This morning I was talking with a Christian friend of mine by telephone. We were sharing our need for an income and our desperate job hunts, that have not been successful.
Since November of last year, I know that I have applied for or sent out nearly a 100 resumes and applications. No response, or whatever response, they never followed through. I have even used networking as they suggest trying to obtain a good position once again. All to no avail, as of yet. As we ended our conversation, we had come to that place reminding each other, that God has promised to give us "our daily bread". I wished only those around us understood these things.
It is hard to make others understand the plight you feel you are in, when they just seem to think, that you aren't trying. They think surely you would have been hired by now if you were really looking. Just look at all the job ads in the newspaper.
I have attempted to gain positions at the bottom rung of the ladder as well as those that I am qualified, skilled and experienced at, to no avail.
I was even beginning to believe I might have a former employer for whatever reason that may be black balling me from obtaining future employment. I went so far as to obtain someone to do a reference check on me, to find that my employers were providing me an excellent reference.
The only reason I can conclude that I am not receiving calls is my age. Now, you ask, "how do they know your age?"
It is easy to ascertain that from a resume or application by looking at your education and when you graduated.
I will in 11 days be 54 years old. August 12, 2007, I will have lived long enough and grown wise enough to recognize pure and simple discrimination by age.
It is one of the most exercised discriminatory unwritten policies of HR departments today. Many men my age find themselves losing jobs even to only find out later they hired someone to replace them that are much younger.
Furthermore, the latest practices of HR departments is to run a credit check and in some cases they manage to even obtain your health information. If you have reached my age, and have perfect health, you have been blessed by God. If you reached my age, and don't believe in the credit of this world, and yet somehow you obtained a good credit reference check, then you are blessed beyond what is imaginable in this day and age of high medical cost. I have some poor credit, and I will admit it.
My credit was wiped out in 1996, when my first wife became ill with a problem that she was born with that is called "AVM's" or "Arterial Venous Malformations".
I have a good friend who understands this malformation of veins in the brain. This is not a very well known problem by most. He understands because he will be crippled the rest of his life because of it. It results in strokes and aneurysms. He has the full extent of this rare defect one can be born with and what it results in.
I had credit in those days, because I like most had fallen into this world's enticements, for things material beyond our needs.
I was unemployed due to our office shutting down with WorldCom's mass assimilation of taking all the small companies they had acquistioned and moving them into one big location far away from where I lived. We were struggling with threats from the IRS on our taxes and being harassed by those we had obtained loans from. We had no choice but to file, a Chapter 13 bankruptcy to find relief. It has ruined my credit since. Though in less than two years we had it discharged to try to pay the bills we owed again once we had both gone back to work. You never recover once you are under the slavery of debt. My bad credit is still there. Why any of us, ever get conned into playing God, I will never understand. Thos offering credit ask us to play God, as if we know what tommorrow will bring, as if we know whether we will be alive, working, earning the same amount of money the day we signed on. It doesn't matter how small amount or large amount, if you owe it and can't pay it because we can't control our future, they want it and they want it NOW! Thus Jesus told us not make oaths, but to keep our yea, yea, and our nay, nay. Thus the whole Word of God tells us not to be in debt. There is a difference in having to pay our electric or our water, or telephone on a monthly basis. These an be argued though that they too are not necessarily basic needs. The Word tells us to be content with food and clothing because we brought nothing into this world and we can't carry anything out. When one lives on this basis, knowing God will provide, we will not be anxious for tommorrow. We will thank God for what He provided today. We will just work today for our daily bread and not live our lives for our future greeds or those things that have so enslaved us to them now. We are to live the simple life described in Ecclesiastes, as anything beyond that is greed and results in a life of vanity of vanities.
To enjoy the fruit of your labor and to fear God is the wise mans conclusion. All else is useless and leads to an unhappy life.
