Terminally Ill and Eternally Full of Life

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Gods-Not-Dead-ALS

Russell Wolfe is a producer for the recent hit GOD’S NOT DEAD and many other Christian movies. Recently diagnosed with ALS, Russell took to Facebook to contribute to spreading awareness and raising money for scientific research of this incurable disease – ALS also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease,

Regarding the Ice Bucket Challenge, Russell told Movieguide®, “So few people even know of the disease or even know what it is. I think it’s done a great job at raising awareness for that, but I felt that it was particularly good to link it to the fact that God’s not dead, mainly because I have faith that I’m healed, and I’ll receive that manifestation of that healing. Maybe there are some people I can encourage along the way.”

Encourage people he did. Within a week, his Ice Bucket Challenge had been shared over 34,000 times and over 3,000 comments flooded in with encouragement, prayers and others with ALS stories.

Moved by the huge response to the video, Russell said, “One thing that speaks specifically to me is the outpouring of people and their prayers. I’m so grateful for that. I’m actually taken back by how much it was shared, and how many people have included me in their prayers.”

When the news of his terminal diagnosis was revealed to him, Russell said his doctor was more surprised than he was because of Russell’s demeanor.

“I was so calm in reaction to the news,” Russell explained. “I’ve been through a lot of storms in my life, and God has certainly delivered me from each one. When I’ve had things that have happened that are bad, at the time, they might have seemed disastrous, but God has turned each and every one of them around so that in retrospect, I can look back at those, and I’m thankful that they happened, and I don’t feel any different about this. So when he gave me the news, I just looked at it as an opportunity to stand in my faith, and now we’ll just see how God uses this for his Glory.”

Romans 8:28 is a special encouragement to Russell, because God’s work and plan for his life is already so apparent.

“A part of the movie [GOD’S NOT DEAD] is sort of ironic, not only that I play the doctor that was delivering terminal news, and then I received that [same news] thereafter, but the letter that was in the movie that Kevin Sorbo read.

When we had the script, I felt that there needed to be a bridge between him being a solid atheist, and then converting to a Christian on the screen. So, I felt that while he was sitting in his office, he could pull out a letter from his mother. So, I wrote that letter. The idea behind that was, what would I tell my kids if I knew I was going to die at a young age? That letter that’s in the movie, I wrote it in that perspective. Again, the irony of writing that letter, and then getting a terminal diagnosis expresses the way I felt at that time and feel now knowing that I have this diagnosis.”

With his health deteriorating, Russell is still full of encouragement, faith and hope.

As he says, his message “is that God didn’t give this [ALS] to us. God didn’t give me ALS. I believe we live in a fallen world, and as such, bad things happen to good people. . . . What I do believe is that God can take any of those bad things and turn them into good. My message is to keep your faith. God is good all the time. He will turn things that are bad to the good. So, look for the hope in that.”

Pray for Russell Wolfe, his family and the thousands of others that suffer from ALS. Pray for physical healing through miracles and scientific advances through medicine, but especially, pray for a spiritual healing for all those who don’t have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

edited article  by Ben Kayser Managing Editor, Movie Guide

 

 

God enables Ethan with incurable cancer to live eternally now

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Post on Ethan Hallmark

Four years ago, Ethan just 13, was just another kid baseball player with the dream of being a doctor. Since his diagnosis with stage 4 neuroblastoma, he has become an involuntary hero who has demonstrated to his family, friends and community incredible courage and shares a message of hope greater than this terminal disease.

Ethan’s mom, Rachel Hallmark, said, “With the current treatment options our son’s disease is not curable. Its complex genes are just too smart for us at this point. Our son is slipping from our grips. We’re trying to get him to 14. We’re trying to give him the best quality of life possible. Each day without pain is a gift, and we’re trying to give him many more of those.”

The Hallmarks and their small hometown of Midlothian have forged a deep bond, sharing equal measures of despair and optimism in an extraordinary relationship of mutual encouragement.

“Obviously I want to beat this disease,” said Ethan. “But I’m not going to be that sad if I don’t. I mean, Heaven is not a pretty good place, Heaven is a perfect place. Of course I want to live a long life, who doesn’t? I want to watch my sister and brothers go to middle school with me. Go to high school. Watch them graduate. Even I want to graduate. It’s not my plan though. It’s His plan. And His plan is perfect. So really in the end, I will win either way.”

