From today’s devotional reading on the 10 miracles recorded in Mathew 9:
Category: Faith
Things about my personal faith in Jesus Christ
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Today
Today is the first day of the rest of your life. The old has passed and the new is here. It is a brand new day, and the best is yet to come.
Every morning and every moment, offers new mercy, full forgiveness and the opportunity to experience more of God than you understood yesterday. His love is inexhaustible and has no limit. His plans for you are greater than you can imagine and His presence is available every minute of every day! -
Seen
I do still wonder if the most known in eternity will have been the least known on earth. We will find out one day. Until then, keep serving and know that God loves you and sees you. Be faithful. The example for us all is our Servant King!
Todd Fields – North Point Ministries
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My Anchor Holds within the Veil – love unrationed
A great blog entry that relates well to my tattoo.
Read on www.loveunrationed.com/2018/04/27/my-anchor-holds-within-the-veil/We have this certain hope, like a strong and unbreakable anchor holding our souls to God himself. Our anchor of hope is fastened to the mercy seat in the heavenly realm beyond the sacred threshold. Heb 6:19 TPT
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Tattoo Day
After several temporary tattoos and some procrastinating, today was the day for the real thing.
After a brief recommendation and a quick look at his web site I book with Jay at Twenty Twenty Tattoo Studio in Niverville. Upon arrival the very easy going Jay welcomes me and I feel relaxed already. After all this is my first real tattoo and I’m a bit nervous but Jay and his studio vibe put me at ease, this is going to be OK. The studio is very clean and well decorated and there is some heavy metal music playing.
I sign a big disclaimer statement which releases them from anything and everything that may or may not go wrong. While I’m doing this he’s prepping the gear, getting the ink and miscellaneous stuff ready for the process. We talk about my design and it’s placement for a few minutes. Then he inputs my design into his iPad and prints it off on some special transfer paper. This gets positioned on my arm and some fluid is applied that transfers the design to my skin.
Last chance – this is the transferred design, real ink is next! We talk about all kinds of stuff, mainly tattoos of course, and he’s been at it since he was 18. Jay’s tattoos as you might imagine are very extensive and sophisticated. My simple line art is done in about 1/2 hour, and it barely hurt at all.
Here I am with the finished product!
The Anchor Holds Why a tattoo and why this tattoo? I’m blaming Instagram as the source of the tattoo idea in general. I started seeing ads for Inkbox, and I thought it would be fun to put a tattoo in a fairly visible spot to have some fun and possibly shock friends and family. So without any pre-announcement I showed up with this nautical rope work on the back of my hand.
The Persian & my tattoo One thing lead to another and I tried out a few different possibilities.
However, the winner was the one that was done today. I really relate strongly to the symbolism of the three components, the anchor, the heart and the cross.
The Cross representing Jesus Christ and what he did for all mankind by dying on the cross, being buried and the resurrection on the third day. God’s salvation, the Living Word, Jesus.
The Heart representing the love, mercy, hope and grace of Christ as well as my heart and my soul.
The Anchor representing the notion that I’m anchored to His amazing love.
Over the last few years there certainly have been some storms in our lives and when I put together these three symbols it reminds me that I’m firmly anchored to the love of God by Jesus Christ’s redeeming work on the cross in my life.
He is the anchor for my soul The anchor holds in spite of the storm.
“We have this certain hope like a strong, unbreakable anchor holding our souls to God himself. Our anchor of hope is fastened to the mercy seat in the heavenly realm beyond the sacred threshold”
Hebrews 6:19 TPTOn the way out the door Jay says to me “Welcome to the dark side” ?
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The Wake
It’s a calm clear morning. The lake is calm. It’s just as the sun is coming over the horizon. A boat goes by towards Smith Camps. The wake of the boat sends waves out in both directions.
The wake Shortly, the boat is gone but the waves still travel outward. Because I’ve passed by this way my life, my presences has an impact. It sends out “waves” that have an impact long after I’m gone. Waves hit the shore and then reverberate back out again. Not as strong but still making “waves” like the impact on a second generation.
I want my “waves” to have the best possible impact on those around me as I pass by. 2021/9/9
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Steady Me
www.bible.com/116/psa.40.2.nlt
“He lifted me out of the pit of despair, out of the mud and the mire. He set my feet on solid ground and steadied me as I walked along.”
Psalms 40:2 NLT
https://www.bible.com/116/psa.40.2.nlt
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Me and CAR-T
As some readers will know I’m about to get CAR-T therapy for the lymphoma cancer. In short, this involved extracting some of my T-cells, genetically modifying them into CAR-T cells, growing more of these special cells and infusing the new CAR-T cells back into my body.
Yeah, that’s right I’ll be genetically re-engineered and there is no turning back. Once they are in my body they will replicate and become “the new normal” a “living medicine”.
