Mid-week church services

   I enjoy Wednesday night church services.  Prayers are more sincere and deeper and bible teaching is more informative.
  Our attendance on Sunday morning is increasing.  In fact it has almost doubled since I have been attending the church.  One thing I realized this morning is that almost half the people attending Sunday morning have little idea of who I am.  To most of them I am the man in the bow tie who operates the camera.  But there are many other things about me that these people do not know.  To know me is not the important issue here.  What is lacking is the many blessings that are being missed by not becoming more involved in Christian service.  
   I doubt that any of the ones who just come on Sunday mornings has ever said a prayer for me or any other member who is or has suffered physically.  None of the Sunday only crowd attend Sunday School so they are missing out on some great lessons from scripture.
   I am fully aware that some have good reasons for not being there on Wednesday nights.   Some have jobs that have them working late or have them out of town.  But most people just don't see the need to be there except Sunday morning.  I've noticed that the Wednesday people are actively involved in the church while the Sunday morning crowd have a more passive role.
  There is a difference in the services for me also.   On Sunday morning I am in a more giving role.  I teach a Sunday School class, I video tape the services, I am the church treasure, and occasionally I am called on to preform other tasks.  Sunday nights and Wednesday nights I am more of a receiver .  On Wednesday nights I take the prayer requests and do video tape the services but I have less to do with people and have more time to devote to the learning and study of scripture.  That's the part of church I enjoy the most.

Five weeks later

  I'm a couple of days past the 5 week mark since my surgery.  The incisions were deep so there is still some pain associated with them and I am still not in control of my bladder yet.  I do well when sitting but if I stand I must go immediately to the rest room.
  My sleep isn't very good as I wake every hour and a half to two hours to go relieve myself.   I'm still limited as to what I can do physically.  I still have all the wood from the playground set stacked up in the yard and there are several trees I need to cut down but I'm having to wait until my body can handle the stress.
 It is my hope that no one else will ever have to go through this surgery and I am glad there are other choices now.  If I could have chosen radiation I certainly would have.  I suppose I could have but my prostate was so large it would have taken at least two years to shrink it to a size that would allow for radiation treatments and in that time my cancer could have spread beyond the prostate.  It wasn';t a risk worth taking.

 

Fuishing Trip

   Yesterday I picked a friend up and headed out to City Lake park in Jamestown for a morning of fishing.  I baited my hooks in hopes of catching a big one or two for my friend.  He caught nine; none big enough to keep and I caught none.  It was a cool overcast morning so the day was perfect weather for being outdoors fishing.  I suppose the rains overnight had washed enough bugs into the water there wasn't much need for the fish to get excited about our bait.
  Even so, I enjoyed the day and so did my friend.  I know he was disappointed that we didn't catch enough for a meal but he came away with breakfast, a new rod and reel and a tackle box and I came away glad that I finally had gotten away for a while after being cooped up for a month while recovering from surgery.
   Hopefully we will have better luck Thursday when we try a friends private pond.  

Real Christain Behavior

   So many people believe they are Christian even though they seldom, if ever attend church, never read their bibles, never tell others about Christ, and usually only pray when they need something like their favorite team to score or to obtain some goal they had set for themselves.  People who attend church regularly often feel that they are more Christian than most.  When they speak to others it is usually in a condescending way.  They say things like "You two shouldn't live together." or "You drink to much.  You need to leave that beer alone and start going to church."  In other words, many regular church attendees want to correct the lifestyle of the people they consider "lost".
    So far, I've never met a person that said "Yea Grandma, you are right.  I'll quick doing drugs and become a Christian."  It is far more likely that the only reaction Grandma will receive is one of disdain or anger.  It is like telling a stuntman that he needs to quit doing stunts because he might get hurt.  he knows that.  He doesn't care;  he just wants to succeed at a more dangerous and thrilling stunt.  maybe what he needs to hear is "In order to make that stunt work, what you need is a lighter motorcycle with a more powerful engine.  Perhaps we can find a person that knows how to design such a bike."
   I think that many Christians lack compassion for others.  We all have problems and shortcomings. If we can keep the joy of Christ in our lives and live our lives as a positive example of what Christ can do with a sinner,   then how we live our lives will speak louder and more positive about Christ than all the urging to change ever will.  It is our job as a Christian to light the way.  It is God's job to
do the changing.,  

Science is better than God

   A lady claims she believes in science but not in God.  I can fully understand where she is coming from.  The bible says that to those who do not believe scriptures are foolishness.  I can see that.  It's hard to fathom that some being created everything with just a spoken word, then decided the only way to save mankind from his own folly was to come to earth as a human baby, die on the cross, and rise from the dead.
   It takes a great deal of faith to believe that.  But it also takes a great deal of faith to believe that where nothing existed, that two forces that didn't exist collided and a perfectly formed and in sync existence was created.  One scientific law is that something cannot be created from nothing.  If there was once nothing then where did the two forces come from?  The fact that something exist is proof that something has always existed.
  So many things that science didn't know is recorded in scriptures. Isolation of plaque victims was Jewish law and it wasn't until doctors practiced that was the black plaque ended.  In one country 11 out of 14 pregnant women died until the doctors discovered hand washing, which also was a Jewish law.
    The bible also said that God sat upon the curve of the earth, the word for curve meaning a ball or sphere.  The Egyptians, great mathematicians, believed the earth was supported by 5 pillars but the bible says it was suspended in space.    Sailing around the globe was made possible when one sailor realized the bible spoke of pathways in the sea, or currents.
   The bible is not a book of science but many scientific discoveries were mentioned in the bible hundreds of years before science discovered them.
   It takes less faith to believe in God that in happenstance but one has to accept Christ.  Then the bible makes more sense than any other explanation.  So what are you going to do about Jesus?

