I wish to thank all of you who have been praying for CJ as she has gone through this battle with ovarian cancer! We have been overwhelmed with the prayers, cards, notes, calls, emails, and Facebook messages.  Her Facebook update page alone has more than 150 people who continue to pray for her healing and for God to strengthen and sustain us as we go through this trial. At this point, we are close to meeting with the surgeons and finding out how much the cancer tumors have shrunk. Our prayer is that God will guide the surgeons to remove the rest of the cancer, followed by 3 more rounds of chemo, and then hopefully remission! Of course, we don’t know if that is what will happen, and we continue to realize this battle belongs to the Lord, and no matter what happens, our lives are in God’s hands, and that is a wonderful place to find peace and rest in!

However, as a pastor, I like to attempt to think in “big picture” terms and wonder where this all fits in God’s ultimate plan for us. While certainly our primary prayer at the moment is for the cancer to go away and lead to remission, as I read the gospel of Jesus I would imagine him to say something like “Yes, of course healing right now is what you want with all your heart, but let me tell you I have something far more wonderful than that in store for you and all who believe in me!” In Matthew 4:23, it says “And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the Kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people.”  A few verses before that it says “From that time Jesus began to preach and to say ‘Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand’”. And most everyone is familiar with probably the most quoted NT verse, John 3:16,“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.

So what is this “Kingdom of Heaven, and eternal life”? Most people think Jesus is referring just to a destination, a place we hope to go after we die. But he was also referring to a new quality of life, a God-focused and Christ-like life that begins now and will culminate when Jesus comes again to judge the world and begin his new, eternal Kingdom! God created humanity originally without sin, but now we all suffer the effects of sin, leading to physical death. But Jesus came to save and restore the world to its original form, a world without sin, disease death, hatred, and all the other horrible consequences of sin! So, praying for healing is vitally important and wonderful, and we encourage you to keep praying for CJ and for me! But in God’s bigger picture, don’t forget that all healing is temporary, and is just a “glimpse” of the future restoration of the new Kingdom. Jesus healed many people and even raised some from the dead, but they all died eventually. And so will we!

But, the gospel of the Kingdom is about an amazing future, beginning in part now, for those who accept God’s offer of forgiveness and new life. The Bible says God has put that longing within our hearts:

¹¹  He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.Ecclesiastes 3:11 (NIV)
And Paul reminds us in I Corinthians 2:9 that we have not begun to see or hear or imagine all the wonder, beauty , and joy of life in the new Kingdom: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him!”

CJ and I are privileged to live in a beautiful central Michigan resort community called Canadian Lakes. It is truly a wonderful place to live, with beautiful lakes, golf courses, clubhouses and restaurants, music concerts, and a wide array of clubs and activities. A few years ago our community adopted as its slogan “The Good Life”. (I know, not very original, but it really does describe how most people here feel about our community!) And if we are honest, most of you who read this probably live in beautiful areas as well, and we all live in probably the top 10% of people in the world as far as income, housing, medical care, and other blessings go. But as “good” as life may be now, we know it doesn’t last, and we long for a life that is more fair, more joyful and permanent than what we have now. As we fellowship with folks our age (60-70-ish) and joke about our medications, procedures, doctor visits, and sometimes becoming caretakers for our spouses, etc., we realize that the “Golden Years” are not always that golden!

While most people spend their whole life searching for the “Good Life” as they define it, Jesus offers us a vastly superior, never-ending quality of life that may be called “The Abundant Life”!

In John 10:9-10 (NKJV), Jesus tells us:
⁹  I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.¹⁰  The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

This is the life in the “Kingdom of God” that Jesus came to offer to those who want it, and will lead to a restored new earth where we live with God present with us forever! We will have new bodies that last forever & never get sick, and we will be in the very presence of God all the time.

This life can begin now as you trust your life to Jesus, receive his forgiveness, and allow him to change you from the inside out by living in you through his Holy Spirit! God slowly changes us and promises to give us a new heart and a new mind (the mind of Christ). And while we still live on this earth now, even though it is marred by sin, God will enable us to see the Him, the world, and other people in a new and better way, with the eyes and heart of Jesus! We will again begin to sense the beauty and wonder of creation. We will see other people as Jesus sees them, and remember that every human being, no matter how flawed, was created in God’s image and is of infinite worth. (Yes, even our politicians!) And we will truly desire to live with a consciousness of God with us, every moment of every day, and a desire to please Him in how we think and act. This will change how you see the world and how effectively you can impact the world for God!

One of my favorite books this last year is one by Mark Batterson entitled “Primal: A Quest for the Lost Soul of Christianity”. It focuses on the greatest commandment, to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength”. In a chapter on loving God with our soul, he says “Spiritual maturity has nothing to do with circumstances. It has everything to do with consciousness. A relationship with Christ doesn’t always change our circumstances, but it does change the way we see ourselves, others, and God. Why? Because we see with our souls. We become less self-conscious and more God-conscious. It’s almost like a second childhood. As we recapture a child-like sense of wonder, we perceive everything and everyone for what it really is: a miracle”.

So, continue to pray for CJ and for remission of her cancer! But also pray that we will keep our hearts and minds focused on God’s ultimate gift, new life in His Kingdom! We know that is the only place where we will find true peace, joy, and wholeness for our souls.

I pray that each of you that you would not settle for just the “good life”, whatever that may mean to you, but that you would trust Jesus to welcome you into the “abundant life” of his eternal Kingdom!  That’s the ultimate gift God is offering to us; joyfully grab on to it, and don’t leave this life without it!