Today's The DAY!

Today's The DAY!

We've been celebrating important "last time" milestones over the past couple of months as Daniel has neared the official END of chemotherapy. 1210 days ago, we got "the diagnosis" and the following day Daniel underwent surgery to install the portocath ("port") in his chest and begin this 3-1/2 year gauntlet of chemotherapy for Acute Lymphoblasic Leukemia (cancer of the blood / bone marrow). Today is the END!!

In some ways, it feels a bit anticlimactic since we celebrated the last spinal procedure in February and the last IV infusion in March. Since then, he's only been on the daily oral drugs. Moving forward, we'll still be coming to Riley every month for blood draws and "check-ups" for another year and then every 2 months for some time after that (uggh!) So there's still way too many hospital trips, doctors, and needles in our lives, but the significance of today is still ENORMOUS in so many ways.

We're eternally thankful to friends and family who have stood by us throughout this ordeal and kept us covered in prayer and so many other "helps" along the way. And most importantly, we thank our loving Father Who has sustained us, brought comfort, peace, patience, and even joy through the dark days and worked "A.L.L. things together into a pattern for good" (Rom 8:28) in the midst of it all.

For 3-1/2 years, we've seen the famous "bell" hanging in the corner of the Riley HemOnc clinic that kids get to ring when their chemotherapy ends. We've rejoiced with those we've heard ringing it (far too few), we've cried for those who never will (far too many, and several of whom were our friends), and we've often looked longingly at it in anticipation and prayer for this very day. And today, at long last, it is here! In reality, it's a simple thing. There won't be much ceremony, and probably not many people, but it's an indescribably momentous event for Daniel to finally get to ring that bell for himself, and for Andrea and I to see it happen.

Most of the history of our journey is captured right here in this blog.  I started it the day after his diagnosis back in January of 2012 and the vast majority of the posts have been about this journey. 

There's also our CaringBridge site here:
http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/danieljmiller

P.S. For those wondering at my weird "A.L.L. things together" statement, it's a reference to a blog post I made early on in this process when God made a special link for me between the word "all" in Rom 8:28 and Daniel's specific type of leukemia which is named "Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia" or "A.L.L.". So the verse became very personal for me when God showed me that A.L.L. things work together for good. I wrote about it here:

http://timmillersblog.blogspot.com/…/unscheduled-trip-back-…

America's Choice

America stands upon the brink of a decision this day with eternal consequences - whether she will openly embrace the sin of homosexuality and protect it with her laws, or whether she will hold to her Godly heritage.

But first let's be clear about a few things.  True Christians - those who have given their lives to Jesus Christ and follow His teachings - do not hate homosexuals, nor do they fear them.  True Christians hate homosexuality and fear the consequences to their society and nation.  There is an enormous difference between the sinner and the sin itself, for each of us are sinners by nature.  Christians hate homosexuality because God hates it.  This is ABUNDANTLY clear and easily shown from His Word throughout both Old and New Testaments.  God hates all sin, yet loves all sinners and desires deeply for us to come to Him in repentance and humility, but the choice is given to each individual.

Likewise, Christians recognize that marriage is an institution created and ordained by God - not Man!  From the very beginning of Creation this has been so.   It is specifically and explicitly designed to join one man and one woman in a life-long bond that produces offspring and, by its very nature reflects Who He is, who we are, and portrays deep spiritual truths about our relationship to God in ways which specifically require one man and one woman.   This too is affirmed throughout both Old and New Testament and in the words of Jesus Himself repeatedly.

Human history is littered with the wreckage of nations that have abandoned God's moral laws and, specifically, His design for marriage.   From the time before the Great Flood, to Sodom and Gomorrah, to Egypt, Greece, Rome, and so forth, one of ... perhaps THE primary trigger of the downfall of each of these empires was their abandonment of God's Laws - and homosexuality in particular.  More specifically though, it is not the just immorality in general that portends the destruction of a nation, for there is always sin present in every nation.   Rather it is the point at which the nation's leadership begins to publicly, officially, and even legally protect and promote such immorality.   For THIS is the point at which the nation's leadership has openly and officially defied God, His design, and His laws.

Such a nation cannot long endure, and history bears this out.

America was founded upon God's laws and rose to greatness because she proudly proclaimed the Lord as her Source, Protector, and Light.  Though children have been taught otherwise in public schools for decades now, even a cursory review of the actual writings of our Founding Fathers proves this in abundance.  Yet in recent decades, America has increasingly drifted from her roots and her God.   Her governing institutions have been systematically eradicating every public proclamation of her reliance upon God and set about erasing all traces of her historic roots in His Word (The Bible).  Steadily, America's populace has softened to, not just the presence of, but the "normalcy" of homosexuality and begun to openly embrace and even promote it.   I have watch with both sadness and horror, the percentages of the population opposed to open, legal, homosexual unions plummet. In many places, the majority opinion is no longer held by those who understand and respect God's design and Word.  Not long ago every state in the Union held laws against homosexual acts, and the very idea that the legal institution of marriage could be perverted to apply to homosexual "unions" was so unthinkable that virtually no such legal definitions were thought necessary.   But recent history has seen many states have to pass laws or constitutional amendments defining and protecting marriage as God designed it and requires.

Today however, even those states' efforts to protect the historical, Biblical definition and institution of marriage has come before the highest court in our land and are in imminent danger of being struck down permanently.  Today, having already slidden far down this slippery slope of immorality and defiance of God, America stands upon the last precipice ... her last opportunity to turn back, or at least postpone, an official, legal embrace of defiance against God's most sacred institution.  If America's government officially states that homosexuality is not only acceptable but protected and even promoted by law, we will have taken that last fatal step of defiantly slapping the face of God and daring Him to render judgment unto us as He did the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah ... along with every other great nation in history in who's footsteps we now tread. I emphasize again that the downfall of Sodom was not simply the sin of homosexuality, but the open condoning of it by its leadership.

In the first chapter of Romans, the Holy Spirit, through Paul the Apostle, lays this out with precision and clarity:

"For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.   And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; ... who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them." -- Rom 1:26-32 (emphasis mine)

That last line highlights the point here ... they not only do such things but also "approve of those who practice them".

And as George Mason¹ so aptly stated at the Federal Convention of 1787,
"As nations can not be rewarded or punished in the next world they must be in this. By an inevitable chain of causes & effects providence punishes national sins, by national calamities."

This is it America. Before you lies the same choice that lay before the ancient Israelites 4 millennia ago:

"And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." -- Joshua 24:15

To paraphrase a line from the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, "You must choose.  For whereas the true cup will give you eternal life, the false cup will bring death."

Choose wisely America.  For Heaven's sake ... choose wisely.

- Tim -

---

^{1. [George Mason: Virginia delegate to Constitutional Convention, often regarded as "the father of the Bill of Rights"]↩}

Happy Palm Sunday!

A happy and blessed PALM SUNDAY to everyone!

Few Christians know the true significance of Palm Sunday in that it was Jesus' formal presentation of Himself as the Messiah to the leadership of the nation of Israel.  As He rode the donkey into Jerusalem, He fulfilled multiple prophecies of the coming of the Messiah and many of the Jewish people recognized it as such singing Messianic Psalms  (Ps 118, etc.) to the consternation of the Pharisees (Lk 19:39).

What even fewer Christians realize is that the exact day of this "Triumphal Entry" was given to the prophet Daniel by the Angel Gabriel more than 450 years earlier and recorded in one of the most amazing and precise prophecies of the Bible (Daniel 9:24-27).  In 1894, Sir Robert Anderson (Chief of Criminal Investigation Dept. of Scotland Yard - 1888-1896) published the book "The Coming Prince" in which he detailed the calendar, archaeology, and Biblical scholarship that shows that Gabriel's prophecy was fulfilled to the exact Day on April 6, 32 A.D.

Jesus Himself confirms this in Luke 19:41-44 where He holds the nation accountable for having missed this special day of days.  Even the Creation itself knew that "this [was] the Day the Lord has made..." (which is another prophecy concerning Palm Sunday, from Ps 118) as Jesus indicates that if His followers were silent, that "even the stones would cry out"  in praise of the arrival of the long-awaited Messiah (Lk 19:40).

