Luehrs Line --------------------: You Are Beloved

Friday, February 24, 2012

You Are Beloved

Sometimes I need a gentle reminder of who I am in Christ. I don't want to live a day without remembering what Christ has done for me and for every whosoever. Life can get going, spinning out of control crazy, exhausting and flat out unpredictable. In Christ I am who I am because He is the Great I Am. I believe that Christ came to earth in the flesh, He became the living Word. He died for my sins and His blood covers me, clothing me in His righteousness. It wasn't earned or bought it was offered as a free gift to me to open and unwrap. I have spent many years unwrapping the amazing gift of Christ. I have discovered how loved I am by a crazy relentless God who is jealous for me. His love is unconditional. Yet deep in my Spirit I want to love Him back with the same kind of crazy love. The more I read and study scripture the more I begin to gain understanding and knowledge about this Love God. Our Father said this about His only son Jesus,

"And a voice came out of the cloud, saying, 'This is My beloved Son. Hear Him!'"

Luke 9:35

As the Father loves his son, so does Jesus love his children. I am a child of God. I am His beloved. Just saying the words fills my heart and encourages my Spirit.

"Beloved, now we are children of God;"

1 John 3:2a

We are part of the Beloved family of God, for now and for eternity. How sweet it is to be family. Love motivates us to action. Our faith responds with denial of self and an attitude of servant hood. We believe so we act. This is the heart of James, half brother to Jesus. Faith alone is dead if it does not have works as evident fruit.

"Beloved, if God so loved us, we also

ought to love one another."

1 John 4:11

The word beloved in the Greek is agapetos, which means: beloved, esteemed, dear, favorite, worthy of love.

I have happiness in Christ.
I have strength in Christ
I have unspeakable joy in Christ.
I have freedom in Christ.
I have purpose in Christ.
I have self-control in Christ.
I have hope in Christ.
I have peace in Christ.
I have wisdom in Christ.
I have forgiveness in Christ.

I am beloved in Christ. You are Beloved. Choose to believe.

Watch this music video by Jason Grey "Remind Me of Who I Am"

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My Cancer Story

Many have asked me how long have you been sick? When did this all begin? Tough questions even for me to answer...all I can say at this point is I finally found some Doctors who listened to all my symptoms and did something about it. Late in April 2011 I went to see a family practitioner who sent me to a GI specialist for a colonoscopy. This resulted in a diagnosis on May 13th, 2011 of cancer in the colon. The extent was unknown at that point in time. I had to wait until Monday May 16th, 2011 for a CT scan. Then wait till Tuesday for an appointment with the surgeon, who would later remove the colon. I was informed of the biopsy results: adenocarcinoma. The CT did not show any signs of the cancer spreading to other organs (praise the Lord). In fact the CT did not even show the tumor. It was estimated by the GI Doctor to be the size of a golf ball. So surgery was scheduled for May 31st, 2011. Surgery was successful. They removed about a foot of the sigmoid colon and 20 lympnodes. I had to wait again for lab results. On June 2nd, 2011 I was told about the lab results. The tumor had evaded through the colon wall. Two out of the twenty lymph nodes tested positive for cancer. This elevated the stage of my cancer to 3 B. This is when I knew chemotherapy would be necessary. Recovery from surgery went well. GI functions are returning on their own and pain was easily controlled. I had my first appointment with the oncology team at MSTI (Twin Falls) on Friday June 17th, 2011.

I started chemotherapy on July 13th. The plan was set to give every two weeks for infusion treatments of poison. Sounds great on paper. The reality is this: chemo drugs deplete the body of healthy cells as well as potential rouge cancer cells. Keeping this schedule of every two weeks has proven to be difficult. On my off weeks I get my blood levels checked. This is to determine if it is "safe" enough for me to get chemo again. Safe...uh...it's poison right? Anyway chemo treatments have come and gone now, twelve in all. I finished up with my last round on January 27th.

On January 29th 2012 I had a CT scan. My oncology doctor said everything looked fine. No cancer detected. Doing the party dance! I am officially on the other side of living cancer free. I am celebrating in many ways. This has been the hardest thing in my life to do. Not to mention to try to balance so called "normal" life at home on the farm.

As far as the future goes with my health I have a few more doctor appointments scheduled. I will have another colonoscpy in May. For now, it is just watch and monitor my blood work and pray cancer doesn't return. Prognosis is good and I am believing and trusting in a mighty God. He is faithful!

Fast forward seven years -- 2018! Still cancer free! After many lab tests, blood work and CT scans so far no cancer detected. Miracles still happen everyone!

Favorite Quotes

Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadow. It's what sunflowers do. Helen Keller

"Every good work should be a revelation of the glory of God. What makes the good deed an act of love is not the raw act, but the passion and the sacrifice to make God himself known as glorious. Not to aim to show God is not to love, because God is what we need most deeply. And to have all else without him is to perish in the end. The Bible says that you can give away all that you have and deliver your body to be burned and have not love (1 Corinthians 13:3). If you don't point people to God for everlasting joy, you don't love. You waste your life." John Piper ---Don't Waste Your Life

"Surrender is the key that unlocks the vault of God's best and deepest treasures." Charles Swindoll

"You can't move people to action unless you first move them with emotion. The heart comes before the head." John Maxwell

Spiritual growth is a conundrum. The key to spiritual growth is developing healthy and holy routines called spiritual disciplines. But once routine becomes routine we need to change the routine. Why? Because sacred routines become empty rituals if we do them out of left-brain memory instead of right-brain imagination. When we learn how and forget why we start going through the motions spiritually. Mark Batterson

Serenity Prayer

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. Living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time; accepting hardship as a pathway to peace; taking as Jesus did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have; trusting that You will make all things right if I surrender to Your will; so that I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with you forever in the next. --Reinhold Niebuhr

Luehrs Line --------------------

Friday, February 24, 2012

You Are Beloved

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