We are overwhelmed with the outpouring of love and prayers from our many brothers and sister from various parts of the World. Your demonstrations of love and faith mean more to Ruthanne and me than we can express.
I would like to respond to each of you personally but that is not possible at the present time, so I must use my blog and other ways to communicate with you.
My surgeon called to tell us that the cancer is still contained in the lower left lobe of my lungs and has not spread to the brain or other parts of my body as he suspected. Praise God for answered prayer! He wants to schedule me for surgery next week. I told him that we were Christians and believe in a God who heals and will trust Him for healing. Surgery is not an option for us at this time.
Please continue to pray that God will give Ruthanne and me wisdom as we seek God’s will. We are researching and exploring all our options and are seriously considering alternative medicine. Through this battle, God is giving us peace and a deeper intimacy with Himself and each other that is so precious.
We recognize that this is a spiritual battle. Often when I am counseling those who are going through serious challenges, I will read and quote Ephesians 6: 10-18 from The Message Bible and the NLT. These words are of great encouragement to us as we face the giant called “Cancer.”
I want to personalize this passage and put into a prayer.
“My dear loving, awesome and faithful Father, help us to be strong and faithful during the warfare against the forces of darkness. We appropriate everything you make available to us to win this battle against Satan’s strategies. We understand that this is no afternoon athletic contest that we will walk away from and forget about in a couple of hours. We understand that this is a life-or-death fight to the finish against the devil and his angels.
Father, help us to be prepared, knowing that we are up against far more than we can handle on our own. We gratefully receive every weapon you give us, so that when it all over but the shouting we will still be standing on our feet shouting praises to the God who heals.
Your Word and our praying in the Spirit are indispensable weapons in this ongoing warfare. Help us to encourage one another to stay in the battle to the finish so no one falls behind or drops out. Pray that, in the midst of the battle, God will continue to use us to be a healing agent for many and through the power of the Holy Spirit set captives free. In the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior we pray, Amen.”
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Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
DEFEATING THE GIANT CALLED "CANCER"
Recently God spoke to my heart in a dramatic way and said, “Don you are going to go through another storm, but be at peace, I will be with you and The Son of righteousness will arise in your heart.” That “storm” has arrived through a confirmed diagnosis. I have stage 2 lung cancer and they say it will require major surgery.
It is not my intention to be heroic, philosophical or preachy. I just want to be obedient to God and share with you how God is helping us face this giant called Cancer. He is doing this through His Word, the power of the Holy Spirit and the faithful prayers of many of our brothers and sisters in Christ around the world.
The Holy Spirit is leading me to share with you often as Ruthanne and I go through this part of our journey. I want to keep you informed as to where I am and how Ruthanne and I are dealing with this challenge.
Shortly after we received this unwelcomed message that I had cancer, the Holy Spirit gave me 2 Samuel 21: 15-17 as a promise that others would be willing to fight for me to help slay this giant called Cancer. Many of you are aggressively fighting this giant and I know we are going to win. What peace and confidence Ruthanne and I have as we are being uplifted by your prayers of faith.
King David was facing another giant who had threatened to kill him. David was tired and exhausted and unable to defeat the giant. One of his faithful mighty men named Abishai, took on the giant and defeated him. I thank God for the many Abishai’s God is rising up to fight this battle against our enemy.
I am writing this on Monday evening May 31, 2010. Tomorrow I will have an MRI. Wednesday we meet with my Oncologist and Friday I will have a PET scan. After that they will schedule me for surgery. We are praying that the PET Scan will show that God has performed a healing miracle and surgery will not be necessary. If I do have to have major surgery we are trusting God that they will get all the cancer and I will not have to have Chemotherapy or Radiation.
Early this morning in my devotional time the Holy Spirit led me to Philippians 1: 19-26. I will paraphrase it for you in my word and make it personal and put it in present tense.
“I know that as you pray for me and the Holy Spirit helps me, this will lead to my healing. Through your faithful prayers and the generous response of the Holy Spirit, He will accomplish everything He wants to do in and through me.
For I fully expect and hope that I will continue to live and be bold for Christ, as I have tried to be in the past sixty seven years as a follower of Christ. And I trust that my life will bring honor to Christ, whether I live or die. For to me, living means living for Christ, and dying is even better because I will get to see my loving Savior face to face and will see our precious daughter Donna and all our other loved one’s who have preceded me.
But most days, because of what many of you are going through and how God may use me to help you grow in your love and faith in our loving Father, I plan to be around awhile.
And when I get through this part of my journey, we will have even more reason to rejoice in Christ Jesus because of what He is doing through us. We’ll be praising Christ, enjoying each other and
Love and Peace in Christ,
Don
Note: If you want to learn how we have fought other “giants” in our lives, you may want to get my book; “HEALING BROKEN LIVES AND RELATIONSHIPS” It can be purchased on line at www.drdonphillips.com
It is not my intention to be heroic, philosophical or preachy. I just want to be obedient to God and share with you how God is helping us face this giant called Cancer. He is doing this through His Word, the power of the Holy Spirit and the faithful prayers of many of our brothers and sisters in Christ around the world.
The Holy Spirit is leading me to share with you often as Ruthanne and I go through this part of our journey. I want to keep you informed as to where I am and how Ruthanne and I are dealing with this challenge.
Shortly after we received this unwelcomed message that I had cancer, the Holy Spirit gave me 2 Samuel 21: 15-17 as a promise that others would be willing to fight for me to help slay this giant called Cancer. Many of you are aggressively fighting this giant and I know we are going to win. What peace and confidence Ruthanne and I have as we are being uplifted by your prayers of faith.
King David was facing another giant who had threatened to kill him. David was tired and exhausted and unable to defeat the giant. One of his faithful mighty men named Abishai, took on the giant and defeated him. I thank God for the many Abishai’s God is rising up to fight this battle against our enemy.
I am writing this on Monday evening May 31, 2010. Tomorrow I will have an MRI. Wednesday we meet with my Oncologist and Friday I will have a PET scan. After that they will schedule me for surgery. We are praying that the PET Scan will show that God has performed a healing miracle and surgery will not be necessary. If I do have to have major surgery we are trusting God that they will get all the cancer and I will not have to have Chemotherapy or Radiation.
Early this morning in my devotional time the Holy Spirit led me to Philippians 1: 19-26. I will paraphrase it for you in my word and make it personal and put it in present tense.
“I know that as you pray for me and the Holy Spirit helps me, this will lead to my healing. Through your faithful prayers and the generous response of the Holy Spirit, He will accomplish everything He wants to do in and through me.
For I fully expect and hope that I will continue to live and be bold for Christ, as I have tried to be in the past sixty seven years as a follower of Christ. And I trust that my life will bring honor to Christ, whether I live or die. For to me, living means living for Christ, and dying is even better because I will get to see my loving Savior face to face and will see our precious daughter Donna and all our other loved one’s who have preceded me.
But most days, because of what many of you are going through and how God may use me to help you grow in your love and faith in our loving Father, I plan to be around awhile.
And when I get through this part of my journey, we will have even more reason to rejoice in Christ Jesus because of what He is doing through us. We’ll be praising Christ, enjoying each other and
Love and Peace in Christ,
Don
Note: If you want to learn how we have fought other “giants” in our lives, you may want to get my book; “HEALING BROKEN LIVES AND RELATIONSHIPS” It can be purchased on line at www.drdonphillips.com
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