In His Grip is a weekly e-mail intended to provide inspiration and hope to those fighting cancer.
A ministry of Stronghold Ministry.          Subscribe here.

*If you’re fighting cancer, please write and let us know how we can pray and support you.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.  - 2 Corinthians 1:3-4

The beauty of God’s comfort is that it is transferable! Stronghold Ministry thrives on spreading the comfort we received during my cancer battle. As a non-profit organization, Stronghold relies on donations to operate. So in this edition of In His Grip, we are asking for a favor from you. Our financial supporters are encouraged when they see how the Lord has used us to encourage people fighting cancer. If you are a cancer patient or a caretaker, and have been touched by Stronghold Ministry, we would love to know how. We are putting together a video montage of short comments and pictures from the people we’ve served. We also want to encourage those who do not know us yet to contact Stronghold Ministry for support. But we need your permission to include your comments or image.

Here is how to help us spread His comfort:

1) Send us a brief note describing the impact Stronghold has had in your life.

One or two sentences is the perfect length. Simply share how Stronghold has lifted you. In today’s world, testimonials of third parties are often used to motivate people to action. If you have already sent us comments, you could grant us permission to use portions of anything you’ve already sent.

2) Send us a picture of you and your family.

To add a more personal touch, we prefer to include your image with your comments. You can send us recent pictures, or pictures from before you were diagnosed. If your pictures are not digital, please mail to: Stronghold Ministry PO Box 38478 Dallas, TX  75238. We’re sorry, we will not be able to mail them back, so please send a copy. Perhaps a tech savvy friend could scan and email them for you.

Send your comments and pictures via email to: jfor@mystronghold.org. Thank you so much! We could really use your help.

You Are In His Grip,

Joe & Terri Fornear, Stronghold Ministry

-If you are fighting cancer, please write and let us know how we can pray. We want to be “in your corner.”

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*New Dallas cancer support group starting in September. For details and updates on the group, sign up for our monthly newsletter, the Exchanger, on our website

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In His Grip is a weekly e-mail intended to provide inspiration and hope to those fighting cancer.
A ministry of Stronghold Ministry.          Subscribe here.

*If you’re fighting cancer, please write and let us know how we can pray and support you.
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“For by their own sword they did not possess the land, and their own arm did not save them, but Your right hand and Your arm and the light of Your presence, for You favored them. You are my King, O God; Command victories for Jacob. Through You we will push back our adversaries; Through Your name we will trample down those who rise up against us. For I will not trust in my bow, Nor will my sword save me. But You have saved us from our adversaries, And You have put to shame those who hate us. In God we have boasted all day long, And we will give thanks to Your name” (Psalm 44:3-8).

Some days just seem… evil. Days when the messages in my head are so negative. I can’t seem to fight them. I think this is what Paul meant by “the day of evil” (Ephesians 6:13). Days of rejection, inadequacies, confusion. Days when I realize I am so vulnerable, weak and losing my grip. Feeling overwhelmed.

Yet He never said I had to fight my own battles. In fact, He said if I did, I would lose. I cannot truly trust in my bow, my schemes, ideas, medicine, doctors, friends, family; it is Him alone. My cry to Him brings my victory. He comes through as I hide myself in His Word. He is my refuge and protection.

I am going to snuggle up in Your right arm, Your Son, and watch as You show Your glory today.

“Every night I make my bed swim, I dissolve my couch with my tears” (Psalm 6:6).

Did God notice David’s tears? Does God care about our tears?

Tears are deep and wholehearted prayers to God. He captures and collects them. He knows the journeys of those who wander in the wilderness and in the enemy territory of cancer. He is noticing and watching and mapping our steps.

“You have taken account of my wanderings; Put my tears in Your bottle. Are they not in Your book?” (Psalm 56:8).

It was many years before God completely consolidated David’s kingdom. In the meantime, David trusted God. Psalm 56 is often called a “trust” psalm. David told himself the truth; God is always worthy of our trust.

“When I am afraid, I will put my trust in You. In God, whose word I praise, In God I have put my trust; I shall not be afraid” (Psalm 56:3-4).

God is always for you, even when you’re wandering in the wilderness. He is definitely for you when you’re fighting for your life. So, like David, say to yourself,

“This I know, that God is for me.” (Psalm 56:9).

In His Grip is a weekly e-mail intended to provide inspiration and hope to those fighting cancer.
A ministry of Stronghold Ministry. Subscribe here.

*If you’re fighting cancer, please write and let us know how we can pray and support you.
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In all their affliction He was afflicted, and the angel of His presence saved them; In His love and in His mercy He redeemed them, and He lifted them and carried them all the days of old.” (Isaiah 63:9)

So according to Isaiah, when you are hurting, He is beside you hurting with you, and carrying you through your trial! After all, the Lord commands us in Romans 12:15, “Weep with those who weep”. Since He doesn’t ask us to care in ways that He doesn’t, it follows that He weeps when we weep. For an example, recall in John 11 when Lazarus died, his sisters, Mary and Martha, were soaked with tears. Jesus knew exactly what He was about to do; He was going to raise Lazarus from the dead. He knew this story would have a happy ending. He knew in just moments that uncontrollable laughter and sheer joy would fill every grief-filled heart. Yet John 11:35 reports, “Jesus wept.” Why in the world would He cry at that moment? Simple answer; He so identifies with our pain that He can’t help hurting when we are hurting.

