Nicolae Elena Ceausescu executed

Twenty years ago on Christmas Day Romania received a gift it would never forget. It was on that day when deposed leader Nicolae Cesusescu and his wife Elena were tried, convicted and executed.

For weeks our family had followed developments in eastern Europe when communism was collapsing. Romania was one of the last countries to throw off its shackles. When Ceausescu fled we feared that he'd receive political asylum in another country and continue to exert influence upon Romania. In the end he got what he deserved.

Merry Christmas, Romania!

Called to Suffer

Found a good article on suffering on the website for the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. This is particularly insightful given my afternoon at the hospital. While we enjoyed a glorious day of sun and temperatures approaching 70 F the inside of the hospital was like a parallel universe with each room a world of its own suffering.

Here are a couple of snippets...

"There is a theme in the Bible so pervasive that it virtually defines the Christian life. That theme is suffering. Christians are not exempt from suffering...There is a theme in the Bible so pervasive that it virtually defines the Christian life. That theme is suffering. Christians are not exempt from suffering."

"Michael Horton writes in The Law of Perfect Freedom: "We are in desperate need ... of a theology of suffering.... There is a deeper, richer theology in the old Negro spirituals than in most of the contemporary 'happy-clappy' jingles of congregations often characterized 'yuppy.' In those Negro spirituals, God-centeredness, the longing for heaven, the emphasis on the great events and truths of redemptive history wed personal struggle with hope in the Lord alone."

"Richard B. Gaffin writes of the givenness of suffering: "Until [Christ's] return, the church remains one step behind its exalted Lord; his exaltation meant its (privileged) humiliation, his return (and not before), its exaltation."

Click here to read it in its entirety.

Update on Pastor Dan Cummings -- The Shadowlands

Pastor Dan Cummings of Five Points Community Church in Auburn Hills reports that his cancer is unresponsive to chemotherapy and all such treatments are ceasing. Additional tests indicate that the cancer has even spread. After consulting with his doctor they have agreed to move to 'palliative care' and focus on quality of life with the remaining time that he has. He is also looking into some experimental treatments that have shown promise on other patients.

As always keep him, his family, and his church in your prayers. Click on the link to read the full post about suffering with grace -- The Shadowlands

Pastor Dan Cummings, Health Update

Dan Cummings, Pastor of 5 Points Community Church in Auburn Hills, has posted an update on his battle with cancer on his blog The Shadowlands. Here are a couple of excerpts:

"Chapter Two of this present pilgrimage seems to be unfolding now. This past week I had a post-surgery PETscan to determine if cancer was presenting itself anywhere in my body. We had been praying that there would be a reprieve, if not a cure from God’s hand, however, our heavenly Father has ordained that the cancer will remain at some level. The scan indicated that the cancer is active in my lymph system but not any organs. That’s relatively good news..."

"The reality of stage 4 comes and goes, always with the hope that God would see fit to defy the medical diagnosis and bring about healing this side of heaven. But with yesterday’s news after the long first chapter of this pilgrimage, I’m struggling with being hopeful and joyful and submissive and faith-filled and Christ-centered. One thought plagues me: I don’t want to die in the next 2-4 years, the average life expectancy for me. I’m growing weary of being sick and not being able to remember what it feels like to be well. And my energy for this next phase of treatment is low…kind of like a football team that’s down by 6 touchdowns at halftime: made to go back out to play the second half but knowing there’s no real hope to win the game. So, I pray for grace and lean hard into 2 Corinthians 12 and Psalm 42 and Hebrews 4 and Romans 8 … and plead that my heavenly Father will answer my next round of pleas for help and healing …"

Please continue to pray for him, his family and his church.

How Great The Father's Love

'As a dying man to dying men,' Pastor Dan Cummings, of 5 Points Community Church in Auburn Hills, Michigan exhorts his congregation to understand how great God's love is towards His children. Weaving several passages of Scripture together along with quotations from John Owen, C.H. Spurgeon, Jonathan Edwards, and others, Pastor Cummings, paints a compelling picture of God's love to those who have turned to him for the forgiveness of sin through Jesus Christ.