Luke 19:41-44: "Now as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.  For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation."

Here, Jesus pronounces a national blindness ("now they are hidden") upon the Jewish people because they rejected Him on this day.  Yet God has promised that He is not finished with Israel.  For there will come a day, after the "fullness of the Gentiles has come in" when He will turn His face back to the nation of Israel. Paul emphasizes this heavily in Rom 9-11, but in particular verse 11:25-27 spells it out clearly:

Romans 11:25-27   "For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.  And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: The Deliverer will come out of Zion, And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob;  For this is My covenant with them, When I take away their sins."

Our God has always been a God who makes and keeps His promises. He is eminently trustworthy and His timing is always perfect - even when we were expecting something different or miss it entirely.  Jesus is always right on time.

For more information on the 70 Week prophecy see this link:
http://www.khouse.org/articles/2004/552

Or hear Dr. Missler teach the subject personally here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PywcLTSCs60

Grace and peace to you all this Holy Week and Easter.

- Tim -

An Update From The Millers

Hi All;

It's been way too long since I've written anything here and folks have been asking how things are going.  Well, things are going - sometimes it seems way too fast.  Weeks and months roll by and at some point I sit up and wonder where it all went.  Some of it, I'm sure is just a by-product of my new senior citizen status. There are in fact way too many of those by-products in my life right now, but I'll not go any farther down that road.

ANDREA:
Andrea has been reasonably well.  Things are largely holding steady.  She continues to struggle with lack of energy and "gut problems" of all types. I'll spare both her and you any further details.  Her oncologist continues to blame the chemo therapy drug she takes daily.  However, we know that many of these problems preceded the cancer treatments and it's been extremely difficult to sort out what's what and what we might be able to "fix" vs. what we just need to learn to live with.  So we continue to try various things through our family doctor and on our own to improve what we can.  She's doing her best (and succeeding) to keep up with most of the housework and Daniel's school.  Her family is going through some real challenges right now and that's been stressful on all of us, but especially her.  It's been a difficult situation for many years, but it appears things are rapidly building to crisis level and we're trying hard to figure out the wisest form of involvement for us to have.

Lately, she's been busily trying to plan Daniel's trip through the Children's Wish Foundation (we recently found out it was NOT the Make-A-Wish Foundation, but apparently the exact same kind of thing.  Regardless, They provided Daniel with one "little wish" and one "big wish".  The little one was a (rather large)   Lego set early last year.  And for the big one, Daniel has chosen a trip to Disney World - which is, not surprisingly, a popular choice.  As he's getting much of his strength back now, we thought it would be a good time to try to get him down there.  So Andrea's trying to coordinate all the permissions and paper work and timing, etc.  It'll be fun to see how this all comes together.  But the stories we've heard form others who have done this are just phenomenal.  I think Andrea's more excited than Daniel! :-)  If all goes as planned, we'll be going in early May.

DANIEL:
Daniel is also doing well.  His hair is coming back in really full now and he's quite happy about that.  He's NOT been very happy about the fact that it's come in very curly.  Formerly, his hair was bright blond and very straight. Now it's a fairly dark brown and curly.  Despite a couple of dozen people assuring him that this is going to be a big hit with the girls one day soon, he remains skeptical.  We've also been glad to see him beginning to grow again in both height and weight.  He's behind the curves a bit, but moving the right direction and that's a HUGE relief to me.  I remain frustrated that we've never gotten any traction from the medical community as to why he was completely stunted in both height and weight gain for two to three years, but at this point, it appear we never will.  Unfortunately, much of his weight gain has been the result of gaining disproportionate pounds - probably as a result of ongoing steroid treatments.  Though both the dosage and frequency are greatly reduced in the current Maintenance phase, he's once again putting on quite a bit of weight.  Some of it is likely from simply being house-bound in the dead of winter.  I've been extremely cautious about letting either one of them out with as bad as the cold and flu season has been this year.  For awhile, it seemed EVERYONE was sick and I was terrified to let either of them out of the house. But by the grace of God, we've made it through largely unscathed to date ... well until today, but I'll come back to that.  Daniel has been slowly increasing his involvement again in both his weekly home school co-op and the church's AWANA program.  He's doing very well in (home) school and excels at Math.  Last weekend, we attended the Heroes Foundation Gala / fund raiser downtown where Daniel was invited to be a V.I.P. representative of Team Joey - a program that raises support for both cancer research and cancer patients.  The Team Joey component was created in honor of Joey Keller's legacy, our friend who lost his battle with brain cancer last November.  Daniel took the stage with Colts coach Chuck Pagano (who's fighting leukemia himself), radio personality and former pro football player Joe Staysniak, and Heroes Foundation founder Vince Todd during the evening and thoroughly enjoyed himself.  It was his first formal event and we had to get him a suit for the occasion.  He loved dressing up and proved himself a natural "schmoozer".  I was in awe!!  There must have been a dozen different women fawning over him afterward and telling him how special (and cute) he was.  As a V.I.P. he'll be delivering toys (mostly Legos) to other cancer patients on behalf of the foundation.

His chemotherapy is still a daily routine with a few different drugs he takes daily (along with various vitamins & supplements), but the clinic visits are down to once-a-month and will remain so until we're finished in the spring of 2015, God willing.  It's a 3-month repeating schedule where 2 of the 3 months include a spinal tap & injection at the clinic visit.  He hates those with a passion ... and so do his mother & I.  But this is the course we've chosen to follow and, right or wrong, it's the one I believe best.  I remain open and often searching for any word from the Lord that would release us from continuing down this road, but until it comes, we will stay the course we're on.  Yet it doesn't stop the almost daily heart-ache at having to put my son through all we've done and all that lies ahead.  We rely regularly on Romans 8:28!

ME:
For myself, things have remained busy.  VERY busy.  I'm down to the last couple of weeks in teaching my Systematic Theology class with Water-To-Wine.  It's been enjoyable, but actually much more work than I anticipated.  Things at work have continued at a fairly steady pace and the job itself remains enjoyable overall.  I'm extremely happy to be in a job at all, especially one with good health insurance.  The fact that it's also largely enjoyable has been a huge blessing.  Not having to deal with past stresses and simply dreading going into work every day in the midst of all we've gone through in the last couple years has been of immeasurable value.  I thank God regularly for that!

In the past couple weeks, we've finalized plans to start up another weekly Bible study that I'll be teaching at our friends the Rikker's house.  We did this for several years awhile back and it was a fantastic blessing.  We still count those folks among our closest friends and we're very much looking forward to getting most of the old group together again as well as some new faces.  I'll be teaching Genesis (which is actually where we left off when the group ended several years ago) which is always a favorite for me.  So despite the fact of having two studies going for a brief overlap coupled with a busy work schedule, trying to keep up with the house and some remodeling projects, and several family problems right now, the next few weeks are looking a bit challenging!

Right on cue, as we finalized plans for the new study over the weekend, I came down with what appears to be laryngitis.  It's like clockwork.  It was the same month in which I agreed to teach with Water-To-Wine that Daniel was diagnosed with Leukemia last year.  I was teaching Genesis as my first course in fact.  Before that, it was while teaching this same group at the Rikkers' house that I had an eye infection that had me out of work for the better part of 4 months and ended up with corneal replacement surgery.  When I got through that and eventually started teaching Genesis, the group disbanded.  It's always something - especially when teaching Genesis. The warfare that comes with any form of ministry is intense.  Teaching the Bible is obviously something our enemy hates vehemently ... and Genesis in particular for lots good of reasons!  I believe it was Martin Luther who said something to the effect that, "anyone who doesn't believe the devil exists need only try resisting him!"  Amen to that!

PRAYER REQUESTS:
1. So we could ALL use your continued prayers.  The road ahead remains challenging in lots of ways, but we're also very relieved that it seems the worst is behind us (famous last words, I know).

