What is a Complete Jew Part 2: Theology in Action

Tony Caffey: Foreign welcome back to theology in action my name is Tony Caffey I'm the pastor of Verse by Verse Fellowship here in San Antonio and I'm here today with my good friend Keith Mirror. Hey Keith good to see you

.

Keith Mirror: Great great seeing you

.

Tony Caffey: You shared your story about being a completed Jew which was really neat just hearing how the Lord had led you to a place where you came to Faith In Jesus

. What does that mean Keith to be a completed Jew

?

Keith Mirror: I was raised Jewish and I'm from New York originally and uh as as time went on I had several things that happened in my life that made me kind of question uh where I was in my relationship with God

. To define completed Jew the way I look at it it is going from the Hebrew Bible and then going into the New Testament or the Christian Bible if you will and carrying some of the Hebrew Bible into the Christian Bible and combining them both but ending up with believing and following Christ. Absolutely it is yes. Um Howard for Howard's work and and bringing Faith uh at work and and again I'll explain Faith at work in Howard's mind is not necessarily doing Bible studies at work it's how you treat people at work how you do business. You know his goal was when someone comes into your business they know you're a Christian because the way you work the way you do things. Yeah so in addition to the books he was trying to get the word out on how do you do this and we started a program called The High Calling of your daily work and these were radio spots 60-second radio spots started out small just here in San Antonio we would find stories all over the place and people would write to us about it and things like that and we would develop the story into a 60 seconds radio spot and um we would have to you know edit it and bring it down and stuff and we would record about I guess eight or nine at a time in in studio and then edit them down to make sure they they hit the 60 actually we hit him for 57 seconds because Howard's ending would always be about Laity Lodge you know the high calling of your daily work. I mean you say this is this is Howard Budd of Laity Lodge and remember about the High Calling of your daily work. Uh we ended up doing Billboards all kinds of stuff we really just expanded by the time we stopped

.

Keith Mirror: Ped doing it we were at on 3,000 stations all over the country uh Christian and and non-Christian stations

. Yeah so uh it was you know we considered a success people would contact us they wanted more so we started a website called The High Calling of your daily work actually called it the high calling and um we would have writing we would write pieces for it. I had people very very talented people one of them you met at the at the luncheon uh very Marcus and very talented people who would write pieces for it. We had pastors all over the country writing pieces for it. We just got into video we were doing video on it uh we had the radio spots on it so people can call them up at any time so we were doing that for several years. How satisfying was that working? Extremely because I never expected it to explode like that. We ended up hiring an agency out of New York uh which I would meet with twice a year down in New York uh in in discussing uh you know where are we going from here what stations what networks. You know we had more into networks and individual stations because of pricing and whatever so it was it was a very exciting time. But back to the the uh Laity Lodge forums Howard again wanted to be able to talk face to face with CEOs and and uh board chairs about what his concept of Faith at work would be. So we had this thing every two years because it took years two years to put it together and um we would have it at a resort it could be in Palm Beach Florida whatever and these people paid you know their own way and did their own thing but but we had them in places that people would want to go to CEOs of companies and board members actually of these same companies like PepsiCo Johnson and Johnson. You know major companies like that Coca-Cola um and some of these folks would be our speakers because some of them were already doing it. The chairman of uh Johnson and Johnson was already a committed Christian and he would get up and tell his stories. Um we would uh spend a great deal of time doing this we'd always have one really well-known individual for instance Jim Baker Secretary of State Jim Baker and the Secretary of Treasury one time uh his wife Susan. Okay would speak all over the country and so Susan would speak and and

.

Tony Caffey: And secretary Baker would come with them

. Oh wow

.

