As many of you know, my wife is presently battling a recurrance of stage 4 cancer - most recently metastacizing in her bones - primarily in her ribs and right leg. She has been in a lot of pain and homebound for the past couple of weeks. As a result of trying to find the most effective medications to ease her pain we went thru a horrible few days of bad reactions - and it all happened right thru Christmas. She couldn't leave the house and missed all the visiting and feasting and opening of presents - which she always looks so forward to. It was crazy and scary.


Thru it all, we were blessed to have both our kids, Jordan and Noelle, with us. Noelle video taped all the parties so Joyce could enjoy watching the grandkids opening their gifts.


We now have stabilized somewhat and are getting a handle on most of her pain - as she prepares for chemo this Thursday.



It's been hard to think very far ahead - especially for the church. But God helped me with the message on Sunday to share my heart for CCE in 2007. That message should be posted to our website in the next day or two.

Hope you all have a blessed and fruitful new year!

In His Arm's, Pat

Yesterday, I challenged the church to read thru the entire Bible in 2007. Hope you can join along and glean from comments given to bless your own study.

Just a couple of notes on Genesis as we begin a new year and a new journey thru the Word of God. This year I'll be using the reading guide in the Daily Bread. I"ll note the text to be read at the top of each daily blog and try to include a couple of devotional thoughts from my previous studies and present reading.

Genesis is the book upon which all subsequent revelation rests. It recalls the creation of the world, Adam and Eve's fall into sin and the resulting curse, and God's plan to bring redemption and blessing to the world through the descendants of one man, Abraham. It gives the story of beginnings - the beginnings of the world, the plague of sin, the nation of Israel, and the history of salvation.

Genesis shows us the origins of: the universe, order and complexity, the solar system, the atmosphere and hydrosphere, the origin of life, man, marriage, evil, language, government, culture, nations, religion.

Genesis is important to the New Testament. There are at least 165 passages in Genesis either directly quoted or clearly referred to in the New Testament; many of these are quoted more than once, so there are at least 200 quotations or allusions to Genesis in the New Testament.

8 Words can summarize the book: Creation, Fall, Flood, Nations, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph.

The first two chapters of Gen. tell us of the creation of the universe and of man.

1:1 -2:6 give us a general account of creation
2:7-25 give us a specific account of the creation of man

If you can accept verse 1 of Genesis, you won't have much trouble with the rest of the book or the rest of the Bible. If you can't accept it, I won't be able to convince you of the rest.

Knowing that God created the world around us, and ourselves as part of it, is basic to true religion. God is to be praised as Creator, by reason of the marvelous order, variety, and beauty of his works. Psalms such as Psalm 104 model this praise. God is to be trusted as the sovereign LORD, with an eternal plan covering all events and destinies without exception, and with power to redeem, re-create and renew; such trust becomes rational when we remember that it is the almighty Creator that we are trusting. Realizing our moment-by-moment dependence on God the Creator for our very existence makes it appropriate to live lives of devotion, commitment, gratitude, and loyalty toward him, and scandalous not to. Godliness starts here, with God the sovereign Creator as the first focus of our thoughts.

Genesis 2 answers a basic question. What is the origin and nature of human beings? The answer is that we human beings are the special creation of God, made in His image and likeness. Our special creation gives each human being individual worth and value. Because God made us, and made us like Himself, you and I are precious beings.

In Ch. 3 we see that for Adam to be a creature of free will, there had to be a choice - some opportunity to rebel against God. If there is never a command, never something
forbidden, then there can never be choice, and God wants our love and obedience to
Him to be the love and obedience of choice.

In the spiritual and moral realm, each one of us invariably finds it easier to do wrong than right, easier to drift downward than to struggle upward. We all have a sin nature and here in Ch. 3 we find its root.

And a couple of intoductory notes to Matthew:

Mark shows us the side of the suffering servant.
Luke shows us the humanity of Jesus.
John shows us that Christ is the Son of God.

Matthew was writing to the Jews, zeroing in on Jesus the Messiah, the king of the Jews.

In writing with the Jewish student in mind, Mt. was bridging the gap, explaining how the OT prophecies are fulfilled in the Person of Jesus Christ.

Mt. does this by quoting the OT constantly, much more than the other gospel writers. 129x

Matthew's approach to the way of salvation is a call to repentance for entry into the kingdom, to a committment of one's self to the King as His follower...he uses language that relates the rule of Christ to peoples lives. This means that the life of faith is to recognize Jesus as Lord and ourselves as His subjects. Faith is to confess Him as King of kings, and to commit ouselves to Him as the expression of our highest loyalty. Augsburger

Matt. introduces us to the King first with His genealogy, which, in Jewish history, was the most natural and essential way to begin the story of a man's life and to prove to Jewish readers - and skeptics of all nations that Jesus is the Messiah of Jewish hope - the promised Redeemer of all mankind.