2. I would like to specifically ask for your prayers for myself in the next few weeks as I try to juggle a lot of plates and keep healthy.  Please pray for this throat infection in particular.

3. We could also use your prayers for several family members also going through some real difficulties right now - as well as wisdom on our part in how best to help them.

4. Lastly, I'd like to pass on a special prayer request for another family that a friend recently brought to my attention.  They are a Christian family who immigrated to Indiana from Iraq last year because of the intense persecution of Christians there.  Their son Lowees (Luis), who is 12, has been diagnosed with an aggressive form of lymphatic cancer (Burkitt's Lymphoma) and is undergoing chemotherapy at Riley.  Having been in the states for only a very short time, they don't have a lot of connections yet much less having to adapt to a new culture.  Learning to navigate the medical system is challenging enough.  While learning a new language, culture, living situation, and all the rest at the same time is just unimaginable.  I was also informed that Lowees' father recently lost his job here and is struggling with depression.  They certainly need our prayers.  I'll pass on more info as it comes.

Thanks everyone for your ongoing love, support, and prayers.  You have been God's hands, feet, and voice to us more times than I can possibly count or even acknowledge.  And above all, we thank our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ Who's love, faithfulness, peace and comfort through these times has sustained us in every way.  To Him be the glory in all things.

Grace and peace,

- Tim, Andrea, & Daniel -

Remembering A Year Ago Today

It's hard to believe.  It seems at once like it was only a month ago and also like 10 years ago.  But exactly one year ago on this day (the 5th as I write this), Daniel went in for a scheduled doctor visit to a specialist at Riley Hospital for Children.  He'd been having a lot of awful symptoms for a month or more and I had had it with waiting around on doctors to take us seriously.  I let this doctor have an ear full of my frustration and she patiently listened to me and, thankfully, took me seriously.  She ordered an immediate blood test and called me back within a few hours after I'd returned to work.  She said she'd taken the liberty of scheduling another appointment for us the following morning for a bone marrow biopsy.  I was happy she was being so proactive.  Little did I know what she suspected.

The next day, Friday 1/6/2012, the biopsy test came back positive for leukemia and our entire world stopped cold.  My first blog entry here tells the story, titled, "Jan 6, 2012 - A Date of Infamy".  What a year it's been.  We're still trying to put together our "Christmas Letter".  I guess it's a "New Year's Letter" now, but it'll be out soon I promise.  (I'll post it here as well).

Tonight as I tucked Daniel into bed, I'm still checking his temperature, asking how he feels, and find myself fighting the urge to panic at every cough, or ache,  or decision to go to bed early.  I do my best never to show TOO much concern and to temper it with a few "manly" father-to-son responses such as: "Ahh - suck it up boy", or "Walk it off - you'll be fine".  But if I'm candid with myself (and you: my dear blog readers), the truth is it's a constant battle with anxiety and fear.  Watching the Kellers go through the hell they endured has certainly had an enormous effect on me as well.

This year has been filled with MANY lessons - most of which I'm probably not even aware of.  But if I were to name the single, greatest, most persistent challenge that's plagued me (and I presume Andrea as well, but I'll only speak for myself here) it's been the control of FEAR. 

Fear is the enemy.  Fear is a sin.  Fear is our mind saying to God, "I don't trust You with the future. Deep down I think You either can't or won't do what's best for me".  The Bible has a great deal to say about Fear.  It is insidious, and must be stopped at its very onset, for the longer it continues, the tighter its hold becomes on your soul ... I know.  When the Word instructs us to "take every thought captive unto the obedience of Christ" (2 Cor 10:5) it's providing us with very specific and practical instructions for dealing with such thoughts as Fear and Anxiety that can ensnare us.  I'm not here to tell you I've become good at this.  I haven't.  But I'm better than I was a year ago today and I thank God for these lessons along the way. 

That following day, Jan 6th, was easily one of the worst days of my life.  I'm not sure it tops the list, but it's in the top 3 for sure!  Yet God was with us every step of the way and He remains with us today.  As we settle in to sleep tonight, our lives are no more or less secure than they have been on any other day.  Our sense of "security" and "normalcy" is a complete illusion except insofar as it is based in the faith that God controls all things.  Some of what God brings to us we enjoy, some we do not, but we can be sure ... we MUST be sure ... "that ALL things work together for good" (Rom 8:28) when we give our lives to Him.  This year has seemed like one gigantic test of whether we truly believe that to be true.  Some days have been better than others to be sure.  But we do know, that only when we rest in Him is there any real and lasting peace, joy, comfort, rest, or security. Gradually, I'm learning to do this.  Learning to trust God in ALL things - even with the life of my only son - is among the most challenging tasks I've ever been given, yet it is also clearly among the most important and eternally significant lessons any of us can learn ... ever.

We will be "celebrating" the completion of the first and, we pray, the hardest year of Daniel's chemotherapy on Monday.  It's been a difficult road, but we've been amazingly, astoundingly blessed over and over and over by God's grace, His providence, His comfort, and His love directly to us as well as through so many of His wonderful people who have gathered around us.  We thank you all and we thank God for all He has done, and all He continues to do.

Grace and peace to all;

- Tim -

Our Desperate Need for Christmas

America's current state strikingly illustrates our desperate need for Christmas.  Let it not be lost on us this season, as the very tragedies we are reeling from as a nation are precisely the reason why there is a Christmas.  For if we continue to fail to make that connection, we are lost ... as a nation, and as individuals.  The stakes could not be higher.

As my recent Facebook posts illustrate, I am NOT a fan of gun control.  I believe very strongly that we have enough gun control laws already ... far too many actually.  What is needed is not more controls (which have no effect upon criminals anyway), but rather internal controls ... aka "SELF-control" ... and self-control will never come through governments or laws.  Self-control only comes through good parenting and the development of sound inward convictions - both of which must be based on a solid moral foundation and upon the principle of personal accountability for one's actions. 

Ultimately, this means the Judgment of God ... in a word: HELL.  Without understanding that there exists a Holy, Perfect, All-knowing, and All-powerful Judge and that there are eternal consequences to our behavior ... sin ... there will never be any basis or motivation for personal responsibility (not to mention a defendable basis for our legal system) or self-control. 

Despite what our children are being taught today, our nation was in fact conceived, founded, built, and administered upon the moral code of God found in the Judeo-Christian Scriptures.  It is the basis for our Declaration of Independence, our Constitution, our Legal System, and even the very "triune" structure of our government.  For nearly 200 years, America was run in such a way as to recognize and magnify God as our Creator, Judge, and Provider.  We taught our children the moral laws of God in public schools (and spanked them when they misbehaved!); we held our citizens accountable to them through our legal system; and our churches openly and clearly taught the Biblical foundations of accountability and consequence both in this life and the next for our choices - as individuals and as a nation.  This is not to say that people weren't allowed to practice the religion of their choice, they have always been. But our laws and culture are based on the Bible. Period.  The practice of other religions has always been free only insofar as it has not contradicted the laws of America - which are based on the Law of God.

Today however, in a staggeringly rapid and accelerating fall from all that once made us great, our government, schools, and even churches have walked, nay RUN, away from even acknowledging, much less teaching these values and principles.  We have eradicated them from our schools, stricken them from our laws, reinterpreted our own Constitution, and banned the public display of even the symbols of these great principles and truths.

Yet, God's laws have not changed, for they are based on His nature and character which is immutable and timeless.

Sin is still sin.

Judgment is still Judgement.

Hell is still Hell.

And it awaits all those who do not surrender their lives to God's will and control as it always has.

I personally harbor no further hope that our government is capable of saving our nation from its ongoing decay and coming destruction.  Sorry if that sounds overly pessimistic. I would call it "realistic".  Our lawmakers are indeed a primary source of this decay and daily demonstrate that they have no grasp of the root problem, thus no solution will be forthcoming from that quarter.  If our nation has any hope of even slowing its headlong rush into oblivion (much less recovery), it lies not in the election process (recent events have demonstrated this beyond argument), but in calling its people back to God ... to a knowledge of sin and our personal (and national) responsibility and accountability for it, and thus need for a Savior/Messiah both personally and nationally - which can be filled by Jesus Christ Who was sent specifically and uniquely for the purpose of saving us from the consequence of sin.

