Guaranteed Ability to Cope
Life can be overwhelmingly hard and the temptation to despair can be great. Happened to me when I was diagnosed with Stage IV metastatic melanoma in 2003. I was soon after given the prognosis of “days to live.” The cancer…
Joe Fornear
His Perfect Love Casts Out Fear
There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. – 1 John 4:18 God tells us to “Fear not,” over 365 times in…
Suffering – Detour or Path to Joy?
There is something about great hardship that makes us cling to God like never before. We desperately cry out to avoid the pain. He draws near to us, as He is compelled by His love for us. Then He reveals…
The Freedom of Grace for Your Journey – Part 2
THE DITCH OF SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS Last time we discussed the ditch of guilt which lies in wait along the road of every trial. Now we explore the ditch of self-righteousness. We all have tendencies toward falling in one ditch or the…
The Freedom of Grace for Your Journey
THE DITCH OF GUILT When I was in college and new in my faith, a young lady friend kept using a phrase about our relationship with God. She’d talk about being “under grace,” and I had no idea what she…
Are Super-Powers Available to YOU?
Humans are intrigued by super-powers. The Greeks and Romans had their god-human heroes and we have our super-humans. There’s a long list of super-charged comic characters who’ve become mainstays in our movie houses. While it might be nice to take…
Can We Tell Cancer Where To Go?
During my intense battle with Stage IV metastatic melanoma, I had plenty of time to surf TV stations. I often heard preachers encouraging people to speak to obstacles and command them to go away, and if they believed and didn’t…
Rest. Lean. Yield.
Did it have to be so hard? As I look back on my Stage IV cancer battle which began in 2002, three tendencies made the physical beat down of the cancer and treatments much more exhausting. 1) My Religious tendency…
We Hope So, So We Sow Hope!
In the first year of Stronghold Ministry, a radiation oncologist told me I was doing a great disservice to people fighting advanced cancer. He said I should just get them ready for heaven and not give them hope that God…
Win-Win-Win
There is a difference between powerlessness and hopelessness. We can confuse the two, making our trials so much harder, just as I did during my battle with Stage IV metastatic melanoma cancer back in 2002-2004. Powerlessness is not our enemy,…