Cancer

Cancer has affected many of us in one way or another. The odds for you to get cancer are one in four. That is pretty startling odds. It means that if you get together with your three best friends the odds are that one of you will wind up with cancer. Doctor’s have spent years researching how to treat cancer, but what we need to find is the root cause so that we can avoid getting it.

My pastor’s wife recently died of ovarian cancer. Her cancer was very aggressive. From the time she was diagnosed to the time of her death was only eight months. Normally, damaged cells are removed from the body in a natural way. Cancer cells are cells that the DNA has been damaged and does not get removed. These cells continue to multiply in the body and start growing in mass, or throughout different parts of the body.

We all have a form of spiritual cancer rampant in our lives. This cancer is called sin. The Bible explains that sin is transgression of God’s law. God’s law is the Ten Commandments. God has given us a conscience that agrees with this standard of right and wrong. Have you ever been lied to? Of course, we have all been lied to at one time or another. How did it make you feel when someone purposely deceived you? It made you feel terrible when you realized that they treated you this way. Have you ever told a lie? Even though you know how it made you feel, you have purposely deceived someone else. Have you ever stolen anything? Have you always honored your parents? Have you ever committed adultery? Have you ever killed someone? God sees lust as adultery and hatred as murder. Have you used God’s name in vain? Have you used the name of the God who gave you life as a word of disgust? We don’t treat our enemies name’s in that way. Have you ever heard anyone using Osama Bin Laden’s name as a curse word? How about Hitler? Stalin? Saddam Hussein? The Bible says that God will not hold him guiltless who uses His name in vain. We all will stand guilty before God. We haven’t just transgressed His law once, but on a daily basis. Not only have we done it on a daily basis, but we have done it knowing it to be wrong. The cancer isn’t just localized to one area, our entire being is eaten up The Bible states that “it is appointed unto man once to die and after this the judgment.” We will all stand before a righteous, holy God as guilty sinners with no hope of release on our own. “But God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” God doesn’t want you to be punished eternally in hell. He has made a way of escape. He came to earth as a man, Jesus, lived a perfect life without sin, died on the cross to pay your fine, and proved it all by resurrecting on the third day. Repentance is not just saying, “I’m sorry.” It is a change of mind. You have to change your mind about who God is and what place He holds in your life. You need to accept that God is the creator of the universe and that he deserves to be Lord (boss) of your life. When you stand before God on judgment day, the only thing that will save you is that you have placed your faith and trust in Jesus’ substitutionary death on the cross for you. You can be free from your cancer. It may take some time for all of the damaged cells to be eliminated, but they will continue to dissipate as you fall more and more in love with Christ. It is our love for Him that compels us to follow Him and to try to keep His law.