Sunday, May 31, 2009

Sunday,

As another day comes to a close we reflect on the goodness of God as He executes His will in our lives. In the midst of the darkness surrounding us as we travel through this valley we rejoice in having God’s light along the path and confirmation of His love. We will come back to this after today’s update on Bonnie.

Bonnie’s days ebb and flow –never really knowing exactly how she is going to feel from one minute to the next. Today, for the most part, would be classified as a good day from the perspective of how she felt both from nausea and intestinal issues. Thank you for your prayers. The several doses of Imodium helped too! These little victories give her mental strength for handling the bigger picture of her overall condition.

Please continue to pray for her appetite. If you happen to think about her throughout the day and want to pray specifically about this particular issue, you can pray sometime between 11:30 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. and between 5:00 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. when she is either ordering the food or trying to eat it. Oddly this isn’t an issue at breakfast. Our normal schedule is to call room service around 11:30 for lunch and 5:00 for dinner and then it takes typically 45 minutes to one hour for the food to arrive. Selecting items off the menu when she doesn’t feel like eating is challenging,. Also keep in mind, she cannot have fresh fruit, vegetables, or salad due to her high risk of infection so that adds another variable to the difficulty of selecting something. When it finally arrives it is lukewarm and has no taste and difficult to swallow.

Combining small amounts of food actually consumed with the nausea and diarrhea Bonnie has been experiencing has elevated the loss of nutrition to the point she is now receiving a food supplement through a nutrition IV bag (TPN or Total Parenteral Nutrition) that runs 24 hours at a low dose. Her doctor made the order for this because she is “losing ground” on many key nutrients such as Calcium, Magnesium and Potassium. The doctors like to see chemo patients turn the corner and begin to increase these key nutrients on their own without an IV, so in Bonnie’s case they didn’t want her falling any further behind.

Bonnie tries to focus and dwell on the praises of the day and night. Last night we got three hours of continuous sleep without interruption from the IV pumps beeping. Her cracked lips and mouth sores have healed. Her temperature has been stable for over 24 hours. She had enough energy today to walk several laps around the floor. Bonnie enjoyed the warmth of the sun through her coverings as we sat outside on the 5th floor patio for 25 minutes. She is able to taste vanilla and orange flavors.

To conclude for the evening, I would like to revisit the first paragraph of confirmation of God’s love. In some respects it will be difficult to grasp all we are trying to communicate as we try to describe the many facets of this journey. It’s like we are driving through the Rocky Mountains and seeing the beauty firsthand while we are on the cell phone trying to describe it to you. If you did not read yesterday’s blog post, the following statement will not carry as much meaning: With God there are no coincidences.

There have been a number of occurrences that have happened since this journey began that some might classify them as coincidences, yet when God is driving the vehicle all things have a purpose; some seen and many unseen.

We would like to share with you one such occurrence, but don’t know what the intended outcome will be by sharing it. If you recall from yesterday’s (Saturday) blog post, I finished with something about having hope because of our faith in Christ who loved us by dying for us and ended by quoting 1 Corinthians 13:13. Fast forward to 5:30 a.m. this morning. This year, as I (Steve) read through the Bible in a year, I’m using Dr. Charles Stanely’s Life Priniciples Daily Bible along with two of our kids. Today’s New Testament reading was from John 11:30-57 which is the story about Lazarus who Jesus raised from the dead (feel free to read it). Periodically, maybe once a week, Dr. Stanley has small paragraph commentaries called “What The Bible Says About”. Today happened to be one of those days and the topic was God’s Forever Love. Following is the entire quote from Dr. Stanely:

I Corinthians 13 is probably the most widely quoted passage in the world on the subject of love. Verse 13 says “now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

We recognize that Jesus demonstrated sacrificial love for us by dying for our sins, making possible our forgiveness and restoring us with fellowship with the Father. Yet we often fail to recognize that Christ’s love goes even beyond the cross.

Everything we do, don’t do, face, and don’t face is touched by His continuing love period. Everything about us hinges on love because God, who is love, created us in His image. Because God loves us, He gives us blessings and lets us share them. When we pray and are told to wait, it is because He loves us and knows we need time to grow. When the overwhelming choices before us make it hard to know which way is up, our Lord and Savior shows us our need to depend on His guiding love.

Jesus demonstrated this kind of amazing love to Mary and Martha upon Lazarus’ death. John 11:6 says, “When He heard that he was sick, He stayed two more days in the place where He was.” Jesus knew that Mary and Martha needed to grieve in order to grow. He allowed the sisters’ pain because He loved them.

