Just Breathe: Healing from Sinus Cancer

AMAZING STORY

By Tim Smith
The 700 Club

CBN.com - Jacob Boger had severe headaches, watery eyes, and felt fatigued all the time. MRI tests showed a tumor in his nasal cavity, behind his eyes. A subsequent biopsy revealed even more… cancer. “I had ignored the symptoms for so long that the cancer had progressed through the 1st stage, the 2nd stage, and the 3rd stage. And by the time we did the biopsy, I was in the 4th stage, and given a less than 10% chance to live. The cancer was eating a hole in my skull and was heading toward my brain.”

Jacob needed immediate chemo and radiation. His doctor told him about the possible side effects. “’It’s going to make you sterile. Your saliva glands are going to be destroyed. Your taste buds are going to be destroyed. The radiation that’s going to go with this treatment is going to destroy your hair follicles. You’ll never have hair on the sides of your head again.’”

Jessica was Jacob’s girlfriend at the time. “And I remember that night. I was driving him home from a restaurant. And he told me, ‘The doctors told me that I won’t be able to have children.’ I remember that moment, a tear rolled down his cheek when he was in the car with me.”

Finding Order in the Chaos

Ron Phillips

M. C. Escher was a Dutch graphic artist, known for some of the most interesting art of the 20th century. Two of his works, Relativity and Waterfall, are classic examples of his work, which combined art, architecture, and optical illusion. He once said that…

 “We adore chaos because we love to produce order.”

Sounds a lot like man’s relationship to God.

Our world --- devoid of God --- is chaos. At Adam’s Fall, the world was plunged into disarray. Yet, each time one of us makes the decision to leave the chaos of death for life in Him, He takes what was confusion and disorder, and turns it into a beautiful paradox… a life that was seemingly going nowhere that now has eternity as its open road.

Not sure which way is up? Just reach out your hand to Jesus. As imperfect and chaotic as your life may be, He still adores YOU!

GIVE THANKS DAILY

Luke 17:18 "There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger."

LUKE 17:11-18

Relatively few people who receive the goodness of the Lord return to give Him thanks for what He has done. That does not keep the Lord from doing what is right for us. He healed all ten of these lepers according to their request - not just the one who was thankful. However, there was only one out of the ten that was made "whole."

The Lord desires that we prosper in spirit, soul, and body. He wants us to be whole - not just healed. Part of the reason God meets our physical needs is to prove to us His willingness and ability to meet our emotional and spiritual needs. The Lord is concerned about our temporal needs (Mt. 6:30), but He is even more concerned about our eternal needs. All of these lepers needed physical healing and the Lord was moved with compassion and met their need.

Fortified Faith

Jenny LaBahn

“A perfect faith would lift us up absolutely above fear. It is in the cracks, crannies and guilty faults of our belief, the gaps that are not faith, that the show of apprehension settles and ice of unkindness forms.” -George MacDonald

Do you, like me, have gaps in your faith?

Are there parts of you – tiny little parts – that do not trust God?

I am such a “ponderer,” and it often gets me into trouble. My pondering in congruence with my inquisitive nature leads to an abundance of question asking. More often than not, my questions do not get answered.

The Greatest Gift is Love

1 Corinthians 13: 13, And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love. NKJV

As Christians, our primary focus should be our personal relationship with the Father. Why do I say this? We have an adversary called the Devil that is just looking for an opportunity to attack our faith in Jesus. We can inadvertently open the door for Satan to pull us away from intimacy with Jesus through hurts... if we should place more importance on the gifts than on loving the Giver of those gifts. If you will meditate on the true purpose of a spiritual gift, you will soon realize that they were given to express God's love and grace to those who are in need of a touch from God.

We are ambassadors of God; we are also citizens of God's kingdom and are called to release the power of Christ into a fallen world. Jesus has commissioned us to go into the entire world and be witnesses to them of the power and the authority that we have as children of God in the name of Jesus. It is very easy to get caught up in the spiritual gifts and forget that we have an enemy who seeks to attack us so that he can discourage us from being salt and light in the world. Perhaps this is why the writer of Hebrews tells us to consider Jesus when suffering for the sake of the cross, lest we become discouraged in our souls and want to quit.

As I Have Loved You

Imagine the night before Jesus’ crucifixion. He has communion with His disciples and washes their feet. He reveals that Judas is the one who will betray Him. He tells the disciples that He is leaving and they can’t come. Then, He speaks these words:

A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. (John 13:34-35)

By virtue of the fact that this would be, in part, His final words to the disciples, they had to be very important. And notice that what He said to them was in the form of a command, not a suggestion.

I am sure that everyone reading this letter has read or heard this passage many times. But in reality, most do not think that this is something they can actually do. It’s a goal that they may strive to reach with gritted teeth, but usually with little success.

