Mike has decided not to undergo any treatment. He explains his reasons in a video made for the church where he serves. You can view the video and draw your own conclusions. But for me, speaking as a fellow traveler, I understand and applaud Mike's choice.
Mike and I grew up in the same town, Pasadena, Texas. He is 18 days younger than me. We attended many of the same schools and even graduated together in 1965 as part of what I believe may be the best graduating class Pasadena High School has ever produced. Some might argue with me about that but they'd be wrong. We knew each other and while we were not "best buds" we shared many similar experiences along the way.
We were both members of the Baptist Churches where we received Christ as our Lord and Savior and were baptized. Mike was on the west side of town and I was on the east side. He grew up under the tutelage of Dalton Havard at Richey Street Baptist Church and I under Estol Williams at Boulevard Baptist. Our town was full of Baptist churches and during the 1960's God was in the process of calling out from those churches a cadre of young "preacher boys" who would go on to literally take the gospel to the ends of the earth.
We believed, at least in the little "school of the prophets" to which I belonged that God was going to do a great and mighty work through us. We didn't realize at the time that if He used us at all that would in and of itself be a great and mighty work. We "preached" at the drop of a hat whether it was in a Sunday School Class in our home churches or for some vacationing pastor. We didn't see big church or little churches back then. All we saw was a chance to preach the "Word" and call people to faith in Jesus Christ.
I remember Mike leading out at school in our Youth for Christ group. He organized and enlisted people to do the morning devotions and payers over the school public address system and was a major player in organizing our Senior Banquet as a kind of substitute (not really) for the non-dancing Baptist etc. I recall that he was sitting at the table just next to the one occupied by me, John Crocker and Mike Harris and our dates. (BTW - who at our table knocked the parfait on the floor) Seems Mike had the flashiest jacket in the place.
Mike and I even attended the same University (Houston Baptist College in those days) for a while. I was there to become a preacher and Mike was there to meet his future wife (I jest). They've been together ever since. That's when our lives went in different directions though would not really be that different. As he and I sought to follow the Lord's leadership for our individual lives and ministries he ended up more or less on the west side of the state while I went east. I digress.
My point is that we, me, Mike and a whole bunch of other young "preacher boys" in Pasadena, a good beginning. We were surrounded by people who encouraged us and yes even praised our often less than stellar efforts at ministry. The one thing of which we were constantly being reminded by our respective pastors and fellow church members was that any positive responses to our efforts was the result of God's Spirit and not our abilities. We really came to believe that God would meet our needs, anoint our lives for service and bless our efforts. This became so much a part of our lives that if we held a service and no one trusted Christ we literally ached with disappointment.
I remember my pastor telling me as he paraphrased Philippians 1:6 that the same God who had begun a good work in me would never abandon me, would give me grace for service and life, would fight my battles for me, and one day bring the work started to completion in a manner appropriate to His will. Philippians 1:1-6 became so much a part of my life that it appeared below my signature on nearly every letter I have written.
Having said all that I want come back to Mike and his situation. His election and calling have been made secure in Christ Jesus so death is not his enemy anymore. He has faced those questions raised in the very first paragraph of this writing knowing that the same God who began a work in him as a lad in Pasadena, Texas is bringing that work to completion and in the process will not leave or forsake him.
He is doing what he learned from a child . . . to walk by faith until his faith shall become sight. He knows that whether or not he ever stands on another platform and preaches to another gathering of people that he is right now preaching the greatest sermon of his life. The title is "The Sufficiency of God's Grace." - Trials may be dark on every hand and we may not understand all the ways that God will lead us o the blessed promised land but this one thing we know is that He will guide us with His eye as we follow until we die then He'll take us by our hand and lead us into that wonderful Beulah Land.
I read somewhere where some one wrote that Mike had spent 35 years at FBC Woodway telling them how to live but now he is showing them how to die. I remember well standing at my father's graveside in Houston's National Cemetery as we committed my Dad's mortal remains to the earth and prayed a prayer of thanksgiving for his life and saying, "in living your life you taught us how we should live and in your death you taught us how to die. For that I give thanks to God."
One of the Deacons at Mike's church reportedly said, "The Lord is using him to teach us how to die. Considering the fact we all have to die, this may be the best sermon he's ever going to preach," I learned a long time ago there are a lot of reasons not to argue with a Deacon but I don't know if this is the best sermon he ever preached but it certainly is one of the most important. I rather suspect to it the conclusion to the one his life has been preaching for a long time now. Someone has said, I'd rather see a sermon than hear one any day." Well here's your chance. Pay close attention because it will tell you something about the grace and promises of God. Just keep in mind that what Mike is able to preach today is really the end of a sermon that began in Pasadena, Texas when a young boy became a child of God by faith in Jesus Christ.
Should the Lord elect to perform one of His miracles I am certain no one will object. In the meanwhile our prayers are with Mike and his family.
Both John and Charles Wesley, founders of the movement that became known as Methodism, claimed that one of the distinguishing features of the Christian was, among other things, how they faced death. John Wesley is reported to have said, Our people die well." There is a book by Joseph D. McPherson entitled, "Our People Die Well:" Glorious Accounts of Early Methodists at Death's Door. I highly recommend you read it.
So I end with the words to my Mom's favorite hymn:
(ti αντιμετωπίσει πρόσωπο με τον Χριστό Σωτήρα μου)
Face to face with Christ my Savior,
Face to face, what will it be,
When with rapture I behold Him,
Jesus Christ, who died for me?
Only faintly now I see Him,
With the darkening veil between,
But a blessed day is coming,
When His glory shall be seen.
What rejoicing in His presence,
When are banished grief and pain;
When the crooked ways are straightened,
And the dark things shall be plain!
Face to face! oh, blissful moment!
Face to face to see and know;
Face to face with my Redeemer,
Jesus Christ, who loves me so.
Refrain
Face to face I shall behold Him,
Far beyond the starry sky;
Face to face in all His glory
I shall see Him by and by!
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