How do I feel about that? Well, at this point it’s the only currently available shot at a cure so I’m doing it. Unlike other treatments like chemotherapy the drugs do their work and leave your system hopefully without any lasting negative side effects. This is different. The new cells will be a part of me, a “living” medication that will hunt down and destroy the lymphoma cancer cells. I was feeling a little so so about all this, until this morning.
My day starts out with devotions using the youversion app. The first thing I read every day is “The Story” which is an introduction, the verse of the day, a video of someone explaining the verse of the day, and a prayer. Today’s verse was Isaiah 43:19 and it was explained by Levi Lusko.
Right at the end of the explanation Levi says “… your (my) good God is seeking to do something new inside of you (me)”.
Do something new inside of me?!?! Something like new T-cells? Like CAR-T cells? It just struck me hard in a very literal sense. I made a note of the thought in my journal and moved on to the next devotion.
I really should not have been reading this next devotion today. I’d gotten behind and I should have read it yesterday. But, here I am reading this.
“then God’s wonderful peace that transcends human understanding, will make the answers known to you through Jesus Christ.”
Philippians 4:7 TPT
https://www.bible.com/1849/php.4.7.tptThere are coincidences and then there are God arranged circumstances. To me this was a God thing. These two insights, back to back, it was like God speaking to me. God is making a path in the wilderness, a river in the desert, a way where there seems to be no way for me to receive this treatment and He is doing something new inside of me, literally and making the answers known to me.
“For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.”
Isaiah 43:19 NLT
https://www.bible.com/116/isa.43.19.nltThe result? I’m at peace with the treatment that is coming up in a few weeks. God is it it, He is with me, He is a good God.
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Shalom, Shalom
When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.
Origin: Hard to say…It’s likely you’ve heard that saying and this morning it came to mind as I was listening to a podcast and riding the bike in the basement on the trainer.
So, who is “the student”? Well, that’s likely to be you and me. And, who is “the teacher”? Initially, I thought the teacher would be a person. This is probably because of my school experiences with teachers and classrooms, the traditional learning environment I’m used to. However, these days I think “the teacher” can be more that a traditional school/college/university teacher person. Perhaps the teacher can be:
- a book
- a podcast
- a YouTube video
- a friend
- a spouse
- the Holy Spirit, Jesus, & God for sure
I’m finding the more open and teachable I am, the more I’m looking, the more available I am, the more often “the teacher” appears.
In these challenging days, what are people looking for? Is it peace? I think so.
“You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you! Trust in the Lord always, for the Lord GOD is the eternal Rock.”
Isaiah 26:3-4 NLTWhat is this “perfect peace”? It’s the English translation for Shalom, Shalom a double portion of peace, the peace of God.
This guy explains it better that I ever could. Worth a watch for sure, if the student is ready.
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Where does my help come from?
Many years ago my mom shared some of her experiences as she returned home from Montreal in September of 1961 after attending the funeral of her brother Ken, age 37.
Mom recounted how on the drive home this verse helped her deal with the tragedy of Ken dying at such a young age.
Psalm 121:1-2
I lift up my eyes to the mountains
where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord,
the Maker of heaven and earth.Over the years this verse has come to have a special place in my heart. Most mornings as I sit in my downstairs office I get to look at this picture while doing devotions and reading the bible.
This is a painting my mom did and is one of many works of art that we’re blessed to have in almost every room of our house. If you look closely on the road there is a boy and he’s playing with his dog. I like to think that boy is me. I never had a dog growing up due to allergies and I think mom was not too thrilled with the possibility of looking after a pet. Instead, I got turtles and fish. Less work and less attachment, easier to “let go”.
Anyway, recently one of the devotions was all about Psalm 121 entitled “I will lift up mine eyes“. Every time I look at this picture I’m reminded of this Psalm by the mountains in the background. Interestingly enough there is some bible commentary about looking up to the mountains for help from the gods as people believed way back in the day that “the gods” dwelled in the mountains. For me the forceful comeback to this idea is NO, My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.
Another take on lifting up you eyes is to get you focus off your problems and up onto God. From Day 1 of the devotion:
When chaos surrounds you and the waves of life seem to crash against your ship, choose to lift up your eyes beyond life’s challenges and circumstances. Choose to lift up your eyes and focus on Him. Remove your gaze off of the problem and center your focus on Him.
What are your eyes focused on? Who are your eyes fixed on? Are you meditating on the problem or are you trusting in the One who can shift the situation in an instant? When you meditate on the problem you’re amplifying its weight on the throne of your heart.
What are you feeding the ground of your heart? You can either feed your faith by meditating on God’s Word or you can feed your problem by worrying on the cares of the world. Fix your eyes on Christ. Lift up your eyes from your narrow problem and shift your eyes onto a bigger God. God is bigger than your problem. Worship God.
Lifting is a choice. When you choose to lift up your eyes, you’re making a conscious decision to worship God instead of worshipping your problem.
My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.
bible.com/bible/1849/mat.9.29.TPT