April 2, 2020 – Click here to listen
It seems that sometimes when it rains it pours. Recently I went in to get a colonoscopy for my 10-year checkup. In the preliminary filling out of forms etc. I notified them that I had contracted Hepatitis C in 1970 after a devastating car wreck and having received seven blood transfusions. Back then blood was not screened, and I got the virus infection.
There are virtually no symptoms early on and I went for many years without knowing I had it. Finally during the process of applying for key-man life insurance I was given exhaustive blood tests and it was discovered. (Leave it to the insurance companies to cover their bets.) In 2015 I took a miracle drug, (Harvoni,) that completely cured it in 90 days.
Unfortunately the disease had already taken its toll and badly damaged my liver and I am a prime candidate for liver cancer. The doctor wanted to check it out and they performed an ultra-sound on me. They didn’t like what they saw and then performed a CAT scan. They didn’t like what they saw and now are scheduling an MRI. Ughh – A mysterious area on my liver could be scarring from the virus or cancer.
I am awaiting scheduling for it now. I ask you to pray with me that it is scarring, but nonetheless its God will and not mine that will determine the outcome and that is as it should be as I belong to Him and He decided before the world was created the precise day I would be born and the day I would die.
Many in this position would be terrified. As for me I do not fear death because I know to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. I have experienced a dozen or so near-death experiences in my life. When I was about 35 years old, I was diagnosed with a brain tumor similar in nature to the one that killed my mother and was told by an impassionate neurosurgeon that I had an inoperable massive tumor similar to a spider web cyst at the base of my brain and a lady with symptoms identical to mine was dead three days later.
Nice . . .
After three months of exhaustive test after test including MRI’s, spinal taps, blood work, et al the head radiologist at prestigious Emory Cancer Clinic told me that I didn’t have brain cancer and it turned out the massive area on my brain was simply an unusual amount of brain fluid that had pooled in that location. (Extra brains?) It was ultimately determined that my symptoms were caused by muscles contracting on my neck and putting pressure on my nerves due to stress. (At the time I was running seven companies simultaneously.) They prescribed some medication to relieve that and in 24 hours every symptom was gone including massive headaches and numbness in my fingers. During the process I had to break the news to my wife and small children, make my funeral arrangements, and put my things in order.
I was elated after this scare that I was afforded a reprieve and could spend more time with my family, and I drew very close to God during the three months that I went through this.
Today massive numbers of people are panicking about the Coronavirus and the thought that they might die in relatively short order. It is unnerving to many. I would ask that you keep your faith in your Savior, Jesus Christ.
We have always been held in His hand and could not take a breath or have one heart beat apart from Him. We are His children and He loves us with a love that surpasses anyone’s understanding. We all will pass through physical death at some point and we should not fear it because He is with us and nothing can separate us from Him. Great things are in store for us in heaven with Jesus and we should eagerly anticipate it.
No one knows when their appointment with death is and the Bible is clear that we should always be ready. To me that means we should serve the Lord as best we know how right up until the time of our homecoming. Wouldn’t be terrible to die without Him. One thing about this virus scare that is good is that it has many people finally realizing that regardless of socio-economic factors, fame, wealth, or power, death has no favorites and it surely will come to us all. The only thing that will be significant will be whether or not we have the blood of Christ covering our sins. So if someone is not right with God there is no better time than now to do so.
With all that said I pray the Lord will allow me more time to complete more work for the Kingdom and spend time with my family but if it is my time, I’m ready and thankful for what time He has allowed.
Romans 8:38
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor principalities, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord . . .