Rambling thoughts at midnight about me and cancer...

It's a little after midnight and I'm wide awake....thinking.
What do you say when people ask, "How are you?"
Do they mean, "how is my life going?"   or "how am I feeling?"  or maybe even, "how is my spiritual life?"

I started this blog mostly because my family wanted to know how I am doing...maybe in all of the ways  above.

A year or two ago, I was interested in reading a book by a man who knew he was dying.  I wanted to see if he practiced what he preached to the end...and he did. (He had a marvelous faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, and loved the Word!)  I gave the book away to a man whose family felt he was going to die soon, and it was before I knew this breast cancer had come back in my spine. (I wish I had kept it--I think that man is going to outlive me!)   I know we all live in a dying world, and so unless the Lord comes first, we will all be at death's door one day. 

Besides being an outlet for my emotional outbursts (have I published one of those yet?), this blog for me, was to show others who might be facing cancer in their lives, or things that they can't control, that God really is there in our deepest hour of trial..  So far, He has done above that...in giving me peace, and also I know He is there for me for the future.  He heals me, too, so I wonder if this blog is even something I should continue to do!   The unexpected journey could include joyous affirmation of His care for me (which really is NOT unexpected!) so, whether in healing physically this body of mine, or giving me grace for unexpected trials yet to come, I will rest in Him.  I love Romans 8! 

I am so blessed by love shown to me by many friends, brothers and sisters in our Lord Jesus Christ, and by my family.  Above even that, I have a husband, who at 90 years of age, still provides and cares for his "young" wife, and loves her!   (Sometime I'll have to write about how God definitely led us to marry, even though he was 20 years my senior, and shorter than this tall one here!)

Well, I'll quit rambling, and see if  I can put into practice a verse I often quote to myself when laying down at night.   It is from Psalm 4 and says, "I will both lay me down, and sleep, for Thou Lord only makest me to dwell in safety"  (I learned it in the King James Version).

"the Rising Sun"

Hey, I was blessed today from Luke chapter 2.  Aren't these verses marvelous?  Think on each line and be blessed as I was!

"To give His people the knowledge of salvation (thank you JESUS)
through the forgiveness of their sins, (Amen, how wonderful!)
because of the tender mercy of our God, (All glory and thanks to Him!)
by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven (Our precious Rising Sun!)
to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death; (could having cancer be living in the shadow of death?)
to guide our feet into the path of peace."  (Sooooooo thankful for His provision of healing, whether immediate, or throughout my life, or final!   So wonderful to have my feet guided in the path of PEACE! And to be rescued from darkness, present and eternal!   Thank you, Rising Sun!

(picture by my friend Michael Johnson)

Gracious words are pure....

"gracious words are pure..."

Those words shined out at me when I read Proverbs 15.  It made me think about purity.  It also made me think of how some people stress legalism for purity, and others stress that truly knowing God's grace will keep them pure in gratitude to Him.  I'm again seeing the tensions in life, and remembering dear Dr. Maxwell's famous quote, "Keep balanced!"

I want my words to be pure as I post here, or on Facebook.   And the thought comes from Psalm 119 about how can a young man (or woman) keep his ways pure?   It's by the Word of God.   Keeping in the Word.   Oh, how we need to flood our mind with the Word!  

I just read a book of a lady who went through the Holocaust.   How precious the Word became to her when she didn't have it!   How she yearned to have learned more, to have memorized more! 

May I encourage myself and you today....get in the Word every day.   If you have trouble memorizing, go over it several times til at least the thoughts are in your mind.   God can bring it back to your mind then when you need it.   But to have the exact word of God to quote to somebody needing truth is even better.

Blessings today!