Dana's Christian Journey

musings of a thankful cancer survivor

Author: Dana

  • faithfulness

    —

    Dana

    Since 2002, this is the thirteenth May I’ve shared that a school year has ended and these weekly writings will cease for a couple of months. How does one calculate the faithfulness of God? I believe it is beyond measure, but the Father wants His children to know Him. This means we are to be sure that no matter what happens or what anyone else says, our Creator loves us and is faithful in every way.

    My summer prayer request is that you lift up our youngest daughter Karlyn, who leaves Saturday to spend two months working with children in Uganda. This is the child who hangs over waterfalls and waves to the camera, so please pray that God will give her wisdom, health, and safety as He accomplishes His purposes.

    I pray you all have a wonderful summer. Thank you for your prayers and encouragement. I finish this school year as healthy as I have been in quite a while. I’d like to be like David who wanted all to know his Good Shepherd. He wrote, “I do not seal my lips, as you know, O Lord. I do not hide your righteousness in my heart; I speak of your faithfulness and salvation. I do not conceal your love and your truth from the great assembly.” (Psalm 40:9-10) May we ‘walk in the light of His presence.’ (see below)

    With love,
    Dana

    “I will sing of the Lord’s great love forever; with my mouth I will make your faithfulness known through all generations. I will declare that your love stands firm forever, that you established your faithfulness in Heaven itself… The heavens praise your wonders, O Lord, your faithfulness too, in the assembly of the holy ones… O Lord Almighty, who is like you? You are mighty, O Lord, and your faithfulness surrounds you… Righteousness and justice are the foundations of your throne; love and faithfulness go before you. Blessed are those who have learned to acclaim you, who walk in the light of your presence, O Lord.” Psalm 89

  • graduation

    —

    Dana

    IMG_0647Susan and I made great time in a six-hour drive from Atlanta to Memphis Saturday morning. But the two-hour trip from Memphis to Little Rock took seven as a truck accident shut down the interstate. So we arrived at Jordan’s graduation from medical school just as the crowds began streaming out of the Verizon Arena. At least we got to take pictures and eat a celebratory dinner with Kinsey and Dr. Stanley.

    Last week our eighth graders had a nice graduation ceremony and this week our seniors graduate. But we all know there is more to come. The eighth graders begin high school next year, the seniors become freshmen in college, and Jordan starts four years of a residency program to become an ophthalmologist.

    Besides receiving a diploma and participating in a great celebration, graduation insinuates that one is ready for the next step. In a similar sense I have stressed to my Algebra students this year that my job was to get them ready for their future math courses. “If you do not master Algebra 1, there is no way to succeed in Algebra 2!” My students got tired of me saying it.

    I guess Christians don’t graduate from one level to a next, but I believe God understands perfectly the progression of growth His children are to make. I wonder sometimes if we would be wise to ask what He is trying to teach us.

    Before we are ready to take the Gospel to a foreign land, maybe He wants us to talk to our next-door neighbor about eternal matters. Before we are ready to capture our city for Christ, perhaps He wants us to learn to treat those in our workplace like we want to be treated. Before we are ready to do some grand act of service, maybe God wants us to obey a little thing He’s been telling us to do.

    As Jeremiah complained about his difficulties, God said: “If you have raced with men on foot and they have worn you out, how can you compete with horses? If you stumble in safe country, how will you manage in the thickets by the Jordan?” (Jeremiah 12:5) God knows what we need to go through before we are really ready for the next thing.

    As always, Jesus is our best example. The Father even taught His only Son… and when everything was complete, the Son laid down His life for each of us.

    “During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Although he was a son, he learned obedience through the things he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.” Hebrews 5:7-9

  • voice

    —

    Dana

    Ten-year-old John selected a Psalm to read before bedtime this past week: “The voice of the Lord is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the Lord thunders over the mighty waters. The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is majestic.” (Psalm 29:3-4)

    “I know what this is talking about,” John said. “What’s that?” I asked. “When Jesus was in the boat with his friends and the storm came, his voice went over the waters and made things better.” “Hmmm…, I think you’re right.”

    The voice of the Lord can calm any situation and the presence of the Lord is our need for any storm. So many of our persecuted brothers and sisters teach us deep lessons as they testify of God’s faithfulness in suffering.

