This is hilarious

http://cu.convio.net/site/PageServer?pagename=Rx_song_download&JServSessionIdr003=bl51s5x801.app5a

Watch the animation. I have laughed hard each time I have watched it.

Top 5

I read this off of a random forum (someone posted it).

Top five things a woman pleaded for their husbands to know (a survey)

1.) Women need to be listened to and nurtured every day
2.) Women live to share “everything” (good and bad)
3.) He needs to Talk More (to her)
4.) Please listen to what I am saying
5.) The most important thing a man should know to keep a woman happy is to listen and hold her

Women crave security and open and honest communication. Those things don't seem to be half the need for men as they are for women.

Perception

My random thoughts...

I wish people realized that life is all about perception. It can be the difference between contentedness and being suicidal. If only people took more trips to poor countries. They would realize that happiness is not Florida vacations. Otherwise America would be the happiest place on the globe. Somehow we are the ones that have half the country on antidepressants, though. I think that our appetites our out of control. We jam food, booze, sex, porn, drugs, shopping, materialism, another person, music, etc. into a spot that it wasn't designed to be in. And it doesn't satisfy. There is no contentment. The flesh just screams louder and louder, "I want, I want." And the short term high of feeding our appetite just gives way to a greater bondage as we need more and more of our "medication" in order to pacify us. The man who can not be grateful for where he is at is truly a miserable man. So how does one get out of the downward spiral. I truly believe there is only one "medication" that works. Instead of medicating pain by stuff that will only trap us, bringing our hurts to God (I find out-loud works best for me) is the only way to really deal with the issues, rather than dig a bigger hole.

I am really looking forward to going through Feeding Your Appetites by Steve Arterburn with my accountability group. We already covered the first chapter (as you can tell by the end of my paragraph).

On a truly random note, I am quite a fan of TVU. You should watch it sometime. Go to www.tvulive.com. Click on the watch now in the upper right corner to watch the Christian rock (hardcore, emo, alternative, rap) video (i.e. P.O.D., Pillar, Switchfoot, Relient K, TobyMac, Demonhunter, Chevelle, Thousand Foot Krutch, etc.) station. On another random note, One Time, by Earthsuit, is really good. Why did they break up??

Songs that capture God's heart

I think there are many.

For example, Kutless' song, Run
Why do you run why do you hide oh don't you know I
just, just want to be with you.

Looking down from above as you watch TV
Wondering why, oh you're ignoring me
Do you remember, remember when I came to you
And you loved me
And I'm waiting for you
And I'm waiting for you

Why do you run why do you hide oh don't you know I
just, just want to be with you, to be with you
Hey, why do you run why do you hide oh do't you know
I just, just want to be with you, to be with you...

Whatever happened to the love, the love you had for me
When you first came to me
Don't you know that I died, died so I could be with
you forever.
And I'm waiting for you
And I'm waiting for you

Why do you run why do you hide oh don't you know I
just, just want to be with you, to be with you
Hey, why do you run why do you hid oh don't you know
I just, just want to be with you, to be with you...

Find a place of solitude, and I'll speak to you
As you pray to me
Don't you know I'm waiting here, waiting for you to
read and hear my words
I'm waiting here missing the time the times we shared
oh, please come to me

So, why do you run why do you hide oh don't you know I
just, just want to be with you, to be with you
Hey, why do you run why do you hide oh don't you know
I just, just want to be with you, to be with you...
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I also think Third Day's song, Just to be With You also does a decent job of capturing God's heart.
I've heard a tale that a man would climb a mountain
Just to be with the one he loves.
How many times has he broken that promise?
It has never been done
Well I never climbed the highest mountain,
but I walked the hill of calvary

And just to be with you I'll do anything,
there's no price I would not pay, no
Just to be with you I will give everything.
I would give my life away.
Yeaaaa

I've heard it said that a man would swim an ocean
Just to be with the one he loves.
But all of those dreams are an empty emotion
It can never be done.
Well I never swam the deepest ocean
But I walked upon the raging sea

And just to be with you I'll do anything,
there's no price I would not pay, no
and just to be with you I would give everything.
I would give my life away.
Yeaaaa

And I know that you don't understand the fullness of my love
How I died upon the Cross for your sin
And I know that you don't realize how much that I give you
And I promise I would do it all again

Just to be with you I've done everything
There's no price I did not pay, no
Just to be with you I gave everything
Yes I gave my life away.
Yeaaaaa

Just to be with you
Oh, just to be with you (3x)

Pet scan results

My pet scan showed cancer free. This was done at the place that didn't show it that way before. I am quite glad to be done. Praise God.

