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CANCER SURVIVORS DAY
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CANCER SURVIVORS DAY

CANCER SURVIVOR DAY 6-5-22

GOOD SUNDAY MORNING ALL

The day is starting as a nice sprummer day. Starting in the upper 50’s on the way to the 80’s. Some sort of rain is due for this afternoon and more aggressive weather tonight. As I often say “the excitement never ends”.
 All by itself today is a special day. I have been so focused on my upcoming surgery that I just about missed Cancer Survivors Day. I know that our group here includes “survivors”. I am a survivor for 2 years now. How fortunate we survivors are to be moving forward from diagnosis to having a special day everyday. The norm has changed from the beginning. I appreciate all the encouragement all of you have extended. I remember a co-worker who said it best : “I have been blessed”.

There is a long story about how I became a survivor. I had moved back to Iowa in late 2019 and began working through a mutual friend just during the Christmas Retail times. Because of my move I got a new Medicare Advantage insurance company in 2020.  I was scheduled to a doctors appointment as a new patient. I am, obviously, a follower of Jesus and manifested that in the creation of Unorthodox Christianity many years ago. That I had a relationship with Jesus and GOD and paid attention to places I had moved, and believe that I can have a warm friendship with Jesus and GOD. Many of our conversations had led to interesting and positive results. In this case it put me in Iowa at a doctors office with a new doctor I did not know and a simple blood test which was a normal visit for me over all my years. The visit was done and I left. I am physically well, and I exercise regularly and my work was active. A few days later I received a call from my new doctor to come by the office on my day off. To make a long store short the doctor said that my PSA test came back positive and that I had prostate cancer enough to take it seriously.
I had never tested positive for a PSA test before, let alone seriously enough to measure concern for the nature of the Prostate Cancer. I was forwarded to specialists and was fortunate to get treated quickly and am currently very positively ahead enough to be called a survivor. I followup a couple of times each year now.  All of the events that led me to Iowa and the subsequent cancer treatment was a path designed by GOD and Jesus in the same way that they have impacted my life through our conversations over years and years.

For those of you who are searching to build a relationship with Jesus and GOD, do not believe that you have to wait until you die to go to Heaven and then talk to Jesus and/or GOD. To those who open the door to Jesus and GOD in FAITH you will have a journey beyond all others. During the every day of your life you will build that relationship to the point that one does not question a gentle nudge from GOD. Yes it is Unorthodox for sure. You also will say “I have been blessed”. I was loved at birth and have been loved every day since. Yes, today is a special day for many of us.

OUR CARES AND PRAYERS ARE WITH YOU ALL and I know that we all have been blessed every day.

ME, Mack and Jake

Simply Being
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Simply Being

GOOD MONDAY MORNING​ ALL

A wonderful day off. A bit cloudy, not quite as windy, not snowing, I wonder if I am still in Iowa.
Do you ever have a munchie day? Today is it. I have to get to the grocery sometime today so it may just be my reminder machine. I have heard so many at the gym complaining of the cold, I often wonder if we will appreciate simply being. For today my goal is to enjoy simply being. Have a wonderful day and enjoy the day that has been done for you. OUR CARES AND PRAYERS ARE WITH YOU.

ME, Mack and Jake

AUTHETICATING JESUS
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AUTHETICATING JESUS

Authenticating Jesus
From: 1-20-2005

Why is there such a need to authenticate Jesus for us to love?

I watch the TV shows on the religious channels. I listen to the pastoral speeches and sermons, especially at Christmas. We open our Bibles and stress all the prophecies that Jesus fulfilled, the Old Testament this and that, ‘And in the book of….. it says….’

And it is nice to be able to find reference to Jesus in scripture, but is it necessary to authenticate Jesus for us to love?

Sometimes I believe we expend more energy in trying to authenticate the messenger than we expend in living the message.

Would the message loose its value if it was given by an itinerant Rabbi, or a Buddha or a Shaman? Is it less important if given by a steeplejack or a cab driver?

Is ‘Love One Another’ a more powerful charge coming from GOD’S son, or GOD’S servant, or simply one of GOD’S children? Is ‘Love One Another’ an empty request coming from a Muslim or a Jew, or an agnostic or an atheist? Is it a message to be idly dismissed as an empty dream not worthy of attention when issued by ‘just’ one of GOD’S children?