As noted on this blog Pastor Cummings is battling stage 4 cancer. He has just finished chemotherapy and will be undergoing surgery in the next few days. Please keep him, his family and his church in your prayers.

To hear the sermon click here: http://68.250.205.21:9085/mp3/2008/5-25-2008am.mp3

To get updates on his condition click here: http://www.5pointscc.org/dan/

Symanzik Family Update: Jerard's Eye Sight

Kurt and Beth Symanzik have written a note about their adopted son Jerard. Please keep him and them in your prayers.

Jerard saw an ophthalmologist today.The doctor dilated Jerard’s eyes so he could view the optical nerve. Jerard’s optical nerve is pale which indicates that it is not working well. Optic nerve atrophy is the term he used.

He seems to see light and shadows, but he does not fix his gaze on objects or track with his eyes.

Read the rest here: Symanzik Family Update: Jerard's Eye Sight

Life In the Cancer Ward - Pastor Dan Cummings

Pastor Dan Cummings of 5 Points Community Church in Auburn Hills is chronicling his cancer treatments on his blog, The Shadowlands. I'm not sure how I would be doing if I were in his shoes. Here is an excerpt from his latest post...

A Shadowlands Dispatch

Everyone on 5 North is very sick…over every room is a shadow of death…some longer, some shorter, some hardly a shadow at all. There’s a lot of pain and every imaginable adaptation to the plague of cancer. N. is out in the hall doing laps…I think it’s a 20 minute pace with complaints of a boring course. E. is having surgery to buy a few more weeks of “quality” life. B. doesn’t move. Everyone’s case is complicated by the reality of unknowns. There’s a kind of seriousness on 5 North that everyone knows but no one talks about.

5 North is unusually quiet for a hospital floor…carpeted hallways, large & accommodating rooms, quiet & calm efficiency. The nurses are ladies of grace, sometimes hovering like that favorite grandma who keeps asking you if you want anything…just hoping you’ll say yes so they can make your day. None of them have come up with double fudge brownies with melted marshmallows and frosting, though.

5 North will be “home” when the unknown surfaces and causes trouble. And the unpredictable is normal. There’s nothing predictable about cancer. Statitistics and all information and doctor’s answers be damned! No one knows! That’s why doctors have become masters of “non-answers” and vaguery. For all of their priestly position in our culture, their art is one of educated guessing and hoping and experimenting based on the best wisdom of almost blind men. Don’t misunderstand. Modern medicine is a great evidence of common grace. If nothing else, I have imagined the hard and horrible, Brainerd-esque death I would be dying if some relief was not available. So, I bless our heavenly Father for such gifts and love these men who care for me with such passion and compassion that shames most parish priests. Yet, they have no idea how utterly dependent they are on a sovereign God…everything they do with such hope and confidence for their patients is subject to the ordaining council of our all-wise and all-good and all-glorifying God. So, it is strangely easy to take all the twists and turns if you immediately trace them back to God and the joyful trust that He is in control of the unknown and unpredictable and sometimes scary. It’s surreal getting used to this new “home.”

Read the rest by clicking here http://5pointscc.org/dan/?p=27

Also note that his blog has a couple of audio links for announcements he made to his congregation about his illness. Please keep him, his family and his church in your prayers.

Behind a Frowning Providence

I just learned that Pastor Dan Cummings of Five Points Church in Auburn Hills, Michigan has been diagnosed with Stage Four Cancer (ie. terminal). He is an outstanding voice for reformed theology in our area.

Please pray for him, his family and his church during this difficult time. Also pray that the Lord will be glorified.

You can get an update on his condition by visiting his blog listed below. About halfway down on the right you will find a brief audio file explaining his diagnosis (under the heading Morning Sermons). Apparently it was given at the beginning of a worship service and I bet there wasn't a dry eye in the house.

The Shadowlands