Now to get this port out...

The differences between guys and girls in general, and in marriage

This might be difficult to do since I am not married. However, I am merely putting down differences that I have seen from my heroes at explaining this stuff... Emerson Eggerichs, Shaunti Feldhahn, Steve Arterbern, James Dobson, Jimmy and Karen Evans, Bill Harley, etc. Some of this stuff is probably a no-brainer.

These are general stereotypes not rules.
Guys compartmentalize their lives. Girls do not.
Girls desire security and an open and honest communication most in a marriage. For guys it would be to be honored, sex, and have similar interests.
Girls give sex to get love, guys give love to get sex.
A guy wants to be respected above all. A girl wants to be loved above all.
Guys are generally more detached from there feelings than girls are.
Guys are more prone to pride and to rebel.
Guys view providing financially for their family as basically their biggest job. But to most women how much money he makes at his job is secondary to his presence being there in the home. However, it is still important to her that he makes at least as much money as her dad did.
Guys tend to view the marraige ceremony as the completion of a goal. Now they can shift priorities to a job or whatever to conquer. Women tend to view that now is when they really get serious about the relationship. So a guy views a relationship like a new car. It shouldn't require any major changes or fixings to it for a long time. A girl views the relationship as a garden. It needs to be daily worked on and needs to be a major priority to constantly fix it to be better and better. The guy views her constant attempts to change him and the mariage as a lack of respect for the job he is doing.
Guys are visual. The vast majority of girls are relational (according to Shaunti Feldhahn the number is something like 20%).
Women's biggest desire in marriage is oneness and intimacy. To share each other's thought's, feelings, struggles, ups, and downs.
Many women think they can change their husband after marriage. Many men HATE their wife trying to change them and stonewall her. This, of course, comes across as very unloving.
When a woman doesn't feel loved she acts to her husband without respect. When a man doesn't feel respected he reacts without love. And the downward spiral begins.
It is impossible for a guy to not notice an attractive girl (note: it is his choice to either continue looking, lust, etc. or look away). It is nearly impossible for a married wife to not get angry when her husband notices an attractive girl.

And on and on the list goes. If you are interested in this stuff you should read stuff by those authors/speakers.

John 8:32

I find this a good place to talk about stuff I learned during the whole experience so I don't forget. It is like writing a journal of different things God taught me along the way. I hope you all don't mind. A lot of times it is my ever evolving views of things. Maybe one day I will turn these into papers for college or something. So today I wanted to talk about walking in truth.
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John 8:32 And you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.

Neil T. Anderson loves to talk about the importance of walking in truth. So does William Backus in the book Telling Yourself the Truth. I think this is especially crucial when dealing with all of the cancer junk. If life and death are in the power of the tongue as Proverbs (or was it Psalms?) says, then our words might literally be causing a lot of our problems. W. Lee Cowden M.D. coauthor of Definitive Guide to Cancer said, "Beliefs and emotions can be legitimate toxins, contributing to an overall weakening of the immune system." On page 47 of A Cancer Battleplan Sourcebook, Dave Frahm quotes Christine Northrup M.D. as saying "A thought held long enough and repeated enough becomes a belief. The belief then becomes biology." On page 286 of Beating Cancer with Nutrition by Patrick Quillan, he tells how the number one need for a cancer patient, even more than reducing toxic burden is psycho-spiritual. "Your mind is probably the 'lifeguard' that keeps cancer at bay, hence major stress is literally inviting cancer into the body. The good news is that the mind can be a powerful instrument in eliminating cancer. This is a frightening or empowering concept, depending on how you choose to perceive it. The cancer patient who knows that he or she can do something about getting well is more likely to beat the disease. Helplessness and hopelessness are just as lethal as cigarettes and bullets." He tells how there may be a metaphorical significence to where the cancer is. "Divorced women may lose a breast as they feel a loss of their feminity. One of my patients developed cancer of the larnyx a year after his wife left him. He tried to get her to talk about it, but she said 'there was nothing left to say.'"

