How do you feel when you receive bad news?  Somewhat disheartened?  Frustrated?  Sad? Angry?  None of the above?  All of the above?

According to Wikipedia:

In general, creatinine clearance is the removal of creatinine from the body. In renal physiology, creatinine clearance (CCr) is the volume of blood plasma that is cleared of creatinine per unit time. Clinically, creatinine clearance is a useful measure for estimating the glomerular filtration rate (GFR) of the kidneys.

Creatinine is mainly filtered by the kidney, though a small amount is actively secreted. There is little-to-no tubular reabsorption of creatinine. If the filtering of the kidney is deficient, blood levels rise. As a result, creatinine blood levels may be used to calculate creatinine clearance (ClCr), which reflects the glomerular filtration rate (GFR). The GFR is clinically important because it is a measurement of renal function.

We learned today from Satellite Dialysis Center that a recent test indicates Irene’s creatinine level has changed from 1.4 to .03.  Healthy counts range from 75-125.  In other words, Irene’s kidney function has deteriorated.  It’s obviously not what we were hoping for but it is reality.  We cry and we’re saddened at the news but we move forward.  We will not waiver in unbelief.  We trust God implicitly.  He orders our steps.  He is in control.

Psalm 46 gives us great comfort:

1 God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.
2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
3 though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their surging.

Selah

4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy place where the Most High dwells.
5 God is within her, she will not fall;
God will help her at break of day.
6 Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall;
he lifts his voice, the earth melts.
7 The LORD Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.

8 Come and see the works of the LORD,
the desolations he has brought on the earth.
9 He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth;
he breaks the bow and shatters the spear,
he burns the

Continue reading

What’s the goal or “bullseye” of YOUR life?

I’m not sure that we think about life or the “end of life” often enough.  Despite the odds of physical death (100% for all of us!!), we’re inclined to live like immortal beings whose tomorrows will stretch on forever.  I observe people who are passionate about the stock market and planning retirement or are consumed with superficial topics such as news, sports and weather.  Rarely do people engage in the more significant conversations that are really much more relevant to how we focus and prioritize our lives …. not only on earth but in the new world order to come.  However, I am thankful for God’s abundantly clear word:

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade — kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith — of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire — may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
1 Peter 1:3-9

The goal of our faith is simply the SALVATION OF OUR SOULS.  Now, that’s what I call a bullseye!!  So here’s a rhetorical question …. Who in their right mind would turn down living in eternity with a loving and just God and one who reconciles all of the injustices that we

Continue reading