Scott finds many ways to show his love and appreciation for me, he wrote the following poem for Valentines Day:

Honey,

You want more time than a 24 hour day,

Maybe a 36 hour day would be OK.

Can you imagine a time where hours are not kept,

Where bottles are stored of all the tears you have wept.

A place filled with love and void of earthly sorrow,

Where no one knows if its today or tomorrow.

Let’s go there together with our Savior our King,

To a place called Narnia because death no longer has a sting,

We don’t have to wait for our bodies to sleep.

Jesus showed us the way by laying his life down for his sheep,

Thank you my love for showing me the way.

Through your endless self sacrifices and by extending my day,

You have stopped the clock with your love for me

By holding my hand and saying, “we have all eternity!”

Your loving husband,

Forever Scott

YES!! I’ll be your Valentine, Here’s a BIG Kiss!

Just before the end of the year, I came down with a severe chest cold, since my lungs are already weak from Lou Gehrigs’ disease I was unable to sleep for over 42 hrs. I was exhausted and wanted so desperately to rest but each time I tried to drift off to sleep, my breathing became accelerated since my lungs were so full of fluid. I was experiencing such shortness of breath within my already diminished lung capacity and felt like I might hyper-ventilate. The continual irritating cough didn’t help either, I was getting extremely over-heated and my heart was pounding. I was gasping for breath and felt that I might suffocate…I needed air! I started an antibiotic after not being able to sleep that 1^st night and Glennis used the breathing nebulizer and albuterol steroid and codeine cough medicine which finally allowed to give me some vital rest finally by 3:30 a.m. the second night.

When I was in this struggle to breathe for two nights my thoughts were, “have I loved?” and “have I forgiven?” I was not concerned with theology, work, ambition or any of the overwhelming details of my life; only love and forgiveness filled my mind. God showed me how vital to my healing were love and forgiveness. After the first night I began writing a letter to someone that God put on my heart to show mercy to. As I was writing I began to feel my breathing improve. God had my attention as I was “giving mercy I was getting mercy!” Sowing mercy – reaping mercy! The key to receiving mercy was showing mercy. 

I needed immediate mercy just as David did when he said “Have mercy on me and be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am weak (faint and withered away); O Lord, heal me, for my bones are troubled” Ps 6:2. God heard David’s prayer and answered Him. God heard my prayer for mercy and answered me by saying, “sow mercy, Scott”.

In the book of Mathew, verse 5:7 says “Blessed are the merciful for they will be shown mercy.” What does it mean to be merciful? Jesus’ word is Eleemon. The Hebrew counterpart is Chanan. It is actually untranslatable into English. It means far more than our words “mercy”, or “pity” “sympathy” or “empathy.” It certainly does not mean simply “to feel sorry” for someone else. Being merciful means to get right inside the skin with someone else until you see, things they see: think things they think, feel things they feel. It comes from a conscious deliberate identification with someone else until that person’s hurt becomes our own hurt. Showing mercy to another helps us in a small way to understand how God must feel when  He pours out mercy to us. Jesus Christ identified with our suffering and paid the price for our sins by dying on the cross instead of us. He looked beyond our depravity and felt, hurt, and suffered for us when we deserved hell. Because of mercy I am still alive today!

Because I have been shown mercy and love and forgiveness I want to extend it to others. No matter what someone has done to you it is not worth withholding mercy from them. God wants you to sow seeds of forgiveness, mercy, and love to others; and as you do, you will discover how your own soul and body will prosper and begin healing.

My wife was a magnificent example of how mercy works during those trying nights. Every time I needed help she was there, ready and willing to do whatever she could. She identified with me, never leaving me until the trial past. I am so fortunate to have a wife like her whose inner beauty shines brightly in the dark seasons of the night. God has blessed me beyond measure during this disease. He has given me treasures in darkness by revealing His great love and tender mercies as he uses my wife and others to minister kindness and compassion to me in my hour of need. 

“He who finds a [true] wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord” Pr 18:22. 