As we reel from recent and ongoing tragedies that have rocked our nation, we are brought face-to-face with the very problem I speak of - the black, ugly, evil of sin that pervades the human soul.  The Evolutionists, Humanists, and Post-Modernists try their best to deny its existence teaching than Man is inherently good or at least neutral, and that evil acts such as school shootings must be the result of some kind of external corrupting influences.  They therefore look to external means to try to control them - gun control for example.  But attempting to control the inward evil of sin in a heart by external means is like the proverbial act of gold-plating a turd (please forgive the vernacular, but the analogy is appropriate).  For God's Word describes the condition of the human heart apart from Him in this way:

"Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." -- Genesis 6:5

"All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all." -- Isaiah 53:6

"But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, Have taken us away." -- Isaiah 64:6 

"... For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" -- Romans 3:23  

"So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God." -- Romans 8:8  

"...Without Me you can do nothing." -- John 15:5  

Outward controls will never change the inward sin nature from which the evil originates.  Indeed, God Himself demonstrates that His own outward Law can never fix the problem of sin.

"For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death." -- Romans 7:5  

"The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law." --  1 Corinthians 15:56  

 For the purpose of even God's Law was never to "fix" men's hearts, but rather to spotlight sin and hold them accountable for it.

"For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law." -- Romans 5:13  

No, the solution to the problem of sin is not more laws - either from God of from Men - but rather a new heart, and inward change of nature which can only be wrought by God Himself.
 

"For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh," -- Romans 8:3  

THIS is reason that God sent His Son into the world - that the penalty for our own sin could be paid for by Someone other than ourselves

"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." -- Romans 6:23 

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.  For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.  He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.  And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. " -- John 3:16-19

Without the life-changing power of God available through Jesus Christ, we would all not only be accountable for our sin but powerless to change ourselves or our destinies.  But in His love God gave us Christmas.  Of course I mean the advent of Jesus Christ (whatever time of year it was :) as the only true solution to the problem of sin and evil.  By extension then, it becomes also the only true solution to the problems facing our nation as well.

This Christmas season, as we wrestle with the long list of tragic events and difficulties we face looking forward, let us not only remember and reflect on God's "indescribable gift" (2 Cor 9:15), but let us also commit to doing all we can - as individuals, as families, and as citizens - of proclaiming the only True Solution to our problems. Teach your children and proclaim to those you know that America's future lies not gun control, or a balanced budget, or immigration reform or smaller government.  It lies where it always has - in Jesus Christ, and in making Him and His principles and His solution for Mankind's evil the center of our personal actions as well as those of our nation.

We must of course continue to do all we can as citizens to slow the tide of this decay through the legal and democratic means afforded us. We would be remiss to not.  But we must also recognize that these can only slow the tide we face until we restore our Nation to Godliness and her people to recognition of and accountability for sin.  When we have done that, we will once again rejoice to sing these forgotten verses of "America The Beautiful".

O beautiful for pilgrim feet,

Whose stern impassion'd stress

A thoroughfare for freedom beat

Across the wilderness!

America! America! God mend thine ev'ry flaw,

Confirm thy soul in self-control,

Thy liberty in law!

O beautiful for heroes proved In liberating strife,

Who more than self their country loved,

And mercy more than life!

America! America! May God thy gold refine

Till all success be nobleness,

And ev'ry gain divine!

To each and all, a very merry and blessed Christmas season in all the full meaning thereof,

- Tim -

I leave you with the words of the 3rd and 4th verses of "It Came Upon A Midnight Clear"

Yet with te woes of sin and strife

The world hath suffered long;

Beneath the angel-strain have rolled

Two thousand years of wrong;

And man, at war with man, hears not

The love song which they bring:

O hush the noise, ye men of strife,

And hear the angels sing.

For lo! the days are hastening on,

By prophet bards foretold,

When, with the ever-circling years,

Shall come the Age of Gold;

When peace shall over all the earth

Its ancient splendors fling,

And all the world give back the song

Which now the angels sing.

On The End of the World ... "Apocalypse"? Not So Much

This post is somewhat of a rant, I'll confess up front.  I've actually been enjoying, in a somewhat perverse way, all the silliness about the end of the world tomorrow (12/21/12).  Most people that I know don't seem to be taking it seriously, but I know there are many who are.  And I suspect that a lot more are actually harboring some secret level of "concern" about it but not letting on.

Whatever. 

When much of the hubub started several months ago, I did about 10 minutes worth of digging and found enough evidence to recognize that the entire thing was based on a misrepresentation of the facts, even if you DID take the Mayan calendars & beliefs seriously. The Mayan's calendar system was, similar to most parts of ours in that it was based on "cycles" rather than "lines".  By that I'm referring to the portions of our calendar that repeats itself - seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months - they all run in cycles which repeat.  There are 60 seconds in a minute and then it starts over.  There are 24hours in a day, 7 days in a week, etc. etc.  To some extent, we even do this with years as we count numbers of centuries or millennia from a given point.  However, in general, our years run in a straight line though ... they'll just keep counting up until ... well until something really big happens. 

The Mayans did this too, but where are largest, named, repeating cycles are probably months, they included bigger cycles called "baktun".  Each baktun was 144,000 days in length (400 years with each year being 360 days in length - yes the Mayans used 360 day years as did most ancient cultures prior to a particular date - but that's another issue. ;-)  The "calendar" everyone is talking about "rolls over" or restarts at the end of each baktun in the same way our months start over at the conclusion of each yearly cycle.  Once you get to the end of December, we start back at January and increment the year.  The baktun cycle has started over 11 times since it was started and we are currently in the 12th baktun. The last time it rolled over (from the 11th baktun to the 12th) in the year A.D. 1618.  It's probably relevant to note that the world didn't end in 1618 ... as far as we know.

Tomorrow, 12/21/12, the same thing happens and the calendar will roll over from the 12th to the 13th baktun and start the counting over again.  That's it.  Nothing else.  About the same amount of excitement as watching the car odometer roll over from 99,999 to 100,000 miles.  Cool to watch, but then you move on.

I find it fascinating that people get so hung up about these kinds of "roll-overs" and believing that they're bringing the end of the world (note I'm NOT using the word "apocalypse" - I'll come back to that in a moment.  When the first millennium rolled over (the year 999 to 1000 back in medieval times, people went berserk too.  We saw some of the same thing at the end of 1999 for the end of the 2nd millennium.  There's probably much to be learned from the very fact that people seem to have a built-in expectation for the world to end at some point ... and they are afraid of it.  All kinds of lessons there, but that's for another post.

Now for my rant.  Whether the context is Nostradamus, or zombies, or Mayans, or any other non-Biblical reference to some end-of-the-world event, the use of the word "apocalypse" is wildly inappropriate.  When I hear it used in these contexts, it produces a strange mixture of annoyance and amusement.  The latter is because I'm pretty sure that if the people using it this way had any idea what it actually meant, they'd run away screaming hysterically, "NO! NO! THAT'S NOT WHAT I MEANT!!!"  And that makes me smile. :-)

The word "apocalypse" is a transliterated Greek word (meaning it's still pretty much the original Greek word, just "Englishized" in the way it's spelled) that literally means "unveiling" in the way an artist might unveil a newly finished statue or painting.  "Revealing" is a close synonym.  It is the first word of the first verse of the Biblical book of Revelation and, obviously, where the book gets its title.  However, what most people don't know (because they're only knowledge of the contents of the book comes from Hollywood) is that the "revelation" that is being referred to is NOT knowledge about how the world ends.  In fact, contrary to popular misconception, the world does not end in the book ... EVER!  It does go through some pretty rough events for a few years, but this is immediately followed by 1000 years of the greatest peace and harmony the Earth has seen since its creation.  Later, it is replaced by a new Earth ... in fact a whole new Universe, but it continues onward ... forever.

