|
| |
Dr. James Boice
gives us an example of "seeing God in all things."
|
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT BY
DR. JAMES BOICE CONCERNING HIS
HEALTH DIFFICULTIES
May 7, 2000
I do want to bring the call to worship this morning. But
before I do that, I thought you might be interested--and it
might be helpful to all of us--if I took a moment to fill you in
on some of these medical problems. There are several
reasons for that. You need to know it, and I covet your
prayers. But also all kinds of rumors have been circulating
around and, in fact, around the world. We're getting e-mail
from practically everywhere, and some of the reports are
quite bizarre. Let me just give you a summation of what has
happened. I had been feeling quite good until recently. But
about the time of the PCRTs, I was not feeling well. And
when I came back from Chicago, I went to the doctor and
had a number of tests. And the bottom line of that is that
they diagnosed liver cancer. Then it takes a little while to
figure out exactly what kind of treatment you need. I have
consulted a number of eminent physicians--C. Everett Koop,
of course, who has been a family friend for at least 30
years, another man at Mayo Clinic, who providentially had
come through here to meet me just a few weeks before.
He's the man that screens everything out there and gets
patients into the hands of the specialists. So I feel that I
have very good guidance, and the bottom line of the
treatment is that I'm at Fox Chase Cancer Center. I'm in the
care of a man named Dr. Paul Engstrom. And what I am
receiving at the moment, beginning last Thursday, is
standard chemotherapy for cancer. It's hard to tell where
that comes out. Liver cancer is a very serious thing. They do
get response from treatment in a percentage of cases, but
it's relatively small. And as far as I can tell, we're doing the
best thing we can.
A number of you have asked what you can do, and it strikes
me that what you can do, you are doing. This is a good
congregation, and you do the right things. You are praying
certainly, and I've been assured of that by many people.
And I know of many meetings that have been going on. A
relevant question, I guess, when you pray is pray for what?
Should you pray for a miracle? Well, you're free to do that,
of course. My general impression is that the God who is
able to do miracles--and He certainly can--is also able to
keep you from getting the problem in the first place. So
although miracles do happen, they're rare by definition. A
miracle has to be an unusual thing. I think it's far more
profitable to pray for wisdom for the doctors. Doctors have
a great deal of experience, of course, in their expertise, but
they're not omniscient--they do make mistakes--and then
also for the effectiveness of the treatment. Sometimes it
does very well and sometimes not so well, and that's
certainly a legitimate thing to pray for. Above all, I would
say pray for the glory of God. If you think of God glorifying
Himself in history and you say, where in all of history has
God most glorified Himself? He did it at the cross of Jesus
Christ, and it wasn't by delivering Jesus from the cross,
though He could have. Jesus said, "Don't you think I could
call down from my Father ten legions of angels for my
defense?" But He didn't do that. And yet thatıs where God
is most glorified. One other thing many of you have done
has been sending cards, and I want to say how much I
appreciate that. My wife and I have been reading them all.
There are far more than I would ever have believed could
come. One person in the church said that he has taken out a
special prayer concern for the postman that delivers the
cards that he won't develop a hernia, and I think thatıs
thoughtful. Many prayers should be made along that line. I
think, although I want to assure you that I'm reading the
cards, I don't envision ever being able to answer them all.
And then some of you who are in a position to do so have
said, "We would like to be of help in any way we can." And
many have been already. Again, we're overwhelmed with
offers. We'll never be able to take advantage of them all,
but we appreciate all of those offers.
If I were to reflect on what goes on theologically here, there
are two things I would stress. One is the sovereignty of
God. That's not novel. We have talked about the
sovereignty of God here forever. God is in charge. When
things like this come into our lives, they are not accidental.