The question is, what does credit have to do with work ability, skills, devotion, job experience? Why is it this world thinks that if you are one to enslave yourself to credit cards and other debt that makes for a good employee? Why has this world become so enamored with the idea of being enslaved to jobs from daylight to darkness to have things that don't matter? Why does this world think it is a wonderful thing to sacrifice relationships with others for the sake of the dollar? More relationships are destroyed over wanting more or thinking you don't have enough of something than one an imagine. More divorces and family break ups are over the worshipped dollar more than anything else.
Even in the car insurance industry, credit has become a criteria for obtaining lower rates versus, higher insurance rates. What does that having to do with driving skills, experience, longevity as a driver without accidents, etc.?
Our world has become sin sick with greed, money and power. The more you subscribe to these things the more likely you are to be a good job candidate. You better go in there on the interview and tell them you want to be a huge success and make a million by the end of the year or you just shot your opportunity at a job. You better go into an interview and tell the world what they want to hear.
Figure that one out! It isn't hard to conclude why.
I do my best to live on less than $120.00 per week. Sometimes less, sometimes just a little more, very little more. I get by, but only by the grace of God and other's help for shelter, some help me with my special needs like purchasing my medication, but they can't always help. I have Diabetes 2 (not under control), nerve deafness in my hearing, damaged kidneys, swollen prostrate like most older men. I also have had diverticulitis since age 45, and have had two heart attacks since than as well,Atrial Fibillation, and I also suffer from Crohn's Disease and Post Traumatic Stress, Fatigue Syndrome and at one time my physicians had me on 27 pills a day.
I quit everything but a about 3 medications. One, I couldnt afford them, two I couldnt function on them, and three, I did something outside of prescription treatment to help myself. I am still working on that to eliminate the three other mediations. However, the physical damage already done is done. Some of the problems are do to our lifestyles when young and many others are just flat due to we live in a world where everything we eat along with the air we breathe and the water we drink is polluted with chemicals and cancer calling agents.
For example I got my Crohns disease under control by no longer drinking milk. I did this because research has shown that though milk is homegenized and pastureized, it doesn't kill paratuberculosis which attack the small bowel resulting in infection in the lining of the bowel. Milk also has hundreds of antibiotics and other induced chemicals that can cause all kinds of serious illnesses. I quit it and it worked.
My little check I earn each week feeds me, and purchases gasoline to go to work or where I need to go when told by the Lord to do so, like visiting friends in need, helping the children, taking a friend to the doctors or wherever it may be, I still limit any travel for just my self. There are no pleasure runs, or driving around for fun or going to the store on a whim.
Yes, I have applied for even the minimal jobs, like working as counter help, cashiers, driving a vehicle for deliveries, even tossing news papers.
All to no avail.
I have begun to believe there is an unwritten rule that old people should be shot and put out of their misery or just left alone to die in loneliness. Whatever the prevailing attitude is, it is for real against the elderly worker in this country.
So, what do you do, you do what Christ told us to do, you pray "give us this day, our daily bread". You smile, you go on doing the best you can, you don't give up hope, and you thank God for every little gift he gives you to sustain your life.
My friend reminded me, of this when we spoke. We recalled that God has promised nothing more than our daily bread. Jesus taught us not to be anxious over these things, and taught us that God would provide our needs. I have to admit He does provide for my basic needs. I am not living under a viaduct, like many Americans are, I am not on the soup line, like so many Americans are, I am not having to panhandle for my daily bread. God brings it to me, and I am thankful for it.
Here is my prayer which can be found in two places in the Bible:
Lord do not make me so rich that I would forsake you,
but don't allow me to be so poor that I would steal.
Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us Lord of our trespasses, as we forgive those who have trespassed against us.
These last words from the Lord's prayer, provide us with much more wisdom then all the world could ever offer. I pray everyday that I live my life accordingly.
Today, I pray with emphasis, Give "US" this day our daily bread.