So what IS revealed in the book of Revelation?  Jesus Christ!  His true nature, mission, and glory are revealed - first to Him (by the Father), then to His disciples (us) through the writing and publication of the book.  The first line of the book is, "The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants--things which must shortly take place."  Although these events are referred to as "the End Times", they do not relate to the end of the world itself, but only the end of the reign of Men upon this planet - the "End of the Age" is a more appropriate understanding, or the end of God's tolerance and patience with Mankind's (and Satan's) rebellion.

So every time the word "apocalypse" is used in some relation to the end-of-the-world (zombies, Mayans, Mad Max, etc.) I have to chuckle because they are inadvertently referencing the "Revelation (apocalypse) of Jesus Christ" and the very idea that God's patience with our foolishness WILL run out.  There will indeed be a resurrection of the dead, but we can be sure that it has nothing to do with zombies! 

"Armageddon" is another one, but I'll not go into details here except to say that it is a Hebrew word which refers to the specific location (the Valley of Meggiddo in Israel) where the final battle will take place between Israel and the other nations of the world that initiates the Return of Jesus Christ (aka "Second Coming").  So here again, when secular people and media use the term "Armageddon" to refer to the end of the world, it's just another testament to their own ignorance as they inadvertently reference Second Coming of Jesus Christ to defeat those who have aligned themselves against Him and to usher in the Millennial age of His own Kingship over the planet Earth and all its peoples and nations. 

As Christians, while there is that certain "perverse" sense of amusement that comes with watching people who have no idea what they're talking about inadvertently bear testimony to the Bible's prophecies about the Return and Preeminence of Jesus Christ, it's also an incredibly sad testimony to the ignorance of the general population and the media in particular of God's Word and what the near future holds in store for Mankind.  We Christians should see this as opportunity to proclaim what the Bible teaches us about these things.  The next time you hear or see someone misuse "Apocalypse" or "Armageddon", you can jump in with a friendly, "I was just wondering - do you know what that word really means?"  After all, THEY brought it up! :-)

Grace, Peace, and a very merry Christmas to all;

- Tim -

Appreciating Christmas Hymns - Hark, The Herald Angels Sing

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing!

Since becoming a Christian as a senior in high school, I've held a deep appreciation for many of the great, classic hymns.  Those we sing at Christmas time are all the more special, not only because of the feelings and memories which which they are associated for me, but but also, like so many others, because of their profound theological content.  It is unfortunate in some ways that we know these songs so well because we tend to recite them without even hearing the words anymore.  Their meaning is reduced to traditional recitation because ... well ... "we always sing these songs at this time of year!"

Yet many of them hold deep, rich truths of our faith packaged up in their concise verses and are in fact a miniature theology lesson if we would take the time to reflect upon them - personally, or with our children.  I hope to comment on a few here in this blog before Christmas gets here, but I'm already late getting started as there are SO MANY that say so much.  So let me encourage you this season, as you sing or listen to these great traditional hymns of the season, to let your attention be drawn to the lyrics - and be blessed by them.

This year, I've been particularly taken (again) with the depth of the lyrics in the hymn / carol "Hark The Herald Angels Sing" by Charles Wesley.  Each verse is powerfully laden with Biblical Truth about the nature of the Kenosis and Incarnation of Jesus Christ.  Can you count the names of Christ, or His Godly "attributes" listed here?  The second verse especially is one of the most profound and concise descriptions of the "Kenosis" to be found anywhere in my opinion.  The "Kenosis" is the theological word given to the event of Christ "setting aside" some of his Godly attributes and "humbling" Himself to become (and remain) a human man.  It is taken from the Greek word that describes this in Philippians 2:7 - often translated as "emptied" in the phrase "but emptied himself by taking on the form of a slave, by looking like other men,and by sharing in human nature."

This concept is contained in the 3rd verse also as well as the concepts of Salvation, Regeneration, Sanctification, Justification, healing, Universal Atonement, Resurrection of the Dead, the Millennial Reign, the Trinity, the Incarnation, and the Kingship of Christ. We could also identify half a dozen or so attributes and names of Christ all in just the 3rd verse!  It turns out all of the Wesley brothers' hymns are this powerfully packed with doctrine as they found it was a powerful way to get it across to people and have them remember it!  Indeed, we remember their lessons to this day ... if we stop long enough to listen to what it is we're singing anyway.

Won't you join with me this Christmas season in really listening, appreciating, and perhaps even learning from these timeless classics we have handed down to us such as "Hark The Herald Angels Sing" ... and even better - make time to do it with your children to help them appreciate not only the wonderful traditions, beauty, and "magic" of the Christmas season, but also the "why".  Reading the "Christmas Story" from Matthew or Luke is good and right and most certainly should be done.  But take note that if our children only hear WHAT happened (the history part of the story) they may well still have no idea WHY it happened - the significance of the Incarnation.  And while there are many excellent resources and ways to communicate this, you might also find that our favorite Christmas Hymns are in fact powerful teaching tools that our kids may even already have memorized!!

If you're not familiar with some of these concepts, I encourage you to dig in.  There's lots and lots of great content to be found on the Internet (though it's sometimes difficult to separate it from the not-so-great content!), or of course I'm sure your pastor would be THRILLED to answer your questions :-).  Or (shameless plug here), I'll actually be teaching a 10 week introductory course in Christian theology this January for beginners if you'd really like to dig in!  (stay tuned for further details).

Grace and Peace to all in this wonderful season,

- Tim -


The following introduction was taken from http://www.carols.org.uk 

“Hark the herald angels sing” Christmas Carol was written by Charles Wesley, brother of John Wesley founder of the Methodist church, in 1739. A sombre man, he requested slow and solemn music for his lyrics and thus “Hark the herald angels sing” was sung to a different tune initially. Over a hundred years later Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) composed a cantata in 1840 to commemorate Johann Gutenberg's invention of the printing press. English musician William H. Cummings adapted Mendelssohn’s music to fit the lyrics of “Hark the herald angels sing” already written by Wesley.


Lyrics:
Hark the herald angels sing, "Glory to the newborn King!
Peace on earth and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled".
Joyful, all ye nations rise; Join the triumph of the skies.
With the angelic host proclaim: "Christ is born in Bethlehem".
Hark! The herald angels sing, "Glory to the newborn King!"

Christ by highest heav'n adored: Christ the everlasting Lord!
Late in time behold Him come: Offspring of a Virgin's womb.
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see; Hail the incarnate Deity.
Pleased as man with man to dwell: Jesus, our Emmanuel.
Hark! The herald angels sing, "Glory to the newborn King!"

Hail the heav'n-born Prince of Peace!  Hail the Son of Righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings, Ris'n with healing in His wings.
Mild He lays His glory by; Born that man no more may die.
Born to raise the sons of earth.  Born to give them second birth.
Hark! The herald angels sing, "Glory to the newborn King!"

Learning About St. Nicholas Day

Happy Feast of St. Nicholas day!!  I'm just learning about this for the first time this year.  Apparently in many places around the world and even certain locations here in the U.S. this is a big deal - almost another "Christmas" for the kids.  As most (?) people know, Our Christmas legends & traditions derive from the real 4th century person named Saint Nicholas (=>"Santa Claus") who died on this day (6 Dec) in A.D. 343 and was later sainted by the Catholic church.  Below is some information currently being passed around regarding his legend and associated customs.

Regardless of how you interpret the various stories & legends surrounding Nicholas, we can be sure that he was in fact a very real person and a great man at that.  His reputation for compassion, helping those in need, and defending the Gospel is quite literally "the stuff of legend".  Personally, I consider it a very good thing to remember those who have gone before us that distinguished themselves by their example.  These are the men  and women who deserve to remembered as "heroes" and their stories passed on to our children.  And while I personally have no problem with the tradition of telling our children that Santa Claus visits us on Christmas Eve to leave presents, I also think it's important to distinguish between these fun festivities and the Real Reason for the Season ... which also happens to be the very basis for who the real Saint Nicholas was and why he did the things he did as well.  I find that discovering and emphasizing the connection between the two in this way has really helpful in establishing my own opinions on the proper place and appropriateness of "Santa" in conjunction with Christmas.  Admittedly, our modern U.S. celebration of Christmas is an enormously complex hodgepodge of different traditions and even different religions from around the world and more than 2000 years of history.  Some of it has decidedly non-Christian origins and an increasingly large portion in the U.S. is decidedly secular and (amazingly) even anti-Christian.  But I've made my own peace with how my family and I celebrate at this time of year and I hope each person will study these things enough to arrive at your own conclusions as to what you feel is appropriate and what is not.    I hope to find time this season to write a lot more on this topic, but then, it's already December 6th isn't it!?

