Faith, Hope and Love on my 4th Birthday
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
1 Corinthians 13:13 NIV (https://my.bible.com/bible/111/1CO.13.13.NIV)
But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet.
1 Thessalonians 5:8 NIV (https://my.bible.com/bible/111/1TH.5.8.NIV)
4 years ago today my life changed forever. I underwent a 8 hour plus craniotomy removing a massive 7cm cubed brain tumour that had been growing for years unbeknown to me. It had changed me in many visible ways, and many invisible as well. I was not the same person I used to be, and my wife thought it was just stress. But it wasn’t, and by an absolute miracle of loosing my glasses at an airport a week before and getting an eye test a few days before which led to an MRI which revealed the tumour.
My neurosurgeon said it was so big that he couldn’t believe I was still alive, and that if we did nothing one night I would go to bed and not wake up the next day. He admitted me the same day, and 2 days later (which is 4 years ago today) removed the tumour.
I bled heavily during the surgery, so he kept me sedated for 5 days afterwards while my body healed.
When they finally allowed me to wake up I couldn’t really move because my muscles had atrophied. So I had to have physio in hospital and could only leave once I could do everything my self again — which was 3 weeks from when I arrived.
I described the whole experience at the time akin to being Jonah in the whale, for there was much the Lord had asked me to do but I had got distracted and stopped listening.
Then I had chemo that should have prevented it from recurring.
Then 6 months after that I had another craniotomy due to a suspected recurrence shown in an MRI scan, which the pathologist in the theater said wasn’t cancer, and then radiation when the follow up MRI scan showed that it was because it had spread away from the original site and being a diffuse tumour there was no point in any more surgery.
But I am still here, 4 years later, by the grace of God the Father, God the Son Jesus, and God the Holy Spirit.
He gave me beautiful steadfast wife, an amazing church to pray for me, wonderful family who did too and my folks who came and spent the time I was in hospital with Helen every time, the best neurosurgeon in the country, the best oncologist in the country — all without which I would not be here today.
And on top of it all, as if I had received enough undeserved kindness, two years ago Jesus healed me at the Western Cape Equip my church hosted. I was being prayed for by two of the local elders, and two of the now elders not then part of our church, during which two people saw my head go fire hot red. One of them was part of our church, and the other didn’t know me at all and was just visiting for the Equip.
Not every one who has brain surgery survive.
Not every one who has chemo survive.
Even less people who have radiation survive.
For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
Hebrews 4:12 NIV (https://my.bible.com/bible/111/HEB.4.12.NIV)
So today I am still here, entirely dependant on the Lord Jesus, trying to do what He has set out for me to do while I still breathe.
He replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”
Matthew 17:20 NIV (https://my.bible.com/bible/111/MAT.17.20.NIV)
If you don’t know the God of the impossible, who sent his Son to die for You at great cost to Him but free for you, then now is the time to accept what Jesus His Son has done for You.
There is no better time than now, don’t wait for Jesus will return when we don’t expect Him.
So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.
Matthew 24:44 NIV (https://my.bible.com/bible/111/MAT.24.44.NIV)
There is no who will ever love You as much as Jesus does. He gave up everything to win you — all you have to do is accept Jesus into your heart.
‘For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. ‘
John 3:16–17 (https://my.bible.com/bible/111/JHN.3.16-17)
And on top of it all Jesus will be your friend, even though we are unworthy He chooses to be this to us:
I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.
John 15:15 NIV (https://my.bible.com/bible/111/JHN.15.15.NIV)
So turn to Jesus, and walk with Him, the one who loves You more than anyone else ever will.
Amen
