The Long Road Ahead – Health Update

Yesterday I saw the surgeon that operated on me when I was diagnosed with rectal cancer and he told me something that I did not want to hear. He said:”You have a long road ahead of you.” I was hoping for better news since I had undergone chemo and radiation that was completed a month ago. He told me that the damage in my rectum was the most severe that he has seen in all his years of practice. He scheduled me for an MRI, to better determine the extent of the damage and is planning extensive surgery four weeks from now. We were hoping for a ileostomy reversal but indications are that it is not possible.

It has been a difficult painful experience since I became ill more than a year ago and the medical prognosis of my situation is not favorable. However, our hope is in Jesus, I belong to Him and He determines my life. I died twice in December 2017, while I was in the intensive care unit of the hospital for a month, after I had complications. Very few people believed that I would survive, but I did, all because of Jesus, He brought me back and kept me alive.

We are all one breath away from eternity. We might die today and then eternity awaits us. We must always be ready. We do not know how long the road ahead of us is. What is important is that we follow Jesus all the way, until the end or else we will spend eternity away from Jesus in damnation. We have to bear fruit for the kingdom of God and bring glory to Jesus, or else we will get cut off and burned. Jesus warned that every branch in Him that does not bear fruit will get cut off and burned, unfruitful believers will end up in damnation.

Many Christians wrongly believe that if they believe in Jesus they have a ticket to heaven. They think they can sit back and celebrate their salvation. Nothing can be further from the truth. ++

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+We have to follow Jesus, live in obedience to Him and endure with Him until the end, through all circumstances. To follow Jesus is not easy. The road that Jesus guides us onto is not for the faint hearted and unbelieving. We will face many trials and tribulations and only those who stay with Jesus until the end, will win the prize of eternal life. Without Jesus, we can do nothing. Jesus warned, He said:”Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the way that leads to life, and only a few find it.” Matthew 17:13,14.

It is when we go trough trials, tribulation, pain and suffering, that we learn to trust in Jesus. It is in those times that our faith is tested, and if we endure we learn to overcome. It is in those times and through those circumstances that our character is built and we are transformed into the likeness of  Jesus. We read in Hebrews 10:36 ”For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised.

37FOR YET IN A VERY LITTLE WHILE,

HE WHO IS COMING WILL COME, AND WILL NOT DELAY.

38BUT MY RIGHTEOUS ONE SHALL LIVE BY FAITH;

AND IF HE SHRINKS BACK, MY SOUL HAS NO PLEASURE IN HIM.

39But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul.”

We do not know how long the road ahead is, but we need to endure with Jesus until the end, to win the  prize of eternal life.

May Jesus bless you.