Until we come to understand and believe at our deepest, innermost level that God is love, we will struggle with trusting Him, yielding to Him, obeying Him, and serving Him wholeheartedly. One of the keys to our spiritual growth as Christians is believing in God’s love even when we cannot see it.

While we are to live in faith and hope, our most important dwelling place is God’s love. Without making His love our ultimate dwelling, we cannot fully live in faith and hope. We should refuse to take a step or a breath without remaining keenly sensitive to “the greatest of these” – our Father’s love
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Well, I found it interesting that the very next morning after posting a blog update that the exact verse I had just referenced the night before shows up again, only with added insight from Dr. Stanely. I felt compelled to share this with you for no other reason than to say “with God there are no coincidences.” Many similar things like this have occurred in the past three weeks which is fueling the confirmation that we are exactly where God wants us to be at this point in time.

Thank you for the many prayers!

7 comments:

  1. Great devotional by Dr. Stanley! God is good, and faithful and loving in ALL He allows in our lives.

    We love you so much and wanted to share with you that a friend of ours approached us after the service this a.m. and said that she had friends at a church in Redding, CA and that she was going to put Bonnie on their prayer list. She said this church has a prayer ministry with documented miracle after miracle. She said "These people are prayer "warriors" and cancer doesn't scare them in the least."

    Isn't the network of God's people amazing? Her name is Joanne, she is a single Mom who recently lost her job, and she is praying for you Bonnie, as are so many others here in TX.

    All our Love,
    Ed, Cathy and kids

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  2. Bonnie and Steve,

    We sang "How Firm a Foundation" in church this morning and I couldn't help but think and pray for y'all as we sang:

    How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,
    Is laid for your faith in His excellent Word!
    What more can He say than to you He hath said,
    You, who unto Jesus for refuge have fled?

    In every condition, in sickness, in health;
    In poverty’s vale, or abounding in wealth;
    At home and abroad, on the land, on the sea,
    As thy days may demand, shall thy strength ever be.

    Fear not, I am with thee, O be not dismayed,
    For I am thy God and will still give thee aid;
    I’ll strengthen and help thee, and cause thee to stand
    Upheld by My righteous, omnipotent hand.

    When through the deep waters I call thee to go,
    The rivers of woe shall not thee overflow;
    For I will be with thee, thy troubles to bless,
    And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress.

    When through fiery trials thy pathways shall lie,
    My grace, all sufficient, shall be thy supply;
    The flame shall not hurt thee; I only design
    Thy dross to consume, and thy gold to refine.

    The soul that on Jesus has leaned for repose,
    I will not, I will not desert to its foes;
    That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
    I’ll never, no never, no never forsake.

    You are in our prayers daily,
    Christy and Sean

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  3. I really look forward to reading your posts, Steve (and Bonnie - when you feel well enough). I find myself waking up in the morning, thinking, "How is Bonnie? Was God sufficient this day?" I wonder if its not similar to the thoughts Nebuchadnezzar had when the first light of day illumined his bed chamber. "How is Daniel?" He rushes out to the pit of lions and calls out, "Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God whom you serve continually been able to deliver you from the lions?" A pause. Then Daniel's voice! God was sufficient for his night with the lions. I know God is sufficient. I know he will be sufficient. Still there is something powerful about hearing the voice of someone experiencing that sufficiency in a powerful way. Thanks Steve and Bonnie. May he (again) be sufficient this day.

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  4. Wow. The one sentence you wrote resounds with peace; with God there are no coincidences. You both are an inspiration to the rest of us with your perspective and thoughts. We missed you at Abbey's open house but it was great to see the kids and your parents. Blessings to you both, and your entire family. We love you and are praying for healing and comfort. The Barry Robinson family

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  5. Dear Bonnie,
    We just wanted to say we're sending lots of prayers your way, and we're thinking of you all the time! We love reading your blog daily, and we love seeing you share your faith.
    Seeing your family on Saturday was so great, even though we missed you. The look on Cassandra's face was priceless when she saw Emma and Hannah.
    Lots of love,
    The Easter Family

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  6. Hi Mrs. Opper! You might have heard this verse before, But I just wanted to share it with you, as it is my favorite verse and I have reflected on it a lot, especially when I am in pain. It is Romans 12:12. "Be JOYFUL in hope, PATIENT in affliction, FAITHFUL in prayer." I know you are and will continue to be. Tons of prayers are going to Heaven for you!!
    Lots of Love,
    Emma Easter =)

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  7. Dear Oppers,
    You are all such an encouragement to me. We are in constant prayer for your recovery and for your children to use this time as an opportunity to grow their relationship with Jesus. Thank you for being such a bright light in the midst of chaos.

    Tina

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