God’s greatest work is done in secret during the darkest moments of  your life. Despite the hardship in trials; there is an unexpected beauty that can shine through in times of helplessness. Uniquely, God desires to use those difficult moments of your life to bring forth something extraordinarily beautiful.

If you are in sickness, may your sickness glorify Him; in perplexity, let Him guide you, If you are in sorrow, let Him comfort and cherish you. May you see the treasure you truly are to God and to others. God has created you for a definite service. He has committed a work to you which He has not committed to another. You have a mission; it may be unknown to you in this life but you shall be told it in the next. You were created for a unique purpose in the plan of God. Whoever you are and whatever you are facing…you are of great value. You are a brilliant gem in God’s quarry of jewels.

“And I will give you the treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places, that you may know that it is I, the Lord,     the God of Israel, Who calls you by your name.” Isaiah 45:3

Dec 3^rd 2007 I dreamed I was standing in an overly crowded line of people that were so indulged in pre-occupation with themselves and loud boisterous bragging conversation with each other that they were either unaware or didn’t seem to care where the line led to. I recognized people that I knew, but they like all the others were to busy talking to even see me. I then noticed another line to my right where only an occasional person would pass by.

There were two lines, one to the left which reminded me of a crowded New York street and one to the right with only an occasional person passing by. I wanted to find out where the lines led to and then saw in the distance two boats which reminded me of ferry boats that were in a type of harbor waiting for passengers to be loaded on. These two rather large boats looked identical to each other with each one docked in a similar harbor but  leading down two separate rivers one to the left and one to the right. At that moment somehow I knew that the crowded line that I had been in which led to the left was leading down to a river of death. I knew that I must switch lines and go to the right. I moved over to the right and began walking swiftly up stairs that led to a door. I was not able to get to the door before I woke up. 

After waking I considered what this dream meant and what would be God’s message in it. Jesus states in Mt 7:13 that we should enter through the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and spacious and broad is the way that leads away to destruction, and many are those who are entering through it.  Jesus is the gate, He is the only way to receive eternal life, Satan on the other hand is a master at deception; he can give a person that is desperate the illusion that what he offers is the exact same thing as Jesus. Our ticket to heaven’s ferry ride has already been purchased by Jesus when He paid for our sins with His shed blood on the Cross. We only have to receive it to get on that boat. Satan will make you pay for his boat ride with your human deeds and good works. He creates as much noise and confusion as possible so that you will not take the time to look closely at the differences between what he offers and  what Christ offers. Will you take the time to see whose line you are really in?

2 John 1:7 says “for many imposters (seducers, deceivers, and false leaders) have gone out into the world, men who will not acknowledge (confess, admit) the coming of Jesus Christ (the Messiah) in bodily form. Such a one is the imposter (the seducer, the deceiver, the false leader, the antagonist of Christ) and the antichrist.” There were two similar lines leading to similar ferry boats. One line was full and wide and the other line was narrow, with only a few travelers. The line to the left led to a boat, the impression was as striking as Michelangelo’s painting of the  Boat of Charone. This boat ferried the dead to the land of the damned down the river Styx. The boat to the right was ferrying people down the river of life to Paradise, to be with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ forever. We have the opportunity now in the land of the living to choose which line to be in. Will you be in the line that allows Jesus Christ to be the captain of your ship letting Him guide your live down rivers of living waters? Or will you be so occupied by this worlds pleasures that by the time you realize what line you are in, it will be to late and the “Boat of Charone” will be there waiting to ferry you to the land of the damned?

