1 Corinthians 2:6-16

6We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. 7No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. 8None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9However, as it is written:

“What no eye has seen,
what no ear has heard,
and what no human mind has conceived”b —
the things God has prepared for those who love him—
10these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.

The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 11For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. 13This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words.c 14The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. 15The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, 16for,

“Who has known the mind of the Lord
so as to instruct him?”d

But we have the mind of Christ.

Teen's fight with brain cancer inspiring family, friends and Katy Perry

BY MARYAM SHAH ,TORONTO SUN
FIRST POSTED: FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2013 07:04 PM EST | UPDATED: FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2013 08:44 PM EST

TORONTO - Terminal brain cancer patient Olivia Wise never dreamed of becoming a singer.

But the 16-year-old’s rendition of Roar by Katy Perry got her noticed.

A relative’s friend helped her record the cover in September, when she was still able to sing. The video hit the Internet in October.

“We just put it up on YouTube for her friends and family, and it just took kind of a life of its own from there,” cousin Jeff Kassel said.

A month later, the video has garnered just over a million views.

Wise softly croons lyrics from Perry’s hit from a wheelchair, “You’re gonna hear me roar...” while taking shallow breaths, exhausted from her battle with cancer.

“Her health was really bad but you wouldn’t know it by her attitude,” Kassel said.

Right now she’s “defying all the odds,” he said.

“To be honest, she’s been given days (to live) weeks ago so it’s amazing she’s hanging in there,” Kassel said. “She’s totally unconscious. She’s really at the end of her battle.”

Diagnosed in 2012 after suffering a seizure on vacation, Wise is now surrounded at home by her parents and three siblings.

“I know that the doctors and nurses don’t even know how Olivia’s made it this far, and I can tell you it’s her mother’s devoted and unwavering care,” Kassel said.

Olivia’s version of the song caught Perry’s eye as well.

In a 34-second video e-mailed to Wise and now on YouTube, Perry praised Wise’s cover.

“I was very moved and you sounded great,” she said before encouraging her to “keep roaring.”

Proceeds from the Olivia’s rendition, now available on iTunes, go to charity, with 60% for the Liv Wise Fund for brain tumour research and the rest to the Paediatric Oncology Group of Ontario and the Palliative Advanced Care Team at Sick Kids Hospital.

So far, $73,000 has been raised.

A second video, showing Wise’s childhood through the years, hit YouTube Friday, featuring Wise’s own work, a song she wrote at 11 called Simple Girl.

“Here’s a story of a simple girl,” she sang. “She wanted something more from her simple world.”

She said she didn’t want any tears at her funeral, Kassel said.

“She’s such an inspiring person,” he said. “Just knowing her is inspiring.”

http://www.torontosun.com/2013/11/22/teens-fight-with-brain-cancer-inspiring-family-friends-and-katy-perry

Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right.

Abraham Lincoln

We know that all things work together for good to those who love God . . . —Romans 8:28

The circumstances of a saint’s life are ordained of God. In the life of a saint there is no such thing as chance. God by His providence brings you into circumstances that you can’t understand at all, but the Spirit of God understands. God brings you to places, among people, and into certain conditions to accomplish a definite purpose through the intercession of the Spirit in you. Never put yourself in front of your circumstances and say, “I’m going to be my own providence here; I will watch this closely, or protect myself from that.” All your circumstances are in the hand of God, and therefore you don’t ever have to think they are unnatural or unique. Your part in intercessory prayer is not to agonize over how to intercede, but to use the everyday circumstances and people God puts around you by His providence to bring them before His throne, and to allow the Spirit in you the opportunity to intercede for them. In this way God is going to touch the whole world with His saints.

Am I making the Holy Spirit’s work difficult by being vague and unsure, or by trying to do His work for Him? I must do the human side of intercession— utilizing the circumstances in which I find myself and the people who surround me. I must keep my conscious life as a sacred place for the Holy Spirit. Then as I lift different ones to God through prayer, the Holy Spirit intercedes for them.

Your intercessions can never be mine, and my intercessions can never be yours, “. . . but the Spirit Himself makes intercession” in each of our lives (Romans 8:26). And without that intercession, the lives of others would be left in poverty and in ruin.

As I remember the good times I had in "Lion City" or Singapore, I look forward to my next basketball missions journey.