ベサニー・キリスト教会

The other day I was leading a Bible Study about Quiet Time. Afterwards I was asked when and how I myself came to read the Bible on a daily basis. I answered that rather than reading the Bible, the Bible was introduced to me by my parents reading to me every night before going to bed.

When I was maybe 3 or so, my parents started the custom of reading to me every night from the book, "Egermeier's Bible Story Book". This is basically the Bible for young children. It starts with Genesis and ends with Revelation and is very well written and laid out. I could not wait to hear the next story and looked forward to bedtime every night. As a result, by the time I made my own personal committment to believe and follow Jesus Christ I had a good over-all idea of how the Bible was laid out and what it taught. What happened in the OT and what Jesus taught in the NT etc. I will always be grateful to my parents for introducing me to the Bible-the Word of God-in this way.

However, this is quite the old book now. The copyright is 1923 and the copy that my parents used was printed in 1947. I still have it and it is real beat up but all the pages are there and it is a bit of a personal treasure for me. Whether or not it is still in print I have no idea nor do I know if second hand copies are easy to obtain or not. However, this is a classic work.

Taking the book down from my bookshelf and looking at it again I was reminded of what the Christian author. Larry Christianson, said about this book. In his book, "The Christian Family" he mentions that family devotions were going nowhere and he was concerned and did not know what to do. However, he decided to on a nightly basis gather his children and read a chapter from "Egermeier's Bible Story Book". When he did that, every night his children would be waiting and wanting to hear about what happened to Noah or Abraham or David or whoever. This book started his family on the road to good family devotions.

Looking at this old book again I was challenged that somehow each new generation of children need to be introduced to the Word of God-the Bible-in some way that will hold their interest and cause them to become lovers and students of the Bible when they are older. Again, I am so thankful that my parents were able to do that and that as a result, even now, one of the things I look forward to the most every day is to read some chapters from the Bible-the Bible never gets old. PTL.

I can't remember the last time I gave a report here but I know many people are praying for me and so I will try and give a bit of an update.

During the months of December and January I continued to be very weak-so weak in fact that I could not even start chemo treatments. I was able to finally take a CAT scan in December and am glad to report that the cancer has not spread. PTL

In January I was also strong enough to start chemo treatments again. My doctor and considered trying a new type of treatment but I chickened out at the last moment and decided that in my un-balanced body the last I needed to do was to try yet another new medication route.And so I am now back on my old once every three week 48hour IV chemo medication route. This seems to be working out very well. In fact at this moment as I write this I have a chemo bottle hanging around my neck and am having an IV injection through the IV injection port in my chest. It sure beats laying in a hospital bed for three days!!!

At any rate, over all I am doing ok. I am preaching every week and am also doing some Bible Studies. I also climb mountians (at a very very slow rate). I asked my doctor about this and he said it was about the best thing I could be doing and that rather than telling me to take it easy and rest more he encouraged me to climb as much as possible-mountain climbing is also a type of anti-cancer medication he said.

I want to thank all of you who are praying for me-I am sustained daily by the prayers of God's people!!!