Faith is now sight.

Daddy is experiencing Heaven! Praise the Lord! The race is finished.

Thoughts from Lydia

The past few days have been difficult for us as David enters this new stage. Lydia, with honesty, has shared her thoughts on her blog. Click the link below to read a daughter's thoughts on watching her dad die.

http://themommypages.blogspot.com/

As always, may God be glorified in all of our responses. Thank you for praying with us that David will soon see his Savior face to face.

Pam

God's Ways Are Not Our Ways

Shortly after David’s surgery last May, after he had bounced back to his almost normal self, he though he would try and write the sequel to his book Maccabee. He discovered he could not. His mind just would not stay focused long enough. So he laid down that dream. But he wasn’t ready to give up on life and ministry. He wanted to use this experience to honor the Lord and maybe encourage others along the way. He thought he might be able to write a short devotional, so he got a legal pad and jotted down some thoughts. I found the legal pad a few months ago. This is as far as he got – the outline (or maybe a partial outline).

Introduction – Learning about having terminal cancer
Chp 1 – A Matter of Perspective
Doctor’s comment about keeping “it” in the background
Keeping eternity in view
Truth
Making sure you are in Christ so you can have a positive perspective
Living in the unseen
Chp 2 – Blessing others with Truth
Demonstrating joy
Chp 3 – Caring for those left behind. Putting house in order

The devotional didn’t get written or rather it didn’t get put on paper. David did write it. Over these past few months he has written it with his life and is still writing it as God says, “not yet. I’m not yet finished with you.”

A month ago we thought God was going to take him home. He didn’t. For the past 3 -4 days he has been sleeping almost around the clock with only short periods of wakefulness. He will still eat a few bites of food (probably the steroids) but is drinking very little. He does not initiate conversation but most of the time he will respond to my simple yes/no questions, though not always. He has periods of being really confused but at other times he understands and responds well. He does not have any problems with knowing who anyone is.

This is where we are today. Only God knows tomorrow.

We are learning in a deeper way that God’s thoughts and ways are not ours. He knows what He is doing and He wants our complete trust, especially when we don’t understand. The journey is not easy but we trust Him to get us there in His perfect time.

Thank you for your continued support to all of our family

Pam

Quick Update

Lydia here. Just wanted to give all of Mom and Dad's blog readers a quick update. Dad is picking up speed and racing towards the goal. I know he can't wait to cross over the finish line.

This past week, we have all seen a rapid decline in his abilities and what he is able to do.  I really feel like we are now at the end, perhaps less than a week away. Only the Lord knows how much time Dad has left on this earth, of course.

Please keep our family in your prayers. Philip deploys the beginning of June, so pray for safe travels for him and courage on the homefront for his wife, Angela, as she will be mothering/homeschooling their 4 little ones.


Thank you ALL for your prayers and words of comfort and encouragement over this last year.

Happy Birthday Dad!

My Father’s Shadow - from Philip

Most of us spend our days trying to get out of someone's shadow - I long to walk in the shadow of another.

It was a cool summer night some 12 years ago but it will be forever etched in my mind as the moment when I stepped into my Dad's shadow. I was 20 years old and had just recently accepted a call that had forever been on my heart and finally had taken hold of my spirit, a call to serve.

That night so many years ago I had rooted out an issue that was distracting the fellowship of the youth I was leading. The issue long since lost in time was not the reason that night meant what it did for me, nor the response or restoration that followed. No, the heart of that night rested in the four words my father uttered after we had stepped outside afterwards.

Four words that even now choke me up - "I'm proud of you."

Now to many who would hear those words pride would come, knowing that you are living up to the expectation of your dad - making him proud. To be fair, this was not the first time I had head those fateful words nor would it be the last. But here unlike other times, it was speaking to something far greater than a father's simple pride in his son. In this moment something other worldly has passed between us that has since marked me as the man I am.

As Timothy walked in the shadow of Paul, so too do I walk in the shadow of my father. Not as one seeking the accolade of flesh and blood but rather as a young minister yearning for the approval of the call he felt on his life.

