Chest Pain Quality Improvement Lecture

Posted on February 8th, 2010 by uberlumen.
Categories: Spiritual Growth, Vital Signs of Healing, medicine.

I had the pleasure of teaching on chest pain to the nursing staff and paramedics.  Please let me know your thoughts.  Below are the lecture slides and handout/quiz slides.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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Don’t Worry #2

Posted on February 6th, 2010 by uberlumen.
Categories: Book Reviews, Evil and Suffering, Parenting, Spiritual Growth, Vital Signs of Healing.

As I pointed out in Don’t Worry #1, living in the ‘now here’ is a powerful way to combat worry. In Dale Carnegie’s book: How to Stop Worrying and Start Living, his first point is: Live today! Don’t worry/focus on yesterday or tomorrow.

“…twenty-one words from Thomas Carlyle that helped him lead a life free from worry: “Our main business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand.”"

“What I urge is that you so learn to control the machinery as to live with ‘day-tight compartments’ as the most certain way to ensure safety on the voyage. Get on the bridge, and see that at least the great bulkheads are in working order. Touch a button and hear, at every level of your life, the iron doors shutting out the Past the dead yesterdays. Touch another and shut off, with a metal curtain, the Future the unborn tomorrows. Then you are safe, safe for today! Shut off the past! Let the dead past bury its dead. Shut out the yesterdays which have lighted fools the way to dusty death. The load of tomorrow, added to that of yesterday, carried today, makes the strongest falter. Shut off the future as tightly as the past. The future is today. There is no tomorrow. The day of man’s salvation is now. Waste of energy, mental distress, nervous worries dog the steps of a man who is anxious about the future. Shut close, then the great fore and aft bulkheads, and prepare to cultivate the habit of life of ‘day-tight compartments.’ ”

“Tomorrow, do thy worst, for I have lived today.”-Roman poet Horace.

“life ‘is in the living, in the tissue of every day and hour.’”

“This speech contains twenty-six words that have gone ringing down across the centuries: “Take therefore no thought for the morrow; for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” (Matthew 6: 34)

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Chess With God by Dr. Veysman

Posted on February 3rd, 2010 by uberlumen.
Categories: Interviews, Value, Vital Signs of Healing, medicine.

This is a GREAT glimpse into the world of an ER doctor:

Chess With God

Boris D. Veysman, MD

[Ann Emerg Med. 2010;55:123-124.]

Give me a bad position, I will defend it. Openings, endgames, complicated positions, dull draws, I love them and I will do my very best.—Hein Donner, Chess player, 1950

Not only does God play dice, but… he sometimes throws them where they cannot be seen.—Stephen Hawking

Amidst a busy shift when patients pile in, seasoned nurses start to grumble, and my blood sugar and bladder volume are most discordant, I overhear a fourth-year medical student share wisdom with a third-year newbie. “ER’s got a good schedule if you like doing overpaid triage.” I smile, enjoying the involuntary adrenaline boost from sublimated anger, before refocusing on the labs of the 80-year-old woman with digoxin toxicity and acute renal failure, presenting with runs of unstable tachycardia, prolonged QT interval, hyperkalemia, hypocalcemia, and a filthy cough suggesting preseptic pneumonia.

The next 20 seconds is a synaptic typhoon. Could elevated lactate mean not sepsis but mesenteric ischemia? A benign exam would not rule it out, and she is too sick to complain of abdominal pain. Tachycardia and hypoxia suggest pulmonary embolism (PE), given her edematous legs and recently stopped Coumadin when she had a GI bleed. This also increases the risk of mesenteric clot. Yet the contrast timing is different for CT angiograms of chest and abdomen, and I will have to choose which to optimize. Both studies are perilous because of the dye load, given acute renal failure, but failure to make either diagnosis would be fatal in a patient this sick. Meanwhile, empiric anticoagulation risks another massive GI bleed. Dialysis and transfusion may be necessary damage control to be considered concurrently with the diagnostic studies. Furthermore, calcium gluconate is contraindicated in digoxin toxicity because of mostly hypothetic cardiac tetany but would probably help with the blood pressure. Calcium would also treat hyperkalemia and hypocalcemia (strangely equal at 6.5), which both contribute to cardiac toxicity. If the heart gives out, it’s my fault either way, and I find that liberating. Digibind for the hyperkalemic digoxin toxicity, but that will worsen the heart failure. Definitely fluids for hypotension and sepsis but absolutely no fluids because of pulmonary edema and renal failure.

