NEWS Remembering a Friend
I was going through one of my notebooks today. I use notebooks as an organizational tool. My notebooks contain valuable pieces of information I come across. I have quite a few notebooks on different subjects.
One of my notebooks is labeled "LOVE." It's my favorite notebook. This is the one I pulled off the shelf today. As I was going through it, I stopped on a page I hadn't seen in a while. The page was a print out of John 14 from BibleGateway.com. At the top of the page I had written in bold:
Lisa Stack passed away after hearing her husband read John 14:1 to her
Lisa Stack was a friend I had met at the office. I didn't know Lisa very well, but she was always very friendly around the office. She and I enjoyed talking about the cartoon 'Sponge Bob Square Pants.' Lisa had fondness in her heart for Squidward. I got a kick out of Plankton. Lisa also loved music. She was in the media business and she had lots of contacts at radio stations around the country. As a musician and owner of a record company, our conversations would usually gravitate toward music, radio and the state of the music business.
One day, I noticed Lisa was missing from her office. I asked Lisa's boss, a great guy named Pete, where Lisa was. Pete said Lisa was undergoing treatments for skin cancer at Yale University hospital. He told me Lisa was diagnosed with Melanoma, a serious type of cancer that has the highest death rate and is responsible for 75 percent of all deaths from skin cancer.
My heart sank when Pete told me this news.
I knew through our conversations that Lisa had a beautiful boy and loving husband at home. She was young - in her 30s. I couldn't seem to reconcile in my mind a talented young woman and terminal skin cancer. It didn't make any sense to me. But the reality was, it was true.
Lisa was in bad shape. She knew it. Despite all the treatments she received (some of which were extremely painful operations), she was not getting better. She was willing to explore new treatments for her skin cancer. Doctors seemed to be her only hope.
One day while Lisa was out receiving treatments, I approached her boss Pete about participating in a healing session at a local church. The Pastor at this church had himself been miraculously healed from a stroke. There was something very special about his healing sessions. They were beautiful experiences (incidentally, Christine and I wrote the song "In My Heart" after attending one of the healing sessions).
Pete liked the idea of the healing session. He said he would talk to Lisa and her husband about it and get back to me. Lisa had never embraced Christ in her heart, but I had a feeling she would be willing to reach out to Him now. As the son of a wonderful physician, I knew in my surrendered heart that Jesus was her only true hope.
Not long after we talked, Pete contacted me and told me Lisa would love to participate in a healing session. We made arrangements to have a group of people attend it. Lisa's family would be there as would most of her colleagues from work.
The healing session was special. The presence of the Holy Spirit was powerful - so powerful that Lisa got knocked to the floor. Lying on the floor with the Pastor praying over her, she seemed so peaceful.
When the Pastor and several of her friends lifted her up from the floor, she told us in no uncertain terms that she had been healed by God. Her spirit was now connected with His. Tears were flowing everywhere in that church. Lisa had received Christ.
A few weeks after the healing session, Lisa was told by her doctors she didn't have much longer to live. The cancer was spreading rapidly throughout her body. Lisa took the news incredibly well. Her flesh was deteriorating but her spirit was never more alive.
I got the news that Lisa had passed away at home. She died in peace. Her husband told me that she died after hearing him read John 14:1 to her.
"Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me."
And with those words, Lisa was gone. Lisa went home. As Jesus says in John 14:2:
"In My Father's house are many mansions... I go to prepare a place for you."
As I looked at my notebook today, the tears began to flow. My friend Lisa Stack left our world and ascended into His kingdom. She had moved on to a better place - a more peaceful place. Cancer had taken her flesh, but her heart and spirit were with Jesus. Lisa trusted God with her heart. She also believed in Jesus.
May you trust God with your heart and may you also believe in Jesus.
Agape,
Steve
One of my notebooks is labeled "LOVE." It's my favorite notebook. This is the one I pulled off the shelf today. As I was going through it, I stopped on a page I hadn't seen in a while. The page was a print out of John 14 from BibleGateway.com. At the top of the page I had written in bold:
Lisa Stack passed away after hearing her husband read John 14:1 to her
Lisa Stack was a friend I had met at the office. I didn't know Lisa very well, but she was always very friendly around the office. She and I enjoyed talking about the cartoon 'Sponge Bob Square Pants.' Lisa had fondness in her heart for Squidward. I got a kick out of Plankton. Lisa also loved music. She was in the media business and she had lots of contacts at radio stations around the country. As a musician and owner of a record company, our conversations would usually gravitate toward music, radio and the state of the music business.
One day, I noticed Lisa was missing from her office. I asked Lisa's boss, a great guy named Pete, where Lisa was. Pete said Lisa was undergoing treatments for skin cancer at Yale University hospital. He told me Lisa was diagnosed with Melanoma, a serious type of cancer that has the highest death rate and is responsible for 75 percent of all deaths from skin cancer.
My heart sank when Pete told me this news.
I knew through our conversations that Lisa had a beautiful boy and loving husband at home. She was young - in her 30s. I couldn't seem to reconcile in my mind a talented young woman and terminal skin cancer. It didn't make any sense to me. But the reality was, it was true.
Lisa was in bad shape. She knew it. Despite all the treatments she received (some of which were extremely painful operations), she was not getting better. She was willing to explore new treatments for her skin cancer. Doctors seemed to be her only hope.
One day while Lisa was out receiving treatments, I approached her boss Pete about participating in a healing session at a local church. The Pastor at this church had himself been miraculously healed from a stroke. There was something very special about his healing sessions. They were beautiful experiences (incidentally, Christine and I wrote the song "In My Heart" after attending one of the healing sessions).
Pete liked the idea of the healing session. He said he would talk to Lisa and her husband about it and get back to me. Lisa had never embraced Christ in her heart, but I had a feeling she would be willing to reach out to Him now. As the son of a wonderful physician, I knew in my surrendered heart that Jesus was her only true hope.
Not long after we talked, Pete contacted me and told me Lisa would love to participate in a healing session. We made arrangements to have a group of people attend it. Lisa's family would be there as would most of her colleagues from work.
The healing session was special. The presence of the Holy Spirit was powerful - so powerful that Lisa got knocked to the floor. Lying on the floor with the Pastor praying over her, she seemed so peaceful.
When the Pastor and several of her friends lifted her up from the floor, she told us in no uncertain terms that she had been healed by God. Her spirit was now connected with His. Tears were flowing everywhere in that church. Lisa had received Christ.
A few weeks after the healing session, Lisa was told by her doctors she didn't have much longer to live. The cancer was spreading rapidly throughout her body. Lisa took the news incredibly well. Her flesh was deteriorating but her spirit was never more alive.
I got the news that Lisa had passed away at home. She died in peace. Her husband told me that she died after hearing him read John 14:1 to her.
"Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me."
And with those words, Lisa was gone. Lisa went home. As Jesus says in John 14:2:
"In My Father's house are many mansions... I go to prepare a place for you."
As I looked at my notebook today, the tears began to flow. My friend Lisa Stack left our world and ascended into His kingdom. She had moved on to a better place - a more peaceful place. Cancer had taken her flesh, but her heart and spirit were with Jesus. Lisa trusted God with her heart. She also believed in Jesus.
May you trust God with your heart and may you also believe in Jesus.
Agape,
Steve
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