What if confronting the harshest truths could lead to profound healing? Join us for this spiritually enlightening episode of Devotions with Dr. Papa, where we tackle the challenging yet crucial moments of diagnosing cancer. Dr. Papa shares gripping stories from his medical practice, demonstrating the critical need to face difficult realities and the life-saving importance of adhering to expert counsel. Paralleling these physical health lessons with our spiritual journeys, Dr. Papa emphasizes the necessity of recognizing and addressing the 'disease' of sin, reminding us of the eternal consequences of spiritual neglect.
You won't want to miss Dr. Papa's wisdom on avoiding harmful habits, both physical and spiritual. From steering clear of excessive sunlight and smoking to distancing ourselves from negative influences and compromising situations, he offers actionable advice to safeguard our overall well-being. This episode serves as both a call to better health and a heartfelt reminder to listen to the Holy Spirit's guidance, ensuring our lives remain aligned with God's teachings. Gather your Bibles and join us for a session that promises to enrich your body, mind, and soul.
What if confronting the harshest truths could lead to profound healing? Join us for this spiritually enlightening episode of Devotions with Dr. Papa, where we tackle the challenging yet crucial moments of diagnosing cancer. Dr. Papa shares gripping stories from his medical practice, demonstrating the critical need to face difficult realities and the life-saving importance of adhering to expert counsel. Paralleling these physical health lessons with our spiritual journeys, Dr. Papa emphasizes the necessity of recognizing and addressing the 'disease' of sin, reminding us of the eternal consequences of spiritual neglect.
You won't want to miss Dr. Papa's wisdom on avoiding harmful habits, both physical and spiritual. From steering clear of excessive sunlight and smoking to distancing ourselves from negative influences and compromising situations, he offers actionable advice to safeguard our overall well-being. This episode serves as both a call to better health and a heartfelt reminder to listen to the Holy Spirit's guidance, ensuring our lives remain aligned with God's teachings. Gather your Bibles and join us for a session that promises to enrich your body, mind, and soul.
Welcome to Devotions with Dr Papa. Grab your Bibles and gather around and let us look into the written Word, which reveals to us the living Word, which is our Lord Jesus Christ. Well, currently we're going through a series of lessons on Biblical insights gained from my medical practice. Last week we started on a lesson entitled Doctor, is it Cancer?
Speaker 1:
Several years back, I had one of my patients come into my office and he told me that he had lost about 30 to 40 pounds. He also told me he was very weak and very short of breath. When I looked at him, he was quite pale. I pulled down his lower eyelid and looked, and it was quite pale. I looked at both hands and they were very pale. I looked at his nail beds they were also pale. I asked him if he'd been losing blood in his stool and he said no, not that I know of. I asked him if he was having chest pain and he denied that. So I ordered a blood test and when it came back, his hemoglobin was down to five, when it should have been 14 or 15 for a man of his age. I also noticed that his white blood count was 40,000, when it should not have been over 12. I surmised that this man had contracted some kind of leukemia, a blood cancer. I immediately had him admitted to the hospital. That very day he had a bone marrow aspiration and he was started on chemotherapy the very next day and over the next two years he underwent extensive chemotherapy and then had a bone marrow transplant. He lost from 270 pounds down to 190 pounds and he's back to his normal sassy, aggravating self. But he is alive and I'm very thankful that he has survived all of his treatments.
Speaker 1:
Well, as I told you last week, doctors have sometimes a heartbreaking chore of telling our patients that they have contracted a dreadful disease called cancer. Well, what does a patient have to do when they are faced with a cancer? Well, the first thing that they have to do is face the truth, and the truth is that they're afflicted with a terrible disease. And unfortunately, sometimes my patients don't want to face that truth. They deny that they have a malignancy. In fact, many years ago, one of my patients, who had multiple children and a lovely bride, denied the fact when I told him that he probably had a colon cancer. He had blood in his stool. I recommended that he obtain a consult with a surgeon and a colonoscopy, which he declined, and about a year and a half later he died from colon cancer, leaving behind a wife and multiple children. He denied the truth. He would not face the truth that he was afflicted with a serious disease. He needed to listen to his doctor.
Speaker 1:
Well, when the Bible tells us that we are all afflicted with a terrible disease, a disease that is worse than cancer, a disease called sin iniquity, we should listen to the voice of Holy Spirit when it says to us that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, and that the penalty for sin is spiritual death, to be separated away from God forever in flaming fire in a place called hell. We should listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit. The second thing I would say is that we have to avoid the causes, the causes of cancer, such as too much exposure to sunlight, or smoking cigarettes or marijuana, or exposure to certain chemicals, or exposure to excessive foods that we know could be damaging to our GI tract, or not eating enough bran or fiber in our diet. There are certain things that we know could be injurious to our health and we should avoid those things and, by the same token, we should avoid the things that are injurious to our spiritual life. Now, sometimes, when I tell my patients about the things that they should avoid that are dangerous to their health, one of my patients asked me. He said, doc, is that your best advice? And I said, yes, sir, it is. And he said, well, can you give me your second best advice and could I get a second opinion? He was not interested in my very best advice. Well, you see, the Bible gives us strong advice on the things that we should do to avoid sin, such as staying away from evil company that corrupts our good manners, evil company that corrupts our good manners, and the way that we should avoid evil thoughts or compromising situations, and advises us to flee from youthful lusts. There are a lot of things that the Bible advises us to do to preserve our moral purity, but here's the bottom line. And the bottom line is that we're all born a sinner. We're all born spiritually dead. Now, my patients aren't born with cancer, but you and I are born with the cancer of sin. What do we do with that? Well, we'll have to talk about that in a moment.