“Dr. V, she’s 80/50,” the nurse reports. Time’s up. Make a move….

We may choose emergency medicine for different reasons, but we fall in love all over again when after a few years of practice we begin to understand its magic. For me, it’s the intensity of thought when time is short and stakes are high in a battle against the worthiest of opponents. There are many hard cases that challenge the depth of our ability and ingenuity. We believe that God plays fair and you often get a shot at winning, regardless of how dismal the malady. A broad differential and rapid and often imperfect diagnostics are often the only way to find in time what’s lethal and irreversible. And before the diagnostics are back, preemptive strikes of empiric therapy based on calculated risks and hunches may earn you a guerrilla victory.

There are no simple cases. Not at this level. There are simple doctors unwilling to try harder to optimize efficiency, cost, and outcomes, to do it with less radiation exposure, fewer side effects, and higher real and perceived quality. Every ankle and ear doesn’t need radiographs and antibiotics, but some do, and most need thoughtful pain management and anticipatory guidance, with the entire encounter limited to only a few seconds by more pressing cases. Every patient, sick or well, is a chance to be our best, to recognize when our best is not enough, and to get help before it’s too late. If it were easy, I wouldn’t want to do it.

When consultants who see the patient the next day whine about “shotgun workups,” “excessively broad antibiotics,” and “inconsistent management,” emergency physicians laugh nostalgically and think, “that was a good save.” However lacking in elegance the evaluation may appear to the hammer who sees the world as a nail, he should have spoken when he was somehow unavailable at 2 am on a Saturday. We are emergency specialists and we step up to the board, for anyone, at any time, and with a unique skill set.

We know that you don’t always get second chances playing against God. Specialists wishing to “see the patient in the morning,” surgeons who interrupt with “what did the CT scan show?” and primaries requesting to “wait for the blood cultures before treating” are occasionally right, but more often they fail to feel our sense of urgency and appear not invested in the battle. Seasoned ER docs are not desperate for approval, camaraderie, or admiration; often we can even write a rain check on respect. When squaring off against our adversary 30 times a shift, self-respect is earned and goes a long way toward self-esteem. But we deserve alliance, for others to be on our side in caring for the patient. This means trusting our instincts. This means respect for our expertise in ambiguity and patients who don’t read the textbook.

The metal doors burst open and the paramedics roll in a man who looks grayer than the sheet. “All we know is he’s got a kidney pancreas transplant with a pacemaker and he’s been depressed lately. We found him unresponsive next to some pills. Good vital signs in the truck but now I can’t feel the pulse.” The third-year med student stares blankly at the paramedic, while the fourth-year looks close to passing out. The nurses run to the gurney to transfer the lifeless body onto the stretcher, begin working on access, connecting leads. I stand up slowly and take a deep breath. The board is set; the next move is mine.

Welcome back, old friend. You open well. Let’s play….

Chess With God

Boris D. Veysman, MD

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Haitian Earthquake Survivors Praise God

Posted on February 1st, 2010 by uberlumen.
Categories: Evil and Suffering, Interviews, Spiritual Growth, Vital Signs of Healing.

A friend and partner of mine just shared this video he took when he was caring for Haitian’s in an orphanage converted to a hospital. The Haitian’s spontaneously errupted into praise songs to God.

Also here is a link to a powerful letter from a surgeon who just returned as part of Samaritan’s Purse…

Haitian Earthquake Survivors from Jim Keany on Vimeo.

1 comment.

Healthcare Reform: The Root of the Problem, Part 3

Posted on January 27th, 2010 by uberlumen.
Categories: medicine.

I remain relatively apolitical. I asked my eye doctor recently what he thought of the healthcare proposals. Little did I know that he was REALLY well read on the issues and founded a group to reform healthcare in the U.S. (http://www.afcm.org) WOW! He pointed me to a 3 part (less than 30 minutes total) youtube video lecture. I HIGHLY recommend listening. It was thought provoking and some of it was shocking (I didn’t know). As always, share your thoughts with us…

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Healthcare Reform: The Root of the Problem, Part 2

Posted on January 26th, 2010 by uberlumen.
Categories: medicine.

