Arlington Answers

Thank you for the last four months.

One of the things I've discovered is that God has a planned purpose and power for our lives. We've got to find that, follow his specific purposes and figure out how his purposes align with our lives while we are here on earth. Most people never consider this alignment but we have chosen to. As Henry Blackaby would say, find out what God is doing and participate with him.

During the last four months, God has taken me on a journey that I needed to go through so that the message and the mission of ArlingtonAnswers could be complete. What I experienced is that God had to take me through complete incapacitation to get me to the point where I could no longer do what I used to and could not rely on my own power but rather on Him.

A key component to getting a man or woman to listen is to be quiet enough to listen to Him so that they can really understand how much he deeply loves them. God's general plan is to win back his creation. To take back what is His, that which the enemy of our souls has for thousands of years tried to steal, kill and destroy. We are His creation, people made in his image.

That's what ArlingtonAnswers.com is all about! Hopefully, other cities will join us under the banner of CommunityVision of America; whose noble mission is to build bridges of relevance between a loving God and people who don't even know they're loved. Through a knowledge of Him, they can live a life of relevance and meaning as they come into a relationship with Christ.

I want to once again thank you for travelling this road with me.

MRI Results and Oncology Visit

Just wanted to update everyone on Tim's doctor visit today with the oncologist. He had two MRIs this morning, a clinical or normal type, and then he had the research scan done. When we saw the oncologist she had only seen the clinical scan but said it looked great. The swelling was going down and it was an improvement over the last scan. He still needs to be on steroids for another month or so but can try and go down on the dosage. He was supposed to start chemo this coming Monday but his platelet counts were too low. This is the first time they had really dropped. She is starting him back on antibiotics and will start the chemo after his counts go up. He will have his blood drawn on a weekly basis to monitor his white cell count and platelets but we can do that in Arlington.

The oncologist thought he was doing excellent. They thought his critical thinking and multi tasking abilities would continue to improve but not sure that his strength in his leg and arm would get back to 100%. I am going to start helping him with some resistance exercises and he will try and start working out at the gym 3x a week. He still gets fatigued pretty easily and they said he just needs to push through and exercise.

He is excited about being back at church and in ministry again!!! God is so good and we continue to see His faithfulness. Thanks again for all your support and prayers!!! We are very grateful for your love and care!!! Please continue to pray for the success of ArlingtonAnswers too.

Janice

Psalm 37:3-4

Dear ones,

I'm reading from Psalm 37:3-4.

It says to trust in the Lord and do good, dwell in the land, cultivate faithfulness, delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit our ways to the Lord, trust also in him and he will do it. He will bring forth our righteousness as the light and your judgment like the noonday.

Seems like there's some keywords: trust, dwell, cultivate, and delight.

As a result of living a life like this, our Father will give us the desires of our hearts. In vs 7, we learn how important resting and waiting on the Lord in whatever circumstance we find ourselves in, regardless of whether we think it's good or bad. We also need to trust that he will do what we ask of Him.

The important thing is to do what he tells us at that moment. It's also important to dwell in the land that He's placed us and we're to cultivate faithfulness there. We are to delight ourselves in the Lord and as a result Scripture tells us that God will give us the desires our heart. If we will commit our way to Him and trust in him and rest patiently on him, He will bring forth our righteousness. Rest and waiting patiently on Him are vital to understanding how He wants us to carry out our lives.

Your brother,
Tim

Current Health Status

Tim finished his radiation treatments and first round of chemo on February 26th. He was experiencing more weakness on his right side as he was coming to the end of his treatments and the doctors determined it was from the trauma of the radiation so they started him on steroids. We have seen daily improvements - PTL!!!! Since he is being treated for a stage 4, very aggressive malignancy, he will need to have MRIs every 2 months and continue a chemotherapy treatment for up to a year or however long he can tolerate it.

