Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!

I apologize for not posting sooner. It's generally my intent to post at least once per week, but I haven't been feeling very well. The last chemo really kicked my sorry kiester. I also have some kind of chest/sinus cold thing that is not helping.

Monday should be a blood check, check up with the Doc, and maybe an anti-angeogenesis treatment. Should not be chemo. Blood levels have been fairly good. However, I am still weak, with several waves of fatigue and nausea that come and go throughout the day. There is nothing new to report about the Tri-Care problem.

Deanna was channel surfing the other day and stumbled across 60 Minutes that had a segment about a new treatment. A man with esophageal cancer was given some new stuff called Extra Cellular Matrix (ECM) that allowed his body to grow a new esophagus. Wow! So I am beginning to see if I can get in on that. You can read about it here: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/12/11/60minutes/main5968057.shtml?tag=contentMain;contentBody

They are also using it to help vets who have lost portions of limbs in Iraq and Afghanistan to replace missing tissue. This technology could be huge.

All of the boxes after the move have been unpacked, although a lot of stuff is still in piles on the floor waiting to be squared away. I was able to convince my wife to slow down just a bit. And we switched gears to Christmas prep too.

We enjoyed a wagon ride with friends through an area neighborhood famous for its Christmas lights. We enjoyed cards from all over the world, including a packet with a pile of cards from our dear brothers and sisters at Fish Bayou church-brothers and sisters we have never met, and yet who have still adopted us and faithfully pray for us and send cards and notes frequently. We enjoyed several more stirring church services at FBC McKinney, two family Christmas gatherings, and to top it all off, the first white Christmas in McKinney that anyone can remember in years. So in between the waves of sick and tired, I can honestly say that I have been blessed this Christmas, and that I've enjoyed it.

God has been faithful. Each one of these things has indeed been a blessing more than my heart can contain. I'm still humbled by how good He is to us. Thank You Abba Yahweh; thank You Yeshua.

As Christmas draws to a close, I am moved to write about the closeness that our God desires to have with us. You can see it in Genesis when God comes into the Garden after the fall and asks "Where are you?" Of course God knew exactly where Adam and Eve were. After He stepped into the garden to see them, He wanted them to take the last few steps towards Him. You can of course see it in Exodus, when God chooses to put His personal living tent right in the middle of the Israelite camp. It wasn't until the Israelites panicked and asked Moses to make God leave that God went out of the camp and up on top of Mount Sinai.

When I was younger and wrestling, as I still do, with what it means to be a Christian, I asked for something simple that even I could understand. God answered that need and providentially led me to Micah 6:8: "He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God." It's a short verse but vastly deep in content. But just take that last part. To walk humbly with your God.

Picture a journey that you are walking. But you are never alone. He is always right beside you. What happens to two people who walk a long journey together? They share the work, the joy, the sorrow, the pain, and they become fast friends with a bond that never fades. This is what our God wants from us, and He will come almost the entire way to us to make that relationship happen. He just wants us to stop hiding from Him, step out from behind the bushes, and take the last few steps to Him.

He wants this so bad, this relationship with us, that around 2015 years ago He came down from heaven, in the most poor and humblest of ways, to live among us as Yeshua, the Christ.

Sometimes I find myself saying "Lord...", and then I feel His presence near. And I realize that this is all I wanted at that moment, just for Him to be near. Not to pray for healing, or money, or wisdom, though I certainly need all those things. The first few times this happened, I felt sort of stupid, like I was wasting His time. So I started praying for whatever I thought wouldn't waste His time. But then, in that way He has of speaking to me without words, He said something like "It's OK. Let's just walk together for a while. We can talk about all that other stuff later."

This is the God we have-not only our mighty God, but also a faithful friend who is always near, a friend who can truly walk with us because He has been through a mortal life of struggle and pain Himself.

If you have not given your heart to Jesus, there is no better time than now. You can gain eternal life in Heaven as opposed to in hell, blessings so rich that you will be unable to contain them all, and perhaps the greatest treasure of all, a mighty God who will also walk beside you as your most valued and trusted friend.

As the song says, Come to Jesus-and live!

Wishing you all the very best of blessings in Christ,
-Mike