I remain relatively apolitical. I asked my eye doctor recently what he thought of the healthcare proposals. Little did I know that he was REALLY well read on the issues and founded a group to reform healthcare in the U.S. (http://www.afcm.org) WOW! He pointed me to a 3 part (less than 30 minutes total) youtube video lecture. I HIGHLY recommend listening. It was thought provoking and some of it was shocking (I didn’t know). As always, share your thoughts with us…

0 comments.

Healthcare Reform: The Root of the Problem, Part 1

Posted on January 24th, 2010 by uberlumen.
Categories: medicine.

I remain relatively apolitical.  I asked my eye doctor recently what he thought of the healthcare proposals.  Little did I know that he was REALLY well read on the issues and founded a group to reform healthcare in the U.S. (http://www.afcm.org) WOW! He pointed me to a 3 part (less than 30 minutes total) youtube video lecture.  I HIGHLY recommend listening.  It was thought provoking and some of it was shocking (I didn’t know).  As always, share your thoughts with us…

1 comment.

Part #4: Burdens, Rest, and Meekness: Matthew and The Pursuit of God

Posted on January 20th, 2010 by uberlumen.
Categories: Bible Study, Book Reviews, Evil and Suffering, Sermon Notes, Spiritual Growth.

Part 4 artificiality

Tozer points out one final source of burden: Artificiality.

“Another source of burden is artificiality. I am sure that most people live in secret fear that some day they will be careless and by chance an enemy or friend will be allowed to peep into their poor empty souls. So they are never relaxed. Bright people are tense and alert in fear that they may be trapped into saying something common or stupid. Traveled people are afraid that they may meet some Marco Polo who is able to describe some remote place where they have never been.This unnatural condition is part of our sad heritage of sin, but in our day it is aggravated by our whole way of life. Advertising is largely based upon this habit of pretense. `Courses’ are offered in this or that field of human learning frankly appealing to the victim’s desire to shine at a party. Books are sold, clothes and cosmetics are peddled, by playing continually upon this desire to appear what we are not.”

Finally to conclude our miniseries, Tozer points out the solution, once again, to our artificiality, pretense, and pride: meekness.  Only through meekness will our burdens be lifted and only then can we find rest for our souls.

“Artificiality is one curse that will drop away the moment we kneel at Jesus’ feet and surrender ourselves to His meekness. Then we will not care what people think of us so long as God is pleased. Then what we are will be everything; what we appear will take its place far down the scale of interest for us. Apart from sin we have nothing of which to be ashamed. Only an evil desire to shine makes us want to appear other than we are.The heart of the world is breaking under this load of pride and pretense. There is no release from our burden apart from the meekness of Christ. Good keen reasoning may help slightly, but so strong is this vice that if we push it down one place it will come up somewhere else. To men and women everywhere Jesus says, `Come unto me, and I will give you rest.’ The rest He offers is the rest of meekness, the blessed relief which comes when we accept ourselves for what we are and cease to pretend. It will take some courage at first, but the needed grace will come as we learn that we are sharing this new and easy yoke with the strong Son of God Himself. He calls it `my yoke,’ and He walks at one end while we walk at the other.”

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Doctor Senator’s Opinion of Healthcare Reform

Posted on January 17th, 2010 by uberlumen.
Categories: Vital Signs of Healing, medicine.

Sadly, I think it is too late.  This interview should bring us all chills down our spines. 