He will be returning to the office late March and will slowly get back to work. The surgery has affected the area of his brain where his thought processes take place so critical thinking, problem solving, etc is a struggle. We have seen major improvement but he still has a way to go to get back to normal. We are trusting the Lord to bring about his total healing. Earlier when his condition declined I cried out to the Lord for him to show me how to pray and He led me to Isaiah 38:6. I asked God if he would extend his days like he did Hezekiah and when I read verse 6 I felt like He answered and said yes I will save him and the city.

As you know, Tim is the major thrust behind ArlingtonAnswers.com and CommunityVision of America and we felt this whole thing was a spiritual attack and an effort from the enemy to stop the outreach of believers into this city and others to bring them the saving news of Jesus Christ. We covet your prayers and are so thankful for all of your encouragement, meals and meal cards, rides to Dallas for treatments, kind letters and emails, and yardwork. We are so glad to be a part of such a wonderful body of believers!!!

With great love and gratitude,

Janice

Battle Positions

Dear ones,

I woke up this morning to God speaking about battle positions. There are four basic battle positions for the army of God. They are unarmed on offense, unarmed on defense, armed on offense, and armed on defense.

Unarmed on offense can get you killed on the battlefield as can unarmed on defense. Too many Christian men and women live in these two positions. They find themselves battered by spiritual forces they either don't understand or are afraid of, taking the arrows of life on unprotected or rushing into the fray with no armor or weapons.

The next two basic positions are more appropriate for the effective spiritual warrior and we find ourselves in these two positions often. Armed and on defense, dug in and firing back. However, the effective warrior is more often armed and taking the fight to the enemy of men's souls.

Jesus said...

"All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Matthew 28:19

"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Matthew 28:18-20

This is an offensive position and should be the norm for our daily life, not the exception. We should go through our days with rescue on our minds, listening to Heaven and taking action on earth.

Let's live in light of this directive from the Commander of the Lord's army.

Love,

Tim

The Importance of Seeking the King

Dear ones,

It's 3:45 am as I sit here in my study. I've been spending time seeking the Lord this morning as it has become my habit. It's amazing that this God of ours is so near to us, if and when we call.

Deuteronomy 4:7 "For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as is the LORD our God whenever we call on Him?"

Before we can call on Him, we must be seeking Him daily with all our heart and soul.

Deuteronomy 4:29 "But from there you will seek the LORD your God, and you will find Him if you search for Him with all your heart and all your soul."

This is a thread that runs throughout God's precious Word to us. If we seek, we find. If we knock, He will open the door. This is because God desires our fellowship and company and wants to tell us how much He loves us. He also knows what and how we can carry out our days that will bring Him the most glory.

This seeking ideally is continuous throughout the day. Constant communication with our Creator. One of the things that embarrassed me during the last few months is that one day I took a look at my calendar and saw that I had actually scheduled time at 6:30 am for Jesus.

I had Jesus scheduled!

At the time, I was was simply putting it on my schedule to make sure it would happen daily. Sometimes it did, sometimes not, but my rationale was, if it's written down, it's more likely to occur. I played fast and loose with my time seeking Him thinking to myself, "Well, God has given me certain gifts and I know His general will for the day. I'll just go with that."

All this was true, however, it wasn't the best I could offer to the Lover of my soul. How many times could I have made a greater impact on the people around me had I just sought Him, heard His voice and then carried out the specifics of what I heard from Him?

I changed the calendar that morning on my iPhone. I erased what I had put and instead changed it to, "God's Precious Presence in my Heart Always", as an all day event until the year 2041. If I live that long I'll just extend it!

God has a plan but first we must take the time to get quiet before Him and allow Him to fill us with His love and then guide us throughout the day. This is what I'm striving for in my life. He has given each of us certain times and talents. Let's not waste an opportunity of not seeking Him moment by moment, hearing His voice and carrying out the great message of His love for people.