So what was my experience? I frequently joked "I think I just got a tumor," in lots of stressful situations. Did that cause me to get cancer? Not necessarily, but it could have opened myself up to it by, in a way, by putting a curse on myself. I heard a myriad of sermons from Charismatic pastors on sky angel on the crucialness of speaking only positive on myself. As a result, I never said, "I have cancer." I only said I was diagnosed with cancer. On a daily basis I confessed that I was healed in my mouth in Jesus' name. Many times I read through the healing verses in the Bible. Dodee Osteen's book, Healed from Cancer, has a list of verses that she said daily for healing and recovered from terminal liver cancer over a two year period. She is still alive and well many years later. As Creflo Dollar would always say, "There is truth and there is fact. Your body may have cancer. That is a fact. But the truth is Isaiah 53:6, 'by the stripes of Jesus you were healed.' And truth changes fact." Speaking the truth helped significently in keeping my mind positive and not be stressed out when doctors were discussing my worst nightmare, bone marrow transplants, with me. It also helps me right now to not be stressed out about the upcoming pet scan.

I find this not only makes a difference in health but in all sorts of areas of life. Life becomes far more peaceful when I chose to believe the positive in situations. I think part of the reason for the story of Peter walking on the water, was for us Christians to realize that as long as we keep our eyes on Jesus instead of our circumstances, nothing is impossible.
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I tossed a different counter on here the other day. I think I like this one better.

With it now being Monday...

It has been two weeks since radiation. At this point the side effects were supposed to stop. To tell you the truth, I really don't notice much at all. The side effects were at their worst after my ninth treatment. So at this point my body should start to recover back to normal (or so they tell me). I really feel and look about 100%. The only thing that I feel less than 100% on is my throat. And that's around 98%. Not bad. Praise God. It is wonderful to think this three year health ordeal is coming to a close.

Proverbs 3:5-6

5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart

and lean not on your own understanding;

6 in all your ways acknowledge him,

and he will make your paths straight.

The thing that was revealed to me today was that God makes the paths straight. They don't look straight. They may not feel straight. From the outside they may even look horrifically winding and roundabout. But God makes them straight as I go down them. That's a promise that sounds really good. I love the way I can hear verses hundreds of times, but then later God reveals stuff about it.

Note to self: Follow condition to get promise. God, help me to trust and not lean on my own understanding. Help me to acknowledge you. And thank you for making my paths straight.

The War is On!

I am doing an all out attempt to detoxify my body as quick as possible. This basically consists of large amounts of beet/dandelion juice (dandelion greens have to be the most potent liver cleanser I have found). I drink large amounts liquid chlorophyll, take a lot of alfalfa tablets, take Ultra Clear Plus, eat lots of cranberries (cooked with stevia), take epsom salts baths, sweat a lot (in jacuzzi or play sports), take tons of green powders (like Green Magma and Phyt-aloe), eat tons of dark green leafy veggies, etc. Couple that with all of the prayer support and I have a battle plan for detoxifying my body quickly! These are some of the things that REALLY helped with detoxifying chemo before, so I anticipate it to help with radiation. The nice thing is that now I can do all of the above, before I couldn't take some of the supplements because of possible interactions with the drugs.
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I feel euphoric right now. Life is so great. It seems like everyone in this world has problems but me. The reality is that I probably have more problems than they all do, but I have such peace about those things. Thank God for all of the prayers. I think the other part of it is that I don't have the drenching night sweats, horrible itching, breathing/coughing problems due compression of my lung, medical treatments, etc. going on for the first time in a LONG time. I am grateful to be done.

Stress

I think something that helped me tremendously over the past few years was the lack of stress in my life. The prayers of those around me helped me tremendously to be at peace... and really showed me that there can be calm and complete peace in the middle of a storm. I now have a new understanding of what the author of Hebrews meant when he talks of entering God's rest.

I am also very thankful that I was in a position where I didn't have to take on any responsibility. I feel badly for some of the people at the hospital who are trying to work and/or take care of kids while going through chemo. I sure hope those people have someone who can help them with some of their responsibilities...

I think the story of Peter trying to walk on the water really helped me out. When trying to believe for big things, it is crucial for me to keep my eyes on Jesus. If I start looking at the situation, I sink very quick. But while I keep looking at Jesus it is astounding what can happen.