Keith Mirror: Uh my job for these things were multiple

. Uh I was responsible for the recording of all this so I had you know professional TV people in. I would act as director and you know camera One camera two kind of stuff um and also I was to make all their Arrangements so if they were landing at such and such a place we would pick them up and with a limo or something and and then drive them you know back and make sure they had rooms and all that stuff so we we kind of that was my job that took a lot of time and effort and planning to do. Um probably the the best known name that we had that really impressed the heck out of me was Archbishop Tutu. South African yes Desmond Tutu and uh the folks who arranged for all this in our organization worked at you have to work through agents and all that stuff for range for him to come and there are lots of stories about him but I don't think I've ever met anybody as humble as this person. Um he did not want to be called Archbishop he wanted to be called father he made a point of that. I met him at the airport with with the security detail because that we needed it for him and uh took him back to the hotel got him to his room and everything and he was going to speak the last speaker of the of the program on Sunday. I want to show you what kind of a person he was uh he first of all he was very short and I expected somebody to come off the airplane and flowing robes and whatever he was wearing red pants a golf shirt and a little cap that was it and if you didn't know who he was you would never know who he was when he came in. So when he was going to speak he was dressed informally also he never wore any of his clerical things and uh his room was I don't know five or six stores down for mine so I I went to pick him up with a security Town we're walking down the hall and I'm going to get killed for saying this but we're walking down the hall and Pat was coming out of our room uh just as we were passing and he stopped everything and I and and when he stopped I looked at him and said uh you know father I'd like to introduce you to my wife Pat and he went over to her and he took her hand and bowed from the waist down and kissed her hand and said you

.

Keith Mirror: Your husband has great taste in women and you know this is him this is how he was and and then we you know when we got back into our little deal and went down he did his talk which was phenomenal and and then you know we left and I took him back to the airport and whatever

. So um that was the kind of atmosphere you know that we had we had there but he was just an absolutely amazing person. So Howard would use these events to try to incorporate the gospel in some instances. Ah the gospel yeah he would because Howard would speak but his goal was not to preach at people it was get to get them to understand because he broke into small groups which is what they do at Laity Lodge. We broke into small groups and people are open up about really personal things. We'd have a staff member in each group just to help facilitate a little bit. I had you know I was in one group I wasn't necessarily facilitating but I was in there and helped to talk and stuff like that and we had uh so we had people you know saying some and everything was confidential so people were able to say some things and some experiences they had that was Howard's goal. You know we'd have a nice dinner at night and a speaker that night but again it was never the preaching kind of of speaking it was it was the um you know here's my experience and here's the things I've I've experienced. We had people who were on um Undercover Boss who were Christians and and they told us their experience about being Undercover Boss would show it. Uh we had the founder I'm trying to think the name of the company now but it's one of the production now now they're a big production company but they uh he came in and talked about what what it meant to be a Christian in that environment that that kind of thing so it was mostly testimonies. Wasn't like Pastor Tony on Sunday morning preaching preaching up here yeah it you know and and and it wasn't it the interesting thing about it it was a to me I hate to use the word religious because to some people that means something else but it was a very deeply moving time but it wasn't preaching

.

Tony Caffey: Yeah good

. I say the benefit of that and the kind of corporate setting and see how yeah because there's the people you're dealing with and these were people you

.

Keith Mirror: You know who were very very busy people but have managed somehow in their lives to uh incorporate their Christian beliefs and what they did

. They they wouldn't go into a staff meeting and say now we're going to pray or something maybe they did I don't know but that wasn't their their deal. Their deal was they wanted to make sure that their Christian lives came through in all their dealings and what they did

.

Tony Caffey: Cool Keith

. Well you've you're one of my favorite conversation partners you have great stories you've experienced a lot in life and the Lord has taken you to some some neat places and allowed you to do some neat things. Here recently you've had a pretty significant bout with cancer. Yes and uh it's almost like the Lord has taken you and you know hyperdrive and in an even more uh challenging but also um you know thoughtful and teaching process as you've gone through this battle so tell me just a little bit about that

.

