cancer

in past writings (not on this blog) i have used the idea of cancer as a picture of sin in our lives. i just received a prayer request from someone who had cancer but the doctors treated it and he had been pronounced "cancer free". well the prayer request explains that the doctors have found more cancer in him even after they did chemo and surgery and then pronounced him cancer free. what news that would be to bring discouragement!

but praise be to God, because this recurrence is not paralleled when we have been freed from sin: Cancer that is not cured leads to physical death. Sin that is not cured leads to eternal death. With cancer and cancer patients who are declared cancer-free, there is a possibility of cancer recurring and leading to physical death. With sin and sinners who are declared righteous, there is NO possibility of sin that leads to eternal death recurring in their lives again! (see John 10:27-29)

my sister

   "Peter said, 'Behold, we have left our own homes and followed You.'
And He said to them, 'Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who will not receive many times as much at this time and in the age to come, eternal life.'" ~Luke 18:28-30

my sister is amazing. recently i watched her leave this place, her friends, her family, her job, her apartment, her posessions, her church....for what? for a third-world country, for hot weather, for lots of work, for unknown territory, for uncertainties, for unfamiliar people, for a place where she does not speak the language of the people, ....why? "for the sake of the Name" (3 John 7).

she is in a place most people consider dangerous. but we both know that the safest place to be is in the center of God's will. she feels this is God's will for her, thus it is the safest place.

"safe?" you ask, "how is going to a place like that 'safe'?" i will tell you why it is safe. it is not 'safe' because it is comfortable and has all manner of amenities. no, through Christ she has learned to deal with all those types of situations as if she had an abundance (see Phil. 4:10-13). it is not safe because she believes that pain does not exist (see 2 Tim. 4:5). no, it is safe because she realizes that all persecutions and sufferings that might come her way at the hands of men are not worthy to be compared with the glory that will be revealed to her at the revelation of Jesus Christ (see Rom. 8:18), nor are men to be feared (scared of) for what they can do, but she fears (respects) God and who He is (see Matt. 10:28). It was His will for her to go there, going against His will is something to fear...the fear of man will trip you up from what you are supposed to do (see Prov. 29:25).

Why should she fear? Nothing can separate her from the love of God (see Rom. 8:38-39). And if she dies, that is gain for her (see Phil. 1:21 and 2 Cor. 5:8)! and I will see her again, i can know this for certain (see 1 John 5:13). In all of this we greatly rejoice (1 Peter 1:3-9)!!!

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?
He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?
Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies;
who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.
Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
Just as it is written,
"FOR YOUR SAKE WE ARE BEING PUT TO DEATH ALL DAY LONG;
WE WERE CONSIDERED AS SHEEP TO BE SLAUGHTERED."
But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.
For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,
nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

~Romans 8:31-39

i love my sister

--"this is pure and undefiled religion: that you look after orphans and widows and that you keep yourself unstained by the world." james 1:27

dream job

today i discipled two guys and lead another to Christ!

how awesome of a job is that!?!?

(oh, i also now have cable Internet, so now i can blog more often. yay for that too.)