United Nations in Geneva:

His Excellency H.E. Zamir Akram, Ambassador to the United Nations, Geneva, 56, Rue de Moillebeau, Case Postale 434, CH-1209, Geneva 19, Switzerland, Fax +41 22 734 8085, Email: mission.pakistan@ties.itu.int

Write to the ambassador to plead Asia Bibi's case before Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani and Minister of Minority Affairs, Shabaz Bhatti. Ask that she be pardoned of the death sentence, further incarceration and the large fine imposed on her.


As I find out more about this case, it becomes increasingly apparent that the charges of blasphemy were false. Two women working in a field with Asia refused to drink water she fetched because she is a Christian. An argument began and rude comments went back and forth in a petty quabble. The two women, known as Asma and Mafia. Mafia? That name seems fitting How fitting to this case. At any rate, the two women approach a local Iman named Qari Salaam who helped them register the charge of blasphemy against Asia. A court in Nankana district convicted her on the charge, leveled a large fine and sentenced Asia Bibi to death by hanging. Asma and Mafia wanted revenge against Asia over their spat in a field over drinking water and, by Alah, they got it!

In a subsequent petition to Pakistan's President for mercy Asia stated that she had been falsely accused, and said, in part: "I swore on the Bible that I never uttered any derogatory remark against the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him), but they never listened to me and booked me in a crime that I never committed." She went on to say the judge ignored the facts and the law and sentenced her to death to satisfy the pressure of religious extremists. (I wonder if the judge got his legal training at the same place as Florida judge George Greer who sanctioned the court ordered execution of Terri Schiavo.)

Okay, let's put the case of Asia Bibi on the table as it should be viewed. Asia is about to be hanged over an argument in a field over water. Two vindictive busy body fellow field workers got all flustered and wanted the final word to an petty argument and now a woman is going to die. There is no sense of proportion here! The squabble should never have made it out of the remote field where it occurred. An apology may be in order not execution!

Perhaps somebody will say I have only taken up Asia Bibi's case because she is a fellow-Christian who is about to die unjustly. Not true. While it's true I have an affinity with my sister in Christ, I have also championed other cases where people were being persecuted or their lives were in danger. I had no idea what their religion was -- if any at all. To my critics I say "Don't get sidetracked with speculations about motivation when a woman is about to be hanged." People of good will must try to stop it.

Judging from the statistics on visits to my blog about Asia Bibi, many people of good will are sitting up and taking notice.

MP
For additional reading see Mustafa Qadri, "Religious lobby is running riot in Pakistan" The Guardian, 9 December 2010. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2010/dec/09/religious-lobby-pakistan-asia-bibi .
"Asia Bibi case, no quick pardon", Pakistan News, 8 December 2010. http://www.epakistannews.com/asia-bibi-case-pakistani-christian.html
Jibran Khan, "Pakistan Imam: 'Reward to kill Asia Bibi", AsiaNews.it, 4 December, 2010. http://www.asiannews.it/news-en/Peshawar-Imam:-A-reward-to-kill-Asia-Bibi-20173.html

Christian sentenced to death in Pakistan for blasphemy

Pakistani Christian and mother of five, Asia Bibi (45) was sentenced to death by hanging for allegedly insulting the Islamic prophet Mohammad. Although she was sentenced on November 8th, Asia Bibi has been languishing in prison for 18 months. It appears Pakistani justice moves about as slow as Canadian justice. This Christian sister now awaits her terrible Islamic fate even though many people are convinced she is innocent of the charge of blasphemy -- including Pakistan's Minister of Minority Affairs, Shahbaz Ghatti. (Christians are a tiny and often persecuted minority in Pakistan.) Her death sentence has been appealed.to a Lahore High Court.Muslim cleric

Unfortunately, militant, vicious and vociferous Muslims are are insistent that the sentence be carried out and Pakistan's coalition must rely on the support of Muslim parties in parliament.

BLOOD MONEY

The imam for the largest mosque is Peshwar, Maulana Yousuf Qureshi, has declared that if the appeal is successful and Asia Bibi is found innocent of the blasphemy charge, a reward of 4,500 euro will be offered to anyone who kills her.

(It should be noted that this is the same Muslim cleric who offered a large reward back in 2006 to whoever killed the Danish cartoonist who drew caricatures of the prophet Mohammad.)

I ask that readers of this blog petition the appropriate elected officials of their country to make representation to Pakistan's government to spare Asia Bibi's life and clear any refugee avenues of asylum offers from other countries for the Bibi family. Asia Bibi's life is in danger in or out of prison and Muslim militants can not be trusted Asia Bibi or her family. For example, I have written to Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs to ask for clemency and offer asylum in Canada to the Bibi family under refugees provisions.

I have also made a personal appeal to the Chief Justice of Lahore High Court, Hon'ble Mohammad Sharif (Lahore High Court, Lahore, Shahra-e-Quaid-e-Azam, Lahore, Pakistan, c/o webmaster@ihc.gov.pk Website: http://ihc.gov.pk/ )

I can not save all Christians who are persecuted or whose lives are in danger -- and their are millions around the world -- but I can try to save this Christian's life. Asia Bibi is my sister in Christ.