However you choose to celebrate, I wish you all a very happy Christmas!

I believe the text I've included below to have originated at the following website - and though I am not Roman Catholic, I found the text to be well-written, very informative, and thought it worth sharing.
http://www.fisheaters.com/customsadvent3.html

Additional information about the historical Saint Nicholas can be found at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Nicholas.
    and:
http://www.cantius.org/go/liturgy_devotions/liturgical_seasons/advent_extraordinary/saint_nicholas/

The historical work quoted in the text below titled The Golden Legend can be found, as a free ebook here:
https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=UesOAAAAIAAJ&rdid=book-UesOAAAAIAAJ&rdot=1
   Or in HTML format, here:
http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/golden000.htm

Enjoy!

- Tim -

St. Nick is the Saint better known as "Santa Claus" (Sinterklaas in the Dutch whence "Santa Claus" comes). His image in America has been mixed up with a lot of traits and imagery from sources as disparate as the poetry of Clement Moore, pagan Norse mythology, and American advertising. In real life, though, St. Nicholas was a beloved and wonderful Bishop of Myra (in modern-day Turkey). He was born in Asia Minor in A.D. 260 and orphaned at an early age.

As a young man, he made a pilgrimage to Palestine and Egypt, becoming a Bishop upon his return. He was imprisoned during the persecutions of Diocletian, but was released after Constantine came to rule. According to legend, he was present at the Council of Nicaea and became so incensed at Arius -- the heretical Bishop whose denial of the two natures of Christ spread through the Church -- that he slapped him across the face. He intervened twice in cases in which innocent men were accused of crimes they did not commit, once appearing to Constantine and the local prefect in a dream, encouraging them to do the right thing in their regard.

Many stories about his life indicate his kindness and reveal miracles. The Golden Legend, written in A.D. 1275 by Jacobus de Voragine, Archbishop of Genoa, tells us how the Saint threw bags of gold coins to a man in order to provide dowries for the man's daughters and save them from lives of lechery:

"And it was so that one, his neighbour, had then three daughters, virgins, and he was a nobleman: but for the poverty of them together, they were constrained, and in very purpose to abandon them to the sin of lechery, so that by the gain and winning of their infamy they might be sustained. And when the holy man Nicholas knew hereof he had great horror of this villainy, and threw by night secretly into the house of the man a mass of gold wrapped in a cloth. And when the man arose in the morning, he found this mass of gold, and rendered to God therefor great thankings, and therewith he married his oldest daughter. 

And a little while after this holy servant of God threw in another mass of gold, which the man found, and thanked God, and purposed to wake, for to know him that so had aided him in his poverty. And after a few days Nicholas doubled the mass of gold, and cast it into the house of this man. He awoke by the sound of the gold, and followed Nicholas, which fled from him, and he said to him: Sir, flee not away so but that I may see and know thee. 

Then he ran after him more hastily, and knew that it was Nicholas; and anon he kneeled down, and would have kissed his feet, but the holy man would not, but required him not to tell nor discover this thing as long as he lived."

Another tale from the Golden Legend explains how St. Nicholas saved sailors from a tempest:

"It is read in a chronicle that, the blessed Nicholas was at the Council of Nice; and on a day, as a ship with mariners were in perishing on the sea, they prayed and required devoutly Nicholas, servant of God, saying: If those things that we have heard of thee said be true, prove them now. 

And anon a man appeared in his likeness, and said: Lo! see ye me not? ye called me, and then he began to help them in their exploit of the sea, and anon the tempest ceased. 

And when they were come to his church, they knew him without any man to show him to them, and yet they had never seen him. And then they thanked God and him of their deliverance. And he bade them to attribute it to the mercy of God, and to their belief, and nothing to his merits. "

The Golden Legend also gives us the story of a Jewish man who was robbed, and how St. Nicholas used the event to imitate Christ, thereby not only bringing the Jewish man to Christ, but causing the thieves to repent:

"Another Jew saw the virtuous miracles of St. Nicholas, and did do make an image of the saint, and set it in his house, and commanded him that he should keep well his house when he went out, and that he should keep well all his goods, saying to him: Nicholas, lo! here be all my goods, I charge thee to keep them, and if thou keep them not well, I shall avenge me on thee in beating and tormenting thee. 

And on a time, when the Jew was out, thieves came and robbed all his goods, and left, unborne away, only the image. And when the Jew came home he found him robbed of all his goods. He areasoned the image saying these words: Sir Nicholas, I had set you in my house for to keep my goods from thieves, wherefore have ye not kept them? Ye shall receive sorrow and torments, and shall have pain for the thieves. I shall avenge my loss, and subdue my madness in beating thee. 

And then took the Jew the image, and beat it, and tormented it cruelly. Then happed a great marvel, for when the thieves departed the goods, the holy saint, like as he had been in his array, appeared to the thieves, and said to them: Wherefore have I been beaten so cruelly for you and have so many torments? See how my body is hewed and broken; see how that the red blood runneth down by my body; go ye fast and restore it again, or else the ire of God Almighty shall make you as to be one out of his wit, and that all men shall know your felony, and that each of you shall be hanged. 

And they said: Who art thou that sayest to us such things? And he said to them: I am Nicholas the servant of Jesu Christ, whom the Jew hath so cruelly beaten for his goods that ye bare away. 

Then they were afeard, and came to the Jew, and heard what he had done to the image, and they told him the miracle, and delivered to him again all his goods. And thus came the thieves to the way of truth, and the Jew to the way of Jesu Christ. "

Another famous story, this one not contained in the Golden Legend, tells how three children were killed by an innkeeper and put into a tub of brine. St. Nicholas, by the power of God, brought them back to life.

"When the great Saint died, he was buried in Myra, but the town was later taken by the Saracens in A.D. 1034. The Italians rallied to gather and preserve his relics from desecration, and in 1097, sailors brought them to Bari, Italy. A lovely church -- the Church of San Niccolo -- was built to house them, and tere they can be found today. A curative Oil of Saints -- "Manna di San Niccolo" -- is said to exude from them to this day."

St. Nicholas is the patron of children, sailors, and bakers, and is represented in art as a bearded, older man -- usually mitred -- holding 3 gold coins or a bag of coins, or three orbs. He is also often shown with children, and/or a ship.

Customs:
Today is, for many Catholics, the day for gift-giving (some do this on Christmas, some do this on the Feast of the Epiphany in memory of the gifts the 3 Kings gave to Baby Jesus, and some spread the gift-giving out on all these days). In some places, especially in the Eastern Catholic churches, "St. Nicholas," dressed as a Bishop, will show up and hand out presents to the little ones, and children put their shoes in front of the fireplace to be filled with candy and presents by morning. Because coins are one of the many symbols of St. Nicholas, chocolate coins are a perfect thing to put in the childrens' shoes. One can use Christmas stockings instead of shoes, or one can buy adult-sized wooden shoes, paint and decorate them, and bring them out for use just on St. Nicholas's Day.

In any case, an icon -- even a nice Holy Card -- of St. Nicholas should be visible today if at all possible. Surround it with greenery and candles, and tell your children the story of the Saint Nicholas behind the "Santa Claus."

