My Journey With Cancer, Part 27 By David Maddox
Last week was “Go Week” as we traveled to Tupelo, Mississippi to join with the Time to Revive Team as part of Revive Tupelo. It was our first opportunity to be with the Team since the cancer was discovered in January. Medically the week was a challenge at times, but clear evidence that when God sends us He will enable and provide what is needed. We ended up needing to rest in the afternoons after being a part of a 6:15 AM staff devotional – then a prayer meeting with locals, missionaries and laborers God had sent – training and going out to share the love of Jesus on the streets of Tupelo. By the time lunch was served and finished it was around 2:00 PM which meant we had been hard at it for almost eight hours so we had to rest to be a part of the evening service and discipleship assignments. Wednesday we both encountered a sickness that kept of out of the day’s events but we were able to join in the evening events. Saturday on the way traveling back I had significant stomach issues when only resolved themselves after I threw up four times in DFW Airport – but praise God even that was made easy as I was the only one in the bathroom on each occasion which spared me embarrassment and others concern for what was happening. God is good. The miracle is that a man diagnosed with stage four cancer in January is enabled to minister in another city after nine rounds of really strong chemo. Being sent does not mean it will be easy, but it does mean that God will provide – use you – and bless you if you just ignore your circumstances and go.
During the week as we went out we got to minister to many people and pray with churches. God did what He always does when you go out in obedience – He changed lives of both those who shared and those with whom we shared. I had the opportunity to work on how we train people to disciple and to be a part of discipleship training. The evening services and Morning Prayer times offered real opportunities to encounter God in prayer which is what I spent a lot of my time doing. He had a lot to say and I needed to hear every word. It was thrilling to watch the change God was bring forth in me and others.
Spiritually the lessons surrounded the “Go” theme of last week and a recognition of the true Family of God and how God would have us love one another. I learned as I said before how God will enable if we just ignore circumstances, obey and go. I can honestly say that there was joy even in the struggles for I know we were where God wanted us to be at that time and if I could not do something I know He did not want me to be doing that – He had it for others to do.
Family goes back to what Paul said about the Body of Christ in Romans 12. We are one – any Spiritual gift we may receive is for the whole Body – and “if one member suffers, all suffer together, if one member is honored, all rejoice together.” Watching the Church of Tupelo learn what it means to be one and to think of the Kingdom and not simply of their own local church was so encouraging. They began to work together – an effort together to take the Kingdom to Tupelo something no single local church can do on its own in any city. They began to cut through the racial barriers and different styles of worship which are of no importance in carrying the Gospel to the lost and making disciples of both new Believers and Believers who have never been discipled. As the week went on the theme of the importance of discipleship just grew. Recognition that the Great Commission is not about making converts but making disciples and that if God commands us to do something He will enable us to do it became clearer with every passing day. We still struggle for enough people willing to be disciple makers. Please pray for more laborers to guard the seed that has been planted in people who have asked to be discipled.
God’s Family gathered in Tupelo from many parts of the United States but none more than the nearly 100 who came from Indiana at their own expense to carry on in another state what God has been doing in their state. Families came as did Pastors who want to share with Tupelo what God had done and was doing in their state. At the same time that Revive Tupelo was going on in Indiana other locals there were taking the Time to Revive model to another city. It just keeps spreading as the Family of God wants all to know and grow – which we know is the heart of God.
Also in Tupelo the “usual crowd of suspects” came – those faithful ones who travel to every city because God has called them to this ministry and they have seen what God will do earlier in their own city. These Family Members loved on us and us on them. So grateful for the blessing of coming to know them and serve with them in so many places. I was prayed for powerfully again. I know God has heard all of the prayers and the issue is only timing for God is answering and using the delay as a time to grow me further and to accomplish works He always intended be accomplished here as well as elsewhere for which I praise Him.
In our relations one with another I remembered what Jesus said to the disciples about the Family at the Last Supper when He gave the new commandment – “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” People who looked at us would have seen that love. There were precious times of prayer and sharing when we remembered to ask the question of those on our team and others who had traveled to Tupelo, “How can I pray for you.” The responses often showed needs and hurts similar to those among the people we encountered in the streets and we would never have been able to know and minister to those needs if we had not asked. But because Jesus is teaching us more about His love we asked and where able to lift burdens and share in hurts.
Finally Family means that all of those who were praying for us last week share in all God did through us in others. Don’t you love the way God works. Even if you cannot go (although you should if called – and we have all been called to go somewhere if only to a neighbor) through prayer you can be a part of enabling God to work in and through other members of the Family. What a great God we have.
This is a chemo week so I would appreciate your continued prayers for minimal side effects and that the chemo kill only cancer cells, but all of them. Additionally, I will be working on a draft Leader’s Guide to go along with our discipleship training materials so for that I will definitely need your prayers. Thanks for your continued faithfulness and partnership as part of the Family.
About David Maddox – After a legal career in both Texas and Arizona that spanned over 40 years as a civil litigator, God called David to leave his law practice and work full time as Discipleship Director for Time to Revive. That call is really the fruit of decades of prayer for revival and teaching God’s Word, writing discipleship materials and seeking to make disciples. David married Janet Whitehead in 1976 and they minister together from their Phoenix home. God has blessed them with four children and thus far seven grandchildren.