Please try to help Asia Bibi. In Canada, write to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, The Hon. Lawrence Cannon, House of Commons, Ottawa, ON, K1A 0A6, or send a fax to his Ottawa office at (613) 992-6802, or email at Cannon.L@parl.gc.ca and cc your own Member of Parliament . In America, write to your Member of Congress and senator to ask that the U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan, His Excellency Cameron Munter to make representation to Pakistan to spare Asia Bibi's life and release her from the dubious blasphemy charges to which she has not been allowed to give her side of the story.

Thank you for your efforts to try and save this woman's life.

Mark Pickup

____________________________

For more information about this case, go to http://www.epakistannews.com/asia-bibi-case-pakistan-christian.html and http://www.asiannews.it/Peshawar-Imam:-A-reward-to-kill-Asia-Bibi-20173.html

Heart-ignorance of God

We often think that ignorance is a lack of knowledge, education or social training. But if ignorance is not knowing, then not knowing God is the greatest human ignorance. In this blog I want to address ignorance in the context of human ignorance of God. It is my opinion that this form of ignorance is the primary crisis of the 21st Century.

Heart-ignorance to a direct experience of God is the worst human predicament and is at the root of all internal poverty. It creates spiritual darkness and shuts out possibilities for internal enlightenment only the light of Christ can provide. It breeds despair that is manifested in things like drug abuse and skyrocketing suicide rates amongst the young.

WE TURNED FROM ENLIGHTENMENT

Decades ago, large blocks of my generation (the baby boomers) turned away from the Christian heritage we were born into. For awhile we were able to ride of the legacy of western civilization. After all, the Christian civilization of the western world laid the foundations for the greatest freedoms and human liberty in history. Now that Christian civilization is dying and the residue of its greatness is fading away.

Ignorance of God is rampant amongst the children and grandchildren of secular 'boomers. They are unaware of their spiritual predicament. Many of them have no memory of the former Christian civilization. Granted, they have a spiritual longing that stems from the image of God that's within them (see my last blog entry Longing for perfect love) but they are ignorant of the heart-experience of God.

This new cultural ignorance of experiencing God -- through a relationship with Christ -- presents enormous challenges to the modern Christian Church in spreading the Gospel. The hard ground of materialism and immediate gratification seems impenetrable. We are in a time when sin seems delicious and virtue pointless -- a time when disillusionment gives way to cynicism, and cynicism gives way to hedonism.

Seeds of this situation were sown in the 20th Century. In 1934, the English poet T.S. Eliot wrote:

"Why should men love the Church?

Why should they love her laws,

She tells them of Life and Death,

And all they would forget.

She is tender where they would be hard,

And hard where they would be soft.

She tells them of Evil and Sin,

And other unpleasant facts.

They constantly try to escape,

From the darkness outside and within,

By dreaming of systems so perfect,

No one will need to be good."

DARKNESS IN FULL BLOOM

Seventy-six years later the concept of "good" or objective truth has been rejected by post-Christian culture.

If darkness is all a person knows, he may believe there is no light that originates from beyond himself. He is oblivious to direct heart-experience of God. In his darkness, secular man of the western world thinks he is enlightened and progressive. The notion that he may, in fact, be ignorant and in spiritual darkness does not even occur to him. He is obsessed with the concerns and seductions of the world. He may think acquisition is all there is. His philosophy of life is summed up in the saying "He who ends with the most toys wins".

Spiritual realities are beyond his ability to grasp. In his unbelief he says, "If God is real then show Him to me!" The faithless man cannot experience God because the darkness of his heart is complete. He needs the miracle of spiritual light to dispel his darkness. But where will spiritual light come from?

Saint John the Apostle said that Jesus is the true light that shines through the darkness, and is the source of authentic internal illumination. (See John 1.1-14, 3.15-21, 14.6.) Alas, the answer is also the problem. The darkened human heart will find Divine light too intense and painful to bear. Secular man of the 21st Century prefer darkness to light because the light exposes those old and uncomfortable ideas of sin and evil.

LIGHT OF THE WORLD

Christians must speak clearly to this generation about light and Truth that originates from beyond the human mind. We must speak clearly to a lost and baffled generation about the possibility of experiencing God, through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, and trust the Holy Spirit to convict people.

The light of Christ sheds light on the internal man and calls the individual away from himself, self-interest and pleasure -- and toward a total change of heart to desire holiness rather than happiness. Will he choose the arduous and painful path toward holiness in order to enter the presence of God? Does he understand what is required of him?

To seek holiness requires that the individual die to himself so that Christ can live in him. Man cannot serve two masters. The individual must crush his ego and that involves pain. He does it because, at a certain point of despair, he may have opened his dark heart's door to the prospect of something other than himself and caught a glimpse of the possibility of an encounter with Christ's light. (He may have slammed the door shut because the experience terrified him.)

But if he has the courage and desire to let the intense light of Christ enter his heart, and stay, he will find himself slowly being transformed to be more like the Saviour. The light that was previously unbearable becomes revealing and warm. It exposes sin but also eternal hope. The individual's heart will finally experience God and he will know why Christ came to earth.

Jesus Christ is the light of the world. His light makes internal illumination possible.

MP