Add me to the list...I'm a Blogger!

Here I am blogging!  Why am I doing this?  Well first and foremost to stay connected to most importantly my two fine young boys, Caleb 10 & Reagan 6 when I travel.  Secondly for our local church to be able to do the same thing...stay connected!  Finally to keep you all who wish to follow along and be informed with what is going on with us as we endeavor to do the work of the Lord.

Well first off this has been just one more incredible week!  God is certainly good!  It has been a very stressful month of February to say the least whether it came in like a lion or lamb I was just ready for March to get here.  

We started the month preaching One Degree a youth convention in Lincoln, Nebraska and while we had a great time there and preaching at The Church of Omaha with Pastor Jimmy Toney & Damon Magee.  My wife made a frightening discovery while in Lincoln and that was a lump that she had never felt before.  We tend to be a bit jumpy when it comes to lumps, my mother in law Judy Pedro had breast cancer 12 years ago (she beat it) and I had cancer in 1999 in which the words from my oncologist Dr. Lawrence Einhorn (also the oncologist for Lance Armstrong) I am cured!  So Natalie went to her doctor when we got back into town and she thought it to be suspicious so she scheduled her for a mammogram in which she had on February 21 and that is when it got interesting.  After the mammogram the doctor scheduled an ultrasound that immediately following.  The doctor then shared this bit of wonderful news, it appeared to him from looking at the mammogram to be cancer that is why he did the ultrasound then when he looked at it he was even more confused because that looked even a bit stranger than the mammogram and his results from viewing were conflicting.  So a biopsy was scheduled on February 27 and we were told we would meet again with the doctor on February 29 to discuss the diagnosis.  

Well according to my wife the biopsy was very scary because it was there where she saw the mass and it actually scared her in a major way.  I have a strong and wonderful wife but this was really setting her back.  God was going to have to intervene on our behalf.  

Maybe you have no problem with this but as pastor & wife we both tend to have a bit of trouble praying for ourselves & to be honest sometimes even having faith for ourselves as our lives are continually giving to others, praying for others, helping others.  And that is where friends come in!  We told our church of the situation and they began to fast and pray.  We told our closest friends and they too started holding us up in prayer.  

We are blessed to be apart of a very active arm of the United Pentecostal Church and that is the Youth Division where we serve as Youth President of the state of Indiana.  This allows us to have and unbelievable network of close friends not only in Indiana but throughout the United States & Canada.  Shay Mann our North American Youth President along with Administrative Assistant Cindy Sorrels got the word out for the need of prayer to take place and did our friends ever more shake the foundations of heaven with prayer.

Wednesday and Thursday the waiting game kicked in and it seemed like an eternity until Friday afternoon then God kicked into motion several things that just awed me!  My wife who was very down received over 150 text messages & emails from our saints at New Life and our friends involved in Youth Ministry throughout Indiana, the United States & Canada.  She stated that this was the thing that kept her faith strong and Thursday night she just put her Blackberry on her chest and those messages were and extension from the throne of God, something was happening.  And in her words God changed something in her body between Wednesday and Friday. 

At 8:30a.m. on Friday morning the phone rang and looking at the caller i.d. I saw that it was the doctor.  To be honest with you I braced for the worst while giving the phone to my wife.  I expected us not to see her doctor but to be referred straight to a surgeon because that is exactly how it played out when I was diagnosed with cancer.  However, that was not going to be the case.  We wouldn't have to wait until 4:00p.m. the word on the other end was all your test came back normal, it is just a fibroid tumor the doctor doesn't need to see you for 6 months!  Praise God!  So we quickly celebrated with our family and friends then it was her day.  A trip to McAlister's Deli and the mall followed up with dinner at Cheeseburger in Paradise!  Does life get any better??? 

All that leads me to my sermon for March 2.  I am going to be preaching from Isaiah 43.  What an exciting passage of scripture as it follows the depression of Isaiah 42 in which the wrath of God is being poured out upon the children of Israel.  Isaiah 42 is the worst case scenario that we can face in our lives but in the midst of the worst of times...God is still there and in Isaiah 43 it reads...

Isa 43:1-3

43 But now, this is what the Lord says —

he who created you, O Jacob,

he who formed you, O Israel:

"Fear not, for I have redeemed you;

I have summoned you by name; you are mine.

2 When you pass through the waters,

I will be with you;

and when you pass through the rivers,

they will not sweep over you.

When you walk through the fire,

you will not be burned;

the flames will not set you ablaze.

3 For I am the Lord, your God,

the Holy One of Israel, your Savior;

I give Egypt for your ransom,

Cush and Seba in your stead. NIV

God is teaches us important lessons in the midst of crisis moments but there are six words in the first three chapters of Isaiah 43 that can transform u in the midst of these crisis situations.  And they are...

BUT NOW...No matter what we may be going through, no matter the trial we must stand still and remember that it is He that made us and that it is He who is God!  Faith hears in the midst of the bad and the words from Isaiah bring us through.  Is it dark, yeah BUT NOW...God steps on the scene!

Fear Not...Maybe you want to see angels and get all hyped up on the supernatural!  But if and angel shows up at my place I am tripping out!  Evidently we might would be a little petrified if an angel shows up.  How can I have no fear?  Because no matter what it is He has already been there.  No matter what it is the price has already been paid on Calvary.

I Am...When He finally talks Moses in to going back to Egypt to tell Pharaoh to let the children of Israel go.  Moses asks God this question...Who shall I say sent me?"  The I AM!  The self-existent one is in control of what ever the situation.  So I got a feeling everything is going to be alright! 

So when the worst happens in your life...you lose your family, you lose your health, you lose your job, you lose your identity!  When tragedy overwhelms and grief overcomes us Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.  

Be Still and Know that I am God!

Have Faith!  Don't Doubt!

For when God speaks words world's are formed!