Keith Mirror: Okay uh I guess a short version would be I was going through my uh annual physical and uh the night after I did the blood work and stuff my doctor called and said uh Keith I've got some so I'm concerned he said I want you tomorrow to get to get a a CAT scan and an MRI and I'm going to arrange for it to be stat which in hospital language is quick

. You don't have to wait a week for the return. He said your blood work your liver is way off the scale and there's something wrong. I said okay so I did the next morning and he called me that afternoon and he said well I've got some bad news and I said what is it yeah he said you have cholangiocarcinoma and I said that's great but what is what is that what is that in English and he said it's cancer of the bottle duct. He said it's a very rare very aggressive and very dangerous uh form of cancer. I said what do I do now and he said well I'm going to go look around for an oncologist for you and see what needs to be done. He said my knowledge is that the only remedy for this if it works is a very invasive surgery and it's it's very invasive there's a long recovery period but I'm going to look into it. This was on a Thursday by coincidence a friend who used to be my my doctor who had retired his wife called Pat and this was during covid so she said you know we don't get out

.

Keith Mirror: And I know you don't get out and we hadn't spoken for a long time but she said um why don't we have cocktails uh by Zune and you know maybe eat and you eat what you want we can talk and Pat said no that's that sounds great and because I wasn't necessarily in the mood to party but I said yeah all right let's go do that

. So this was on a Friday night and Pat came in and said uh Sam she said I need to ask you a question and she told him what my diagnosis was and she said if this was you what would you do yeah he said I would pack my bags tomorrow and I'd go to MD Anderson in Houston. He said because surgeries that are rare mean that people aren't deeply experienced they can do it but they're not deeply experienced in it but at MD Anderson I'm sure they are and we did we went down there. Um and because it was covid and that's when hospitals really kind of shut the doors if you will um Pat was even allowed to go in with me and the way you go to MD Anderson is you go through the emergency room. So I went in there and for some reason they were expecting me. I have a feeling Sam may have called but they were expecting me and the prayer I had was that I didn't necessarily pray please don't let this happen to me and and and cure me and and whatever which I'm not making fun of I mean it's a valid prayer yeah but somehow I felt I needed to pray for strength versus The Cure the strength to go through this the strength from my family to be able to go through this. Um and uh if you don't mind I wanna

.

Tony Caffey: Yes please

.

Keith Mirror: I found this and it really fit what I was doing it said fear not for I am with you this is out of Isaiah Isaiah 41:10

. Fear not for I am with you be not dismayed for I am your God. I will strengthen you yes I will help you and I will uphold you with my righteous right hand and I didn't know that verse then but that's what I kept praying. So I when I went when I went into intake I met with this doctor and at that time I was been two years so about 77-78 and he looked at me and said you know I had to go through a scan and all that stuff and he said okay yeah you definitely have Clan Joe and and um he said normally I don't operate on people your age but you're seen to be in a lot better shape than most people your age so I'll do

.

Keith Mirror: It and I said well well the hospital you know be any problem he said let me put it this way I'm the chairman of this department and when I say I'm going to operate I'm going to operate he said so you're in I will take care of that

. And then he gave me a plan of how oh then I met my oncologist who ends up being the number two person in the world with this particular disease and uh they laid out a plan and I was going to go through radiation first and then uh have a couple of weeks off to get in the best shape I could which would involve exercising and walking and whatever and then have the surgery. And the reason going to detail because it the Lord kind of followed me through and and held my hand through all of this. So and you know you always hear about radiation and being sick and having burns on your body and stuff so I'm in the waiting room waiting for my first session and the radiologist came by Dr. Ludmir came by young guy and he looked at me and said you're Keith Mirror right and I said yes sir he said looking at your you know all your Radiology uh you're gonna do really well with this your prognosis is good okay and you know having worked in a hospital for 11 years uh I kind of knew doctors try to you know keep you calm and keep you relaxed. I said well that's great but I understand this is really bad and you know and he looked at me and he's straight in the eye and he said they teach us several things here at MD Anderson the one thing they do not teach us and we got a lot allowed to do is lie when I tell you you have a good prognosis you have a good prognosis so that was really moving for me and it kind of an answer to prayer. So I went through my ten things and had no negative reaction whatsoever. I mean not not this the smallest type of reaction um went home we came back up here oh and then we went down there the big thing is where are we going to stay and we a person from our church gave us a call and said by the way uh when I lived down there the the such and such Church down there owns apartments okay and they rent them at cost two people going to MD Anderson and are under treatment and sure enough we got an apartment and uh and this was a real short notice so we got an apartment so we had and it was like

.