The Long Walk is Part of the Gift

By Jim Liebelt

Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Isaiah 53:4-6

There is a Native American story about a schoolboy who appreciated his teacher and wanted to give her a gift she would enjoy. He knew that his teacher loved seashells. One weekend, the boy walked to the ocean—a twenty-mile distance—found a beautiful shell and walked back home. Monday morning, the boy gave his teacher the shell. She thought it was beautiful. It took a moment, but then it dawned on her what the boy had gone through in order to give her the gift. She asked the boy, “You mean you walked all that way to the ocean and back just to give me this shell?” The boy looked at his teacher, and with a tear in his eye, he said, “The long walk is part of the gift.”

The Faith Of God

By Andrew Wommack

Without faith it's impossible to please God (Heb. 11:6), so our relationship with the Lord is dependent on it. Faith is what brings the things God has provided for us from the spiritual realm into the physical realm (Heb. 11:1). Our faith is the victory that enables us to overcome the world (1 John 5:4). Everything the Lord does for us is accessed through faith.

Yet there is much confusion about faith today just as there has always been. It's like having a computer and knowing its potential but not having a clue how to use it. Many of us know how frustrating that is. The Bible is our manual with detailed instructions, but just like in the natural, few people take the time to really study it. They are impatient and want to do it on their own. They may reach some level of success, but to really be proficient, they have to read the book.

One of the areas about faith that gives people the most trouble is the concept that we have to acquire more faith and that some people have much faith, while others have virtually none. We spend a lot of effort, like a dog chasing its tail, trying to get something we already have. Every born-again Christian already has the same quality and quantity of faith that Jesus has. That's awesome!

Discipleship Versus Evangelism

Most Christians believe that the primary purpose of salvation is to avoid hell. That may have been what you were taught, but it’s not what the Bible teaches. In fact, that kind of thinking serves to inoculate people from the truth of the Gospel concerning salvation.

If we simply ceased to exist at death and if there was no hell, I still believe that Jesus would have come to earth and died for us. Why? Because salvation is about having a relationship with God. God’s main reason for sending Jesus was to restore fellowship. It just so happens that as we restore our relationship with God through salvation, one of the perks—one of the great benefits—is that we miss hell and gain heaven.

Nowhere in the Scripture did Jesus tell us to go and make converts. Let’s look at what is commonly referred to as the Great Commission, found in Matthew 28:18-20. It says this:

Faith That Pleases God

Written by Jack Hayford

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. - Hebrews 11:1

Faith is the essence of our relationship to God and the instrument by which the gift of salvation is received: "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast" (Ephesians 2:8-9).

Jesus, in teaching the lesson of the withered fig tree (Mark 11:20-26), demonstrates that faith is the key that releases the resources of heaven into our situation. He tells the astonished disciples, "Have faith in God...whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them" (vv. 22, 24). Strong's defines this kind of faith as conviction, confidence, trust, belief, reliance, trustworthiness, and persuasion. In the New Testament setting, it is the divinely implanted principle of inward confidence, assurance, trust, and reliance in God and all that He says.*

Abraham : Father of many nations.

Greetings in Jesus Name!

It is not where you are at in life's journey but your relationship with the Lord that is going to bring the blessings to your life.

When a person fully understands this and walks in this realm they begin to experience the fullness that the Lord has for them.

Abraham experienced this in his life.

Deuteronomy 8:1 (KJV)
All the commandments which I command thee this day shall ye observe to do, that ye may live, and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers.

Why God Might Not Be Answering Your Prayers

Written by Jonathan Kroeker

Take today’s next step: Do you write? Send in your devos for consideration.

“Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers.” (1 Peter 3:7)

The easiest way for a married man to make his prayers ineffective is to be inconsiderate or disrespectful to his wife. How many of my own prayers have been scuttled simply because I haven’t been nice to my wife? Just to think about it makes me shudder.

God cares deeply about the state of your marriage because it is meant to be a reflection of Christ’s relationship with His church (Ephesians 5:32). God intends for your neighbor, co-worker, family member, and friend to get a glimpse of the gospel through the way you treat your wife. 

Were Angels Watching Over Tornado Survivors?

TREVOR FREEZE

(BGEA)

If you've never believed in angels before, this may change your tune. At least it did for one Henryville, Ind., family of five.

With a tornado bearing down on their home, Darrell and Tricia gathered their three children—ages 11, 10 and 8—stuffing everyone into an interior closet just like the safety videos would suggest.

But the EF-4 twister with winds estimated at 175 mph lifted the framed home some 50 feet off the ground—with all five still inside the closet—and carried it about 400 yards before it exploded into pieces.

Had it carried the home just 40 more feet, it would have landed in a nearby pond and Darrell is convinced his family would not have survived.

He is convinced the Lord was watching over his family.

Buried Treasure

"The LORD said to Moses, 'Chisel out two stone tablets like the first ones, and I will write on them the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke.'" — Exodus 34:1
The Torah portion for this week, Ki Tisa, is from Exodus 30:11–34:35 and 1 Kings 18:1–39.

