When Your Doctor Says, It’S Cancer
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About this ebook
The author advises where to invest our minds and hearts in and to believe theres a will and grace more powerful than all human cares, minds, and hands can possibly do.
J. P. Lansmart Jr.
J. P. Lansmart Jr. is the Reverend Jose Paddy Padilla Jr, a minister of the United Methodist Church. The author is both a graduate of the University of the East in Manila and Wesley Divinity School in the Philippines with degrees in Liberal Arts and Sciences and a Master of Divinity, respectively. In 1974, he emigrated to the United States after short stint as a newspaper reporter in Manila. Before that, the author was a leading salesman in insurance, real estate, and financial services. As a pastor, he served three Methodist churches, two in the Philippines, and lastly before he retired, six years at The Fountain of Living Water UMC in La Palma, Ca,,California, The author wants to be known as a messenger of God's Grace. He is very vocal in proclaiming the gospel and preaching that the poor and the sick are not alone in their struggles. Now retired, he regularly visits the Philippines and other places for missionary works. He writes in his spare time. His wife, Doree, and their two sons: Ian (and his wife Joy), and Bryan, as well as his three granddaughters: Kayla, Jordan, and Ava, are constant source of inspiration and joy to him. They all live in California.
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When Your Doctor Says, It’S Cancer - J. P. Lansmart Jr.
Copyright © 2017 by J. P. Lansmart Jr.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017915140
ISBN: Hardcover 978-1-5434-5534-2
Softcover 978-1-5434-5533-5
eBook 978-1-5434-5532-8
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
Scripture quotations marked TNIV are taken from the Holy Bible, Today’s New International Version®. TNIV® Copyright © 2001, 2005 by International Bible Society®. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.
Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the Holy Bible, King James Version (Authorized Version). First published in 1611. Quoted from the KJV Classic Reference Bible, Copyright © 1983 by The Zondervan Corporation.
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.
Rev. date: 10/03/2017
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CONTENTS
Introduction
Chapter One
News You Don’t Want to Hear
An enemy at the gates
Family bad news
Cancer does not discriminate
Chapter Two
Be Better Not Bitter
Knowledge has bounds
Ours are never ending stories
The sun as inspiring symbol
Victims or victors
Let me not weep
Chapter Three
It Ain’t Fair I Thought
Anything can happen anywhere or anytime—quakes, storms, violence, etc.
Man is not a robot
Chapter Four
Sorrow Shared Is Half the Sorrow
Healing and peace of mind are inseparable
It’s a team effort
Created to build life together
Tale of two brothers-in-law
Chapter Five
Never Give Up Your Dreams
Cycle of fear and misconceptions
President Carter is cancer free
Chapter Six
Life Matters
Land where people wear a smile
Traveling is more on experiencing than seeing
God cares for those who are afflicted
Love, sing, and laugh—it’s a wonderful world
Chapter Seven
When Everything Seems Wrong
It may be mistake, cure may work
Ask for second opinion
The sun always rises
A candle in the dark
Chapter Eight
Spiritual Matter Triumphs Always
With God we always win
What made me think that way?
Prayer adds life
to your years
Chapter Nine
Good-bye Impossible, Hello Possible
Not what is to come
Don’t curse darkness
Dare, err, fail, it does not matter
Faith welcomes possibilities and says good-bye to impossibilities
Chapter Ten
I Did Not Walk Alone
It Is not about us- who He is
I am an inspiration or demonstration
Chapter Eleven
A New Year to Remember
Marred in the dust
It’s unlawful for the poor
An aura of near death
The message
Chapter Twelve
I Have Come This Far By His Grace
Epilogue
Let There Be Peace on Earth
Global arming
of our young children’s minds
Radical to radical approach
Front line against bad influences and teachings
Pound for pound
Author’s Prayer
A Brief Message for a Book Titled:
When Your Doctor Says, It’s Cancer!
J . P. LANSMART Jr., the author, is a man of God’s grace. He has lived a life full of God’s grace—as an individual, a family man, a minister, and a friend.
The first time his doctor broke the news that he had cancer, his world almost crumbled. Apparently, he was shocked, felt numb and bitter, gripped with crashed emotions and dark disappointment. These are common reactions true to many people diagnosed with cancer, regardless of age, gender, race, culture, and faith orientation.