Keith Mirror: You know bedroom night one bedroom apartment with a full kitchen the whole deal and so that made life a lot easier for us

. Um came home did my walking and and all that stuff got my strength back up went back I think it was uh the day after Christmas supposed to have my uh surgery on January 2nd. On January 1st I had a lot of pain in my back and was having problems breathing and I called my surgeon and he said get to the emergency room right now so they got me to the emergency room and what they found out was they had put a temporary stint uh in in the bile duct because of the cancer and it got infected somehow. I mean it's not totally unusual but it happens and that infection was spreading so they put me in the hospital and put me in an IV drip. I was there for seven days came back to the obviously canceled the surgery came home and for another seven or ten days I was on an IV bag I carried around with me at the apartment and Pat and they put a stint in me so we would just screw in every every day you had to change the bag and all that stuff and which was a looking at it was like a comedy of errors between Pat and I doing this but um it you know it got me over the uh infection we found out later had they opened me up with that infection I would have been dead in five minutes. There was a shot right through my entire body so again you know I mean the pain was uncomfortable and all that stuff but you know the good Lord I just look at it as the good Lord was just looking after me so we got through it and my surgery was on February 3rd of that year and that was February 3rd of 21. Um Aaron my daughter Aaron came down the night before or a couple days before and um they dropped me off at the hospital at five o'clock in the morning and I was probably the calmest person of the group I'm sure. Um I turned everything over to the Lord and you know and he gave me that strength because I was never a good Hospital person but he gave me the strength you know I went in there did what I had to do um without any worry it was just unbelievable. Um the surgery turned out to be a 10 hour procedure. Wow. Um and they did they removed some things and re-ramped some other things and whatever and uh I was in a hospital for a little while and

.

Keith Mirror: Uh got back to the apartment and I had I guess it was like maybe a 10-day period there where I could only eat six no I ate six or eight meals a day that there were about the size of a quarter

. I mean just a little time just a little tiny meals and maybe a dab of peanut butter you know that would be a meal and I did not want to eat. I wasn't hungry and I was on like 12 different medications plus I had to give myself a shot every day with blood thinner and I never thought I'd be able to give myself a shot ever but I was. I gave myself a shot every day of blood thinner and um ate these little meals and Pat force-fed me to eat and gradually I got my strength back and you know after 10 days um I was declared you know clear clean or clear whatever you want to call it. Um but my oncologist said now we need to talk about um putting you on medication and I said you know what kind of medication and he said like the word just slipped me um chemo. Uh we're gonna we're gonna put you on chemo now having been in that hospital and walking back and forth to different clinics I saw people on chemo and you know they were they were pale and curled up and cold. I mean I just my heart went out to them and he said this is going to be a different kind of chemo we use a different system here it's going to be oral you're going to do it at home and we'll see how it goes. So I said why am I doing this if I'm clean why am I going through chemo and he said because if one cell just one cell escaped you'd be back here and it would be nothing we could do for you. He said so I want to make sure that one cell did not Escape and so he went ahead and prescribed this and you know the people down there were just amazing because I'd get a call from their Pharmacy and they'd say okay now are you ready for I the name of this stuff was real long. I took I would take two capsules or two tablets in the morning after eating and two capsules uh two I said capsules but two tablets in the evening after eating would do that for three weeks and then I'd have a week off and do it again for three weeks and I did that from uh I guess it was the beginning of May to the end of September and they would call me and say you know we're putting your medic because it's all exclusive

.

Keith Mirror: Lly compounded just for me uh they put it together and they say are you ready you have any reactions or anything

. I had absolutely zero reaction zero other than that always having to eat a meal of course I had to take the medication uh which I needed to do anyway because I lost 40 pounds during the procedure um which I needed to lose anyway so but it's not a diet I would recommend. Um and start taking the chemo and took it you know I went down every month to be examined and get a scan and in September they finally said uh okay you don't need to take the chemo anymore and come down every three months and you'll get a scan do blood work and the third person on my team is a nutritionist and who is a very particular nutritionist and she measured. I mean there were day there were times I go down and give 15 bottles of blood because she measured every single thing I could possibly have in my system and and she would make sure that my B12 was up or whatever was up and where it was supposed to be. I was anemic after the surgery so she put me on iron pills. You know just those kinds of things and uh I meet with her after meeting with my surgeon and my uh oncologist and we were talking and he even talked to her from from the house and um that went on for two years and in my last visit which was like two weeks ago I'm still clean. I'm still seeing the nutritionist and my oncologist and my surgeon but they extended it to every six months now so which was obviously you know good news. Um and uh the only thing I have my only after effect is I have to take certain capsules when I eat and that provides some of the enzymes I've lost because of some of the surgery

.