On St. Nicholas's Feast Day, it is customary to serve Speculaas cookies, a spicy Dutch cookie, cut into shapes relevant to the life of St. Nicholas (coins, mitres, ships, balls, money bags), and painted with colorful icing:

Speculaas Cookies 
(makes 3 dozen depending on size)

Cookie:
1 Cup (2 sticks) sweet butter, at room temperature
2 cups dark brown sugar
2 eggs
Grated rind of 1 lemon
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg or mace
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon cardamom
1/8 teaspoon salt
4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder

Icing:
Powdered sugar
Water
Lemon juice
A little beaten egg white for consistency, if desired
Food coloring

In a large bowl, cream the butter with the sugar until fluffy. Stir in the eggs one at a time, blending thoroughly after each addition. Stir in the lemon rind. Sift the spices and salt with the flour and baking powder, and stir gradually into the butter mixture. Wrap in waxed paper or plastic wrap and chill for several hours or overnight. On a floured surface, roll out the dough to about 1/8 inch, or for larger figures to about 1/4 inch. Cut into shapes (Bishop, Bishop's staff, Bishop's mitre, ship, coins, etc.) and bake at 350 degrees until lightly browned (don't overbake). When cool, mix together icing ingredients and paint cookies as desired.

For Joey

For Joey;

All of us know grief.  This world and this life are filled with it – for some more than others it seems but we have all been touched by it in some way.  I have lost immediate family members and been close to many others who have as well – even just this past weekend.  I know the grief that feels like a 200 pound weight on your chest and wrap your soul in a darkness that seems both unbearable and inescapable - but I don’t know what it’s like to lose a child. 

Unfortunately, I have imagined it a thousand times - probably more like two thousand actually, but I'm not counting.  About a year or so after my son Daniel was born, I began having nightmares about losing him – not just here and there but every night!  They were terrible, graphic, vivid dreams about not being able to save my son and having to watch him die.  I would wake up each morning in a cold sweat and shaking from having experienced some new and horrifying way of losing my son that was somehow my fault.  Every gray hair I currently have appeared over the next few years, not as a result of having a son – being a parent – but as a direct result of those dreams of losing him I am convinced.  There was a lot going on spiritually that I won’t take the time to go into here, but let’s just say the warfare was intense, and I now have a lot of gray hairs to prove it.

Until those dreams started, I had never experienced any fear, horror, or grief like I did during those thoughts and dreams.  For the several years that it lasted, it was the darkest and most difficult period of my life … until January 2012 … when Daniel was diagnosed with cancer.  I tried to describe a bit of what I was feeling in those early blog posts.  It had been awhile since I had finally overcome the bulk of the nightmares, but suddenly every one of them came back home to roost in that moment sitting in the recovery room with the doctor and the test results.  The initial estimates were for a 65% chance of “successful treatment”.  My ears roared, my vision closed in, my heart pounded, my stomach flipped, my throat closed up, my soul screamed in agony, and the world stopped turning

Though there were several ups and downs in the early days of his diagnosis and treatment, we eventually discovered that his form of leukemia was in fact one with a much higher (around 90-95%) success rate and the clouds began to clear a little.  Yet 2012 has been a year filled with constant wrestling against fear and struggling to hold on to faith and learning to trust God for every single second.  I watched my mom die a long and painful death from cancer the year I graduated college.  I've watched aunts, uncles, cousins, my mother-in-law go through it - some successfully, some not.  My wife Andrea was diagnosed with leukemia in 2010 and then my only son Daniel in 2012.

I hate cancer!

As my world began to spin again - in an entirely new direction - one filled with oncologists and hematologists and a new language of medical terms and procedures and protocols and charts - I found myself immersed again in the world of cancer and the people affected by it.

It was then that I met the Kellers and their son Joey.  As it happened, Daniel and Andrea had already known Joey and Elizabeth for some months.  Daniel and Joey had shared classes together at our homeschool co-op and Andrea knew Elizabeth from there as well.  As we began to cross paths more often at the hospital - both as in-patients and at the out-patient clinic, I got to know Joey and Elizabeth and eventually Nick, Joey's father.  Nick and I hit it off immediately.  We recognized in one another the same depth of passion, compassion, and willingness to do anything to save the lives of our sons.  Andrea and Elizabeth shared the same kind of connection as mothers.

I'll not tell the much more of the story here except to say that the four of us discovered in one another not only a deep love for God and His Word, but also a shared journey ... a quest ... to learn all we could about how to appropriate God's supernatural healing power for the sake of our families.  Though we didn't often get a chance to talk face-to-face, when we did we often commented on each other's blog posts, shared experiences, compared notes about what other people said and did and their comments, etc.  Without really knowing one another that well, we became very close in a way that I believe only God can orchestrate.

As late Summer and early Fall of 2012 began, Joey began to have serious problems again.  We prayed and prayed and prayed.  Joey, Nick, and Elizabeth and all they were going through grabbed my heart and wouldn't let go.  When Joey started having seizures in late September, I organized on-line round-the-clock prayer vigils for him and we saw truly amazing - I believe "miraculous" - results.  Dozens if not hundreds of people and families and prayer groups were praying for Joey constantly.  My own family - the 3 of us - were praying together with fervency and regularity like never before.  And for awhile, Joey rallied and we hoped and prayed hard and believed that God would grant our thousands upon thousands of requests, and spare Joey's life from this awful disease.

But in the end, it was not to be.  If human beings could, by force of will, influence the health of another, or if there were some inherent power in prayer itself, Joey would most certainly still be with us today.  But prayer is never about changing God's mind or somehow "forcing" God's will to bend to our own - though many seem to think this is so.  The Word tells us to ask God for what we want and to "pray believing" that He will grant us what we ask, but it is abundantly clear that God is sovereign and perfect in His wisdom and knowledge and power as well as his grace and love.  The Word is clear that God always does what is right and best and good, whether we understand it or not.  In this case, it is now clear that God's will was to "graduate" Joey from this life to his reward far sooner than we all would have liked.  And as absolutely heart-wrenching as it was to lose Joey, all those of us who know the Lord are, despite the grief, immeasurably happy for Joey and the perfect, "ultimate" healing that God granted him.  Shortly after the news of his loss, I found a picture through which God spoke directly to my heart and brought me some measure of peace for Joey.  Actually, I found several, but this one in particular ministered to me powerfully and continues to do so.  I still cannot look at it without breaking down.  It allowed me to "release" him into the arms of my Lord and to find some measure of peace and even joy for Joey's sake.

However, with that said, I can also state that this has been one of the 2 or 3 worst weeks of my entire life.  Because although I can actually bring myself to be happy for Joey, my heart is tied so very deeply to Nick and Elizabeth and their parents that I have felt utterly devastated - crushed under the weight of their loss and the future they must move into without their precious little boy.  I'd like to say I cannot imagine what they're going through, but the fact is, I have imagined it - a thousand times.  And yet I know that even my worst nightmares can never compare to the reality our friends are going through.  After all, I woke up from every nightmare I ever had.  Yet there is such a deep connection to their journey, their faith, their struggles, and their loss, that I was barely able to function for days afterward and still find myself in tears as often as not.  I wish there were something - anything - I could do to ease their pain, to share the load of their burden, or to bring comfort to them in these dark hours.  But only God can do that, and so I continue to pray ... for their comfort, peace, strength, courage, and faith to remain strong.  We remain committed to the Kellers and their parents to stand with them, pray for them, and serve them in any way that we might be able.  And though I realize that they will never fully recover from being separated from their son so early and in such a terrible fashion, we do pray that the Lord will bind up their broken hearts, wipe away their tears, strengthen their marriage and their relationship to Him, and help them to find a positive way to honor Joey's memory and legacy until they are reunited with him again.