Dec 4^th 2007  Last night I dreamed I was in a house full of people busy interacting and socializing with each other. I found myself wanting to step outside, there I saw a great flood of water rushing in the direction of the house. I decided to judge the severity of the flood by walking from one end of the house to the other in ankle deep water. A sense of urgency filled my mind as I ran back to the end of the house where I had first stepped out. The water had become so deep that I had to swim back. Then I find myself swimming in a vast ocean, I was tired and struggling to swim. In front of me I see a great wall, a cliff. On top of this immense sea cliff were all the people from the house. I could not get out of the water and I cried out for help. Out of nowhere, a friend of mine somehow was able to reach down to grab my hand and pull me up to safety. I was now with all the people from the house they were continuing to talk to one another and were self absorbed and completely oblivious to the danger of the turbulent water below. Some people actually were jumping into the water and then disappearing. I saw one young man that had jumped in and he appeared to be drowning. A lady who was closest to the drowning young man could only yell for help. I then, dove into the water and positioned myself under him so that I could push his head out of the water but there was no one who would pull him out to safety. This seemed strange and perplexing to me that these people did not even seem to have any care – that is, any agonizing care – about the poor perishing ones who were struggling and drowning right before their very eyes.

Jesus is saying to us, “Do you care?” Are we those people on the top of the cliff to whom He is calling? Who heard His voice and felt they ought to obey it? At least they said they did, those who confessed to love Him much and were sympathetic with Him in the task of reaching the lost. Who worshipped Him or who professed to do so but were so taken up with their trades and professions, their money saving plans and pleasures of life, their families and circles of friends, their religions and arguments about it, and their preparation for rescuing but never jumping in. Those who would not listen to the cry that came to them from those that were drowning. Anyway, if they heard it, they did not heed it. They did not care. So the multitudes were perishing before them struggling and shrieking and drowning in the darkness of the sea. My friends in Christ, you are rescued from the waters standing atop the sea cliff. You are on the rock. Many are in the dark sea calling on you to come to them and rescue them from perishing. Will you jump in? Look for yourselves, the surging sea of life is crowded with perishing multitudes that are crying out to those who are standing on the rock.

 Is 6:8 Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send? And who will go for Us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.

All of life, both physical and spiritual aspects, depends upon God’s provision. An emphasis held in the world, and in our own human nature, is the focus we have almost totally upon the physical aspects of life. God provides for us “wilderness experiences” to let us know that there are spiritual aspects of life that require nourishment and care, just as surely as the care of our physical bodies. We are given a witness for our instruction in the account of the children of Israel. Deut 8:2 says “And you shall [earnestly] remember all the way which the Lord your God led you these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and to prove you, to know what was in your [mind and] heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.” The Israelites endured many hardships during their forty years in the wilderness, and they sinned a great deal too. God, however, reminds them that He was with them during both good and bad times. He also makes it very known that He Himself allowed and inflicted a great deal of sorrow. The purpose for why He did this includes three specific reasons: to humble them, to reveal their hearts and to teach them that man does not live by bread alone. We see that God humbles us to drive the pride of self-sufficiency far from us. When things go well, it is easy for us to disregard the purposes of God and ascribe success to natural abilities, learned skills, or even good luck.

In 1997, when I was first diagnosed with the terminal disease of A.L.S (Lou Gehrig’s Disease) I was in my mid 30’s and was told that I would be dead in 2-5 years. Unimaginable! I was in the prime of life and still very physically capable; apart from a loss of strength in my right hand. I believed I could beat this illness through my own determination and effort; with Gods help. Despite countless alternative and plausible treatments the following 8 years, I eventually acknowledged, that no one beats A.L.S and everyone dies. I conceded that I was totally at God’s mercy for deliverance. My body was His responsibility, my life is hid with Him, for His purpose, I would trust Him for my very breath (which becomes the demise of persons with this illness). I am continually brought back to this reference point; God desires to bring me through this wilderness experience where the only option I have is to completely trust Him. Human effort and resources will not rescue me; I relinquished my control to work it out. Only the very Life and Spirit of God Himself can deliver me from this body of sin and death. This was (and is) a difficult and exasperating realization to my understanding but Oh! What a joyful release in my spirit; to be totally dependent on the mercy of my Living Savior Jesus Christ. God wants me to be free from a spiritual A.L.S that is far more destructive to my eternal soul than physical A.L.S could ever be to this temporal body.

