Total Confidence in God eliminates this lady’s fear of cancer

I sat at the nurse’s station reviewing my first patient of the day. I flipped through her chart as the techs prepared her for the procedure. Nothing special. She was a 56 year old lady from Bradenton, Florida, who had a coin size mass seen in one of her lungs on a routine chest x-ray. Using computed tomography I had been requested by her referring physician to get a piece of tissue from the nodule to be examined under a microscope, by the pathologist to determine histologically if the growth was benign or malignant. Having reviewed her history and her routine chest films, I walked into the procedure room to introduce myself, explain the procedure and answer any questions she might have. I found a pleasant 56 year old female, who seemed quite calm and answered all my questions with a calmness not ordinarily seen in these situations. Most people have a deadly fear of cancer and death and both anxiety and barely suppressed fear are usually the norm.

I explained what I was about to do and that the tissue sample would confirm or exclude malignancy. I explained how I would numb the skin over her chest and then using CT imaging for placement, I would attempt to insert a cutting needle in the middle of the soft tissue mass in her lung and obtain a core of tissue for the pathologist to examine. She listened carefully as I went on to describe all the possible complications associated with the procedure. She smiled and nodded her assent, asked no questions and signed the consent form with the same degree of concern as if signing a letter to her best friend.

(Read the rest at Wtness.org)

A true story as related by John T. Spencer MD,
a recently retired physician, after almost 40 years of practicing Medicine. 

 

Nick Vujicic on why he is happy with his life… without arms or legs

(this blog has grown up and is now a full website.  Please go instead to www.wtness.org.)
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Preacher Nick Vujicic.

“Do you know God? …Why is he interested in us?  Why would he ever have the time of day to listen to my prayer?  Who am I compared to God, the creator of the universe?... It’s a big thought. (smile)  For me, God is everything. (nods) For me, there were many times in my life where I did not have peace in my life. And seeking the answers to many questions and of course being born without limbs, I asked God “Why did this happen?” (furrowed brows)  You know, we always talk to God more on a bad day (heh!).  We ask God for things, we thank God for things, but if you get to know him, do you talk to Him apart from just asking him for things?  Because if I had a friend and I just called him up when I needed him, it’s not really a friendship.  (smile).  Do you that he is excited to hear from you?  Do you know that you were on his mind before the earth began and he formed you in your mother’s womb?  That was such an amazing peace that I had at 15 years old. To know that I finally have someone who is going to be with me through it all.  Who knows all my circumstances, who is BIGGER than my circumstances. 

Nick Vujicic speaking about how
 it's possible for him to be happy.

(Read the rest at Wtness.org)

Partial transcript of an interview with Nick Vujicic, the man who has no limbs, but is happy anyway.

This man has no arms and no legs. Why does he not curse God?

(this blog has grown up and is now a full website.  Please go instead to www.wtness.org.)
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Nick Vujicic was born without arms or legs.  Yet he loves God and Jesus Christ.  How is that possible? Nick tells his own story.

Nick Vujicic was born with no arms or legs

• If I fall and think I can't get up, I haven't failed until I stop trying. Only then will it be true that I can't get up. But if I keep trying, there's always hope, and the possibility that I will get back up.
• Sometimes you have doubts about what is going to happen in the future, and it scares you.
• But I found my strength in Jesus Christ.
• My victory is not when I stand up.  It's when I know I can't do this on my own. 
• If God can cause a man without arms and legs to smile, then God can cause us to be thankful, and to hang on to the hope that we have.

Nick Vujicic surfing with Bethany Hamilton

In February, 2012, Nick married this woman. They now live in California. They hope to become parents some day.

In February, 2012, Nick married Kanae Miyahara

(Read the rest at Wtness.org)

The Lord's help during a sad time

For several months, two people who are important to me have effectively shut me out of their good graces.  We can't avoid interacting with each other, and when we meet, conversation is reduced to perfunctory exchanges, with not much enthusiasm.  I will be frank here and admit that it hurts more than a little.  In fact, I pass through most days with a melancholy accompanied by a lack of energy for most things.

I have tried to force myself to keep a happy disposition, and I've been temporarily able to use diversions such as seeing other friends or watching a movie to make myself feel better, but beneath it all, there is a long sadness about this.

Today I went to take a walk in the woods near a stream.  I feel closer to the Lord then.  I sat on a log an prayed.  I had been spending regular time with the Lord in readings and prayer and fasting since January, so I'm starting to recognize Him when He's there, though it's nothing as certain as looking at a photo or talking on the phone.

My prayer began as a jumbled mess, with a hundred topics and questions. It didn't take long for Him to jump in and calm me down.  I felt an involuntary calming down of my nerves, and then I had some thoughts that I wondered whether they were my own.  They were not like the thoughts that in the last several months I had voluntarily generated.  Those were like "What can I do to fix this?" "What did I do wrong?" "How can I say how unhappy I am with the mistreatment without making matters worse?"