Love to hear how God speaks to you thru your daily study of His Word! Pat

Joyce had her Oncology appt. this morning and tho her cancer is spreading, we still have options to fight it. It had spread in her right leg and has started attacking a few of her ribs. Her abdominal lymph nodes are enlarged too indicating active spread of the disease. On the plus side, her liver is still clean and she has new meds to fight the pain. Also, starting Jan. 4th she will start a new regemine of chemo. She will only have to recieve an infusion once a month and this drug usually does not result in hair loss. We'll also be able to get her treatments done locally in San Marcos rather than having to drive down to San Diego.

Because this is the second series of treatments since her breast cancer metasticized, the statistics of success are cut in half from the first series. In the first, there was 50% chance of success - which she had for 6 months. In the second it drops to 25%, the third time to 12.5%, etc. So we continue the fight and she and I are doing OK with all of it. We were preparing for the worst and this is not the worst. SO we fight and pray and live!

Thanks to all who have continued to pray for Joyce and I and our family and our church!

God has many good things ahead as we keep focused on Him.

2 Pet 1:2-4 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.(NKJ)

In His Arm's, Pat

On Tuesday morning Joyce meets with her oncologist. We're not real optimistic because she has been in pain and fatigue nearly every day the past few months. We'll get the results of her recent scans and mri's and blood work - and the docs recommendation for treatment.



We both have a peace this evening that no matter what we find out, God is in control. He'll be with us thru whatever is ahead.



I do have some concern about my own medical drama with the A-fib heart problem. Last post i mentioned my meeting with the cardiologist and his changing the meds I was taking for the past month to keep the ticker under control. Well, two days later, last Friday, I didn't like the way i was feeling and went back to the med he took me off of. It helped immediately but today he was insistent I stop the med and he gave me something different - and wants another EKG in a week. So while I'm struggling with Joyce's battle, this thing is lurking in the shadows.



Of course, I need to apply the same trust that God is in control of me too!





The season of Christmas has always been very special for Joyce, and even more so since our first grandchild, Kaylee, came along 4 years ago on the 20th of Dec. and our second granchild, Brooklynn, last September. So we have birthday parties and Christmas gatherings and Sunday services to prepare for and enjoy. We do need strength and peace. I'll post tomorrow what we find out about Joyce!



In His Arm's, Pat

Just a short not to let you all know my appt. with the cardiologist went well today. My A-fib is mild, my medications were changed a bit and I don't have to see the doc for 6 to 8 months! One less thing to worry about :-)

Joyce and her Women's Bible Study group saw the new film, "The Nativity" last night and really enjoyed it and highly recommend it as a very accurate portrayal of the events surrounding the birth of our Savior.

Last week was a little crazy. Joyce had her brain MRI on the 30th and I had my echo stress test for my heart on Friday. We see our respective specialists in a couple of weeks to discuss the results. Saturday Mark and I did a memorial service for a dear sister in the Lord, Evelyn Szandzik, who recently passed away. Sunday's services were sweet but busy. On top of it all, Joyce had a rough weekend - lots of pain - tho the last couple of days have been better for her.

I confess I had a hard time for a while there dealing with her pain. I couldn't understand why God was allowing this - in spite of the huge amount of prayer being lifted up for her - it was just a very frustrating couple of days. I'm learning there just are things I want to understand that are impossible to understand! And even if I could understand why God is permitting all this I probably wouldn't be satisfied. It's like, I don't care what God's purposes are in all of this - just help her not to hurt. I guess I was a little angry - it didn't last long - thankfully.

I know the Lord loves us and He is holding us closer than we could ever concieve. I know suffering is a normal part of life and that it deepens our love for each other and our trust in the Lord. I find myself leaning on my own understanding instead of trusting in Him and that always gets me in trouble. I'm continually reminded of Isaiah 55 -

Isa 55:99 "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.(NKJ)

So today I'm at peace, leaving my fears and frustrations in His hands, and trying to remember all the lessons I've already learned over the past 3 years...which in itself is a great blessing.
When Joyce began this journey with breast cancer we were so fearful she wouldn't make it past a few months - and its been 37 months - over 3 years - and for that and all we have experienced and recieved over that time we are thankful....and there's still more to come!

Blessings! Pat