Road to Rwanda---Medical Procedure 2

Written on Jan 9, 2023

 So, we had a phone call yesterday (Sunday) afternoon saying that Rick had an appointment for Monday at 10....but then a few hours later got a text saying that the doctor was called away for the week to an emergency situation. (What emergency situation lasts a week?) That they would call us next Sunday.  Although disappointing that Rick cannot see the doctor today,  he is much better. If he eats slowly with small bites he is able to keep food down.  He is still thin, but not going further downhill.  

It is also a good thing that he is better, becasue I came down with the same flu last night.  It started a downhill spiral for him, but I am not very sick really.  Not that writhe-in-the-bed pain that Rick experienced.  He is feeling well enough that he went to school to cover my classes for me today.  It is a shame I am not there to welcome the students back after our 3 week break, but they can write a five paragraph essay for Rick on what they learned last semeseter! haha. So we still need your prayers, but I want to reassure you that really we are much improved and pretty much able to continue our normal lives.

I want to share my rather lengthy reading this morning. It is just so descriptive. Read it and see what God says to you:

Galatians 5: 19-26   (The Message)

19-21 It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could go on.

This isn’t the first time I have warned you, you know. If you use your freedom this way, you will not inherit God’s kingdom.

22-23 But what happens when we live God’s way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely.

23-24 Legalism is helpless in bringing this about; it only gets in the way. Among those who belong to Christ, everything connected with getting our own way and mindlessly responding to what everyone else calls necessities is killed off for good—crucified.

25-26 Since this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the Spirit, let us make sure that we do not just hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its implications in every detail of our lives. That means we will not compare ourselves with each other as if one of us were better and another worse. We have far more interesting things to do with our lives. Each of us is an original.

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