Dennis invited me over for lunch today. There I met James who had also been invited for lunch. James is a long-time resident in the apartment complex. After enjoying a meal of soup followed by chili dogs and sweet pickles, James mentioned that he had been going to the same church since he moved to Florida in 1955—the Bethel AME Church, Saint Petersburg. We discussed church administration, and it is very similar to that of the United Methodist Church. Later as we talked, I mentioned that I was going to the doctor tomorrow so that he could take a specimen of my bone marrow to determine if I have bone marrow cancer. James then said that he is a 16 year survivor of cancer. He said that he was going to prayer meeting tonight, and that he would add my name to the prayer list. At this point I can think of nine people and three church groups who have mentioned that they would keep me in their prayers in addition to James and his assembly. Personally, I have always been careful in my prayers not to ask for the impossible. In many areas the bottom line seems to be physics at some level or other, and I am not one to suggest that God overturn the rules of the universe just to accommodate me. Now it seems I might be in a tight spot and a miracle of healing called for to continue on until a ripe old age. As much as I think of death as a journey, an adventure, still it would be nice to continue on and enjoy life as I know it—this would mean more time with Kathy and more time to do this blog which I greatly enjoy. Perhaps now is when I should consider that God is the rule giver, and he is in control. We know that errata apparently can occur in nature, and I hope it will prove that my health will present the opportunity for another miraculous correction should that prove necessary. The Life Application Study Bible says this about the following scripture which is among the last words of the Old Testament: This hope for the future becomes ours when we trust God with our lives.
But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. And you will go out and leap like calves released from the stall” Malachi 4:2 (NIV).
As hopeful as this is, actually the very last words of the Malachi are a little sobering considering the widespread tendency today for broken homes: the prophet Elijah “will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, or else I will come and strike the land with a curse.” For reasons not fully explicable or understood, it is a curse on the land when father-child relationships are gratuitously broken asunder. No doubt a truckload of problems would be assuaged if this scripture’s warning were taken to heart.
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