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Never Forsaken: Finishing Well

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Since then, no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face, who did all those signs and wonders the Lord sent him to do in Egypt – to Pharaoh and to all his officials and to his whole land.  Deuteronomy 34:10-11  Moses truly lived an incredible life, and we can learn so much from it. He was not perfect, not by far, and the Bible doesn’t shy away from that. He was a confessed murderer (Exodus 2:12). He argued with God and tried to get out of the role that God had for him at the burning bush ( Exodus 3 -4). In the wilderness, he let his frustration get the better of him and he disobeyed God’s instructions at Meribah ( Numbers 20:1-13 ). But despite these failings, and others I’m sure, God chose to use Moses to accomplish His will and show His wonders. We may have thought that because of what we have done or who we have been, God cannot use us. I caution you to remember that Moses was 80 – EIGHTY YEARS OLD – when God finally got a hold of him and beg...
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Preparing for Radiation: Cutting my Hair

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 There's lots to do before I start radiation in 35 days, and I have to prioritize. When looking at my list, one of the hardest things was cutting my hair. Three years ago, I had three brain surgeries which resulted in a shaved head at the end. That was a tough decision at first, but when I found that I would have several strange, shaved patches, and I had spent two weeks in the neuro ICU not being able to wash or care for my hair properly, it got a little easier. After surgery, I very much wanted to grow my hair back out. There's something about my body and brain that tell me I need to put my hair in a ponytail. If I can't, I just don't feel right. One year later (exactly one year from my first surgery) my dear friend made me celebratory badges for milestones I'd achieved after both my brain surgeries and my arm surgery early in 2024:  I finally had a ponytail again! I've been very careful with haircuts ever since (and really, I've only had a few) to make su...
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Never Forsaken: Stepping Out in Faith

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  Not one of you will enter the land I swore with uplifted hand to make your home, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun. As for your children that you said would be taken as plunder, I will bring them in to enjoy the land you have rejected.   Numbers 14:30-31  God tells you to do something and you don’t. You’re scared, or intimidated or ashamed. Whatever your reason, you decide not to do what God has told you to. Then comes God’s judgement, the correct response to your disobedience. You don’t want whatever the consequences are even more than whatever had kept you from obeying in the first place, but now it’s too late. Yes, God forgives, but that doesn’t mean He rewinds and makes everything the way it was. Because of your disobedience, you now have a new course, a new path to follow, and to not follow it would be further disobedience. That will not go well.   God had brought the people to the promised land. They were to send delegates to go scope i...
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Never Forsaken: Walking with God

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Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Moses could not enter the tent of meeting because the cloud had settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.  Exodus 40:34-35  During special seasons in the history of the world, God’s presence was visible among His people. The people of Israel were accompanied by God’s glory in the form of a pillar of cloud and of fire that traveled with them through the wilderness. Many centuries later, they were given the gift of God, Himself, walking among them in the person of Jesus Christ. But is this a gift relegated only to the past?  When God brought His people out of Egypt, He led them with His own presence and glory in the form of a cloud. This cloud is pictured as a pillar that moved to guide them from one place to the next and settled amongst them when they were to remain in one place. It went behind them at the Red Sea to separate them from their enemies, the E...
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Preparing for Radiation: When Plans Change

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  Over the next few weeks, I'll be sharing regular posts about how I'm preparing for radiation. I'm hoping these can help someone else, as I struggled to find a conversational source like this that dealt with the subject. For more information on my brain tumor,  check out these posts . So... Crazy week. I wrote my first post in this series last week under the impression that I had four and a half months until I would be starting radiation and I had a lot of things I wanted to do to get ready. I already have ten other posts in this series started in my drafts folder - so much to do. So much I want to take care of. And this week, well that timeline shrunk significantly. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Here's what happened.  Last weekend I had an amazing time with my family. We talked a lot about radiation, and I thought more and more about it. To say I started questioning myself would be an understatement. You see, the determination to begin treatment was made based...
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Never Forsaken: Using Your Gifts

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  and everyone who was willing and whose heart moved them came and brought an offering to the Lord for the work on the tent of meeting, for all its service, and for the sacred garments. Exodus 35:21  I’ve written about it before , but fiber arts are kind of my thing. I actually spent last weekend with dozens of my fiber arts people. Shepherds and spinners and dyers and weavers. It was at an event called the Shepherd’s Extravaganza. I got to help out with the fleece sale where shepherds brought in this year’s fleece, the wool freshly cut from their sheep (don’t worry, it’s like a hair cut – doesn’t hurt at all). A judge came and looked them all over, noting different qualities and deficiencies in them. She chose the best to receive fancy ribbons, and one among them received the judge’s choice award. In another area, craftspeople had brought things they had made with wool (and other fiber) to be displayed and judged. My Mom won the judge’s choice in that area, she’s super tale...
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Never Forsaken: Who is God?

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  And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.” Exodus 34:6-7  Who is God? What is He like? There are thousands of different references in the Bible and we could compound them and break them down, but how much more accurate, more exact would it be to look at who God, Himself, says He is?   God starts out by introducing Himself as “The Lord, the Lord.” In other versions, this is represented as “Yahweh, Yahweh God.” He gives His Name, that by which He is to be known to all mankind for all generations. This is the name God gave to Moses at the burning bush when he asked for it. It literally means, “the existing one” ( Strong’s ). God is the...
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