When malnourished, our bodies begin to weaken noticeably, muscles start to atrophy and we soon begin to experience fatigue and frailty. If not addressed through intervention, we would eventually die. Our human spirit, when malnourished weakens and seems to “die” so slowly that it is almost unperceivable. Unknowingly, as we spiritually deteriorate, we may even feel blessed and prospered by God! We think that we are okay and doing well because we are physically capable and find intellectual solutions of handling life’s trials. God, in loving chastisement, disciplines us with symptoms to warn us that we are not as spiritually healthy as we thought. In fact, our dependence to understand the ways and purposes of God are shaken, hopefully leading us to draw closer to Him for strength, comfort and wisdom.

God seeks to help us see our need and our reliance on Him. We absolutely must learn that life—both physical and spiritual—depends on the supply of God. Jesus says in John 15:5, “Without Me you can do nothing.” Somehow in our own vanity we think that when adversity comes our way with God’s “help” somehow we will get through the trial by pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps. Although, we give Him praise for every good gift and victory; many times we don’t recognize our utter dependence on His grace. The truth is that; if we can handle and fix our problems then we would have no need for God to deliver us. Many things are done in self effort, in the strength of the flesh; we can exhaust every option only to realize that when we finally give up and get out of the way, it is at that time God has the freedom and invitation to move in our situations. In Mark 8:32, Jesus rebuked Peter when he told Jesus that He should not go to the Cross to die, exposing that Peter minded the things of man and not the things of God, Jesus said in verse 8:34b  “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me”.

I find that our long standing responses to the trials we face reveal the stability in our heart. We have the potential to be purified and refined by adversity when we allow God to exchange His strength of character for our frailty. The security we place in Him is foundational to the freedom we can have to be content whatsoever state we are in. He becomes the stability of our times. Our abandon unto God, places us at the end of ourselves; we are dependent on His mercy and love.

God asks us in His Word to live by faith, confident in Him to supply our needs even when we have no indications or evidence to believe; this is the substance of faith. We trust in His love, believe Him at His Word; this being the work of God that pleases Him. We are found “In Him” having no righteousness of our own but having His righteousness, His integrity, as our breastplate protecting our heart and decisions.

God deliberately orchestrated difficulties for the Israelites to face but He did not ask them to go through these trials alone. He was with them in the cloud and in the fire; He dwelt among them in the Tabernacle. We don’t invite trouble and find no good time for it; in fact, our prayer would be “lead us not into temptation but deliver from us from evil”! God chastens us for our profit to produce the peaceable fruit of righteousness within us (Heb 12:11). We can lift up the hands that hang down (quite literal for A.L.S. condition) and strengthen the feeble knees. We place our human understanding on the altar and avail ourselves to the plan of God which can save and sanctify us.

 ‘Jeff ‘ (Mary Ellen) and John Brodie with their children:

Boo, Jeff, Tami, Scott and Mike

When you cannot take another step or take another breath because of the pain that this world has dealt you, listen closely because there is someone who knows, cares and bears your grief with you. His name is Jesus, He is by your side and will never leave nor forsake you. F. B. Meyer wrote this beautiful portion in the 1800’s about the One who bore our sorrows.  

 “YOU ARE PASSING THROUGH a time of deep sorrow. The love on which you were trusting has suddenly failed you, and dried up like a brook in the desert now a dwindling stream, then shallow pools, and at last drought. You are always listening for footsteps that do not come, waiting for a word that is not spoken, pining for a reply that tarries overdue. Perhaps the savings of your life have suddenly disappeared. Instead of helping others, you must be helped; or you are suddenly called to assume the burden of some other life, taking no rest for yourself till you have steered it through dark and difficult seas into the haven. Your health, or sight, or nervous energy is failing; you carry in yourself the sentence of death; and the anguish of anticipating the future is almost unbearable.  

At such times life seems almost unsupportable. Will every day be as long as this? Will the slow-moving hours ever again quicken their pace? Will life ever array itself in another garb than the torn autumn remnants of past summer glory? “Hath God forgotten to be gracious? Hath He in anger shut up His tender mercies?” (Ps. 77:9). 