To the other extent, now that we have authenticated Jesus as the messenger, when will we implement the message? When the time is right for us? When Jesus calls us on the phone? The week before He ‘returns’? Now that we have accepted the mantle of Christian will we demand an end to aggression, whether in defense of, or in spite of?

Authenticating the messenger is of no value until we choose to implement the message. Our lives will not change until we live the message. Our only chance for heaven on earth will pass us by if we wait to meet Jesus in heaven. Jesus is in the humblest of messengers, the one we just walked by because he wore a turban, or hadn’t shaved this week, or smelled, or wore a ‘biker’ shirt. The one who doesn’t attend church each week because no church would accept his or her lifestyle. We walk by Jesus daily. Until we stop and get to know Him, we will never find, nor have a hope of seeing, heaven on earth.

It is not necessary to ignore the messenger, it is humbling to realize how committed Jesus was to the cause. It is necessary to implement the message, not to whom we would wish, but to whom Jesus would wish. Everyone.

Jesus For President
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Jesus For President

THE CROSS HAS BEEN POLITICIZED

The President of THE DIVIDED STATES of AMERICA has raised a BIBLE in the air using a sacred place of the worshiping of the sacrifice of Jesus, committed to LOVE ONE ANOTHER. A photo app to pat himself on the back in front of that CHRISTIAN CHURCH to insure the CHRISTIAN vote for DONALD TRUMP. I would suggest to MR Trump (To be sure there is nothing in his demeanor to promote a UNITED STATES of AMERICA ) that would ever relate in any way shape or form to Jesus of Nazareth.

It would be irresponsible of me, under the banner of Unorthodox Christianity, not to comment on my concerns for the future of the United States of America. In thinking of what to say, I reach back to another election post issued in 7-2-2008 that demonstrates the progress we have made as Christians
to create a better nation through the sacrifice of Jesus on
a cross 2,000+ years ago.

JESUS FOR PRESIDENT

7-2-2008

Politics and religion seem to be running hand in hand in this years election quorums. Many fictitious facts, and lots of idle speculation about pastors, beliefs, concurrence, debates, etc. I am often times amused when the “true” Christians debate the fact that Jesus was a Jew, celebrated the Jewish holidays, resembled all those whose heritage stems from the Middle East, and otherwise can not conceive of a non Christian Jesus. Fact of the matter is, were Jesus running for President of the United States the debate would not be whether or not he would be a good candidate, whether or not he is a good man, whether or not he has enough experience in human and international relations (one would think the theoretical son of GOD may have a handle on such things), but the debate would center around his Jewish birth and whether or not He still clings to his cultural upbringing and beliefs. Being that there were no Christians in Jesus time, and no Christ for that matter, until after Jesus’ death, it would be difficult to categorize Jesus, the carpenter from Nazareth, as anything but Jewish stem to stern. The Christian right would therefore dismiss Jesus as a qualified candidate without debate. They would also strive to slure his character and fight to be sure he did not get elected to a position from which he could drag the country into perdition.

The most recent debate seems to center on whether Obama is a true Christian and whether McCain is conservative enough (whatever a conservative enough Christian consists of). So lets see, if Obama was Muslim as many contend, then certainly he must have succumbed to the ultimate goal of the evangelical movement and converted to Christianity when he had seen the light and been saved and thereby fulfills the greatest goal and objective of all evangelical Christians which is to save the world through the Christian belief and acceptance of Jesus as the Lord and Savior (whatever that means) and therefore He is the ultimate victory for all evangelicals and his election should be fought for and supported whole heartedly with sermons from the pulpit as to the great victory of Christianity that his election would represent.

McCain, on the other hand, is not conservative enough, does not seem to be saved enough for his ideals are not conservative enough, even though most conservatives can not espouse just what conservative is.

It is so confusing when we go out into the political marketplace searching for a faith system and not for a good man. Perhaps the difficulty comes when we search for Jesus in a man, for when we do that, even the Christians come up short. I don’t see Jesus as being political enough. Would Jesus say: You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours” enough. He wouldn’t hand out enough perks, money or benefits, and otherwise would espouse love not war and throw our whole economy into the toilet to save the planet and help each other. Your right, a true Christian like JESUS would make things worse, not better to have in a President of the United States.  (7-2-2016)

So here now in 2020:

Here is a President of a now DIVIDED STATES OF AMERICA who promotes himself to be a good Christian using a religious home of worship for Jesus of Nazareth’s sacrificing of his life on a cross, Held up there with nails in his hands, blood on his brows and back, stabbed with a sword in his body and with the sun blazing on his body and then have the audacity to say “FORGIVE THEM FATHER THEY KNOW NOT WHAT THEY DO” just before he died. This politician then creates a Political theater for this poor Jewish carpenter whose mantra was LOVE ONE ANOTHER by shouting VOTE FOR ME, DONALD TRUMP.

