The beauty that God has created for us to enjoy.

I want to tell you about some things I learned during the short trip my wife and I took before my surgery that I told you about in my last post, Becoming One -> Is it possible.  

God has created a very beautiful world that we can/could enjoy but man's greed is destroying it.

My wife and I bought a cargo van and are converting it into a camper van. It has been a long process and we are still not finished with it. When I found out that I needed this surgery and that the healing process takes so long we decided to take the van out on the road to get some enjoyment before starting with all this that we are dealing with now. It is not only what's going on with me but my wife has elderly parents who have many health issues too which she is involved with. With all of this we figured we could squeeze in about two weeks to take the trip in the van.

We saw so many beautiful places which has made me think about how wonderful it would be if everyone could enjoy them too.

My wife used to work in the Houston Independent School District and at one point she was in charge of scheduling schools to go to camps. These camps were away from Houston out in the woods. They were set up very well in that the kids were not only taught there normal stuff but they were taught about and got to experience nature and so many other things. Many of these kids from the various Houston schools had never had the chance or opportunity to ever get out of the city so this was a great experience for them. My wife found out that those in control now have cut that program. No more camps for the kids; so sad. I'm not sure why they cut it but guess it had to do with money.

I think about so many countries in the world today where there are wars and other troubling things going on. Many of these countries used to be beautiful places but now there is nothing but death, ruin, and desolation; so many people feeling hopeless. The greedy get greedier and everyone else becomes slaves in their games of Chess 'The Game of Dictators'. It will never end until those near the top; the Queens, the Bishops, the Knights, and the Castles wake up to the truth, see the evil and say NO to the kings. No more will we obey you. There is so much that can be made much better when we come together as one in Christ Jesus with Father God

Becoming One -> Is it possible?

I haven't posted anything in a while because there are things going on with my body, my health,  that I guess has caused me to ask questions. I wonder about the whys. Why is this happening, is there a purpose, a reason? I trust God with whatever happens, at least I say I do. Sometimes I wonder even about that, do I really trust Him? …………… I think I am starting to understand God's purpose, the things He wants me to learn.

Because Jesus and Father God are One with each other, Jesus knows and understands what Father God knows.

John 14:10 Lexham English Bible (LEB)

¹⁰ Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak from myself, but the Father residing in me does his works.

When Jesus came to earth becoming human like us, He tried to explain to those around Him what the Kingdom of God or Heaven is like. This is what it is like when God is in it. Because God is so much greater than we are, Jesus had to relate what He was saying to the things that people knew about. One way was with our body.

At the end of 2017 my PSA numbers started going up. I held off getting the biopsies of my prostrate done until the beginning of 2018. Two of the 12 biopsies came back showing positive for cancer. It is non-aggressive cancer so I've decided to hold off doing anything right now, just monitor my PSA numbers.

As I have said in previous posts, I have know for a while that I have moderate to severe stenosis in my lumbar (lover) spine. Spinal stenosis is the closing up of the spinal canal around the spinal cord or around the nerves that extend off the spinal cord and exit the spine. You don't really realize or understand what the various parts of your body does until you start having problems with them. The spinal cord is like a super highway. It caries all the communications between your brain and all the other parts of your body. The nerves extend off the spinal cord, travel through various exit points of your spine, and on through your body to whatever they connect to so that the brain and whatever can communicate with each other. I think you can see now why it is so important to try and keep your spine in good working order, in the shape it was meant to be in.

I started thinking more about all this after finding out about the cancer showing up in my prostrate. Could it have something to do with my stenosis? Was the communications between my prostate and my brain being impeded by the stenosis so it didn't know how to work against the cancer cells?

I researched about stenosis to see if there was anything that I could do myself to get rid of it, to open those passage ways back up so that communications could be restored but found nothing. The only option I found was surgery. Near the end of October 2018 I finally decided to see a neuro-surgeon. I was ready to try and get rid of the stenosis.

The Neuro-surgeon who I saw found even more serious problems in my neck (cervical spine). There was moderate to severe stenosis there as well, closing up around my spinal cord (the super highway). He helped me understand why it was more important to address the problems in my cervical spine first so I agreed to have the surgery done. I wanted to hold off on the surgery so my wife and I could take a trip up to Maine and to see as much of the Eastern US as we could see within the only two week period that we had to do this in. I'll Talk about our trip in another post because I believe that God has shown me some things in this too.

After we returned from our very enjoyable short trip, time wise (4,330 miles driven), I had my cervical spine surgery. This was the beginning of December. The surgery went very well but the expected results has not. The two metal rods in my neck are not staying in their secured place. I am about to have more surgery to find out why and to try and fix the problem.

I am the first patient of this young neuro-surgeon who has not followed the norm. He has had a good track record until me...……………………….

I have now had my second surgery. The doctor found that every one of the connections that held the two metal bars in place were loose. He has never seen this happen before. The thought was that maybe the torque wrench used in the first surgery was defective so when he installed the new parts this go around, he double checked the torque with a manual torque wrench. Shortly after surgery, I had an unusual spell where I felt I was drifting into death. I was very tired, my breathing slowed and my blood pressure shot up. They thought maybe an embolism but all the tests came back negative. About two hours after it started, it just went away. I could feel myself return to normal...……... I really believe this is Satan's work. He is not liking this work I do in this blog.

So let me try and explain some things I believe God is showing me through this.

John 14:6 Lexham English Bible (LEB)

⁶ Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 

I was thinking how the spinal cord caries all the communications between the brain and every other part of the body. If you think of Father God being the brain and Jesus being the spinal cord then you can see a relationship there. If something happens to the spinal cord or the nerves, then some parts of the body are not communicating well or at all. Sin and the way that Satan works in our lives is like the stenosis in my body. We no longer communicate with God well. Through repentance, accepting the forgiveness that God gives us because of what Jesus has done, and asking Jesus to be in our lives, then that communication to Father God is restored.

Daniel 2:44

And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.

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