Were Our Prayers in Vain?
No.  Absolutely not.  No prayer of honest concern and desire to help another is ever given in vain.  And no prayer by one who belongs to the Lord goes unheard.  Though I do remain confused about some of the things I had believed that I and others (including Joey Himself) heard about God's intent to heal Joey back to health in this world, I also believe that our prayers were effective in many ways in God's plan.  Without question (in my mind) we saw God answer our prayers for Joey MANY times over the past year (and many others have been praying for Joey much longer than that).  We saw cancer disappear from his MRI scans entirely. We saw him healed from the seizures despite the medical staff stating that they didn't know what was causing it and didn't know what to do for him.  We saw him rally back multiple times in multiple ways over the course of these last several months and I believe that in each of those cases, God was working through the many, many prayers of the faithful being offered on Joey's behalf.  I know that I personally felt a strong burden for prayer and was, like several others, awakened even during the night to pray for Joey and his parents during particularly difficult times.  For me personally, it really wasn't until the last few days that I even had any trouble praying with faith that God was going to continue to heal Joey and keep him with us.  I don't know or understand what changed at the end. Perhaps someday we will, perhaps not.  But I am tremendously happy and blessed to have had the privilege of having been burdened for Joey these past several months and to have put in the many hours of prayer on his behalf.  I believe every one of the prayers offered by members of Team Joey were effective and used to Joey's benefit and God's glory.  And ultimately, God provided Joey with a perfect healing from his suffering and disease in a way he could never have enjoyed in this life.

How I Knew, And Will Remember Joey:
I regret that I never knew Joey when he was healthy.  The only images I have of him are without any hair and most often in a hospital bed or wheel chair.  But far stronger than those images of his illness, are the impressions I have of his maturity, especially spiritually.  Through my own direct experience as well as through conversations with Nick and Elizabeth and their parents, and through Nick's various CaringBridge and Facebook posts, I came to realize that Joey has a wisdom and maturity WAY beyond his years.  He has developed a profoundly deep and personal love for Jesus and it was frequently Joey who brought encouragement, strength, and balance to conversations and worries of others around him - even his own parents.  In Nick's CaringBridge post announcing Joey's passing, he made the statement, "I can only hope to run a race as strong, and focused, and effective as you. In spiritual terms, I look up to you."  I know he meant every word of it because he said the same thing to me on more than one occasion.  And even for as short a time as I've known Joey, I feel the same way.  Joey is for me and for so very many others, a model of strength, wisdom, and maturity in many ways.

We know that God uses adversity in our lives to mold and shape us - as a "refining fire" through which we are purified and mettle tested.  It is my opinion that the sheer volume of adversity that Joey went through in his short time on this planet was probably sufficient, in God's hands, to accomplish all the work in him so often takes God an entire lifetime to accomplish in most of the rest of us.  Though I initially thought of Joey's passing as being a race "cut short", further reflection on who he is and how he behaved caused me to think that, perhaps, he just finished his race that much faster than the rest of us!  Certainly he has finished his race well and will receive a reward for this valiant fight that most of the rest of us will only be able to look upon in awe.  I am confident that God will continue to work through Joey's legacy in this life for many years to come and will bless countless other children through it.

Though Joey barely knew me, he has already had an enormous impact on myself and my family in our prayer lives, my understanding and experience with prayer and healing, and even our conversations and experience with cancer and hospitals ... an area that we will continue to look to his example in the months and years ahead of us.

As this Thanksgiving Day draws to a close, I realize despite the enormous grief I have been under this week, how very thankful I am to know Joey, his parents, his grandparents, and so many of the other friends from around the country and around the world that comprise "Team Joey".  And though in my own limited wisdom, I would so much rather have had him around with us for much, MUCH longer, I am grateful that I will carry these memories of him him as a great soul - someone who at barely 9 years of age, ran the race so as to win - and won.  And one day soon, I'll see him again in Glory, as a man, full of life and health and unencumbered by the trials he faced in this world.  If I can finish even half as strong as Joey Keller, I'll be a happy man when I meet my Lord face-to-face.

- Tim -

On "Thankfulness" This Thanksgiving Day

Oh, that men would give thanks to the LORD for His goodness, And for His wonderful works to the children of men!

-- Psalm 107:8, 15, 21, 31 --

It's been a real joy this month to follow those making posts on Facebook each day about something for which they are thankful.  What a wonderful example they have set.  One thing I have noticed though throughout this month is that not much has been said about to WHOM we are being "thankful".  And while I think it is largely implicit in many such posts, I'd like to take this time to make it explicit!  After all, by definition, "thanks" is something given to another person in gratitude for something they have done or given to us.  Being "thankful" (filled with "thanks" or gratitude) is not something that we can be or think or feel simply within ourselves ... thanks and gratitude are given to another person or persons.  And while there are no doubt MANY sources of blessings and other people in our lives who are deserving our thanks and gratitude, I would like to point out that that is not what this day is about.

I was pleasantly surprised today to discover no less than 3 references to "God" or "Creator" in President Obama's Thanksgiving Day Proclamation.  He spends far more time thanking our troops than our Creator, but in all, not bad. Considering the source and his history with these sort of things, I'd say really well done!  Thank you Mr. President!

While it is entirely appropriate to be thankful for all our men and women in uniform every day (and if you know me at all, you know I'm a huge fan of our armed forces!), yet again, with deepest respect, that is NOT what this day is about.

From the first thanksgiving(s) at Plymouth Plantation in 1621, to the founding of our national annual observance by President Lincoln in 1863, and throughout most of our nation's history, this day has been about recognizing that all we have, and indeed "all good things" (Jas 1:17) come from our Great Creator, Redeemer, and Lord - Jesus Christ as those first Puritans fully recognized.

We all have many, many things to be thankful for on this and every day of the year.  Blessings come to us in many forms and through many sources.  But this day was designed and intended to be focused on the One "from Whom all blessings flow" ... Jesus Christ.

President George Washington made the first official proclamation of a (single) "day of thanksgiving" in 1789 at the urging of the newly formed United States Congress (though it was not to become an official annual observance until 1861).  Washington's proclamation read as follows:

WHEREAS it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favour; and Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me "to recommend to the people of the United States a DAY OF PUBLICK THANKSGIVING and PRAYER, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness:"

NOW THEREFORE, I do recommend and assign THURSDAY, the TWENTY-SIXTH DAY of NOVEMBER next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed;-- for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enable to establish Constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted;-- for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge;-- and, in general, for all the great and various favours which He has been pleased to confer upon us.
...

He goes on to implore each of us to repent of both personal and national sins and to continue to solicit God's  help in securing a good and sound government both here and for all nations and to promote "true religion". (See link below for full text)

When President Lincoln officially created "Thanksgiving Day" as an annual national observance in 1861, he wrote these words within the presidential proclamation:

"... No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the imposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the divine purpose, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility, and union."

Although he did not write the following words specifically for Thanksgiving, President Lincoln summed up - perhaps better than any other author I've encountered - what I believe should be the true spirit that should drive all Americans to Thankfulness - ANY day, but especially this one.

On March 30, 1863 President Lincoln, in his Proclamation for a Day of Prayer and Fasting, called the nation to find spiritual strength through prayer with these words:

"Whereas, it is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon, and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history: that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord:

And, insomuch as we know that, by His divine law, nations like individuals are subjected to punishments and chastisement in this world, may we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war, which now desolates the land may be but a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people?

We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown.

But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious Hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own.

Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!

It behooves us then to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins and to pray for clemency and forgiveness... All this being done, in sincerity and truth, let us then rest humbly in the hope authorized by the Divine teachings, that the united cry of the nation will be heard on high and answered with blessing no less than the pardon of our national sins and the restoration of our now divided and suffering country to its former happy condition of unity and peace."

And so I pray that each of us will this day remember, not only those many blessings for which we are so thankful, but even more importantly, let us also explicitly direct our thanks and gratitude to Him from Whom each one of them has come - our gracious and loving Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ: the Author and Mediator of all good things.

"Give thanks unto the LORD, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the people." 

-- 1Chron 16:8 --

- Tim -



General history of "Thanksgiving" in America:
http://www.earlyamerica.com/earlyamerica/firsts/thanksgiving/

President George Washington's first official proclamation of Thanksgiving by the U.S. Government:
http://www.earlyamerica.com/earlyamerica/firsts/thanksgiving/thankstext.html

Original sources regarding the event regarded as the "First Thanksgiving":
http://www.pilgrimhall.org/1stthnks.htm

President Lincoln's official founding proclamation of an annual, national day of Thanksgiving:
http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/speeches/thanks.htm

President Obama's Thanksgiving Proclamation 2012:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/11/20/presidential-proclamation-thanksgiving-day-2012