Free apples

  Several of my apple trees produced this year but the trees are infected with cedar  apple rust, a disease I've been trying to find the solution for without success for several years now.  There are plenty of apples but they are small and most are deformed.  The taste is good though.
   I suppose the best use of these apples would be for deer bait.  I don't deer hunt and the woods surrounding my neighborhood are full of deer but my health won't allow me to pick the apples myself.  If anyone would like to come pick them you are welcomed to.  No charge.
   I'm seriously considering cutting the trees down as the disease seems impossible to control and they block the sunlight from my peach trees and cause brown rot.
Also, I know some craftsmen like apple wood for some of their crafts so I will have some available.  

Whole Hog or Die

   My dad had a few saying and "Whole hog or die" was one of his favorites. That means to give something all you have and don't give up, no matter what.   In many ways my father and I are alike.  I can see of lot of my mother in me too.  I am a composite of my parents.  My personality is more like my mothers but I am more like my father in my physical makeup and motivations.
  I have taken a "whole hog or die" approach to many things in life.  When I do I am successful.  When I do not fully commit to something, then things don't always work out as they should.  Once, when I was in the military, the base was hosting a horseshoe tournament and I decided to entry and not just to enter but to win.  I practiced at least eight hours a day  and was often seen practicing all night s well as during the day.  I not only won the tournament but I was national champion of Puerto Rico and All-Navy Campion as well.
  At Chowan College I took an Economics class under Mr. Helms.  I remember he was from Cherryville, NC and he graded different from every other professor.  In fact in his over two dozen years of teaching, no one had ever earned an "A" in his class.  I determined to be the first.  I was.
Unfortunately,    so few things in life have so motivated me to give myself over to it completely and I've had a half hearted approach to life.
  Several years ago, I began to realize that doing things my way wasn't getting me where I wanted or needed to be in life so I decided to live for Christ.  But if I live for Christ, I was going to go "whole hog or die".
  It's more than church attendance, bible study, or even prayer and it's certainly not about trying to be a better person.    I didn't seek out any offices in church nor did I try to live up to what most people consider Christian values.  I didn't have any preconceived ideas about what a Christian was supposed to be or about what the scriptures mean.
  I just started attending church.  The first thing I did was ask if I could mow the grass.   Then I spent much of my spare time clearing the overgrowth from the church property.  The land was in such poor shape it took two winters working 4 hours a day to get the job done.  Then I planted a pumpkin patch.
 I cleaned the church, did maintenance, changed the church sign,  planted flowers and bushes, laid timber to define the parking lot, cut trees, took care of the trash and recyclables, nd every other task that needed to be done.  I purchased my own equipment for mowing, my own tools for other jobs.  I never took one dime from the church for anything.
    No, I wasn't trying to work my way to heaven. Christianity doesn't work that way.  But if I'm not willing to serve and do the small stuff then how could God use me for the bigger stuff.  And eventually He did.  But I learned many things along the way.  I learned that He is good and faithful and when I needed Him most, He was there.  I've learned that in seemingly tragic events  that the only real tragedy is if we fail to use that event for His glory.  He puts us through things not only to strengthen us but because he knows we are strong enough to handle the events and know how to properly view things.
   A good example of that is my cancer.  How in the world is having cancer a good thing.  It is and I give God thanks for allowing me to go through this.  I've learned that we will all die of something sooner or later so the fact that I have a life threating disease is not the tragedy here.  It is just part of living.  We will all die of something.  That something is "sin".  Even the best Christian in the word will die a physical death because of sin.  That is the nature we were born with and that can't be changed.  We cannot live good enough lives to overcome that sin nature.
  But there is a way out of the situation.  God sent His son to pay the death penalty for us so that we don't have to die that second death.  The cancer doctors gave me three options in my battle with cancer and God gives us three choices in our battle with sin.
   We can ignore the problem and we may be lucky and not die of cancer but we will die of something.  Another options is radiation treatments and the third option is surgery.    God gives us three options:  We can ignore or deny or sin and eventually we will die.  We can turn over a new leaf and try to live a better life, maybe even become church members and maybe even leaders in the church.  We will still die.  Or we can take the third option, accept Christ, and live.
   In my battle with cancer there are things I need to do to speed my healing and to improve the quality of my life.  I don't have to do these things and I can live in my misery.  Or I can work hard and recover sooner.  The same is true in my Christian life.  I choose to serve Christ "whole hog".

