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…
Category surviving melanoma
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…
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…
Jailbreak Cancer
I’ve never been imprisoned against my will, except after a prison outreach when the guards forgot to let us out of a holding room. But fighting Stage IV metastatic melanoma cancer was certainly against my will and definitely felt like…
Can We Be Fruitful Despite Cancer?
Joseph experienced some ridiculously hard times yet God still made him fruitful! And He can make us fruitful despite cancer! Joseph’s 10 brothers took steps to kill him by throwing him into a deep pit. They “got a conscience” and…
The Amazing Upside of Weakness
During my battle with Stage IV melanoma, one of the deadliest and hardest to treat cancers, I found myself so weak I could barely cope. In a five month period in 2002-2003, I had three cancer removal surgeries; several rounds…
Thrill of Hope! – Part 2
Ten Benefits Jesus Brought Us – Part 2 So what’s the big deal about Christmas? What exactly did Jesus do for this world? This is a two-part series on Jesus’ impact taken from a prophecy on His birth in Isaiah…