God Is Not Finished With Me Yet

Jeremiah 10:23

Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)

²³ I know, Lord,
that a man’s way of life is not his own;
no one who walks determines his own steps.

The other day some kids were taunting Katie through our back fence. I watched it from a point where the kids couldn’t see me. When one of them threw something at Katie and scared her, I remonstrated with them. They dashed away out of sight yelling back at me. I knew at the time that my approach was poorly chosen. What I should have said was something like the following.

“Hey guys, dogs are pretty stupid when they bark at somebody from behind a fence. I often feel that way, too. Katie doesn’t recognize you. She may even think you’re up to no good. If you owned that house, you might even want a dog to bark at somebody in your backyard whom you don’t know, especially if they were there with malice in the minds.”

This may even have earned their empathy. If not, we may still have parted as friends not antagonists. Hindsight is always 20/20. Jeremiah adds this prayer to his lament that we don’t walk the way we want to:

“Discipline me, Lord, but with justice—not in Your anger, or You will reduce me to nothing.”

Truly the Lord does discipline us but with far more grace than we ever deserve.

Thank You, Lord, for covering our erring steps with Your marvelous undeserved, forgiving grace.

Preacher, Cook, Blog

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Psalm 143:8

Good News Translation (GNT)

⁸ Remind me each morning of your constant love,
    for I put my trust in you.
My prayers go up to you;
    show me the way I should go.

I sat in the large congregation of people celebrating the life of Dr. Harold Fagal. As they told of how he had let his witness be known, first as a pastor and later as a professor, I decided that I should write down my thoughts about God and put them somewhere where others could read about them if they wanted to.

I created a file on my computer called simply Devotions, and my first entry was on January 26, 2011. I continued filing my thoughts and turning over and over in my mind how I might place them where others could see them if they chose to. People had spoken about blogs and how they could find things on a blog. I had no clue what a blog was, but that weird word stuck in my head.

Then I purchased the video Julie & Julia simply because my daughter’s name is Julia (and definitely not Julie). In the movie Julie created a blog where she entered her experiences of cooking each of the recipes in Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking. The blog gained lots of readers. Julie then published these blogs in a book. Julia Child was livid with anger; she felt that Julie was simply using her name to make money. I said to myself that if Julie could make a blog, so could I.

Between Julie and my own nagging head, I started to investigate blogs. I found there were lots of public blogs. Many of them cost a monthly fee, which I was not about to pay. Some of them were free, and Blogspot seemed to be a leader in the free group.

So on November 8, 2013, I posted my first blog, entitled Speaking Well, about a young soldier on duty in Germany who spoke the most abominable English I had ever heard but loved me into reconsidering Christianity after I had completely given up on it. I ended that blog with the prayer “Thank You, Lord, for your love that flowed through this soldier to me. May Your love flow through me to others!”

For seven years now I have written hundreds of devotions, and for well over five years I have posted some of them. I tend to be technologically challenged, and it still takes me a half hour or more to post a single blog, not counting the hour or two it takes me to think about it and write it down. I see that last year I only posted 13, about once a month! I can do better than that.

Father in Heaven, You remind me each morning of Your love for me; help me to express my appreciation to You more frequently.

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[i]Harold  Fagal http://ak-cache.legacy.net//legacy/images/cobrands/PE/photos/mugs-513521mg_20110109.jpgx?w=200&h=200&option=3&fc=fff

[ii] Julia Child http://cook.fnr.sndimg.com/content/dam/images/cook/editorial/blog/legacy/devour/2010/8/Julia-Child-The-French-Chef-588.jpg.rend.hgtvcom.616.462.suffix/1505357138862.jpeg

Cancer and Hope

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Joshua 1:9

Good News Translation (GNT)

⁹ Remember that I have commanded you to be determined and confident! Do not be afraid or discouraged, for I, the Lord your God, am with you wherever you go.”

On Friday afternoon I spoke with my cardiologist. I had looked for my report from Parkview Hospital of my 3 weeks there during the first stage of my West Nile Virus (WNV) treatments. I had gotten them from the hospital on a CD, and I took a copy to him back in June last year. I hoped he might be able to lay his hand on it.

Of course he asked me why I needed it, and I told him I was planning to see an oncologist in Los Angeles about my prostate cancer (PC) growth. The oncologist wanted any lab reports, etc. that I had gotten recently. He asked me what I am doing currently, and I told him I was taking two hormone treatments. I told him that the oncologist in LA had an alternative treatment system that I wanted to investigate.

My cardiologist pointed out how well I am improving and healing from my WNV encounter. He insisted that I am in a lot less dangerous position now with PC than I was under the WNV. He pointed out how well I am currently. He urged me to follow the standard treatments used in medicine today and not to get lulled into some promises of alternative medicine. In his own optimistic way he urged me to “be determined and confident”, and not to “be afraid or discouraged”. He went on to tell me that he would see me in 10 years and then in 15 more years (then I would be 100).

Thank You, Lord, for Your encouragement and Your promise to be with me wherever I go! I am confident that You will do exactly that.

#CALIFORNIA, #SOCAL, #IE, #HEALTH, #CANCER, #PROSTATE, #PROSTATECANCER, #WNV, #WESTNILEVIRUS, #HOPE, #HORMONETREATMENT, #MEDICINE

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[i] https://www.24hrcares.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/this-picture-says-there-is-hope-for-prostate-cancer-because-of-the-blue-ribbon.jpg