It is appointed unto men once to die

I can detect small changes for the better with each passing day. Some days I have had setbacks and I know I have months of healing before I can consider myself recovered. Please don't feel sad for me because I don't. I thank God for allowing me to go through this. I'm consider it a reward because He trusts me enough to use my illness for His glory .
How can I do that?
When I was first told I had cancer I was given three options: I could take a wait and watch approach which is the best approach in most cases, I could take radiation treatments, or I could have surgery.
Chances are good that if I made the correct choice, cancer would not be the cause of my death. It doesn't matter for all of us are going to die of something. Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead but he died later anyway.
A friend asked me what caused cancer and I said I didn't know, but I realized I do. It is sin. Our physical bodies are infected with sin and we will eventually die because of it one day.
But we also have a spiritual side. We have three choices: we can take and wait and see approach to life, waiting for that moment that we have that great revelation of truth or we realize our life is used up so we might as well give in to Christ.
Choice number two is we can start to live better, maybe even attend church on Sunday mornings. Or we can use option number three and accept Christ and live for Him.
It's appointed unto men once to die. Yes, we will all die one day but we only have to die once. Reject Christ and we die twice. Don't let the cancer of sin take your soul too.

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Rainy weather hides the truth

 
    I don't know many of my neighbors by name but all my neighbors recognize me because of my yard.  I do so enjoy getting outside and working in the dirt.  One neighbor uses a professional lawn care service so he has the greenest grass but I have the prettiest and best kept lawn.  That is, until my operation.  I cut my grass as close to the time of surgery as I could   but I left the grass a little on the long side due to lack of rain.
  The last few weeks we have seen a lot of rain and the grass has grown substantially the last week yet my lawn  has not been mowed.  I'm sure the neighbors have noticed but with the continual rainy days, I have an excuse for not mowing.  It also keeps the neighbors from knowing there is something wrong at my house.  

blood sugar

  The medicine and the stress my procedure has placed on my body has made controlling my blood sugar difficult.  It is currently 79 which is about perfect for this time in the morning (I usually have breakfast at 4am) and my average for the week is128, which is too high for just before ones first meal.  The recommended level is in the high eighties.  Normal is 90 to 110.
  This is my highest weekly average in 13 weeks.  After my trip to the emergency room my reading shot up to over 240 although I had not eaten.  It isn't always food that causes a diabetic to lose control and contrary to popular opinion it isn't the consumption of sugar that causes all high readings.
  Not being able to exercise is taking it's toll too.  Simple tasks are sapping my energy.  I will be so glad when I can get back to the gym and my daily chores.  

First Day after catherter

   I know this is personal and not a interesting subject but then this is my personal journal.  I had one bag removed yesterday but the G-bag, the one on my side that captures the drainage from my side is still there but the discharge seems to finally be declining.
  Every time I think I'm making progress I cough (suffer from allergies)   which makes me squirt.  But I have made it from the cough to the bathroom which is great.  The only thing is I have to think and concentrate in order to do it.  That's something we take for granted because, as adults, we have been doing it so long it no longer requires thought.  But think back to when you were a baby.
  That's what I thought.  The muscle that controls the flow was detached during surgery and then reattached The gland that surrounded that muscle has been removed so the sensation one has is totally different and the brain and that muscle have to be trained to work together.  The doctors say it could take up to a year but the more dedicated I am to doing my exercises, the faster I will improve.
  It's like our relationship to our heavenly father.  The more we talk to each other the closer we grow.  Any relationship takes work, including a spiritual one.  

One Step forward, two steps back

   We have all had days in which we feel we are making no progress and somethings feel as if we are going backwards.  Well, that is me this week.  I was excited Monday when the tubing in my body was removed even though I am unable to exercise full control of my bladder, I have learned how to dress to minimize the effects and am doing my exercises to strengthen the necessary muscles to regain control.
  I took my first shower Tuesday Morning and it felt so good to be clean from top to bottom. Things were fine that first day.  Wednesday  after I got dressed I noticed a wet spot on my shirt.  I couldn't remember splashing water on myself but thought that must have been what happened so I continued with putting on my socks and shoes.  Once I was fully dressed I noticed the wet spot had grown larger.  I pulled up my shirt and noticed that a stream of liquid was squirting from one of the incisions on my left side so I grabbed a change of clothes and headed to the Emergency Department at the Salisbury VA.
  It was 8 am when I left home and I was released from the ED at 3:30, catheter back in place in addition to another bag attached to my side.  If that wasn't miserable enough, I  arrived home just in time to change into my church clothes.  I was leading the services.  It had been my plans to spent part of the day putting the finishing details on my message. Even though the main body of my message was one of the best of my life, I realized I had not had sufficient time to work out the close so I just had to stop.
  Even though I had made notes,    I looked at them only once and decided I was fine without them.  Although my message was briefer than normal and without a sufficient closing statement, I do believer it was a powerful message and the small congregation was visually moved, some to tears.   God has a way of taking the inadequate and making something significant from it and He did so with that message Wednesday.
  Today I am heading to the Salisbury VA again to have what was installed Wednesday removed so maybe, I can start the healing process in earnest today.