Although stricken with this debilitating serious disease, nevertheless, he surrendered all to the most capable hand of the Omnipotent God, he described as the potter
who has control and power over everything in life. He allowed the Greatest Healer’s touch to penetrate into the innermost realm of his afflicted body.
Suddenly, his fear turned into faith, his perplexed emotion into humble submission, his anxiety into hope, his doubt into peace that passes all understanding. After undergoing treatments, he claimed himself not only as a survivor but a model of faith and a miracle of God’s healing grace! He accepted God’s new plan and purpose for his life. He finds himself to be a new person who lives from the grace of God who reinvented himself.
In praise and thanksgiving to God, he dedicated himself to a life of service to God and others through mission and as a minister of God’s grace wherever God leads him.
Finally, the author invites us to experience the truth and miracle of God’s healing and loving grace in all aspects of life through his faith-filled and spirited book.
–—Roela Victoria Rivera, D. Min.
Diaconal Minister and Mission Worker
Author of Glimpses of Heaven inspirational books
GraceNotes Creative Ministry
Hendersonville, Tennessee
DEDICATION
T HIS BOOK IS humbly dedicated to the most gracious and loving One I called the potter
who controls the Heavens and all things down below.
To my loving wife and family; to a church named, Fountain of Living Water of La Palma, California; to the Caring Ministry (Prayer Warriors) at First United Methodist Church of Torrance, California; and also, to Urology and Internal Medicine departments of Kaiser Permanente Hospital, Harbor City, California; to all of whom I am truly and deeply grateful.
And last but not the least, to my fellow wounded warriors
and supportive friends; as well as to countless nameless and faceless but courageous cancer patients in various hospitals, institutions, and homes all over the world; from all to whom I derive strength, hope, and inspiration in life and in writing this book.
*****
Yet you, Lord, are our Father.
We are the clay, you are the potter;
We are all the work of your hand.
(Isaiah 64:8 NIV)
Image.jpgFinished pottery in a yard for sale or for tearing down. The jar factory owner said useless pottery will be crushed for fishpond uses or reworked. Jeremiah 18:6 says, "Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel."
INTRODUCTION
T HIS COULD BE your story too, may be the reason you are on this page. Knowing this book interests people like you, I am so humbled, encouraged, and inspired that I’m not solo flying in this journey.
People with cancer or learning they have, go through the same complex of emotions but not exactly the same. Simply, the results are not similar but the ends are identical—to dust we cometh, to dust we returneth.
We may go through the same anguish, disappointment, or acceptance but people are different in looking at things and situations. Setting the right choices and understanding the ethereal or divine connection to your effort will spell a big difference in the outcomes.
Some individuals die
right away while others are reborn.
Many dare to fight and brace themselves remaining unbroken up to the end. My story is not about surviving or living longer though most of us long to have extra more years to our lives.
This book tells it’s not the end when cancer strikes. But it could be the start of a new journey where hearts, minds, and spirits can grow and flourish even in the midst of almost insurmountable challenge. When these occur, it breaks the cycle of fear turning apprehension into balance and calm.
In past decades, technological and medical milestones have been reached in curing and caring for people with cancer, a good reason to be hopeful. Great also because we don’t know what’s next or what tomorrow will bring. If we know, a man can never have faith—there is no need for hope.
When others go through the same trials as mine, they can uncover new things and gain fresh insights. They become better, not bitter, knowing million others went through the same situation, and they would like to experience how others cope and fight to live under adversarial condition.
Most importantly, in coping and living with this terrible disease, we are not alone in this fight. A Higher Being called God created us for a greater purpose. His purpose is higher than ours. Only He can heal, only He knows if our time is up. He listens to His children, if we care to ask, and pray in faith.
The most valuable thing I learned about having cancer is that I am not alone. I am in potter’s hand
who can mold me to keep me or trash me away. This potter molds and makes me. I give my life to his hands.
My breath may be short but my day is not. So while I am being held by his hands, why not spend and enjoy my time with important others
in my life—family, friends, or my grandchildren—till Heaven says well done, faithful servant.
Winning or losing against cancer is not about living longer or dying too soon. It is about weaving through the challenges, knowing where to put our minds and hearts in, and believing there’s a Will and Grace more powerful than all human cares, minds, and hands can possibly do.
When that final day comes, and surely it will, I cross the river, I can confidently declare, I did not quit nor say: I walked or fought alone.
*****
"It’s okay son, I know you want this