It's not as if God somehow forgot what was going on, and
something bad slipped by. It's not the answer that Harold
Kushner gave in his book, Why Bad Things Happen to Good
People. God does everything according to His will. We've
always said that. But what I've been impressed with mostly
is something in addition to that. It's possible, isn't it, to
conceive of God as sovereign and yet indifferent? God's in
charge, but He doesn't care. But it's not that. God is not
only the one who is in charge; God is also good. Everything
He does is good. And what Romans 12: 1 and 2 says is that
we have the opportunity by the renewal of our minds--that
is, how we think about these things--actually to prove what
God's will is. And then it says, "His good, pleasing, and
perfect will." Is that good, pleasing, and perfect to God?
Yes, of course, but the point of it is that itıs good, pleasing,
and perfect to us. If God does something in your life, would
you change it? If you'd change it, you'd make it worse. It
wouldn't be as good. So thatıs the way we want to accept it
and move forward, and who knows what God will do?
I do want to say one thing about my symptoms. My chief
symptom is fatigue. I'm very, very tired. And what I'm trying
to do is retain as much strength as I can. And the reason I
mention that right now is that I'm going to slip away during
the middle hymn and go home. So if I do that, don't think
he's passing out. It's something that has been planned
beforehand. Now our call to worship I'm going to read from
1 Chronicles chapter 16: "Sing to the Lord, all the earth;
proclaim His salvation day after day. Declare His glory
among the nations, His marvelous deeds among the
peoples. For great is the Lord and most worthy of praise;
He is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the
nations are idols, but the Lord made the heavens. Splendor
and majesty are before Him; strength and joy is His dwelling
place. Ascribe to the Lord, O family of nations, ascribe to
the Lord glory and strength, ascribe to the Lord the glory
due His name. Bring an offering and come before him and
worship the Lord in the splendor of His holiness. Tremble
before Him, all the earth!"
|
Eight weeks after learning he had a fatal form of liver
cancer, the Reverend Dr. James Montgomery Boice, 61,
Senior Minister of Tenth Presbyterian Church in
Philadelphia, died in his sleep on Thursday, June 15, 2000.
A world-famous Bible teacher and statesman for
Reformation theology, Boice had received his doctor's
diagnosis on Good Friday, two hours before stepping into
the pulpit to deliver a sermon on the crucifixion of Jesus
Christ. On May 7 he informed his congregation of his
condition, asking them at one point, "If God does something
in your life, would you change it? If you'd change it, you'd
make it worse. It wouldn't be as good."
Dr. Boice was pastor of Tenth Presbyterian Church since
1968; during his 32 years it became a model for ministry in
America's cities and the regular attendance grew from 350
to 1,200. Since 1969 he was the teacher on The Bible Study
Hour radio broadcast over 238 stations, and was President
of the program's parent organization, the Alliance of
Confessing Evangelicals.
Dr. Boice served as Chairman of the International Council on
Biblical Inerrancy from its founding in 1977 until the
completion of its work in 1988. At the time of his death he
served on the Board of Directors of Bible Study Fellowship
International, the Huguenot Fellowship, and was Chairman
of the Board of City Center Academy, a college preparatory
high school for inner-city youth founded seventeen years
ago by Dr. Boice and his wife.
A prolific author, Dr. Boice wrote or contributed to over sixty
books on the Bible and theology. Dr. Boice held degrees
from Harvard University (A.B.), Princeton Theological
Seminary (B.D.), the University of Basel, Switzerland (D.
Theol.), and the Theological Seminary of the Reformed
Episcopal Church (D.D., honorary).
Dr. Boice was born on July 7, 1938, in Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania. He is survived by his wife of 38 years, Linda
Ann Boice (nee McNamara); three daughters, Elizabeth
Boice Dawson, Heather Louise Boice, and Jennifer Boice
Rainer; his mother, Mrs. Jean S. Boice; three sisters, Judith
Boice Casanova, Nancy Boice Zimmerman, and Elizabeth
Boice McKinley; and three grandchildren.
Click
here to read our latest article on SingleVISION Living
Click
here to read ARTICLES that will help you in your Christian walk.
Click
here to read about teaching cassettes that teach SingleVISION or
"seeing God in ALL things."
|
|