While speaking to a church congregation during an interview by a pastor last year about his many treatments, tumour discoveries, and setbacks, Ethan said, “Through all that, God has truly protected my heart from any bitterness. He’s been with us through this the whole time. He walks with us every single day.”

“We don’t want to waste this cancer,” said Ethan’s dad, Matt Hallmark. “I mean, he has it. And there’s absolutely nothing this world can do to take it away. So the question is, ‘What are you going to do with it?’ So we choose to make the most out of every day and making the most out of every day is enjoying what days God gives.”

Death and Suffering – only credible HOPE

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Twin Towers attack

The only truly satisfying answer to the existence of death and suffering is found in God’s word. Pain, suffering and death are intruders into God’s creation and He has already provided a way out with the promise of eternal life.

The BIBLE tells of the creation of a once-good world, in which death and suffering are not “natural” at all, but are intruders. They occur because of humanity’s rebellion against its maker (Genesis 3).  But if fossils formed over millions of years, which so many Christians just blithely accept as “fact”, then that wipes out The Fall as an answer to evil, especially “natural evil”. The fossils show the existence of things like death, bloodshed and suffering. So if these were there millions of years ago, they must have been there before man and hence before sin. This is the rock against which old-age compromises inevitably founder. This is also the reason why the age of things is not some obscure academic debate that Christians can put in the “too-hard-for-now” basket. Because it strikes to the heart of the hugest questions of all in relation to the nature of God, sin, evil, death; questions at the very core of Christian belief (or reasons given for no belief, for that matter).

When we try, however inadequately, to see things from God’s viewpoint rather than our own, things become quite different. There is suddenly nothing unfair about the deaths of any one of us, no matter what the circumstances.

God is the sovereign Judge who is totally holy (1 John 1:5). It is impossible to overstate His utter abhorrence of even the slightest sin. He is our Creator, He establishes the rules for our existence. Just as He destroyed almost all of mankind with Noah’s Flood which incidentally buried the myriad of dead things found in rocks all over the world (fossils); we know from His Word that He will eventually wind up the history of this fallen world and there will be a new heaven and new earth.

“and He shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and death shall be no more; neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain, any more: the first things are passed away.” Revelation 21:4

Thank goodness God is merciful and loving (2 Peter 3:9), and long-suffering. In the most profound display of mercy and grace imaginable, He stepped into our shoes as a man, JESUS CHRIST, God the Son. He came to suffer and die so that God’s righteous anger against sin could be appeased and the penalty paid for those who place their trust in Him and receive His free gift—forgiveness of their sin and admission into God’s family—by faith.

There are daily reminders of His Curse on all creation all around us. When they are punctuated by horrifically sad concentrated bursts such as recent disasters, we are doubly reminded of the awfulness of sin. Does knowing the answers to the “big picture” make us callous to suffering? Far from it: we are moved even more by compassion, just as the Lord Jesus was when He lived among us. Because of Jesus, Christians—those who take the Bible as the Word of God, and know Jesus Christ as the Creator incarnate—are at the forefront of digging into their pockets to help alleviate suffering.

“If (since) Christ is God and died for me, then nothing I can do in obedience to Him can ever be too much”.  paraphrase C.T.Studd.

For more information check out article by Dr Jonathan Sarfati, “Why would a loving God allow death and suffering?” on http://www.creation.com.

TIME: YOUR MOST PRECIOUS RESOURCE

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On Time

Contrast this pivotal resource of life with others, such as energy and finances, and a sharp distinction becomes obvious. While these other assets fluctuate, time constantly diminishes. No matter what one possesses, no matter the financial resources at your disposal, time cannot be purchased or stockpiled. One cannot gain access to additional time; you merely have the amount given to you.

So, if time is the most precious resource life offers, the question then becomes how do we use it wisely?