Tom Coburn, MD (R-OK) is one of only two physicians serving in the US Senate. He’s known for his opposition to earmarking and has taken a strong stance against the current health care reform bill. EPM tracked down Dr. Coburn to ask him why.    Interview by Mark Plaster, MD     EPM: We understand that you oppose the current health reform bill in the Senate. What do you see as its major problems? Sen. Tom Coburn: This bill will ultimately divide the loyalty of the physician, not to be a 100% advocate for the patient, but to be sure and cover their backsides, so they don’t get in trouble with the government. The cost comparative effectiveness panel? You’re going to have to do things the way they think you need to do it. This [bill] guts the art of medicine.  For 80% of the people that will be just fine. But we will have changed our focus to the cost of medicine from the health of the patient. What’s the other bad thing about the bill? It’s going to raise everybody’s taxes. It’s going to raise everybody’s costs and it’s going to raise everybody’s insurance premiums. EPM: Assuming that we need to control cost, what’s wrong with how this bill goes about accomplishing this task? Coburn: The assumption [in Congress] is that we need to spend more money to control costs.  That’s ridiculous!  One in three dollars that we spend in health care today doesn’t do anything to help people get well or prevent people from getting sick. I have a friend who now practices medicine. He’s an internist and a great doctor. A year ago he quit taking Medicare and Medicaid. All he does is cash business. He let four people go in his office. He only has one employee now. Those four people weren’t doing anything to help people get well. They were doing the business of medicine rather than the health care of medicine. Truly, 50 to 60 percent of the overhead of every health care organization is spent complying with the rules and filling out the paperwork. [My friend] now sees fewer patients, says he’s practicing the best medicine he’s practiced in his life, and he makes the same amount of money. His prices are very reasonable. And if someone doesn’t have money, he’ll still take care of them.   EPM: The supporters of this bill claim that it will increase the number of family practitioners in this country.  You are a family practitioner.  Do you agree? Coburn: No. It will not increase the number of family practitioners.  This bill does nothing to pay family practitioners more, it only helps them pay off their loans. One in fifty doctors who graduated from medical school last year went into primary care. Just one in fifty. So how do you incentivize people to go into primary care? You pay them more! What [the government] is going to do is provide all of these subsidies for loans, but [medical students] won’t go. They’re going to realize that they can spend one more year in residency and earn twice or three times the earnings over the long haul. EPM: What do you think will happen if this bill passes? Coburn: Forty-five to fifty year old doctors are not going to play this game.  If they have a way to retire, they are going to do it. EPM: Will we have more specialists or fewer?     Coburn: Medicare has created an absolute shortage of cardiovascular surgeons. They pay about $1,200 for a heart bypass now. These guys have 8 years of post-medical school training. They have 12 years of training in medicine before they ever get a start earning a penny. And now what used to be a $3000 procedure is now a $1500 procedure. The program at the University of Oklahoma shut down for cardiovascular surgeons because they couldn’t get anyone to go into it.     EPM: Senator Reid claims that this bill will cover everyone, cut the deficit and save lives.  What do you say? Coburn: If you use real accounting, this is a $2.5 trillion bill that will run massive deficits. Here’s why. Number one, Congress will never cut Medicare. That’s $500 billion more. Number two, the doc fix. The doc fix will get fixed, but they’ll never cut spending somewhere else to pay for it. That’s another $274 billion. Then we’re going to increase those eligible for Medicaid. And we don’t have the money to pay for it. And then finally, everything you buy in health care now is going to get a new tax on it. Your drugs are going to get a new tax, your insurance is going to get a new tax, your medical devices are going to get a new tax. And then finally, since they charge you only $750 to not have health insurance, what do you think healthy people 40 and under are going to do? They’re going to take the $7000 or $8000 that they were contributing to their employer and they’re going to keep it, pay the $750, put $4000 away every year and if I get sick, then go buy the insurance. What’s that going to do to the insurance industry? The healthy people are not going to be in the pool. So the pool is going to be smaller and the pool is going to be made of sicker, older people. So everybody’s premium is going to rise. So not only are we going to have massive deficits from it, but the price that everybody pays is going to go up. Plus, we’re going to tax small businesses, we’re going to tax individuals, we’re going to raise the Medicare tax and then take the money from Medicare – which has a 75-year unfunded liability of $39 trillion – and create another government program.    EPM: Can you explain your numbers? Coburn: Over the next ten years, 55 million more Americans are going to go into Medicare. The baby boomers. My generation. We’ve been paying in, but the amount of money to pay for our health care is in deficit by $39 trillion over the next 75 years. In other words, that’s what we’ve promised but don’t have in the bank. And that’s the differential after the taxes are collected. So if you’re going to raise the Medicare tax, it ought to go to fund that differential rather than create another government program. The government controls 61% of health care now, if you add up Tri-Care, VA, Indian Health Care, federal employees, etc… Tell me one of those that is efficient, working on budget and delivering the care that we want them to have. None of them. And we’re going to put the rest of the care in the government’s hands? If you were to go back and look, when did health care inflation start at 2.5 times what the regular CPI was? When they instituted Medicare. Why? Because we have this disconnect between the purchase of health care and payment. EPM: So how do you bring cost under control?   Coburn: First of all you incentivize tort reform throughout the country. You’d save $100 billion on health care tomorrow. The numbers on malpractice suits are that 80% that get filed get dropped because they’re just attempts at extortion. Of the 20% that either get handled or go to court, only net 3% end up being found in favor of the plaintiff. And the ones who win, who have legitimate injury, only get 40% of the money. And it takes forever for them to get compensated. So one of the ways to [reform] would be loser pays. Go to English law. You would save $100 billion the first year you had that in effect.   EPM: Would that really change the way we practice?   Coburn: It would over time. It would take 10 or 15 years for the changes to happen on the physician side. We’ve developed this habit [of defensive medicine] because of being sued inappropriately. EPM: What other ways can we lower health care costs? Coburn: Create real competition and transparency in the insurance industry. And you can only do that by allowing people to buy what they want. So if I want to buy a $25,000 deductible policy and I can find someone in this country to sell it to me, I can buy it. I can’t do that now. I live in Oklahoma. The highest deductible policy you can buy is $7500. Also, allow associational group health plans. Let small businesses come together and pool their resources and contract out on a broader base of indemnification. Small businesses have no buying power, so you allow them to combine. Finally, allow the markets to function. The problem with all of these bills in Washington is that they’re government centered, not patient centered. EPM: You don’t seem very optimistic about your colleagues in the Senate. Coburn: What ails Congress today, in my view, is people who are making decisions at this level who have never done anything except politics.  They are wonderful people, they care about the country, but they are clueless when it comes to common sense. I don’t think anyone with less than 20 or 25 years of experience in life should be in politics; someone who has been around the block and knows how to prioritize things. The problem with Washington is that they don’t want to prioritize anything. They just want to keep charging it to our kids.