In that moment those words echoed across the un-dawned years of my life to spring up within me a fire to continue the legacy of this man, not a legacy built of human design but one formed in the very Spirit of God. Understand, this man is my goal, not because he has value within his own members but rather because throughout my whole life I have never met a more Godly man.

My Dad has been consumed from my earliest memories with a God far greater than any, even with what I find in our own churches. This God, in His greatness, is at once both power unimagined and love unrestrained. This was and is my Dad’s legacy; his view of the Almighty and it leaves room for nothing else in the life of the believer.

HE truly becomes the very air we breathe, the very beat of our heart.

In the years that have followed, the proudest moments of my life have been those that have identified me with my Dad. From a prayer to a sermon to a look, I spend my life emulating this man as he pursues his, no, our God with total fanatical abandon.

I don't strive to be like my Dad because he's my Dad, no I strive to be like my Dad because his life points me to my God.

This is his legacy.

And it is why I walk in his shadow, joyfully.

Philip

From Lydia: http://themommypages.blogspot.com/

From Hannah: http://www.hannahecarson.com/

Celebrating the Truth and Hope of Easter

It was last year right around Easter that our church family, friends, and acquaintances begin to notice something was wrong with David. I had been aware that things were not “right” for a month or so prior to this, but it was hard to define. (We blogged all of this in earlier posts.) It would be another month (May 21st, 2010) before we would know he had a brain tumor.

It has been a very long and difficult year. We have shed many tears. But through it all we have had an overwhelming peace. We continue to know deep within our spirits that God is good and that His plans for us are good plans.

Make no mistake; cancer is NOT good, death is NOT good. No one wants to get cancer and no one wants to die. Death is our enemy. If David only had death to look forward to he would not have such peace. He would not have expressed excitement and joy when he heard the words “brain tumor”. Those words do NOT bring excitement. They do not bring joy. They do not bring hope.

David has said to me on more than one occasion over the past couple of months, “cancer is bad”. And it is. It is a terrible disease. There is nothing good about cancer. It is part of a fallen world, just as is death.

Since he was 19 years old David has lived with a different reality than the majority of people. His reality has been the unseen, the eternal, on what comes after this life. This is why he, why our family, has been able to make it through a very difficult year. We have a sure hope. This life, the here and now is not all there is. Cancer is not the end. Death is not the end. David and I, along with our family are looking beyond cancer, beyond death.

The life God has promised us is a life without cancer, without death, without separation. We can’t even begin to imagine how wonderful and awesome this new life will be!

We are so thankful for the truth of God’s Word. What encouragement it brings! What hope! Listen:

"For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures

But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.

Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.

Death is swallowed up in victory." "O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?"

But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

All of those verses were from I Corinthians, chapter 15. I encourage you to get a Bible and read the whole chapter.

In a few days we will celebrate Easter. It is because of what happened over 2,000 years ago on that Cross that David can face eternity with excitement and joy. Our prayer is that everyone we touch, whether through this blog or in person will know that same excitement and joy.

Christ is risen! Hallelujah!

David, Pam and Family

We're so glad we're a part of the family of God...

David and I have been unable to go to church and worship with our church family since this past December, so yesterday some of the church came to us.

We were blessed when a group from our church came so we could worship the Lord together and share communion. We all gathered in the bedroom with David and sang to the Lord some of the great old hymns; Jesus Paid It All, And Can It Be, I’ll Fly Away, Be Thou My Vision, and He Lives. We then shared communion together, remembering Jesus’ great sacrifice on the Cross for us. It was a wonderful time together.

God has blessed us in so many ways over the past 11 months through the Body of Christ and our church family specifically. How can we express thanks to those who clean our house, do our yard work, run errands, pick up groceries, bring us special treats, make meals, come for visits, and send cards? I could go on and on with the many, many ways we are encouraged by our brothers and sisters in Christ. We continue to be humbled by it all and are learning in a new way to graciously receive what is given.

To each and everyone of you, thank you for easing the way! God has given us so much more that we deserve. We are blessed.

We love you and daily thank God for you.

David, Pam and Family