Well, we have been told in church forever that JESUS will be back. Exactly what do you think JESUS is going to have to say to DONALD TRUMP? Keep in mind the DONALD was holding the BIBLE up in his right hand with a church framed right behind him to get an endorsement from CHRISTIANS with the news of JESUS inside the book by having peaceful protesters pushed aside by his own police using force and bullying and attacking the press after just saying that he (DONALD) cared about their welfare? That word NEWS in that Bible is not FAKE NEWS unless he was holding a FAKE BIBLE. What would JESUS espouse to DONALD TRUMP? “LOVE ONE ANOTHER”, “LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF”.  What will JESUS’ heavenly father (GOD) say to DONALD TRUMP: “THOU SHALL NOT KILL, THOU SHALL HAVE NO OTHER GODS BEFORE ME, THOU SHALL NOT TAKE MY NAME IN VANE.
I want to be as far away from that discussion on the day it happens as I can. 

I could go on simply by quoting what Donald Trump has tweeted and say “Do unto Others as you would have them do unto you” must be beyond his capacity to read a BOOK such as THE BIBLE.

VOTE

I will vote my conscience as I pray for all of us to survive for every day that the Donald Trump keeps tearing America to pieces. If you respect him vote how you wish. This year it is a vote for THE UNITED STATES of AMERICA, not THE DIVIDED STATES OF AMERICA. 

 

**Ads reflect income for helping pay bills. Does not necessarily reflect any endorsements or product support by myself.

GOOD WEEKEND or NEW BEGINNINGS?
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GOOD WEEKEND or NEW BEGINNINGS?

I am getting too used to my “Have a good weekend” on assorted emails to my family and friends. My perspectives have changed a bit with my cancer treatments and the covid-19 agenda. At my age,now, the concept of endings seems to hit closer to home than I wish to think on. My Therapy has 2 weeks and 2 days in June to go and, hopefully, I expect to be ahead of the game for quite some time. So I felt that my life should be looking towards those New Beginnings every week rather than endings. SOOO
Enjoy the day that GOD has poured out for you.
Cares and Prayers
Have wonderful Beginnings today
dw  5-9-2020

Illness: A Catalyst For Change
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Illness: A Catalyst For Change

Illness Is A Catalyst For Change

Whether it is a form of cancer (as in my case see below), or arthritis. Whether suffering through alcoholism or PTSD or whatever the physical crisis may be, a diagnosis of a life changing event can shock your system and generates any number of reactions. Whether it is us personally or a relative or a friend or acquaintance. The storms of life become a catalyst for change and those challenges of life can bring out the best of us, or the worst of us.

Our human bodies react to life and the reality of the life experience makes us choose what attitude we will bring to the challenge, the positive or the negative. All of this is not news. These challenges have existed since the beginning of time. When these challenges happen to the people we know it can remind us of the temporariness of life. One may react with “why me?” It may be “What did I do to deserve this?”

Over the years, many of the visits of mine to see others in my life who were in the midst of a life crisis taught me that the challenges of them all had one thing in common. Without exception they were the result of being human. One thing that I discovered is that they were not unique to an age group. They came upon people who expected the prognosis and those who did not.

Oftentimes these events draw out the religion, or lack of it, in many of us. Our discussion at church the other day pointed out that we often times find GOD as result of those difficult and challenging times rather than good times. Many important lessons to me over my life has been in the examples of those I have talked with, or seen on TV, whether young or old, and I have been exposed to their reactions to these challenges in their journeys. I have learned that GOD knows about these challenges and follows you as though He clicks the “Follow” button on a social website. And then GOD begins. GOD surrounds you, with friends and family and often strangers. Hope is the mainstay of GOD.