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Part #3: Burdens, Rest, and Meekness: Matthew and The Pursuit of God

Posted on January 14th, 2010 by uberlumen.
Categories: Bible Study, Book Reviews, Evil and Suffering, Healing, Sermon Notes, Spiritual Growth, Vital Signs of Healing.

Part 3  Pretense and Little Children

Tozer proceeds to share another of our burdens: Pretense.

“Then also he will get deliverance from the burden of pretense. By this I mean not hypocrisy, but the common human desire to put the best foot forward and hide from the world our real inward poverty. For sin has played many evil tricks upon us, and one has been the infusing into us a false sense of shame. There is hardly a man or woman who dares to be just what he or she is without doctoring up the impression. The fear of being found out gnaws like rodents within their hearts. The man of culture is haunted by the fear that he will some day come upon a man more cultured than himself. The learned man fears to meet a man more learned than he. The rich man sweats under the fear that his clothes or his car or his house will sometime be made to look cheap by comparison with those of another rich man. So-called `society’ runs by a motivation not higher than this, and the poorer classes on their level are little better.”

Tozer then points the solution to our pretense.  The way of the child.

“Let no one smile this off. These burdens are real, and little by little they kill the victims of this evil and unnatural way of life. And the psychology created by years of this kind of thing makes true meekness seem as unreal as a dream, as aloof as a star. To all the victims of the gnawing disease Jesus says, `Ye must become as little children.’ For little children do not compare; they receive direct enjoyment from what they have without relating it to something else or someone else. Only as they get older and sin begins to stir within their hearts do jealousy and envy appear. Then they are unable to enjoy what they have if someone else has something larger or better. At that early age does the galling burden come down upon their tender souls, and it never leaves them till Jesus sets them free.”

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NEVER Judge a Book by Its Cover!

Posted on January 13th, 2010 by uberlumen.
Categories: Music, Spiritual Growth, you tube clips.

A brief reminder that we spend too much time judging each other without looking at what is on the inside.

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Part #2: Burdens, Rest, and Meekness: Matthew and The Pursuit of God

Posted on January 12th, 2010 by uberlumen.
Categories: Book Reviews, Evil and Suffering, Healing, Sermon Notes, Spiritual Growth, Uncategorized, Vital Signs of Healing.

Part 2 Pride and Meekness

The first burden that A.W. Tozer discusses in Chapter 9 of The Pursuit of God is PRIDE.