Jesus Christ Himself trod this difficult path, leaving traces of His blood on its flints; and apostles, prophets, confessors, and martyrs have passed by the same way. It is comforting to know that others have traversed the same dark valley, and that the great multitudes which stand before the Lamb, wearing palms of victory, came out of great tribulation. Where they were we are; and, by God’s grace, where they are we shall be. 

Sorrow is a refiner’s crucible (a cup or container where metals are melted in a furnace into a liquid).-It may be caused by the neglect or cruelty of another, by circumstances over which the sufferer has no control, or as the direct result of some dark hour in the long past; but inasmuch as God has permitted it to come, it must be accepted as His appointment, and considered as the furnace by which He is searching, testing, probing, and purifying the soul. Suffering searches us as fire does metals. We think we are fully for God, until we are exposed to the cleansing fire of pain. Then we discover, as Job did, how much dross there is in us, and how little real patience, resignation, and faith. Nothing so detaches us from the things of this world, the life of our five senses, and of earthly affections. There is probably no other way by which the power of the self-life can be arrested, that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh.                                                                                   

But God always keeps the discipline of sorrow in His own hands.-Our Lord said, “My Father is the husbandman.” His hand holds the pruning-knife. His eye watches the crucible. His gentle touch is on the pulse while the operation is in progress. He will not allow even the devil to have his own way with us. As in the case of Job, so always, the moments are carefully allotted. The severity of the test is exactly determined by the reserves of grace and strength which are lying unrecognized within, but will be sought for and used beneath the severe pressure of pain. He holds the winds in His fist, and the waters in the hollow of His hand. He dares not risk the loss of that which has cost Him the blood of His Son. “God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tried above that ye are able” (1 Cor. 10:13).  

  In sorrow the Comforter is near. very present in time of trouble. He sits by the crucible, as a Refiner of silver, regulating the heat, marking every change, waiting patiently for the scum to float away, and His own face to be mirrored in clear, translucent metal. No earthly friend may tread the winepress with you, but the Saviour is there, His garments stained with the blood of the grapes of your sorrow. Dare to repeat it often, though you do not feel it, and though Satan insists that God has left you, ‘Thou art with me.’ Mention His name again and again, ‘Jesus, Jesus, Thou art with me’. So you will become conscious that He is there.” 

-‘A Very Present Help in the Time of Trouble’ F.B Meyer

Recently, Glennis and I walked down to a creek that is part of a large river that flows into the Puget Sound waters and eventually, the Pacific Ocean. It’s been the time of year where salmon make their run from the ocean to their original birthing places upstream. Salmon spend most of their adult life in the ocean, when they reach maturity and are ready to spawn; they begin their journey up river. As I’m sure in countless other places along their journey, we saw how the salmon had already been through a gauntlet of fisherman lined up in a continuous row for over a mile just off the mouth of the river. They were standing waist high in the river, with fish nets and fishing poles, eager to bring in a catch.

On our walk further upstream, we watched as the salmon had to negotiate and overcome a series of rapids and smaller waterfalls. What impressed us was the determination and will of these fish; to never give up no matter how difficult the obstacle they faced. We watched them make attempt after attempt to jump a waterfall. They never quit, they circled around and tried again until they made it. We’ve learned that after surviving a grueling journey back to the place where the salmon are born (sometimes a distance of 1000 miles & 7000′ in elevation) the fish will select a mate and begin the spawning process in shallow, gravelly water in the upper reaches of the river. Shortly after their eggs were laid the salmon would die.

“Speak to the earth, and it will teach you; and the fish of the sea will explain to you. Who among all these does not know that the hand of the LORD has done this?” Job 12:8-9

God has a plan and a strategy to fulfill in every one of His creatures. He supplied the salmon the drive and instinct they need in order to make their long difficult journey home. In a similar sense, God knows our nature and has put eternity in our hearts (Ecc 3:11), He wants us to seek Him while on this earth and has given us a blueprint for finding Him. Jesus tells us the way to having eternal life is by dying to our self-life in this world and living in Him.