Not just in the physical sense Lord but what we need most in the spiritual "to forgive others who have sinned against us."
Give us your spirit of grace and mercy toward everyone we encounter in this life. Be it friend or foe, teach us Lord, that your bread provided contains nourishment for all areas of our life. Emotionally, spiritually and physically. Remind us that you are the great Creator of heaven and earth and all that we see or can encounter here, belongs to you and that nothing for you Lord is too hard.
Thank you this day, for giving me this day, and Lord let me do my very best with it, for your glory and not mine. Help me Lord not to be discouraged but to find encouragement by encouraging others in this life. Let me encourage all my brothers and sisters in all that I do and say this day.
Amen
Everyday is difficult, but our God never promised us a "rose garden" without thorns.
The Word of God says, "that through much tribulation we enter the Kingdom of God".
That sure blows the Health, Wealth and Prosperity teachers theology away- doesn't it?
Also for those that believe that theology, they would have no need to pray "Lord give us our daily bread" if it is ours by faith in faith rather than faith in God.
If we can lay claim by words as if we were a god to prosperity materially, and demand from God something he never promises, then where does the tribulation ever come in? God isn't there for our beckon call on greed. He is there for our care and nourishment as His creation. We are not gods, as Copeland likes to tell everyone.
Kenneth Copeland fell for the oldest lie told in the garden of Eden which started this whole mess in the first place.
No, my prayer is "Give us this day our daily bread" That means dependence on a Sovereign God,a Holy God and not a little god that I control in my toy box for my sake and fleshly pleasures, like so many of these false prophets proclaim.
"Give us this day our daily bread"
Dr. J.
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Showing posts with label prayer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label prayer. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Friday, May 18, 2007
Miracle Story
To my readers, I have been on an adventure with our Heavenly Father this week. Let me tell you about it. It all started last week, sales were down, my dentures cracked in half again, my truck is running worse, the brakes and the front end are bad, and to top that, my Mother calls me Sunday telling me Dad is having heart problems again. She says his blood pressure has been weird and his pulse rate fast. Well come Monday she calls again and this time I speak with Dad and he tells me that his rate is running 150 plus. I tell him and Mom he needs to go to the hospital, that he is having another heart attack. So she takes him to the hospital and they sure enough admit him to the cardiac ward at the Veterans Hospital.
I too had suffered the same heart problem my father has back in 1997, Atrial Fibrillation. She told me they were going to do what they did with me, and if the drugs to get his heart back into normal sinus rhythm didn't work they were going to stop his heart with electrocardio shock and "hope" that it would return to normal.
Well come Tuesday she calls and tells me they can't get him back to a normal sinus rhythm with the drugs so they are going to have to shock him to get it back. On top of all the other things that were going on in my life, I was very upset.
My wife understood that and placed a call to her former sister in law who attends the "church" we all go to in Athens, Texas. She called back in minutes and the "church" had decided to purchase me a plane ticket home at the cost of a round trip to Albuquerque and back home by Southwest Airlines, so I could be with my Mom and see my Dad.
I called my boss, who has been a wonderful guy when it comes to understanding the need to be with family. He is Mormon, and I can say for the Mormons- family is all important. We may have deep doctrinal differences but he has always been a standup guy and understanding when it has come to my needed time off work for family matters. I have love for him and his family. I pray for their conversion to truth everyday.
I have deep doctrinal differences in the areas for "church" practice even with the "church" I attend as you can tell by my writings. I attend because there is always a need for love above all things for those we have a relationship with.
Love conquers all.