“Let us examine our burden. It is altogether an interior one. It attacks the heart and the mind and reaches the body only from within. First, there is the burden of pride. The labor of self-love is a heavy one indeed. Think for yourself whether much of your sorrow has not arisen from someone speaking slightingly of you. As long as you set yourself up as a little god to which you must be loyal there will be those who will delight to offer affront to your idol. How then can you hope to have inward peace? The heart’s fierce effort to protect itself from every slight, to shield its touchy honor from the bad opinion of friend and enemy, will never let the mind have rest. Continue this fight through the years and the burden will become intolerable. Yet the sons of earth are carrying this burden continually, challenging every word spoken against them, cringing under every criticism, smarting under each fancied slight, tossing sleepless if another is preferred before them.”

Tozer proceeds to point out the link between Jesus wisdom in Matthew 5:5 regarding the meek, and His ability to lighten our burdens (Matthew 11:28-30)

“Such a burden as this is not necessary to bear. Jesus calls us to His rest, and meekness is His method. The meek man cares not at all who is greater than he, for he has long ago decided that the esteem of the world is not worth the effort. He develops toward himself a kindly sense of humor and learns to say, `Oh, so you have been overlooked? They have placed someone else before you? They have whispered that you are pretty small stuff after all? And now you feel hurt because the world is saying about you the very things you have been saying about yourself? Only yesterday you were telling God that you were nothing, a mere worm of the dust. Where is your consistency? Come on, humble yourself, and cease to care what men think.’

The meek man is not a human mouse afflicted with a sense of his own inferiority. Rather he may be in his moral life as bold as a lion and as strong as Samson; but he has stopped being fooled about himself. He has accepted God’s estimate of his own life. He knows he is as weak and helpless as God has declared him to be, but paradoxically, he knows at the same time that he is in the sight of God of more importance than angels. In himself, nothing; in God, everything. That is his motto…As he walks on in meekness he will be happy to let God defend him. The old struggle to defend himself is over. He has found the peace which meekness brings.”

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What if…we have it all wrong? What if there is…

Posted on January 8th, 2010 by uberlumen.
Categories: Apologetics, Book Reviews, Healing, Love, Spiritual Growth, Vital Signs of Healing, doctrine, marriage.

What if….we have it all wrong? What if there is a God that loves and adores YOU? What if there are angels? What if there is a heaven?  What if there is a celebration filled with dancing, rejoicing, singing in heaven?  What if there is a celebration right NOW over YOU?

Sally Beth Roe, a character in Piercing the Darkness by Frank Peretti, becomes a Christian, but Peretti provides us with a glimpse of what is occurring in heaven during the very moment that Sally Roe becomes a Christian.  It is a remarkable moment of angels celebrating and the lamb of God embracing her.  We have NO idea.

“Above, as if another sun had just risen, the darkness opened, and pure, white rays broke through the treetops, flooding Sally Beth Roe with a heavenly light, shining through to her heart, her innermost spirit, obscuring her form with a blinding fire of holiness.  Slowly, without sensation, without sound, she settled forward, her face to the ground, her spirit awash with the presence of God…All around her, like spokes of a wondrous wheel, like beams of light emanating from a sun, angelic blades lay flat upon the ground, their tips turned toward her, their handles extending outward, held in the strong fists of hundreds of noble warriors who knelt in perfect, concentric circles of glory, light, and worship, their heads to the ground, their wings stretching skyward like a flourishing, animated garden of flames.  They were silent, their hearts filled with holy dread…As in countless times past, in countless places, with marvelous, inscrutable wonder, the Lamb of God stood among them, the Word of God, and more:  the final Word, the end of all discussion and challenge, the Creator and the Truth that holds all creation together–most wondrous of all, and most inscrutable of all, the Savior, a title the angels would always behold and marvel about, but which only mankind could know and understand.  He had come to be the Savior of this woman.  He knew her by name; and speaking her name, He touched her.  And her sins were gone…”-pg 321, Piercing the Darkness by Peretti

Edwin Abbot in his book Flatland shares with us, through parable, mathematics, and physics, the very real possibility of dimensions and realities so very close to us, but we remain unaware of them.  What if string theory is true?  What if there are dimensions just beyond our reach?  What if God and the heavenly realm is all around us, surrounding us, embracing us?

