An update and an invitation
It has been a glorious three months and two days since my last post, which I intended to be the last post on this blog. We have connected with family and friends, some of whom we have not seen for months or even years. Lots of our time has been spent catching up on four years’ worth of deferred maintenance on our home and yard. In other words, our life is pretty much back to “normal,” whatever that is! Regular attendance at church, socializing with friends, going out to dinner, shopping inside a real store, instead of ordering on Amazon or having merchandise delivered curbside: these are a few of the things we had missed.
In addition to catching up on these activities, we “met” my stem cell donor via email. He seems to be a delightful young man of faith. So far, we have learned that in addition to our bone marrow, he and I have in common that we are both men of faith, and he is a baseball fan who has fulfilled one of my bucket list items by attending a Boston Red Sox game at Fenway Park. In fact, he was riding his bicycle to Fenway, when my email arrived. He didn’t read it until he was seated for the game, and then he said he was distracted by the email to the point of not concentrating on the game. When his reply email came, he mentioned that since he made his generous stem cell donation, he had two questions on his mind, a) who was I, and b) how was I doing. I was happy to report that I am doing very well, indeed, thanks to his willingness to help a stranger in need. His name is Isaac.
Isaac is a college student who aspires to be a medical doctor. His father grew up in Beaverton, OR, and his grandparents still live there. He said when he is there for a visit, he will try to come and visit us in Dallas. I told him there would be no need for that, because we would be more than happy to drive to Beaverton or meet him halfway.
So, as I mentioned above, it has been a glorious time since Jill and I were released from quarantine in May. And now, I will not specify this post as absolutely the final one on this blog, because look what happened the last time I tried that.
On the other hand, I have missed blogging amidst all of our pursuing life in the real world. So, I am going to include herewith the first post of another blog I kept for several years, and which I hope to resurrect. The title of the blog is "Marching as to War.” I invite you to read the first post below.
TUESDAY, JANUARY 27, 2009
The full armor of God.
Who are those powers? Are they certain men or women who hold certain political offices? Are they greedy Wall Street tycoons? Are they the strange minds resident in the entertainment capital of the world, which Michael Medved refers to as "Hollyweird?" Would that it were so. No. Our enemy is none other than Lucifer, Satan, the enemy of our souls. These others are simply his minions; the men, women, and children whom he has taken captive with his lies. Lies like: "there is no reason to refrain from indulging your sexual appetites," "you might as well take advantage of your business associates, everyone else is doing it," "there is no reason why you shouldn't have whatever you want; you deserve it."
The fact is that Satan began his nefarious meddling in human affairs very early in human history, by lying to the woman in the garden: "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?" "You will not surely die." (Genesis 3:1,4) Thus began the war on our souls. Satan has been lying to us consistently ever since. He is incapable of telling the truth. When we think of "the devil," we tend to think of a little red guy with horns and a pointy tail and pitchfork. If only he were that easy to recognize! No, he is very smooth, very attractive, very persuasive. He is also a complete and total loser, because Jesus Christ has already won the victory against Satan! Satan is an eternal optimist, he has even deceived himself into believing that he can win the battle that has already been won by Christ Jesus. That doesn't make him any less dangerous. Adolph Hitler increased his murder of Jews and other political prisoners, when it became apparent that he could not prevail against the allies in World War II. In the same way, Satan wants to take as many of us as possible down with him.
The Lord has already given the enemy into our hands, but we must take up arms and follow our General into the battle to free the spiritual prisoners of war, whom Satan wants to take down. When you have done with wringing your hands and decided to stand up and be counted in the army of the Lord, you have only to "...put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints." (Ephesians 6:13-18)
In future posts, I will attempt to give a cogent explanation of each piece of the armor as it has been laid out before us by the Apostle. Like any soldier, you will want to go into training and have your equipment in first class order before you encounter the enemy. My aim will be to help you with that process, but first and foremost, Christian, you must "Stand Up! Stand Up for Jesus!"
If you would like to read more, here is a link to "Marching as to War."
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