There is an old Hasidic tale about a poor God-fearing Jew who lived in the city of Prague. One night, the man had a dream that he traveled to Vienna, and there, at the base of a bridge leading to the king's palace, he found a buried treasure. At first the man dismissed the dream as nonsense, but as the dream persisted, the man began to believe that perhaps its message was true.

Eventually, the man set out for Vienna and found the bridge that led to the king's palace. The problem was that the bridge was heavily guarded by armed men. The man paced back and forth near the bridge for days not knowing what to do. Finally, one of the guards demanded to know what he was up to. The poor man was frightened and told the guard all about his dream and his buried treasure.

Get Ready for the Impossible

by Rick Warren

“He chose to give us birth through the word of truth …” (James 1:18a NIV)

God wants to use his Word to give you a fresh start in life.

Without God’s Word, we could never be saved. We wouldn’t be headed for Heaven. We wouldn’t know about Jesus’ death on the cross. We wouldn’t know about God’s purposes for our lives.

Without the Bible, we can’t know God.

God wants to give you all of that — but it starts with his Word. Through the Bible, God recreates our life. When I feel like I’m at the end of my rope, God uses the Bible to give me a fresh start, a do-over. The Bible calls it being “born again.” In James 1:18, the Bible says, “He chose to give us birth through the word of truth …” (NIV).

What is God’s Vision for YOU?

Written by R. Toddy Jadoo

Take today’s next step: A great way to focus your life on Christ is to make The Life commitment. Learn more at www.thelife.com

“And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.” (Joel 2:28)

Recently I wondered, “If God was my boss, what would change in my daily activities?” I started consulting with God first thing in the morning, asking what He would like my day, my week and my month to look like. It meant taking the time to ask, listen and write. Earlier this year, as I wrote my New Year’s resolutions, I asked for God’s vision for me.

Vision is described in the dictionary as, “an act or power of anticipating that which will or may come to be. i.e. prophetic vision.”

At Issue - Rejection

2 Chronicles 11:13–17

Rejection hurts—when your boss hands you a pink slip, or your husband walks out on you, or a close friend deserts you. 

Rejection makes you doubt your abilities, your worth, your purpose in life. But not all rejection is bad. 

The Levites were rejected by Jeroboam, who wanted to choose his own priests to offer sacrifices to false gods. Painful as the rejection was, it motivated the Levites to move to Jerusalem to serve God there—a change they wouldn’t have made otherwise. 

Why Our Walk With Jesus Seems So Hard Some Days

Written by Rev. Daniel Forster

“If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.” (John 15:19)
Somehow upon receiving the freedom that comes when we accept Christ into our lives, we come up with a false notion that following Jesus is going to be easy. Because of this false notion, many folks who decide to give their lives to Christ end up returning to the life they were saved from. The enemy plants lies in their heads – that God is not with them or that the freedom they briefly experienced was not meant for them.

All we have to do is look at what Jesus faced and come to terms with the fact that we will face these things too. It is not that God is not with us, nor is His grace is unobtainable. These lies are tools used by the enemy to deceive us. There are four things I want to share with you today, that Jesus experienced and we will too.

Attitude of Gratitude

“The LORD said to Moses, ‘Tell Aaron, “Take your staff and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt—over the streams and canals, over the ponds and all the reservoirs—and they will turn to blood.” Blood will be everywhere in Egypt, even in vessels of wood and stone.’”—Exodus 7:19

This Torah portion for this week, Vaeira, is from Exodus 6:2—9:35 and Ezekiel 28:25–29:12.

Moses and Aaron had clearly defined roles. Moses would be the leader of the children of Israel, but Aaron would be his mouthpiece since Moses felt limited by his speech impediment. Aaron would speak; Moses would take action. Aaron would make promises; Moses would deliver. The two brothers were a team bringing their strengths to the table and compensating for each other’s weaknesses.

This being the case, the Sages are puzzled when Aaron, not Moses, is commanded to bring about the first three plagues after warning Pharaoh. Wasn’t this Moses’ arena? Moses brought about the remainder of the plagues, so why not the first three?

Know Him as Daddy

"For [the Spirit which] you have now received [is] not a spirit of slavery to put you once more in bondage to fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption--the Spirit producing sonship--in [the bliss of] which we cry, Abba! [That is,] Father!" (Romans 8:15, The Amplified Bible)

One night after a worship service a friend of mine and I stepped outside and were suddenly awed by the beauty around us. It was one of those crisp, clear winter nights when the brilliance of the moon and stars nearly takes your breath away. I said to my friend, "Tommy, will you look at that!" Then he looked up with one of those Holy Ghost whole face smiles and with a voice full of tenderness said, "My Daddy made that!"

"My Daddy...." I'll never forget the way he said that.