Monday, March 23, 2009

Unswervingly

"Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful."
Hebrews 10:23

Friday, March 20, 2009

God's Provision Brings Glory

Here are some snippets from my latest Henry Blackaby devotional, March 18:
"Did you know that you bring glory to God by calling upon Him when you are in distress? God promised He would deliver you if you turned to Him. You deny the Lord honor that is rightfully His very time you find yourself in difficulty and you fail to call upon Him for help! There may be times when God allows you to reach a point of need so that you can call upon Him, and thus let Him demonstrate to a watching world the difference He makes in the lives of His children. If God never allowed you to experience need, people around you might never have the opportunity to witness God's provision in the life of a Christian. Call upon the Lord and wait exclusively upon Him to rescue you. Then give Him the glory that He deserves."

If I was so bold as Charles Spurgeon as I read in Streams in the Desert:
Every promise of Scripture is a letter from God, which we may plead before Him with this reasonable request: "Do as you promised." Our Creator will never cheat those of us of His creation who depend upon His truth. And even more, our heavenly Father will never break His word to His own child. "Remember your word to your servant, for you have given me hope" Psalm 119:49. This is a very common plea and is a double argument, for it is "your word." Will You not keep it? Why have You spoken it, if You will not make it good? "You have given me hope." Will You now disappoint the hope that You Yourself have brought forth within me?

Latest checkup

We went back to B'ham on Monday for second followup after surgery. My dr. says things look good. He did give me steroid shots in the flap to help reduce the swelling that is still there. The area is still numb so I didn't (and don't) feel a thing. He wants me to go back in 8 weeks. He said to plan for him to trim the flap part that meets the corner of the inside of my lip. He can do that in his office. It is still quite noticeable when I talk. I am able to talk better, though you may not understand me well. I'm eating better and able to chew food now, but it is quite a workout for my left jaw since my mouth still won't open very far. I had my Erbitux treatment yesterday so I'm not feeling so good. I saw that dr. last Thursday, and we decided to continue with the once a month treatments. We have no way of knowing if they are doing any good at all. I think it keeps my doctors from being frustrated of what to do to stop this stuff. At least we're doing what there is to do right now.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Perfectly right

I will go back in two weeks to see my surgeon for the second follow-up. At this point I'm discouraged that the 'wad' in my mouth is VERY slow in going down. His consensus was that it could take 8 weeks for recovery. I will see what he says when I see him again. Yet, in spite of the discouragement it brings, I must keep it all in perspective, too.

My devotional from Streams in the Desert for March 1 was based on the scripture Ecclesiastes 7:13-"Consider what God has done: Who can straighten what he has made crooked?"
Then the author chose a selected commentary without an author listed:
God often seems to place His children in places of deep difficulty, leading them into a corner from which there is no escape. He creates situations that human judgment, even if consulted, would never allow. Yet the cloudiness of the circumstance itself is used by Him to guide us to the other side. Perhaps this is where you find yourself even now.
Your situation is filled with uncertainty and is very serious, but it is perfectly right. The reason behind it will more than justify Him who brought you here, for it is a platform from which God will display His almighty grace and power.
He not only will deliver you but in doing so will impart a lesson that you will never forget. And in days to come, you will return to the truth of it through singing. You will be unable to ever thank God enough for doing exactly what He has done.

A platform to display His grace and power. So be it...and with singing! Well, I can't sing, never could, but especially not now with all the neck surgeries and radiations to my neck. You know I'm a music person (how odd that I work for a minister of music and I really know nothing about music but that I like it) and like to share what God says through peoples' music. So let that be a a form of singing for me...through someone else, that knows just how to place in musical words what God is doing in my life. Enjoy!