    European Christians helped Brother Yun and his family escape his native country China in 2001. For twenty years he was a wanted man for refusing to be silent about Jesus. Arrested numerous times, Brother Yun spent over seven years in different prisons and endured incredible torture for the name of Christ. Through all his experiences, our brother’s great testimony is: ‘God is with us.’

    He wrote: “The people who really suffer are those who have never experienced God’s presence. The way to have God’s presence is by walking through hardship and suffering – the way of the cross. When a child of God suffers you need to understand that God allows it. He has not forgotten you! The devil cannot snatch you away! Jesus made this beautiful promise to his children: ‘My sheep listen to my voice; I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.’” (John 10:27-29)

    “Without warning, a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. The disciples went and woke him, saying, ‘Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!’ He replied, ‘You of little faith, why are you so afraid?’ Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm.” Matthew 8:24-26

    Quote from Brother Yun, The Heavenly Man, ©2002 Monarch Books, p. 312

  • fruit

    —

    Dana

    Barnabas Mam, one of only two hundred Christians to survive Pol Pot’s reign of terror in Cambodia, escaped the country with his wife and three daughters in 1985 as the Vietnamese occupation created new dangers. After many difficulties, they ended up in a refugee camp just across the Cambodian border in Thailand.

    As a teacher and worship leader, Barnabas and a few other Christians began to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ to the 150,000 inhabitants of their refugee camp. Barnabas, his family, and all the believers learned about the values of God’s kingdom in a foreign setting.

    “The economy of the kingdom is upside down from any other value system in the world. The weak, the poor, the foolish: these are the most prized possessions in the kingdom. If I wanted to be like Jesus, I would have to go low, not high.”

    Fifteen churches were established over the eight years Barnabas lived in the Thai refugee camp. Fifty-three leaders emerged from the Cambodian believers with a passion to spread the Gospel and seek God’s kingdom. Seven goals were set for each church: meaningful fellowship, intimate worship, powerful prayer, cheerful giving, hearty participation, joyful service, and effective evangelism.

    During October of 1991 in Paris, France, the UN was given authority to enforce a cease-fire in Cambodia. In March of 1993, Barnabas and his family were permitted to return home. Since then over four hundred churches have been planted by the Christians from the Thai refugee camp. From struggle came growth. From ashes came beauty. From a tiny seed came fruit.

    “He told them another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches.’ He told them still another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough.’” Matthew 13:31-33

    Quote from Church Behind the Wire by Barnabas Mam with Kitti Murray, ©2012, Moody Publishers, p. 267

  • yet

    —

    Dana

    In 2006, our son Taylor spent a couple of months in Cambodia as a part of Youth With a Mission. In Battambang, the second largest city in the country, everyone he met had lost family members in the murderous reign of Pol Pot, the extreme Communist leader who had slaughtered his own people.

    In 1975 there were twenty-seven evangelical churches in Phnom Penh, the capitol, and there were over 10,000 Christians in Cambodia. By the end of 1979 only two hundred Christians remained alive.

    But Pol Pot did not just target Christians. He killed people of all religions, he killed people that had an education, he killed people that wore glasses, he killed people that could speak English… Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge murdered 1.7 million people and ‘the killing fields’ became synonymous with Cambodia’s genocide.

    Sovann was one of the survivors. He came to know Jesus in 1972 and walked with the Good Shepherd through danger and imprisonment and torture and loss. He cannot explain why he lived and others did not, but he knows God has called him to shine light.

    Sovann was given the nickname ‘Barnabas,’ which means ‘son of encouragement.’ Though he witnessed horrors beyond description, Barnabas believed God wanted him to lead Christians to worship the Lord with all their hearts. “Yes, I suffered. Yet I shouted praise in my heart. Yes, I was afraid. Yet I learned to trust my Lord. Yes, so much was taken away. Yet so much was given.”

    ‘Yet’ is a little word we can all courageously choose. The One we follow is worthy of praise.

    “Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.” Psalm 42:5-6

    (Quote from Church Behind the Wire, by Barnabas Mam with Kitti Murray, ©2012, Moody Publishers, p 131)

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