A close friend sent me this picture of a map and compass, and it calls up so many memories. I have always loved maps, and I enjoy...

I just started reading a book by Dr. David Jeremiah, entitled "When Your World Falls Apart: Seeing Past the Pain of the Present." Like...

I opened this morning to Isaiah 65:24: "Before they call, I will answer; while they are still speaking, I will hear." There are so many...

Quick update. I am in the room at MUSC Charleston. I get my own room (Woo-hoo!) and it has a hospital bed, recliner, couch and bathroom...

I got the call today. Mantle-Cell Lymphoma confirmed. I will have a chemotherapy port installed in my chest Tuesday morning, and will...

May I tell you what God did for me this week? On Monday, the oncologist required a second bone marrow biopsy. I did my first one under...

Who knows what a Stylite is? Anybody? (I'll bet John Wollwerth knows.) The Stylites took the asceticism to its logical conclusion, choosing to live their lives perched on columns. Yes, really! In the Byzantine Empire in the third and fourth centuries, some of the devout read in their Bibles that Jesus sometimes left the crowds to get away and pray, and decided to pursue their own holiness by leaving society. They became hermits, dedicated to living in solitude. Or, they bande

About a week ago, I wrote a short post on Facebook and my blog, about Healing and Prosperity. It was reflections on meetings with a "prosperity preacher" who came to my church and then was asked to leave. Some of you have asked me to take a deeper dive into his teaching, and so here we are...

I am thinking of the monster waves that are seen in the movie Master & Commander: the Far Side of the World, when their ship is passing the southern tip of South America in the Southern Ocean, which consistently has the world's worst weather for sailors. Could it be that God is WITH us in our storms, and sometimes waits to speak to us until we are in the storm's eye-- in the middle of the worst of it?

The two visions had the same message. My life is about to slow down because God is going to have me waiting. This waiting is not just for me, but also because He is doing something elsewhere and the road ahead is not ready yet. If I rush ahead, I will definitely be in the way, and I may get in an accident. It is time for me to slow down and Enter "The Waiting" again. Ugh. Waiting SUCKS. I hate it I hate it I hate it I hate it!

So lately, God has been using the imagery of a big white Jeep Gladiator with me regarding a different matter. This morning, I was asking God "Why a Jeep Gladiator, as opposed to a Ford? Is it the NAME Gladiator that is important?" "The-God-Who-Fights-For-Us"? "The-God-Who-Fights-Our-Battles"?

After this preacher departed another was invited to take his place in our pulpit, We saw a man who came with a message, but then stood by quietly and just waited. God was moving, and there was weeping around the auditorium, as was often the case in revivals back through history. Broken people, weeping in God's presence. He preached eventually, and God used him. But I think the biggest work of God in the service was before he even spoke. In the waiting. I suck at waiting, but

I shared a new song yesterday. I also sent the video to my sister in law on the Slack phone app, since she doesn't use Facebook. She was shocked by the automated transcript of the song. For your amusement, here are some excerpts from the automated transcript of my vocal, along with the original lyrics in parenthesis: "Because close and different war (Jesus, I am your servant, You hold me close.) "I stand your deer and the car right here beside me and the duck..."

The oncologist called yesterday, right before my PET scan, and said that the bone marrow results indicated Mantle Cell Lymphoma, a somewhat rare and aggressive form of Non-Hodgkin's B-Cell Lymphoma. He is referring me to a specialist at MUSC, the Medical University of South Carolina, in Charleston. Together they will work out a treatment plan. He expects treatment to include Chemotherapy, and perhaps (probably?) a stem-cell transplants and some other things I couldn't remembe

Last night I watched the new movie Champions at our local theater. Woody Harrelson plays an assistant basketball coach who gets fired for scuffling physically with his boss on TV, gets a DUI, and then is court ordered to do community service by coaching a local team of players with intellectual difficulties. He deals his new situation better than I probably would have, jumping right in the middle of relationship building with his players and their families.

I didn't enjoy it because of the memories it called up. There is a scene where the hippies showed in church and some of the church members left. I think that had I been there, my church people in the churches I grew up in would have been the ones walking out. And I probably would have joined them. I still have an aversion to those who are... different. If I am being totally honest, I barely understand myself. And those recognizably different? Deep inside, they frighten me...

Anyone else here (constantly?) thinking about food? No? Well yesterday morning, God showed me food; a half eaten chimichanga, specifically. Goop (sauce) was oozing out, and there were unidentifiable chunks on the plate. As I watched, I saw myself taking the fork to carefully eat every last bite. "God, what does this mean?" My thoughts wandered to my time in the hospital with Covid when I was ravenous from the steroids. I felt like the Marvel character Venom, prowling around

Today has been interesting. I use a Cloud service called OneDrive. Today it showed me a bracelet that quoted Psalm 46:10-- "Be still, and know that I am God." God used that bracelet years ago with me, when I was begging Him to do something in a certain area. He didn't answer. Finally, in frustration, I opened Instagram to a post by www.mintandlily.com and I was staring at this same cuff bracelet. God was telling me to Stop Striving, and to Trust Him. And here we are again

Some people are into pain. I am NOT one of those people. I am thinking of the scene in Job 1 and 2 of the Heavenly Court, where God says to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job?" I wonder, if Job could have been present at that moment, would he have been jumping up and down in the back, waving his hands, trying to get God's attention? "No No No No Noooooooooo! Please pick someone else?!?!" I surely would have. But notice his actual response?... to fall to the ground

What I think God was telling me was that He was going to provide for me. There would be More Than Enough. Yes, I was going to feel burned out. But he had ample stores, and would supply what I needed. He is more than enough. And I don't need to worry.