Monthly Archives: April 2013

Crucified with Christ Day T-2

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Yesterday we wrote that wanting to bear the mark of Jesus’ love, joy and peace requires inviting Him to live IN us as Lord and Master. It is more an act of believing that what He said is true and living accordingly. This is how we, ever so imperfectly, try to live out this walk with cancer. People remark about our positive attitude or strong spirit. We remind them it is our great God, our Lord Jesus who does this work everyday. It is not within our own power.

But belief always drives action and so there are things we do to bear the mark of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self control. Jesus spoke to His closest disciples in Matthew 16:24-26, instructs his closest followers saying, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?”

In this sense, there is something that we must do. In the progressive unfolding of our lives we must bring our thoughts, speech, and actions in alignment with Christ. Denying self means we put God and others first. This theme is spoken consistently throughout the bible and most notably when Jesus summarizes the two great commandments, “Love God…love others as yourself.” (Matthew 22:36-40) Denying self demands that our self interests are ALL servant to our love of God and others. Picking up our cross entails, amongst other things, keeping our focus daily on Jesus and carrying the burdens that He has for our holiness, and His love for others. This should provide great motivation to transform what we think, say, and do and even our personal ambitions and goals, to make these obedient to Him. And finally, following Jesus means staying in the path,and when you wander, confessing it and getting back on the path right away. You will be told there are many paths. The entertaining movie The Life of Pi seems to propose this message. But Jesus says there is only one path that leads to heaven. “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6

Peace and patience are God’s gifts to us when we surrender our control to Him. Know Jesus….know love, joy, peace, patience, and so much more. I appreciate prayers for my donor as they collect his stem cells today, that he will be well, that they will be able to harvest a sufficient number of cells, and send them by courier to Iowa City for my use on Thursday. May his joy be full in making this sacrificial gift.

Crucified With Christ Day T-3

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We are discussing the relationship of destroying the human immune system to being ‘crucified with Christ’ (Galatians 2:20). Destroying my immune system is needed to create room and ability for a new healthy immune system to engraft. Being crucified with Christ does not mean climbing onto a wooden cross and suffering the same painful death that Jesus experienced some 2000 years ago at the hands of the Roman soldiers. But if we want our lives to be increasingly bear the mark of His love, joy, peace, and patience, (etc) it does mean that we are called to live fully in Him and to invite Him to live fully in us. But to do this we have to continuously put off and let go of that which hinders us and put on the Spirit of Jesus in our daily lives. It requires a recognition that on our own we are not the master of our own fate, not the architect of our own lives nor our children’s or friends, not the captain of our own souls. We have choices for sure and we are in charge of these. We govern our own will. But we are sorely limited. The great Paul admits he wants to do what is right but ends up doing what is wrong. He concludes that his will is insufficient and must rely on the grace and power of Jesus to live in him and make these decisions for him. In Colossians 1:27. He proclaims the “secret” that Christ is for all, the Jew and the Gentile (unbelievers) and that “Christ In Us is the hope of glory.” True and lasting, eternal hope is beyond our natural grasp. The bible teaches the answers to all of life are not found within us unless Jesus is found there first.

In one very real sense, being crucified with Christ has nothing to do with what we do; it is in believing that Christ finished His work on our behalf, and in accepting and living according to what Jesus has already done for us personally. When Jesus died on the cross, he said, “it is finished.” The payment for your sins and mine were paid for once and for all. All we have to do is to ask Jesus, out loud, or quietly in your heart, for forgiveness and to accept the precious free gift of His Lordship and leadership in your life. And what an immune system THAT is!
imageSpeaking of immune boosts, it was great to see Jenny and Eric and their family when they visited this afternoon! I think my ‘darth vader’ mask was a hit for a couple of the kiddies. Three pairs of high dose chemos down, one pair of doses remaining on Monday. image