What would it be like to get a glimpse into heaven uninhibited, over joyed, overwhelmed in celebration?  Here is a brief video of a wedding that brought laughter and joy to my heart as I imagined….dancing and rejoicing in heaven over US!

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Part #1: Burdens, Rest, and Meekness: Matthew 5 and Chapter 9 of The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer

Posted on January 7th, 2010 by uberlumen.
Categories: Bible Study, Book Reviews, Evil and Suffering, Men on the Path, Sermon Notes, Spiritual Growth, marriage.

Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. Matt.5:5a

I started the New Year resolved to read through the Bible (again).  As I read Matthew chapter 5, I was struck (again and again) by its beauty and transforming power.  On the same day, I just happen to pick up A.W. Tozer’s book: The Pursuit of God that I have been reading for months and turn to chapter 9 which starts with a discussion of the beginning of Matthew chapter 5–’coincidence’? Unlikely.

Tozer points out that most of what constitutes evil, pain, and suffering in our world comes from you know who….you and me!

“In the world of men we find nothing approaching the virtues of which Jesus spoke in the opening words of the famous Sermon on the Mount. Instead of poverty of spirit we find the rankest kind of pride; instead of mourners we find pleasure seekers; instead of meekness, arrogance; instead of hunger after righteousness we hear men saying, `I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing’; instead of mercy we find cruelty; instead of purity of heart, corrupt imaginings; instead of peacemakers we find men quarrelsome and resentful; instead of rejoicing in mistreatment we find them fighting back with every weapon at their command…these are the evils which make life the bitter struggle it is for all of us. All our heartaches and a great many of our physical ills spring directly out of our sins. Pride, arrogance, resentfulness, evil imaginings, malice, greed: these are the sources of more human pain than all the diseases that ever afflicted mortal flesh.”

His words are oxygen to a patient gasping for air.  Christ alone knows how to ease our suffering, our pain, our burdens…

“Into a world like this the sound of Jesus’ words comes wonderful and strange, a visitation from above. It is well that He spoke, for no one else could have done it as well; and it is good that we listen. His words are the essence of truth. He is not offering an opinion; Jesus never uttered opinions. He never guessed; He knew, and He knows.”

“`Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.’ (Mat 11:28-30) Here we have two things standing in contrast to each other, a burden and a rest. The burden is not a local one, peculiar to those first hearers, but one which is borne by the whole human race. It consists not of political oppression or poverty or hard work. It is far deeper than that. It is felt by the rich as well as the poor for it is something from which wealth and idleness can never deliver us. The burden borne by mankind is a heavy and a crushing thing. The word Jesus used means a load carried or toil borne to the point of exhaustion. Rest is simply release from that burden. It is not something we do, it is what comes to us when we cease to do. His own meekness, that is the rest.”

In coming posts we will examine our burdens…

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Coming Home for Christmas

Posted on January 5th, 2010 by uberlumen.
Categories: Bible Study, Sermons, Spiritual Growth.

This is one of the most moving and creative sermons that I have heard describing God’s love for us….God running to us with open arms…

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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Men on the Path 2010

Posted on January 3rd, 2010 by uberlumen.
Categories: Bible Study, Men on the Path.

Why bother? It is so EARLY? I would rather be sleeping.  Church on Sunday is enough.

Really? I would agree….10 years ago.  But then…I had no friends that really knew me, that I could share my deepest fears and joys with…I had a marriage that was ok…I was lonely, anxious….

Men’s Group has rescued and transformed my life: I have friends that KNOW me…that I share my fears and joys with…who help guide me…who make me a better husband and a better father.  I have a marriage that is filled with joy. I have men who have surrounded me with love, prayer, and fellowship and who have rescued me.

What is the trick? Just show up.  Yes. It is that easy. Join us.

We are starting up again and going to have an exciting study from the Biblical book of Timothy with an emphasis on Leadership.

• WHEN: Wednesday’s from 6:45am-8:00am
• STARTING: January 5, 2010
• WHAT: 1 Timothy
• WHERE: North Park Community Center (NOTE: It is best to enter the housing complex off of Portola Parkway because then when you go through the gate the club house where we are meeting is straight ahead of you.

View North Park Community Center in a larger map

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New Year’s Quiet Time

Posted on January 1st, 2010 by uberlumen.
Categories: Bible Study, Book Reviews, Prayer List, Spiritual Growth.

