salvation & how it helps in a hospital

In ten days I celebrate my 30th anniversary of when I came to know the Lord. At this moment, I am flashing back to an old school bus (painted blue) just outside of Columbus, Texas and hearing about how Jesus died for my sins and what I had to do was believe that He did that for me. And on that date, I came to know Him as my Savior and Lord.

And the great thing about it is is found in a verse in John 10:29: "My Father, who gave them to Me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of My Father's hand." And that served as a great reminder to me during 2008 and the times that I went through.... And there were those who tried to pluck me out of the Father's hand but....

• Death wasn't able to do it....although seven doctors told my parents that I was dying and I was told by others that I was blue and my body was shutting itself down.
• Discouragement wasn't able to it....When you are not allowed to eat or drink ANYTHING or having to breath through a tube in your throat....
• Anger wasn't able to do it...many of the doctors, nursing staff and CNA's were great people, but there was one or two to undo all the goodwill built up by the others....
• "Reason" wasn't able to do it...all of those people who say "Prayer does nothing"....trust in the hands of medicine....but where was "reason" when Anger, discouragment, depression, etc...came to attack me...did reason say "hang in there"....did reason bring my friends and co-workers in and give me words of encouragment...
• Depression wasn't able to do it....when you spend day after day after day in a hospital bed, with limited (if any) movement and the healing process is slow and you wonder if anything is ever going to happen....

All of these things combined could not seperate me from the Lord who loved me and gave Himself for me. Nothing is able to take me out of His hand and those are not just words on a page said and written two thousand years ago, it is fact based on what I want through in a "real-life" situation!

Fat Man part 2

A while back I wrote about the return of what I called "The Fat Man" http://1ncisfan.blogspot.com/2010/04/return-of-fat-man.html....

What I neglected to write about is the thing that is the most important item against neglect and that is I have to fight against him every day. Every war that we have as believers is a daily battle because the one behind neglect does not sleep at all, take a day off, or retreat at all.

So often we start to make progress, then think that we have the battle won. That is the most dangerous time, we get suckered into thinking that we have won a once-for-all time victory and then the enemy changes tactics and decides to go on a different path and we find ourselves right back to where we started and get frustrated. And that frustration is either taken out on ourselves (oh how many times have I done that!) or on others (if you wouldn't have distracted me, or given me wrong advice, etc....) or (incorrectly) on God.

The reason I put "incorrectly" is very simple, God has given us keys on how to defeat the enemy....but we either mix it with our own advice, ignore it altogether (thinking that the way to defeat the enemy is to accommodate it), or think of it as a "quick-fix" solution (try it once and then forget about it).

The way to achieve victory is to apply the keys that God has given us on a daily basis and to do it the way He told us to. Can you imagine what would have happened to me in the hospital had the doctors not treated me on a daily basis and the way that the treatment was supposed to go? I would have either ended up in worse shape or at San Fernando Cemetery being part of the groundwork there....That is why we as believers need to do what God has called us to do in the way He has called us to do it on a daily basis so that we don't end up in worse shape or dead to God being of no use to Him.....