    1. Spend time in prayer. For contemporary believers this seems to be one of the more taxing tasks the Christian life demands. For, prayer takes time, and time is short and the day is long but how else do you build a relationship with your Creator other than spend time in prayer and in HIS WORD. Moreover HE said, “And ALL THINGS, whatever you ask in prayer, believing you will receive” Matthew 21:22. If you want to be a person who changes the course of history, you will pray and seek God’s will for your life. He has a plan for your life don’t miss it.
    2. Invest in building relationships. This certainly has the potential to multiply time. Think of a Christian parent’s relationship with their child, and the ripple effect this relationship can have for decades, if not centuries of time and on numerous other relationships. Their actions will not only have the potential to impact society for good but above all can have eternal significance.

Peter Kreeft, a Christian philosopher, offers an important understanding of time and prayer. He notes, “We have time and prayer backwards. We think time determines prayer, but prayer determines time. We think our lack of time is the cause of our lack of prayer, but our lack of prayer is the cause of our lack of time.” This understanding of the relationship of time to prayer is not a pithy saying to be taken lightly, but biblical insight into the significance of both. For the One who listens to the prayer knows about multiplication.

Matthew chapter 14 speaks to the ability of Christ to multiply scarce resources in order to maximize their potential. Yet, consider if the child had never offered his five loves and two fish. Christ’s ability to multiply would, at least in this instance, never been engaged.

Succinctly put, life in modern society is belligerently backwards. Modern life is arranged around tasks and duties which consume a large portion of the time given us each day. This utilitarian view of time has riddled modern society, families, and individuals with discontent, loneliness, and want of purpose.

How now should we live?

Remember The Lord’s Prayer – “Your Kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven”. Invest your time in building God’s Kingdom on earth and you also build treasure in heaven which has ETERNAL value and significance. Don’t waste your time on building your Kingdom on earth, it is fleeting and ultimately brings no peace or joy.

Time is precious and limited, yet of eternal value. What makes it so is how you use it and whom you give it to. Begin now to start living eternally.

Dr Michael Guillen – do you believe every word in the Bible?

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michael-guillen

Yes I do, he says.  So who is Dr Michael Guillen?

He was born in East Los Angeles, earned his BS from UCLA and his MS and PhD from Cornell University in physics, mathematics and astronomy.

For eight years he was an award-winning physics instructor at Harvard University. For fourteen years he was the Emmy-award-winning science correspondent for ABC News, appearing regularly on Good Morning America, 20/20, Nightline, and World News Tonight.

Dr. Guillen is the host of The History Channel series, “Where Did It Come From?” and producer of the award-winning family movie, LITTLE RED WAGON. Among his popular speaking topics is the series “CRAZY! Because Life Is Not Logical.”

Have I read the Bible cover to cover? Yes, I have (as well as the sacred literature of other religions), more than once and in different translations. Do I understand every word of the Bible? No, I don’t but believe every word, yes I do.

As 1 Corinthians 13:12 points out, no one should expect to comprehend everything right here, right now:

“Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.”

Having faith in something I don’t completely understand is not limited to my spiritual life; it’s also true of my relationship to science and rational thought. Science and logic cannot explain everything about the universe – especially since more than 90% of the cosmos is invisible to us – nevertheless, I believe in them so much I dedicated my career to their practice.

For me, science and rational thought are precisely why I abandoned the atheism I practiced during many years of my schooling. As part of my rigorous scientific training, my mind was broadened with respect to things I cannot see. I was urged to believe in black holes, parallel universes, dark energy, and a plethora of other modern scientific exotica based solely on clever theoretical imaginings and indirect, circumstantial evidence. So now, when I read the Bible, which invites me to believe in all kinds of seemingly unbelievable things, my reaction is informed by what I’ve learned as a theoretical physicist. I believe Shakespeare said it best when he penned that immortal line: “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”

It takes humility to admit that to seemingly intractable problems there are many possible solutions we haven’t thought of yet, and might never think of in this life. It takes humility to have faith in something of everlasting importance that you don’t completely understand yet and can’t possibly, given its infinite nature and our finite capacities. It takes humility, above all, not to jump to any conclusions about what isn’t possible in this glorious, mysterious universe of ours … and what is.

For more information, go to www.michaelguillen.com or get his book Can a Smart Person Believe in God?

WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS

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Lionel Ritchie preaching what the world needs on stage in Las Vegas – JESUS IS LOVE. Back in the eighties he was told to stop singing it and his other gospel songs or it would ruin his career. Well at the BET AWARDS show last Sunday night, what was meant to be a tribute to Lionel Ritchie was turned into a Gospel presentation by the renowned gospel singer Yolanda Adams as she “belted out” Lionel’s 1980’s hit ‘Jesus is Love’. It got a standing ovation. Make sure you watch to the end of the video to see what Lionel does with the crowd.

JESUS said My Father’s House is a House of Prayer

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Call upon me and I will answer says the LORD.

So vital and so simple and yet do we pray? Call a pray meeting at your church and see how many turn up. The only channel for us to get God to work is prayer and He says all you need I have so why don’t we pray. I have already posted “How to be a Person who Changes the Course of History” (Derek Prince on prayer)” but if you want more encouragement/inspiration to get into prayer listen to the sermon below by Jim Cymbala.

 

How to be a person who changes the course of history

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You will need an hour to watch Derek Prince on getting your prayers answered but it will be well worth it. It could have eternal significance not just for you but many.

When you understand that prayer is not about you getting what you want but a way for you to become an instrument for God’s purposes here on earth you are on your way to becoming a person who can change the course of history.

The story Derek Prince recounts of him praying to God to intervene in Britain’s devastating defeat and seven hundred mile retreat to El Alamein is a good example. He was led to pray that God would bring a Godly leader to save the situation. Bernard Montgomery was given the job and the tide was turned in the second battle of El Alamein. The night before the battle, Montgomery got his commanders together and said, “Let us ask the Lord who is mighty in battle to give us victory”. When Derek heard Montgomery pray, it was like a bolt of electricity hit him and God confirmed that this was an answer to Derek’s prayer. God did give them victory and this battle revived the morale of the Allies, being the first major offensive against the Axis since the start of the European war in 1939 in which the Western allies had achieved a decisive victory.

Letting Go and Letting God

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Danny Gokey has a poignant story to tell. His book title “Hope in Front of Me – Find purpose in your darkest moments” gives you an inkling of its substance. Its the first time I have posted a music video. I have a feeling any women viewers will appreciate it. Let me know what you think. Danny Gokey came third on American idol. He almost withdrew from the first audition as his first wife in her early twenties died unexpectedly from complications after heart surgery just weeks before the audition. The quality of this video is not great but even if you don’t like Danny’s song fast forward to the interview so you hear his story. Only God can transform lives like this and you know what, HE is doing it all the time.  There is no doubt that all things work together for good to those who love God and are working according to His purposes. If you want to hear Danny sing more, go to the second link, to the interview on Huntley Street. His second song on this clip is my favourite. http://video.christianpost.com/100-huntley-street-featuring-american-idol-finalist-danny-gokey-episode-4-5749/

Build up Treasure in Heaven says Peter Costello

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Peter Costello

Peter Costello and wife Tanya (former Treasurer in John Howard, Federal Government of Australia).

In his twenty years in politics Peter Costello never gave a speech like the one entitled “Money is bewitching and beguiling” that he gave at a Men’s Convention with the conference theme “Men at Work” last Friday night.

His keynote address explored money, fame and power. About money, he warned of its failure to ultimately satisfy. “Rather than make you happy, it makes you envious, we never have quite enough,” he said.

Costello defined the rich as “people with more money than me” and revealed that even billionaires compare themselves with each other. He humorously recounted a dinner meeting with the late billionaire Kerry Packer. The Australian dollar had just fallen dramatically and Packer was lamenting how much money he had lost. Packer reportedly said, “do you know how much this has cost me? Don’t think I am rich , I ‘m not a Bill Gates.”

Costello emphasized how temporary are our achievements and reputations and urged those present to look to the one who will ultimately judge all mankind.

Costello closed with the key theme of the 2004 Federal Election campaign “Who do you trust?” Political figures will not save you, he said. “Political figures won’t save your marriage or give purpose for living. Politicians can’t solve personal problems. Christians need to look to God and faith in Christ. Put not your trust in Princes.”

Costello then quoted from PSALM 146 “Happy is he whose hope is in the Lord his God. He remains faithful forever.”