Any part of a New Year would not be complete without the challenge and encouragement to refocus on what is important.  Find a devotional (suggestions below) and walk deeper with God this year.  2 key parts to any quiet time are prayer and devotional reading.  Please click on the links here to review:

1. How to Pray

2. Devotionals

As for my New Year’s Devotional, I will be using a free Bible application on my droid phone that gives you the readings for each day so you can read through the Bible in a year.  I have thankfully read through the Bible in a year several times, and it has always been a blessing.  However, there are those dry spells during which I find myself struggling to accomplish my goal.  Don’t give up! And if you have any questions about what you are reading along the way please don’t hesitate to ask us about them at uberlumen or uberlumen@uberlumen.com

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Who was Wag Dodge?

Posted on December 28th, 2009 by uberlumen.
Categories: Evil and Suffering, Spiritual Growth.

In 1949, Wag Dodge lead a team of smoke jumpers to fight the Mann Gulch fire. His leadership or lack thereof has been used in business school classes as an example of how not to lead men.

Wag was a man of few words who was leading a group of men who he had not worked with before. When they were dropped from their plane down into the fire area, he immediately had his dinner. The men were taking pictures of the fire, and Wag’s lack of direction and seemingly carefree attitude seemed to lull the others into complacency.

When the fire took a turn for the worst and came right at them, Wag began to try and lead by directing the men to drop all their tools and to NOT run from the fire–both counter intuitive actions. These actions would only be followed by men who trusted their leader. He then burned a small area around them with a match and told them all to lie down and the fire would pass them by. Needless to say, the others made a run for it and all but 2 of them died. Wag laid down and sure enough the fire went over him. In fact, Wag’s ‘escape fire’ was the first of its kind in modern firefighting history.

So why am I sharing this story? I heard the details of this story by a business professor teaching a course on critical decision making. We, as Christians, are the Wag’s of the world, and as such, we are reminded of 2 important points from Wag’s story:
1. The world and its people are on fire, and they don’t know it until it is too late. Their solution is to panic and run. We have the answer–don’t panic, leave behind all your ’stuff’, surrender, and lie prostrate before Him and TRUST in Him and NO ONE else.  If you do this, the fire will pass over you.
2. The world sees Christians as Wag’s; they will only follow us when we are in relationship with them….when we love them and share our lives with them.

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The Christmas Story: Then and Now Luke 2:1-20

Posted on December 27th, 2009 by uberlumen.
Categories: Apologetics, Bible Study, Book Reviews.

Now:

• Jesus birth was a late night, imminent, delivery
• Joseph and Mary had a hard time finding a place
• Jesus was born in a ‘manger’
• There was no room at the ‘inn’

Then:

• Joseph and Mary were not in a rush, and there was no late night, emergent delivery.
• Joseph was of the royal line of David (in fact, Bethlehem was known as ‘the city of David’).  Joseph’s arrival would be welcomed and he would have been shown the respect of someone from the royal line of David.  Mary had relatives in a neighboring town, and in the middle eastern culture at the time, a pregnant women would have been shown respect and utmost care.  Mary would have been welcomed with open arms.
• Jesus was born in a family room of a friend or relative’s home.  A manger was a cut out in the floor of the family room.  In the Middle East in the 1st century, the home was structured in such a way that the animals were placed inside the home at night to provide warmth and protect them from robbers.  There were several mangers in the family room for the animals.  Jesus would have been wrapped in warm clothes and placed in comfort in a manger in the family room of the home.
• The Greek word for ‘inn’ (katalyma) used by Luke was also used by him in Luke 22:10-12 and was translated more accurately there as ‘guest room’.  If Luke meant a commercial inn or hotel, he would have used the Greek word: pandocheion.  Many families would have a main living area (with a manger) and a guest room attached.  The attached guest room was occupied to the home of the family that Joseph and Mary were staying with so that is what is meant by ‘no room in the guest room’ in the Biblical text.

reference: Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes by Kenneth E. Bailey

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Merry Christmas! That’s My King!

Posted on December 24th, 2009 by uberlumen.
Categories: you tube clips.

Merry Christmas! This video is brief, inspiring, and an important reminder of Christ’s rightful place in our world.

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