In 1991, victory in the battle over cancer was mine, not without recurring problems due to chemotherapy and radiation; both at the same time. But it is the way that victory was won that I hope to share in a series of articles as I proceed through my procedure to repel another invasion of cancer: my thoughts, my feelings, my pain, and my victory in Christ, my captain of hosts in this skirmish. .
DENIAL: CAUSES US TO FLEE: "Cancer" is a scary word that says, "I am your Cancer and you will die!" My first thought was one of denial, but the next thought was one of "Oh Lord, why?" Initial fright, angst, or exceptional startling expectation of death can be a good thing, in that it should promote immediate action: not just any action, but to take control and learn to manage stress. It allows my mind to form a plan and my brain to dispatch repelling units to chew up free radicals. "We are fearfully and wonderfully made"
CANCER: DOES NOT MEAN DEATH: More deaths result from Alzheimer's Disease and Cardiac Arrests, than from Cancer. Notice that I did not say "My cancer", because I do not own it, I will not accept it, AND - I will not let it hang around in my body. When I went home after the first battle in 1991, the prescribed treatment was radiation every day at 11:00 a.m. and chemotherapy administered by a pump strapped to my left arm and pumped up to the heart... 24/7.
ACTION: POSITIVE; ELIMINATE the NEGATIVE: My first actions were to locate support groups, not so much for me, rather it was to gather information for an on-line ministry I felt the Lord leading me to form.* I met Mr. Richard Block, retired brother and partner of H.&R. Block, of the Bloch Cancer Foundation.** His cancer was dire and was given a 50% chance of recovery. In his books he explains that he liked the odds and so he set out to fight and he won several years until dying of a heart attack. In his research Mr. Bloch found that there is no known form of cancer that cannot be healed.
PREPARATION: FOR BODY AND SOUL BATTLE: So now, I am beginning a new opportunity to see the Lord work a wonder in my life. I need to rally the forces at hand, consider my options, and prepare for battle. (Interesting are reactions to the word "cancer" so I asked the oncologist what I should tell people when they want to know what kind of cancer it is: metastatic non-small cell carcinoma, consistent with lung primary: long name, but sounds better than CANCER and stops further questions.
PREPARATION: FOR SPIRIT AND SOUL BATTLE: I remembered who gave me the victory over the first battle when I claimed Bible verses and paraphrased them by inserting me as the one to whom God is addressing. If it had not been the LORD who was on our side, when [free radicals] rose up against [you/me]: Then they had swallowed us up quick ... (Psalm 124:2-3): Preparing my mind and aligning my spirit with God’s Spirit, was the most important thing that I learned to do: a BULLDOG’s determination to fight.
TRUST: UNFEIGNED ABSOLUTE UNQUESTIONING: Before leading Israel into the battle to occupy Canaan, God spoke to Joshua, "Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you, as I said unto Moses (Joshua 1:3)." “Lo”, He is with (you/me) and He will go before you and the enemy will die by droves.
- · Remember when the Amalekites gave Israel it’s first test in battle at Rephidim, and Moses stood on top of a hill with the Rod of God? When Moses wearied and the Rod lowered, Israel, under General Joshua got the worst of the battle. When Aaron helped Moses keep his arm raised and the Rod raised, Israel won the battle: their trust and faith increased (You would have thought that 2 million scared Jews crossing the Red Sea on dry land was enough “awe and shock” to prove them, but that was just the beginning).
- Remember how that after seeing God come down on Mount Sinai in the horror of lightnings and explosions of shrouding smoke and horrific darkness to give the Law of God to the Jews through Moses, that they promised in unison, “All that the Lord says, we will do”. God promised blessings, they promised obedience. God keeps His promises; man breaks his promises.
- Remember when, at Kadesh Barnea, Israel could have gone straight into the land to let the Lord lead them to victory: instead they came back with grapes as big as watermelons and wonderful fruit and goods, but also; there were giants (Anakim, really big people), and they would have to fight nasty, mean peoples, which were natural enemies: the Amalekites, Hittites, Jebusites, Amorites, Canaanites.
- Remember this: But “Caleb stilled the people, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it. (Heb: kelebh "dog"; Syriac & Arabic: kaleb or kalebh, not "dog", but “raging with canine madness”) The Bible says of Caleb "... because that he wholly followed the Lord God of Israel" (Jos_14:8-9; Jos_14:14). BUT… the men who went up the hill with Caleb and Joshua said, “We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we”. Their mind-set was on failure, essentially saying they remember all of the miracles the Lord did, but THIS IS DIFFERENT! (Num 13:28-31)
I like to think of Caleb as a real BULLDOG: raging like a mad dog at injustice and lack of faith, and for those who hesitate at God’s command. I think that when he gave his companions a stern lecture, the air must have turned blue. “Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest (Joshua 1:9).”
God did not place us on earth to kill us, but to prove ourselves worthy to serve Him for all eternity. Our finite imaginations cannot fathom all that God has for us to do when we see Him. However, all the men fit for war that lost faith that God would deliver them, were doomed to circuit Canaan forty years while a new breed of warriors trained and were whipped into a superior fighting force to go in and possess the promises of God. Forty years for forty thousand who let the Lord prepare them for war “passed over before the LORD unto battle, to the plains of Jericho (Joshua 4:13).”
“There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life: as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee: I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee (Joshua 1:5).”
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Paul’s mind-set for peace through affliction: “… so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain (Philippians 1:20-21).”
Next week on the TOPIC OF CANCER: The First Chronicle: Tumor Protocol Begins
(Never assume anything and always prove your instincts)
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