 ”I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains [just one grain; it never becomes more but lives] by itself alone. But if it dies, it produces many others and yields a rich harvest. Anyone who loves his life loses it, but anyone who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal. [Whoever has no love for, no concern for, no regard for his life here on earth, but despises it, preserves his life forever and ever.] If anyone serves Me, he must continue to follow Me [to cleave steadfastly to Me, conform wholly to My example in living and, if need be, in dying] and wherever I am, there will My servant be also. If anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him” Jn 12:24-26.

God has promised us that if we die to our life in this world He will give us life eternal. As we learn to lay down our will and our ways for His ways we will begin to see that when we let go of willful ways we are actually more alive spiritually than we were before.

Oftentimes, we don’t see or feel that we are more spiritually alive, we ask God to show us how the principle works. If we pray for God to do something for us and He has already done it, do we really believe that He has done it? If we are unaware of His work, we think He hasn’t done it and we don’t depend on it. We have not moved our expectation out of the spiritual realm by faith into the physical.

A great man of faith, Manley Beasley, put it this way, “When we ask God to do something on His side (of heaven) that He has already done positionally, we are not asking to get into the room we are asking to get out of the room we are already in.” He goes on to say, “We need to ask God to open our eyes to see that God’s done it and I already have it by faith”. We become a hindrance to our own prayers when we ask God to do something that He has already done. Our prayers should be “Lord, open my eyes to see what I have in you so that I can accept it, and believe it, and experience it.” This is the essence of having a faith expectation, believing and trusting God, even if we do not see it.

God is pleased with our faith. He has already prepared a supply according to our need (and He knows our true needs, not just our wants). If we are Spirit-sensitive we will see God’s provision by faith every time we have a need. Often times, our circumstances are critical and we don’t see any way out of our crisis. This is exactly where God wants us, in the place where we cannot deliver ourselves; having to depend on Him. In this “tribulation journey” we are challenged to spawn spiritual growth and become strengthened in His grace, expressing with a confident resolution that “If God is for me, nothing shall be against me”. 

Several days ago, after having been at the State Fair which happens to take place in our little town of Puyallup. My wife, daughter Ashley and myself had the adventure of watching the thrilling rides, many exhibits of housewares, crafts, 4H and DECA, etc. Although it was very crowded and people had “Fair Fever” I challenged myself to participate in this annual event. My wife and daughter made sure to grab a scone and a carmel apple which are a few of the traditions associated with with Fair Food.  It was a sunny afternoon and always seems to close out the events of summer for us.

Later that evening, I fell backward in our living room while playing “footsie” with my other daughter’s dog, Rudy. Falling is dangerous enough but without having the strength in my arms to break my fall things went from a bad-to-worse senario. At the moment I knew I was going down, everything seemed to play out in my mind in slow motion. Obviously, I know how to break a fall using my hands, but in my present condition this typical reflex could not happen. I had to just trust God (Ps 94:18) and allow my body to fall where it may. Even my wife who saw me from the kitchen and ran to help, could not reach me fast enough. Amazingly, I landed on my bottom and the back of the brace protected my head from serious injury. Ps 91:9-12 assures “Because you have made the Lord your refuge, and the Most High your dwelling place, There shall no evil befall you, nor any plague or calamity come near your tent. For He will give His angels [a special] charge over you to accompany and defend and preserve you in all your ways [of obedience and service].They shall bear you up on their hands, lest you dash your foot against a stone. You shall tread upon the lion and adder; the young lion and the serpent shall you trample underfoot.” If we make the Lord our refuge and the Most High our dwelling place then God promises to take care of us and keep us from evil. He will send angels to look after us; to defend, preserve and bear us up. As we go forward walking “in Christ” we are faced with many trials, adversities and set backs. We may fall at times, we may get bruised, battered or beaten by life, but we do not have to live in that pain and we don’t have to stay down. We gird ourselves up, press on and take comfort knowing that God is looking out for us and always causing us to triumpth. We especially need this assurance for our worst situations. God calls the weak, the lame, and the downtrodden to Himself, those that recognize their need for a Saviour. They may be the ones who cannot defend, protect or save themselves, but they are the ones that God will use to confound the world so that no flesh can glory in His presence (1Co 1:29).