In his giant battle with Goliath, David won with a single stone. Yet before the battle, he gathered “five smooth stones” (1 Samuel 17:40). Was it a lack of faith to gather more than one stone? Nope, being equipped with…
How to “Laugh at the Future” There’s always some human reason to fear, yet in Christ we’re “more than conquerors” of fear and everything else! (Romans 8:37). Circumstances, like a cancer battle, can instill a lot of fear. It happened…
Does the Lord intend us to be happy? Joyful? Satisfied? What about in hard times, like during a cancer battle? Yes, Yes, Yes and Yes! I have to admit, I didn’t always experience positive feelings in the midst of the…
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…
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…
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 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…
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…
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…
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…