hasslefreeadvances

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My Amy

There could not be two people more different, yet she has taught me that God uses our opposite strengths and weaknesses to make us perfect together.

Deuteronomy 22:5:     A woman shall not wear a man’s garment, nor shall a man put on a woman’s cloak, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord your God.

I call her “Nervous Nelly” and she calls me “Loosy Goosy” and “Willy Nilly”. …

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Rabbit Trail - Kids and Eating

Rabbit Trail – Kids and Eating

Have you ever wondered how the following two things co-exist:

One – We have a childhood obesity crisis in this country

Two – When kids don’t eat their dinner (meat & 2 veg), their parents give them something else they like (e.g., cereal, pizza) instead?

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Wrap-Up to Big Faith Questions

Wrap-Up to Big Faith Questions

The crooked road became straighter at this point… and the less dramatic curves are taking me to beautiful places “off the beaten path”… where I am thankfully stopping to “smell the roses”.

Psalm 119:35:     Direct me in the path of your commands, for there I find delight.

This brings me to Growth topics AND the next BIG IMPACT EVENT… stay tuned!

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God’s Message – 5 – Suffering

God’s Message – 5 – Suffering

The purpose of this was revealed as, without suffering, there would be less opportunity to show humanity.  The baby in Angola is in a better place.  I didn’t save his physical body, but my actions of humanity were simply a vessel for Jesus to express his love.

2 Timothy 2:21:     Those who cleanse themselves from the latter will be instruments for special purposes, made holy, useful to the Master

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God’s Message – 4 – Worldly Worries & Anxiety

God’s Message – 4 – Worldly Worries & Anxiety

He changed my nature from “earthly” to “eternal”.

1 John 2:17:        The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.

Mathew 6:26:     Look at the birds in the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not much more valuable than they?

Mathew 6:30:     If  that is how God clothes the grass of the…

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God’s Message – 3 – Mortality

God’s Message – 3 – Mortality

He will take me when my job here is done…. whether within minutes or decades.

1 Chronicles 28:20:     He will not fail you or forsake you until all the work for the service of the temple of the Lord is finished.

 Matthew 5:8:     Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

Psalms 140:13:     Surely the righteous will praise your name, and the upright will live in your presence.

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God’s Message – 2 – God’s Plan

God’s Message – 2 – God’s Plan

We have a job to do here on earth.  Persistence will lead us to His calling.

Revelation 22:14:     Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of live and may go through the gates of the city.

John 4:34:     “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me…”

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God’s Message – 1 – The Meaning of Life

God’s Message – 1 – The Meaning of Life

He spoke as osmosis.  He answered questions.  He implanted my mind with knowledge & wisdom.  He changed me.  He revealed these things to me:

The Meaning of Life – life on earth is a test, and we are here to prepare to be in His and Jesus presence in heaven.

Psalm 26:2:     Test me, Lord, and try me, examine my heart and my mind.

James 1:3-4:     because you know that the testingof your faith…

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God Spoke - 2

God Spoke – 2

2 Chronicles 32:24:      In those days Hezekiah became ill and was at the point of death.  He prayed to the Lord, who answered him and gave him a miraculous sign.

I don’t remember hearing words, but remember questions being answered and a switch making my nature turn upside down.  I didn’t hear words, but know that God had spoken to me.  If this was merely a dream, I may have heard words.  If it…

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God Spoke - 1

God Spoke – 1

Then one day, it came to me.  I remember the room and bed and atmosphere in which it happened.  My doctor had just left and I caught him hiding a tear over my suffering… suffering.  It was after my surrender, and during great suffering, that it happened.  God spoke to me.

 Mark 14:36:       Jesus said, “Father, everything is possible for you.  Take this cup from me.  Yet not what I will, but what…

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Anxiety & The Meaning of Life - 2

Anxiety & The Meaning of Life – 2

What a blessing… but the curse is that most of our human relationships are based on common interests and concerns.  I learned that common INTERESTS were important, but that common CONCERNS were absolutely necessary.  When daily struggles or “life issues” didn’t seem important to me, it was taken as my lack of concern for them.   The blessing of this peace was more than offset by the curse of the…

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Anxiety & The Meaning of Life - 1

Anxiety & The Meaning of Life – 1

1 Samuel 10:6:     The Spirit of the Lord will come powerfully upon you, and you will prophesy with them; and you will be changed into a different person.

I guess people always say, in times like this, tons of clichés that probably apply in most cases.  They say that those that go through this must have  “re-examined their life”… that “priorities change”… “what doesn’t kill us merely makes us…

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Rabbit Trail - Natural Disasters

Rabbit Trail – Natural Disasters

An old high school friend, from Japan, e-mailed me and asked if we were okay.  There were tornadoes and our home town was not hit by a tornado, but by 95 mph winds.  We now live just outside the area hit, but made me think of how my wife and I are a magnet (maybe not a perfect one, however) for natural disaster.

The EF5 tornado (highest winds ever measured) that hit Moore OK on May 3 1999 jumped…

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Mortality & Surrender - 2

Mortality & Surrender – 2

Mathew 6:10:    “Thy will be done”

Before this brief moment in my life, I’d often say the salvation prayer and promised my surrender.  However, my definition of surrender seemed less than a lot of folks I saw who seemed more obedient.  I worried about “mine vs theirs”.  I also continued to be dragged down by earthly worries.  My treatment would temporarily remove those.  This time, my surrender…

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Mortality & Surrender - 1

Mortality & Surrender – 1

Just a year or so before this, I was afraid of having only 30-40 years left.  Now, I was faced with mortality.  I put my affairs in order, informed my boss, and prayed.  I SURRENDEREDthe responsibility for protecting and raising my children to God… and He accepted.  I accepted the possibility of mortality and, as you can see, survived.  This surrender has helped me deal with many other issues…

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Another Crisis – 3 – Good News / Bad News

Another Crisis – 3 – Good News / Bad News

Then they gave me the good news.  My disease was rare enough, and similar enough to another, that it was misdiagnosed more often than not.  And no patient ever survived a misdiagnosis.  But mine had been properly, although late, diagnosed.  There was even more good news… the odds of eradicating this disease were 90% or better, and that this doctor had never lost a patient (to the disease) that…

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Another Crisis – Facing Death!!!!! - 2

Another Crisis – Facing Death!!!!! – 2

Once I arrived, a team of physicians and staff explained that I had one of the rarest, and clearly the most aggressive, form of cancer.  They explained that it was so advanced, that I would die within a week or two without treatment.  They informed me that its rareness had only yielded experimental treatments, none of which were effective until just a few years prior.  They said I needed to start…