To go deeper, recall when Paul, then called Saul, was en route AGAIN to persecute Jesus’ followers. Jesus suddenly appeared, blinding Saul and knocking him off his high horse. Jesus then challenged him in a voice that resembled a thunder clap, “Why are you persecuting ME?” The Bible doesn’t say this, but I imagine Saul very sheepishly muttered, “Oops, I messed with the wrong guys, er, Guy.” For another example, remember that Jesus explained at judgment time He would reward or punish us for our decisions on helping the poor, sick and imprisoned. He said that when people visit and help these sufferers, they help and visit HIM.

“Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me” (Matthew 25:40).

Wow, talk about identifying with our suffering. Now we know exactly where God is when we hurt. He is right beside us, feeling our pain and carrying us through every trial! This lightens my load. How about you?

In His Grip, is a weekly e-mail intended to provide inspiration and hope to those fighting cancer.
Subscribe here.
*If you’re fighting cancer, please write and let us know how we can pray and support you.

Blue Christmases happen. I don’t have raw statistics to prove it, but for those battling cancer, the sense of isolation is usually greater during the holiday season. Cancer takes no holidays. It’s impossible to forget the Christmas that I was diagnosed. On the day before Christmas Eve in 2002, I had a biopsy on a large mass under my arm. The surgeon called to give me the results on Christmas Day. He was heading out of town; I was heading down the road with Stage III metastatic melanoma cancer. So much for peace on my little chunk of earth. There were lots of caring family and friends surrounded me, but I still felt alone.

If you haven’t received your Creator’s indwelling Presence, just receive Him right now. Ask Him to forgive your sins through Christ’s death on the cross. Ask Him to come into your life and live inside of you and be your life source. He will truly answer with His Presence. He is not some distant, smug royal, who sits passively indifferent to our situation. He wants to be involved in your life. In fact, He wants to live inside of you and ride everywhere with you!

Have you ever seen a news article about a state government wanting to notify citizens of  millions of dollars of unclaimed money? Supposedly, money is often left behind in bank accounts, escrows and insurance policies, etc. While trying to find out how much unclaimed money is on the table for this article (over $32 billion), I ran across a nationwide search engine, so I punched in my last name. No lost treasure for me, but quickly found seven relatives and a couple friends listed. I was amazed to learn that 1 in 8 U. S. adults have unclaimed property.

I wonder how many unclaimed blessings are being left on the table. Only the Lord could calculate that number, but it must be astronomical. Probably the most unused blessing in my life is comfort. The Lord continues to chip away at my insistence to tough it out alone. For the last twelve years, the Lord’s classroom for me has been dealing with chronic pain including a tail bone broken in two places, Stage IV metastatic melanoma (maybe in a different category but it still hurt), an extruded back disc and  Eagle’s Syndrome – twice. I know there are a lot of us out there who can use more comfort for many different reasons. The good news is there is a fountain of comfort that we can claim.

2 Corinthians 1:3-4 -  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction…

How do we tap into this comfort?

Missing something?

1) Realize the purpose of troubles is to discover more of God. Suffering can be hard, but it is never in vain when we turn to Him. Peter wrote that the testing of our faith has a very beneficial outcome.

1 Peter 1:8 -  Though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory.

2) He went to a lot of trouble to identify with our struggles. God’s comfort is there for the taking and He really can relate. One reason the Father sent His Son to become a man was to assure us that He can identify with our sorrow and grief. In chapters 4 & 5 of Hebrews, the author tells us that Jesus understands weakness and what it is like to suffer. In the midst of Isaiah’s description of Jesus’ sufferings on the cross that lead to His death, He emphasizes this was not Jesus’ first encounter with pain.

Isaiah 53:3 – A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

3) Don’t be inconsolable. We may not really want to be comforted. We may be angry about our circumstances. We can hold a “comfort strike,” as if we can manipulate Him into giving us a circumstantial break. We only punish ourselves with this attitude. We need to soften up and allow Him to comfort us.

4) The amount of comfort He provides matches the amount of our suffering. We may be tempted to fear that the suffering we experience is too much to handle, especially if we are going through a traumatic illness or relationship troubles. The Lord is equal to any task, so press Him for a full measure of comfort. He welcomes our boldness.

2 Corinthians 1:5 - For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ.

5) Don’t get caught up in false comfort’s. The world and the devil want to trap us into seeking comfort in all the wrong places. The list of alternatives is infinite because anything can be a substitute for the Lord. The usual suspects are drugs, alcohol, materialism and sex outside of a man-woman marriage. But any practice can be a substitute for the Lord if we make it our primary source of encouragement. So be careful out there, and guard your heat, because we are easily addicted to alternatives.

Don’t leave His unclaimed blessings on the table. You won’t have to search very far to find them.

If you are going through cancer - contact us at Stronghold Ministry and let us know so we can pray for you and comfort you.

*Scripture quotations taken from the NASB(c).