Speaker 1:
Number three I tell my patients that they have to search it out. We have to go to any length and any cost, and we have to turn the search light onto their physical body. We have to do biopsies, ct scans, mri scans, pet scans, blood tests. We do whatever it takes to find the root of their medical problem, the root of their cancer, and find out what kind of cancer it is, where it's located, has it metastasized. We do whatever we have to do to search it out.
Speaker 1:
Well, you see, the same thing is true with sin in our lives. We have to search it out. And Psalms 139 and verse 24 is a very interesting verse where the psalmist is actually praying and he says Search me, o God, and know my heart, try me and know my anxious thoughts and see if there be any hurtful way in me, any sinful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way. You see, the psalmist understood the damage that sin could cause in his life, in his heart, and he was praying that God would turn the searchlight of Holy Spirit upon his heart and he would search out anything that was hurtful, sinfully hurtful or damaging in his life. And it would require an unrelenting honesty to search out that sin in his life.
Speaker 1:
Now, the fourth thing that I tell my patients is this is that they have to admit to it. If there's something that they're doing that's hurtful or harmful to their physical life, they got to admit to it. Now, in spiritual terms, we call it confess it. They got to confess that that cigarette smoking is doing damage to their lungs and is probably what contributed to their lung cancer. That two packs a day of Marlboros, unfiltered, is what contributed to their lung cancer and they got to admit that. And the second thing is they got to repent of it. That means they got to turn their back on two packs a day of Marlboros and they got to give it up. That's what repentance is is you turn your back on it, you got to give it up. And the same thing with my patients with a melanoma or a squamous cell carcinoma of the skin. They got to repent of lying in the sun or driving their tractor in the sun without a long-sleeved shirt or sunscreen. There's just certain things you got to give up, dude, and turn your back on that. And you see, if you got an esophageal cancer, that alcohol that you've been drinking since you were a teenager is probably what caused that. You got to give up that six-pack a day and you can't go back to it. Number one, you got to admit it, confess it. And number two, you got to repent of it, you got to turn your back on it.
Speaker 1:
Well, the psalmist said when I remain silent about my sin, my body, it's drained, as with the fever heat of summer. You see, when I have a sin in my life and I refuse to confess it, when I refuse to admit to it and repent of it, my vitality is drained away, as with the fever heat of summer. The Bible says, if we confess our sins, that God is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And you see, I have to be willing to accept the only effective cure for my sin. What's the only effective cure for sin? Well, you've heard me say that before on this podcast. What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. And you see, I have to be willing to apply the blood of Jesus to my sin-stained soul. I have to confess my sin, I have to repent of it, turn my back on it, and I have to trust in the blood of Jesus and claim that forgiveness. I have to be willing to claim the victory.
Speaker 1:
1 John, chapter 5, verses 4 and 5, tells us that who wins the victory, who has the victory in our Lord Jesus Christ? Well, faith is the victory. First chapter, verses 5, verses 4 and 5 tells us For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world our faith. Who is the one who overcomes the world? But he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. Listen, if you want to have victory over sin, if you want to have victory over the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God, listen, if you want to have victory over sin, if you want to have victory over the world, then you must place your faith in the blood of Jesus Christ. What's the only effective cure? It's the blood of Jesus. Now listen to me.
Speaker 1:
My patients travel everywhere to find treatment for their cancers. They go to the Cancer Centers of America. They go to Georgia, the Mayo Clinic. They go to the Cancer Treatment Centers of America, all over the United States. They even travel to Mexico and South America to find treatments for their cancer. They go to whatever lengths they have to go in order to find somebody who can provide a treatment for their cancer. They don't care about the cost, they don't care how much they have to travel, they don't care how much work they have to miss when they've got a cancer. They do whatever it takes to get the treatment for their cancer.
Speaker 1:
So let me ask you a question what are you willing to do To get effective treatment for your sin? Because I'm going to tell you a secret Cancer will only put you in the grave, physically dead, but sin will put you in hell, separated away from God, forever, in flaming fire, in a place where there is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth, in a place of outer darkness where the smoke thereof ascends unto heaven, forever and ever. The physical grave is nothing compared to the eternal grave separated away from God. Do you understand the difference? What are you willing to do, my friend, to escape a place called hell, a place of eternal torment, of unimaginable and eternal torment? What will you do, my friend, to escape that place? What will you do, my friend, to escape that place? Will you go to the great physician and will you ask him to apply the blood of the cross to your sin-stained soul.
Speaker 1:
Now I do have patients who refuse surgery. They refuse chemotherapy, they refuse every option available and I don't understand it. I'll be honest to you, I do not understand it. And I look at them and I say why will you die? You see, that's the question that the Old Testament asked the Israelites. And God says why will you die? Because God offers a way of escape. He offers redemption and the forgiveness of sins.
Speaker 1:
Doctors have the opportunity to give good news to their patients. Now, sometimes we have bad news and it's an awful chore to bring bad news and say look, I'm sorry, you've got cancer. And my patients look at me in stunned silence, with quiet tears or denial, sometimes anger, sometimes racking sobs. But, brothers and sisters, I sometimes bring good news and I'll say to them the surgeon has got it all, there's no further treatment required.
Speaker 1:
So what is your response to the bad news? And the bad news is that you were born spiritually dead. You are afflicted with sin. But here's the good news. The good news is that the great physician, the Lord Jesus, can apply the life-giving blood to your sin-stained soul. There is an effective cure for your sin problem. All you have to do? You don't have to travel. You don't have to spend any money. All you have to do is confess your sin, any money. All you have to do is confess your sin, repent of your sin and receive the free gift, the free gift of eternal life, through our Lord Jesus Christ. What is your response? You're listening to Devotions with Dr Papa. If you like it, share it, follow, download it and tell your friends and until next week, may the Lord bless you. Real good.