Jesus had a cross to bear to be an example of the way he saw the challenges of life and the attitude required to survive them. The Cross was a testimony of the catalyst of change and the power of GOD to bring a new beginning out of whatever is happening. God walked with Jesus and the disciples that followed Him to Calvary and then they followed in His footsteps after His resurrection (or simply by the example he set for believing that LOVE ONE ANOTHER was a challenge well worth the risks.) It is their reaction that caught my attention to the power that lied within the stories I read in the Bible given to me as a graduate from Sunday school so many years ago.

The sudden accident or diagnosis challenges all of us at some time in our lives. The calling may be as loud as a Fire Alarm in the middle of the night that jolts us awake. The heart pounds, then you recognize what is going on. Sometimes it is as quiet as a prayer. Whichever way the catalyst comes one knows their life is changing in some way shape or form.

The other day my doctor was giving me my yearly overall blood test and reviewed the results with me in his office. He mentioned to me that my PSA count ( a measurement they use to track the health of your prostate in men,) was a bit higher than the normal for men my age (68). He set up an appointment with a urologist for me to double check the count which is in the function of a urologist. Pictures were taken, examination was made. The next step was determined to be a biopsy to answer some questions.

The call a couple of days later that a measure of Prostate Cancer has been found took my breath away. My memory immediately took me back to that group of mentors that GOD had put into my life over the many years as to how did they react to such news? Where had their emotions led them and where did they find strength of attitude and persistence. It was at that moment that I recognized how prepared I had been made for this day. Make no mistake, my education from my visits to others had made me aware that challenge has taken on a new form for me. Statistics tells me that thousands of others in this country and a million plus over all the world receive much the same message as I every year.

Yesterday I discussed the results of the biopsy with my urologist. Moving forward with the discussion of treatment options I chose to pursue radiation therapy. I believe in the research that has been done over the years and have been blessed with an internet that can provide many answers to what I am facing in this new journey as I move forward. This internet is a gift that so many have not had before just a few years ago. To be in a position with my website to share information about this illness and how I move forward is a blessing to be able to share. The shock of any such diagnosis can be a call to action, however the action becomes.

I tell you this for in my research I found information from many sources to provide me with answers. One very positive and extensive “book” I discovered was available, for free, through the Prostate Cancer Foundation. I encourage you to contact them to help answer some of your questions. My challenge is just beginning. I truly wish that I had been given this book when I had friends who had received a similar call as mine many years ago before the internet.

If you want to do research, the Prostate Cancer Patient Guide can be found at www.pcf.org . They do not try and choose any course of action for you. They do not sell a magic potions for you to purchase. It is information for its own sake and is very thorough and up to date.

Periodically I will offer updates in this forum of my progress and journey as I am presented with them.

Allow GOD to work within your lives as a mentor of help and a provider of HOPE. Jesus said: “I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life”. It is reflected in my logo. This has always been the foundation of Unorthodox Christianity since it’s inception.

Ask any questions of me that you wish. If you have been diagnosed or in reading this Patient Guide you recognize the warning signs that I did not recognize, my prayers are with you as many are praying for me.

Thank you for reading. Share this with anyone who may benefit from this information.

Dennis

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DREAMS

Just what is Unorthodox Christianity? Where did it come from? For what purpose?

“Leave a little behind before you go.”

Unorthodox Christianity focuses on a lifetime of the results of Christian conversations with people from the churches I have attended, retreats I have been on, and my own observations in different forums from friends and neighbors, school to work to coffee. What I believe. I started this assemblage of my writings many years ago. For the most part it resides on notepads, music folders, Cd’s and others in boxes and folders, and corners of storage in my disheveled little world.  This internet forum became affordable and longstanding. As a result, on these pages is a part of me. I needn’t be my only fan, or critic. You also have notepads, cd’s, ideas.

I do more than just jot some religious or political philosophy down on my WordPress site. Today I spread a wing or two. Allow me this indulgence.

Dreams

Years ago I wrote a song.
“All of the dreams I had as a young boy
Shot down in flames of a middle aged man……….
There’s Still time to dream the dreams..”

I realized how much of me rests in folders and on note pads and Cd’s like the writings of my Aunt Vera that she had accumulated over her lifetime. I wanted to share what I could of me and a logical forum became the internet. And with the internet came many forums for different elements for just who dennis c wheeler had become.

What has your dream been? To leave your story behind? To write that book or see your music on the web? Maybe build your own e-book or have a place to share your pictures or poems. Your family history? Too much of who we are doesn’t survive us. I have been trying to change some of that for myself as well as others. 

