Yesterday marked the one year anniversary of James Gjertsen’s homegoing. We miss you, son. The hard providence you brought into your parent’s lives and all those who love them brought great joy and deep reflection as well.

For a sweet, thoughtful, substantive recollection of all things James, click through to the House of Gjertsen site here.

I said it before. I’ll say it again. I love shepherding people of such faith and devotion. They make me want to be a better pastor.

If you aren’t reading Brett & Nicole Bradley’s blog, I commend it to you.

I love blogs by my people because they give me a window into their hearts so I can know better how to shepherd them. Facebook is doing that for me to, to a certain extent. I keep learning, ever so slowly, even pushing 57 years of age.

Check out today’s raw, tender, and insightful stuff from the Bretticus and his bride here.

I love pastoring folks with such sincere, substantive faith.

Desiring God’s blog has a post by John Piper comparing thoughts from C. S. Lewis and Jonathan Edwards on the subject of humility. It’s worth checking out here.

This smidgen of a quote from Lewis regarding the human propensity to self-admiration might whet your appetite to click through:

It is like fighting the hydra… There seems to be no end to it. Depth under depths of self-love and self-admiration.

This from 8.18.05.

Back in the hospital again. Another twist. My medical oncologist showed up at treatment with ideas for altering the plan. He was wrestling with adding the 5FU continuous fusion treatment (4 days, 24/7) following the cisplatin. He wants to finish strong. The only way to do it AND keep me on TPN (liquid nutrition) was to put me in so I can run simultaneous IVs. The chemo is not compatible with the TPN so we can’t piggy back off the port – unfortunately. Other than feeling weak last night I didn’t have any other immediate side effects from the cisplatin. Thanks be to God.

Had my final radiation treatment yesterday. Number 38! Hallelujah that is over. What a long haul. We brought gifts to the staff – some food, Piper books (Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die). I think they felt touched. Got my boldness quotient up to distribute the books. Gave my radiation oncologist a copy of my Psalm 23 message, “Tsunamis, Cancer, & the Shepherd’s Extraordinary Care.” Hopefully he will listen to it and God will convict and soften his heart.

It was not always easy, but God gave grace to seek to redeem the suffering by enabling us to share the gospel with caregivers and fellow-patients along the way. Blessed be His name.

Dear ones, who prayed with me today for the G’s thorugh the H’s in our Seven Day Prayer List at OGC?

My prayer for each, among other things, was Col. 1:9-12.

9 And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10 so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. 11 May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.

D. A. Carson got me fired up today with this thought from A Call to Spiritual Reformation:

If we are to improve our praying, we must strengthen our loving. As we grow in disciplined, self-sacrificing love, so we will grow in intercessory prayer. Superficially fervent prayers devoid of such love are finally phone, hollow, shallow (p. 85).

Beloved, let us love one another well by praying for one another daily.

Oh, church, read and feast upon Christ through the work of Puritans like Thomas Brooks!

O blessed Lord! Upon my first believing and closing with Jesus Christ, Thou didst justify me in the court of glory from all my sins, both as to guilt and punishment. Upon my first act of believing, Thou didst pardon all my sins; Thou didst forgive all my iniquities; Thou didst blot out all my transgressions; and as upon my first believing Thou didst give me the remission of all my sins, so upon my first believing thou didst free me from a state of condemnation and interest me in thy great salvation. Upon my first believing, I was united to Jesus Christ and I was clothed with the righteousness of Christ, which covered all my sins and discharged me from all my transgressions. Remember, O Lord, that at the very moment of my dissolution Thou didst really, perfectly, universally, and finally forgive all my sins.

No wonder all heaven ceases its activity and rejoices at the salvation of even one sinner (Luke 15:10). Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!

Puritan William Gurnall wrote this:

Consider God’s unspeakable love for His beloved Son as He watched Him–alone–enter the stage of bloody tragedy. Be still here and know the painful price both God and His Son paid for you to be one with Him. I think you are at the highest stair God’s Word can lead you to ascend into the meditation of His love.

Picture a father who has only one son–and can have no more–sending that child to prison and with his own lips sentencing him to death. And then, to guarantee the execution be completed with the most horrible torment possible, he watches his child’s death with eyes brimming not with grief but with anger. If you study this parent’s countenance you conclude surely he hates his son or the sin he committed. This is what you see in the Father towards his Son, for it was God, more than men or devils, who caused Christ’s death.

Amazing love, how can it be, that Thou, my God, shouldst die for me!

August is something of unofficial missions month at OGC. We devote the 9:30 hour to reports from and prayer for our various short and long-term folks on the field.

Need a motivational jolt to be a global Christian? Check this video out. I caught it on Justin Taylor’s blog.

Here is a portion of my journal from 8.17.05.

The day has finally arrived. The treatment finish line! I get my last radiation session on my neck and my last chemo blast to the body. What a long six weeks it has been! Of course, I still have the aftermath of these treatments to deal with, but there is much prayer going up on my behalf and at least I won’t be having continuous radiation while the chemo side effects take their toll. At this point I just want the whole thing over with. As [John] Piper wrote to me in an email, “May you come forth as gold.”

Proverbs 25:11 says, A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver. In other words, a comment made or written at just the right time in just the right way with just the right truth is a beautiful thing. Pastor John’s reference to 1 Peter 1:7 helped catapult me into a frame of mind to endure what lay ahead. I had no idea just how much I would need such a promise given the suffering yet to come.

I’ve seen this video a while ago, but not with Pastor John’s comments on it as well.

I love it. Check it out.