Love,

Tim

Another Piece to Maintaing God's Presence in Our Lives

Dear ones,

I got up this morning and fixed Janice breakfast in bed. It takes me three times as long to do most things, breakfast included, but since it was labor of love, I didn't mind.

It's that way with Jesus. I no longer hurry to have my time with Him but rather take whatever time it takes to rest at His feet, place my head on His breast and hear his heart beat. He has something important to say to me each morning and I want to be there to listen.

Today, He was speaking to me through the book of Joshua. He gave me a piece of the puzzle to maintaining his presence throughout the day.

The story is after Jericho fell under the Israelite army's sword. But when they attempted to take the city of Ai, they were defeated. The reason was the "sons of Israel" had disobeyed the Lord by taking some of the things under the ban that the Lord had told them not to take.

I found it interesting that one man's sin effected his family and the whole nation. They all were lumped in with one man's sin.

The man was Achan. He did in secret what only the Lord could see and 36 men paid with their lives for Achan's sin during the attack of the city of Ai.

When Joshua cried out to the Lord about it, God rebuked him and told him of the sin and told him He would not be with them until they got rid of the things He told them they could not have.

"I will not be with you anymore unless you destroy the things under the ban from your midst." Joshua 7:12

If we have in our possession anything that would be displeasing to the Lord, can we expect his unfettered presence to be with us?

Here's to clearing out of the way whatever would hinder the fullness of the presence of God with us!

Love,
Tim

Adding years to your life

One of the things I believed about God was His sovereignty and that a man's purpose in life was to bring Him glory in adversity or when things were going well. I also believed that according to Psalm 139:10, 31:15 and Job 14:15, a man's days were preordained and written in a book. Because of this understanding, I believe that men and women can live lives in the absence of fear and with courage.

But a conversation with my wife, Janice, and daughter, Amy, provided an important piece in my understanding of just how sovereign Our Father is.

They were praying through Psalm 112 which had meant tons to Janice when her father was going to have surgery. He was already in a weakened condition and the doctors didn't know whether his heart could take the surgery. The decision rested with Janice. The Lord directed her to Psalm 112. There, in two places, the Lord seemed to confirm that her dad's heart would remain steadfast. She made the decision to allow them to operate and he came through with flying colors.

Having that as a background, fast forward to knowing how they should pray for me during this season of my life. They were in a quandary since they knew that all I cared about was God receiving maximum glory from me no matter whether I lived or died.

Amy then suggested they read Isaiah 38, the story about King Hezekiah. In it, God tells Isaiah to go tell the king that he is going to die. Hezekiah in turn cries out to God reminding Him of his life and how he had walked before Him in truth with a whole heart. Here is where there was a gap in my understanding. Since God wrote the book regarding how many days a man has to live, in his sovereignty He can either add or subtract from the number. Amazing! He added 15 years, or 5,475 days to Hezekiah's life!

Having a fresh revelation of this aspect of my King has re-energized my prayer life since according to Isaiah 38, the reason that God extended His days was not only for Hezekiah but for His manifest presence to be reelected in the salvation of the city.

God truly is sovereign over men and their affairs, He directs the courses of kings and all of history.

I am a grateful man.

Love,

Tim

Lunch with friend, and more

Today I had lunch with my friend James. He has been a friend for many years and we periodically get together to sharpen one another. James told me about his 8 year old son who has a basaball card collection that he is very proud of and will occassionally announce to his parent some unusual fact about a player that makes him special to his team.

The next words that came out of James mouth really affirmed me and were like water to my soul. He said it was as if I had a baseball card collection of people. I knew their name their position and when provided the opportunity, would tell others what they did for the Kingdom based upon the gifts of heaven they had received that made them special. He said it was a mark on my life that made me special.

In these last months I've wondered how my life would look on the other side of the surgery and recovery. One thing I'm sure of, I'm hanging onto my baseball card collection of precious people and adding more along the way. It brings a smile to my Father's face and brings Him glory, which is all I care about for the rest of my life.

Love, Tim