Maybe your music could be similar to:
www.denniscwheelermusic.com

Maybe that book in your head could be like: www.theearthexperiment.com

Maybe your personal philosophy could land on a blog like this one: 
www.unorthodoxchristianity.com  

Maybe a business venture like:

www.denniswheelerrealtor.com

I have always wanted to be able to leave a little behind before I go. Find some permanent  home on the web to share what I have not had time to share with too many over the years of working and raising family. I have admired the forum that WordPress has created for soo many that I have read from in this forum and places like Newsvine, Facebook, Instagram and soo many others not to speak of what has yet to be developed. The web has allowed many of us to find a notepad or song or philosophy that doesn’t disappear into a folder in a filing cabinet forever.

All of us have stories to tell. Let me know if I can be of help. Contact me via any of the above, or here

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“Been There, Done That”

Satchel-Paige-Dont-Look-BackSatchel Paige was a black baseball pitcher from a time when most black pitchers played in their own leagues and specialty leagues around the country and then into the big leagues after the late 40’s outside of their own specialty league. Commonly called the best pitcher of all time, he was known for many of his quotes on life. The one I have always remembered is “Don’t look back. Someone might be gaining on you.”

Searching the Past. It is often dangerous to search the past. It is too easy to fall back into it rather than move forward because of it.

“Been there, done that.” may be the better philosophy. Putting your mind in the past can challenge your decisions and can make it harder to leave the past in the past.

When you search the past for your future, you miss out on the present. Enjoying life is immersing yourself in the present, not searching out memories, or focusing on yesterday’s dreams.
Taking in what every day offers today should be more rewarding than looking back on what could have been and was not or what was put off for a rainy day that may not ever come.

As I have aged past that point where I often thought I’d never make it to, I reflect sometimes. You can literally get lost in the past of your life. What you thought you would have time do and what you maybe did and shouldn’t have. You can get lost in the stories of what happened ‘then’ when friends got together, and remember later that it was not really ‘that way’ at all.

The past was the formation of today, but today is the formation of tomorrow. The someone that might be gaining on you is someone who grew up with you. And “YOU” are not quite the same. Not the same goals and objectives, not the same demeanor, and a different attitude. When you look too far back you miss the time that is available to you now. There is a tendency to rush to nowhere. Perhaps a cup of coffee and a glance about the countryside of today is in order more than just once in a while.

Enjoy the day…They are too precious to ignore for the sake of other things.  dw

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Faithology

In high school and college I studied ‘ologies’. There was sociology, psychology, geology, physiology you know. As I got older and started the journey of living there became churchologies, Scientologies, and I have forgotten what I am certain were others (like workology).
But one ‘ology’ stands out in my history that I did not study in school but that I have studied in living.

I call it faithology. It is the study of having faith.

I have faith in my own destinations. That the decisions I have made and continue to make carry with them an idea that faith connects to a real place. That what seems to be directionless one day, proves to be understandable the next. That one step forward and perhaps 2 steps backwards, eventually moves forward in the scheme of things.

This is faithology. One has to practice it to learn to believe in it. It does not always rely on a religion, but it does rely on belief. It is a practice that can accept challenge, and a determination to keep moving forward. For some it flies in the face of practicality, for others it seeks the end of the rainbow. For those who hang on to it the world contains many new treasures. The ocean without faith contains only water. Those with faith found new countries.

The perception of darkness, when challenged by faith, discovers the light.

It is not for everyone. It is the road less taken, and the impossible dream. It learns to swim by jumping in. It also becomes the never ending story. For the desperate and disenfranchised it becomes hope.

Faithology……Keep your hands and feet inside the ride at all times.. dw

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The Slow Tide

lowtide

Have you ever found progress to be an exacerbating program. One step forward and 2 steps back? The rewards that one dreams will come this afternoon haven’t arrived yet years later? Are we expecting too much, too soon? Or, have we not been entirely lost.
When I look back at the years gone by I see different answers to the original questions. Answers I never could have conceived of in my wildest dreams. Yet, over the years, I have made progress. As I look back I see the wealth of the journey thus far. Not the financial boon as experienced by some, but a journey that that has been filled with memories that I would never trade and of mentors who will be with me throughout the rest of my journey. I truly have been blessed. Yes, moving forward can be a slow process, but it sure beats moving backwards.

dw