{"id":5706,"date":"2024-06-11T06:22:29","date_gmt":"2024-06-11T11:22:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/denisonforum\/2024\/06\/pastors-six-year-old-daughter-dies-on-vacation\/"},"modified":"2024-06-11T06:22:29","modified_gmt":"2024-06-11T11:22:29","slug":"pastors-six-year-old-daughter-dies-on-vacation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/denisonforum\/2024\/06\/pastors-six-year-old-daughter-dies-on-vacation\/","title":{"rendered":"Pastor\u2019s six-year-old daughter dies on vacation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Jesse Morgan is the pastor of Green Pond Bible Church in Rockaway, New Jersey. He and his family were on the first week of his sabbatical, vacationing<\/a> in Maine. According to his six-year-old daughter Lucy Morgan, it was \u201cthe best week of her life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then tragedy struck: the kids were playing badminton when the racket being used by her ten-year-old brother came apart and the shaft flew into her skull. She was rushed to a hospital but died four days later.<\/p>\n

Four weeks earlier, she asked her mother \u201chow to be with God and be saved.\u201d Her mother explained the gospel, then Lucy went into her room, where she trusted in Christ. She wrote in her prayer journal, \u201cGod is so amazing and he is the true God and he created everything and he died on the cross for our sins.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, as her father wrote, she is \u201cwith Jesus.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

<\/div>\nSharing the gospel on Fox News<\/h2>\n

What was your first response upon reading this story?<\/p>\n

Mine was to ask how God could allow such a precious girl to die so tragically. Then to ask how he could allow a pastor and his family to go through such heartbreak.<\/p>\n

Only then did I thank the Lord for his providence in helping Lucy trust personally in him a few weeks earlier and then document her new faith in ways her family will treasure forever. And only then did I thank God for parents who would tell their daughter\u2019s story on Fox News<\/em> so the gospel could be proclaimed around the globe.<\/p>\n

Every person who is drawn closer to Jesus through Lucy\u2019s faith will extend her ministry until the Lord returns.<\/p>\n

And every person who reads of her faith through her family\u2019s courageous compassion will see the difference Jesus makes in a crisis when he is Lord.<\/p>\n

The \u201cgreatest wave of mass intercession in history\u201d<\/h2>\n As the world paused to remember the eightieth anniversary of D-Day last week, there was a \u201ctelling instance of amnesia,\u201d according to the <\/a>Wall Street Journal<\/em><\/a>: the religious significance of the event was \u201clargely ignored.\u201d The article reports that Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower invoked \u201cthe blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking.\u201d As news of the invasion spread, \u201chouses of worship filled for services, perhaps the \u2018greatest wave of mass intercession in history,\u2019 as one magazine described it.\u201d The success of D-Day was then \u201cnaturally and widely taken as providential.\u201d<\/p>\n That was then, this is now.<\/p>\n In his latest New York Times<\/em> column, David Brooks explains<\/a> one reason so many graduates of elite universities have become so monolithically \u201cwoke\u201d: they come from privilege, but they are taught by Critical Theory that privilege in our system is accrued by oppressors who exploit the oppressed. As a result, they must take up progressive culture war mantles to feel \u201cengaged, purposeful, and good about themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n However, Brooks writes, \u201cIt seems to me that these battles are often more about performative self-validation than they are about practical policies that might serve the common good.\u201d<\/p>\n Earthquakes don\u2019t produce fault lines<\/h2>\n*** ** Crisis reveals character. Earthquakes don\u2019t produce fault lines\u2014they reveal them.<\/p>\n ** However, they also widen such fractures. D-Day not only mobilized Christians to pray\u2014it also drew others to join them. By contrast, those who are convinced that post-Christian progressivism is the answer to our problems are likely to respond to the next challenge by doubling down on their secularism.<\/p>\n ** As a result:<\/p>\n ** The best time to prepare for tomorrow\u2019s crisis is to be right with Jesus today.<\/mark><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n ** When Lucy Morgan was struck by a badminton racket, she didn\u2019t have time to respond to the gospel. When the tragic accident happened, her parents didn\u2019t have time to prepare their souls for the worst crisis any parent can face.<\/p>\n ** ***But when we are prepared for what might come, our faith and faithfulness become a transformationally powerful witness to our lost world.<\/p>\n \u201cOur task is not one of producing persuasive propaganda\u201d<\/h2>\n St. Ignatius of Antioch was identified<\/a> by early church historians as the child whom Christ took into his arms (Mark 9:36). He was also widely known to be one of the disciples of John the Apostle and was appointed by Peter to be pastor in Antioch. When the storm of emperor Domitian\u2019s persecution broke upon the Christians of Syria, he was arrested and taken to Rome, where he was thrown to the lions in the Colosseum and martyred around the year AD 110.<\/p>\n Along the journey to his death, Ignatius wrote seven letters to various Christian congregations, encouraging them to remain steadfast and courageous in their faith. To the Romans he included this request: \u201cJust beg for me the courage and endurance not only to speak but also to will what is right, so that I may not only be called a Christian, but prove to be one.\u201d He noted that \u201cour task is not one of producing persuasive propaganda; Christianity shows its greatness when it is hated by the world.\u201d<\/p>\n How will your faith show the \u201cgreatness\u201d of Christianity today?<\/p>\n Tuesday news to know:<\/h2>\n\nJury deliberations will continue Tuesday in Hunter Biden gun trial<\/a><\/li>\nUN Security Council backs Hamas-Israel ceasefire plan<\/a><\/li>\nApple introduces \u201cApple Intelligence,\u201d new focus on AI, at WWDC event<\/a><\/li>\nCaitlin Clark won\u2019t be at the Olympics. For basketball, it\u2019s a total brick<\/a><\/li>\nOn this day in 1963: University of Alabama desegregated<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n********* ** *Denison Forum does not necessarily endorse the views expressed in these stories.<\/em><\/p>\n ** Quote for the day:<\/h2>\n ** \u201cIf we are to better the future we must disturb the present.\u201d \u2014Catherine Booth<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" ** *********Jesse Morgan is the pastor of Green Pond Bible Church in Rockaway, New Jersey. He and his family were on the first week of his sabbatical, vacationing in Maine. 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