This calming thought was like this: "You are already taking the right approach by not reacting angrily or upset by this.  You are doing the right thing by purposefully deciding to treat them well." 

I admit, it did calm me down.

(Please to to WTNESS.ORG to read the rest of the story)

Why this poor, hungry man never considered stealing

It was about 1999.  I was taking a walk along Woodward, a large boulevard near my house. Also near Woodward is a motel that offers cheap monthly rates, and this is a place where people with no homes can stay.

An older black man with a shabby coat but dignified air was walking in the same direction as me, so we got to talking, and we found we were both going across Woodward to the McDonald's there.  After about 10 minutes of socializing, I discovered that he lived with his family temporarily in the motel, and was barely making it from week to week while trying to find a job.  He never did ask me for anything.  But he spoke of God. (He didn't know I was a Christian, but nonetheless spoke very comfortably and without embarassment; proudly even, as if he belonged to a royal family despite his current living situation.) 

Not the real man. I didn't have a camera with me.
But he looked like this, content and sure.

He said that some of his acquaintances at the motel use the approach of trying to scam people out of money, and some even steal to feed their families.  But he said that's not an option for him, because he didn't want to do anything to damage his relationship with his Lord. And he was not surprised that the Lord made things just barely work out week after week.

I was impressed.  I decided to help him continue working things out in this way for perhaps another week, and gave him some money.  He had given me something in return.  He gave me a memorable example of how strong faith can help you turn aside temptations to do immoral things for short term gain.

Vicki Duffy overcame rape, self-cutting, drug use because of Jesus

(this blog has grown up and is now a full website.  Please go instead to www.wtness.org.)
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We all have heard of someone whose life is so messed up we just shake our heads, thinking there's no hope for them. Vicki Duffy had a life like that, and tried everything to get out of it. It was her last hope - praying to Jesus - that worked.


Vicki Duffy

 Vicki was born in Pennsylvania in 1968.  When Vicki was five, her mother's boyfriend raped her, then threatened to kill her mother and brother and dog if she said anything.  When Vicki was 11, she was raped by her own brother, who was thirteen, who convinced her it was her fault.  Raped twice by an Uncle at age 19.  During those years, she was abused, told she would never amount to anything, and told she was stupid. She felt deeply that indeed there was something wrong with her.  She became incredibly insecure and without any self esteem. 

By the time she was in her early 20's, she hated men (imagine that!) and led a promiscuous gay lifestyle. She was into drugs and alcohol.  She suffered from anorexia and bulemia, and had spent six stints in a mental hospital.  But the worst compulsion was self-abuse.  She cut herself with razors and burnt herself with cigarettes.  The scars, over 250 of them, are still visible.  She said "It was something I could control that nobody else could."

Scars from self-inflicted cuts visible years later

She tried to get help, and despite regularly taking 17 psychotheraputic medicines, saw no improvement that lasted for long. 

In despiration, she bought a Bible.  She opened it and in front of her was a story of a man who constantly screamed and purposefully cut himself, and in Vicki's view, evidently had mental problems. Jesus was able to heal him (see Mark 5).

Mad at Jesus for not healing her, she swore at God and challenged him to prove he was real within three weeks.  In those three weeks, she went to a revival meeting with Janny Grein and to a church in Florham Park, New Jersey.  She never felt so truly peaceful.  She knew it was real.  She said that no medication ever made her feel that alert and alive.  She made a decision to follow Christ in April 1995.

Within a year and a half, she had stopped all of the cutting and burning.  She had stopped taking the medications.  She was getting control of the eating.  And amazingly, unbelievably, she had forgiven her abusers.

By 1999 she was married to a wonderful Christian man who was able to see past all her past troubles.  She now has a son, and is still on the Christian path, openly sharing her story with others who also want to put a horrible past behind them. 

Do you have a life situation that you think is impossible to overcome?  You know what to try.  Rather, Who to try.

See Vicki Duffy's full story in this video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaCImy92tg0

My commentary:  Is God Real?  I consider this more evidence.



Doctor Death - Jack Kevorkian

From June 6, 2011

I was glad when on Christian Radio AM 990, Al Kresta told a story about the vast difference of perception about human life between Dr. Jack Kevorkian (the late advocate of assisted suicide) and an Alzheimer’s caregiver.  Al said that when he interviewed Kevorkian in the late 80’s, Jack said that an Alzheimer’s patient was "a cipher, a zero, a nothing".  Coincidentally, the very next person being interviewed by Al was an Alzheimer’s caregiver.  That man said that the Alzheimer’s patient was certainly a human being to the very end.  Al summarized it as the difference between a Satanic (I don't like the strong adjective chosen, but that's what Al said) and a Samaritan point of view on life.  The Satanic point of view diminishes the importance of life and hope in the quality of the future life.  Satan finds any method of introducing doubt and despair.  In so doing, he can cast doubt on the value of God in that life. 
The Samaritan views what is coming with hope.  The hope of Christ.  And find value in life.

Dr. Jack Kevorkian

Al Kresta