Tony Caffey: Praise the Lord

. Praise the Lord

.

Keith Mirror: Absolutely and and again you know he he just praying for strength ended up being the right thing for me

. May not be the right thing for everybody but it was the right thing for me. I was extremely fortunate. Uh I say fortunate I think the God had God had his hand in it but because I had it we called it early very very early. Um I now support a group called the Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation oh uh I support them uh every month financially but also I'm one of their mentors and so I have three or four people that I mentor which are people who just found

.

Keith Mirror: Out they have this and have all kinds of questions and I'm able to at least help more research you know if they needed some help with that

.

Tony Caffey: I remember meeting you last year and I can't remember the exact words you said but something to the effect of I shouldn't be here I'm a walking miracle and

.

Keith Mirror: Yeah my doc that's what my doctor said uh my my doctor here calls me The Walking Miracle because I found out afterwards uh depending how far down they or how far along they catch you with this uh the survival rate is 14 percent

. And uh you know I didn't know that before surgery and it's just as well I didn't know it. Um I don't know if it would have phased me or not but I was ready to do whatever the Lord wanted me to do. I mean it was just it was just such a blessing to know that he had his hand on my shoulder and it didn't you know if it didn't work it didn't work if it worked it worked. I mean I was more worried about my family than it was myself and um but it worked yeah my my doctor here calls me The Walking Miracle

.

Tony Caffey: Well thanks for sharing that

. I know that's that's personal Keith and um I know there's people that might even be listening to this who are thinking about how to trust the Lord through a health crisis or maybe some other crisis. I mean life is hard there's challenges here. I guess I want to close with this and just ask you um you know you've had an amazing journey the Lord has taken you through a lot of different things. You know what's the most important thing that you want to share with people Jews Gentiles Christians non-Christians if you had 60 seconds to share one message with the world

?

Keith Mirror: Well if you don't mind my reading again

. Yes please. This morning I read out of Streams uh in the Desert every morning and it starts out with a Bible verse and this one was from Matthew 10:27. Uh what I tell you in the dark speak in the daylight what is whispered in your ear Proclaim from the roofs and to me that means as a Christian I have an obligation to speak about my belief but there's another obligation and as a obligation to listen as well which I've I've had to learn how to do and um you Listen for God's voice. I mean you don't actually hear a voice but you you listen for his reply to what you ask as a Christian it's

.

Keith Mirror: My responsibility to tell people about Christianity and as a person who may not be a Christian it's that person to to at least listen

. You don't have to just accept but you can listen and I listened when Pat spoke to me I listened when uh yeah yeah listen then. Um you know I listen to when I I prayed but I had to learn to be quiet and listen to something that's being said to me and that's the news from the Lord

.

Tony Caffey: Thank you Keith

. Appreciate you brother

.

Keith Mirror: I even listen to you

. Hey

.

Tony Caffey: Yeah you're a good listener

. Thank you for that. Well appreciate you coming on and sharing your story and just telling us a little bit about your journey and uh yeah glad to have you as a friend and glad to have you here at first Fellowship

.

Keith Mirror: Oh you're a blessing to us and my family and uh you know I thank you and I obviously have a bless you in the church but thank you for the thank you for the time

. Thanks Keith

.

Tony Caffey: Well that ends this session of theology in action for those of you who are interested we did a previous recording with Dr. Arnold Fruchtenbaum on the subject of Jewish evangelism and how to share your faith with somebody who comes from a Jewish background so I would encourage you to take a listen to that and stay tuned for more theology in action