My wife and step kids and step grandchildren like going there and I personally have a love for their Pastor, as he is a guy that has a sincere love for others. Though we may have differences on my view of things versus his view, we have a love and respect for each other. I admit I am not a consistent building attendee, because of my deep held beliefs in what I beleive should be early Christian Orthopraxy (church practices) for the church. I love God's people whereever they may be and love the body of Christ. I will be talking more about this in future writings, as I have said some very firm things in regard to this. I stand on these things as much as I do what is considered Orthodoxy( church beliefs or doctrine, as taught by Christ, the Apostles and the early church). I have considerable differences over what has happened to Christianity as a result of the changes made by the early church fathers (the paternalistic age) once the Apostles had passed on. I however, will never allow these differences to affect my love for my Christian brethern that may not understand these things or what has happened to the Ekklesia and how we need to return to the practices of the early Ekklesia. Understanding can only be taught most often to others by love and not debate, example and not force.
I want to say the body that gets together there at Faith Church in Athens is like any of the rest of us, they have problems wrestling with the world, the flesh and the devil everyday, but the one thing that helps them conquer often is love for one another and a very understanding and listening Pastor. Brother Leon Wallace is a fine men, and loves God's children. He is only trying to fulfill what he believes God has called Him to do, and the gift of teaching the Holy Spirit has bestowed upon him.
The believers there surely aren't perfect in their faith or their walk and neither am I. I love them all dearly, though we have lots of differing opinions about things. I want to thank those that were behind the decision to provide the funds for my trip home to be with my parents and those that gave this money and took it from their pockets to provide a point of love to me to come out here and be with my family.
I want to now return the spiritual blessing that comes with giving by writing what has transpired since their gift of love.
I want to tell the story of a miracle. My story while here.
I am not one to jump on the miracle boat, or fanciful stories often told by various groups. I approach everything in light of scripture and reality. I don't just accept stories told, I believe just as Jesus had the Leper follow the prescribed verifications for healings as laid out in the traditions of men (The Talmud)and in the Torah (Law of Moses) we should verify all miracles today with the methods provided us today to show the truth of the Gospel of Christ and the power of God in people's lives.
The Leper had to first go show himself to the Priest as prescribed by the Law of Moses and then offer a gift to God. (Luke 5:12-14
The man born blind and healed by Jesus, had to face the interrogation as prescribed by the Talmud and His family had to be interrogated by the high priest as well. (John the 9th chapter)
Jesus told the Leper and the blind man to do all these things as the Pharisees had developed a teaching to verify miracles in their writings known as the Talmud. Moses had prescribed a means in which the Leper was to be proven healed. They did this as there were many fanciful stories told of healings, demons being cast out and more, and many teachers who were not Jewish, etc. This was their way to determine the authenticity of a miracle. It was also as written in the Talmud only certain miracles would be able to be performed by the Messiah to prove he was the Messiah.Interestingly enough, Jesus did all of these.
Today, if we doubt a miracle we can use doctors, reports and all kinds of scientific verifications.
Jesus's miracle was proved using their prescribed methods to the "T" and most of all because there had never been anyone heal a Leper which was one of the things according to their traditional teachings that would verify who was the Messiah.
Only the Messiah, if he came would be able to do this.
Believe it or not, when the Jewish leaders crucified Christ they absolutely, beyond a shadow of doubt, knew they were crucifying the Lord of glory, the Messiah.
Anyway, back to my story.
There should never be any guess work, imagination or making things that aren't true true. That is deception. So I can tell you now, I don't just accept someone's stories of miracles unless they are verifiable. So, I tell you this story because it is true and happened to myself and family while I was here.
Thursday my father was given a stress test, the typical one, running the treadmill and cardiac analysis while having it done. He didn't do that well on it, but his heart seem to be doing well after they had shocked him Wednesday, and had returned to normal sinus rhythm. Wednesday night he did well, heart looked good. Thursday, he did well, Friday morning (today) they had decided to give him a chemical stress test and do some cardiac imaging as well, to insure that once his heart had to do some work he wouldnt have another heart attack.
This morning I got up a little late tired from running to and fro from the hospital for days now, I over slept and wasnt up at the hospital yet when they had Dad do a different physical stress test, and some imaging. Mom had spent the night with Dad there at the hospital. I rushed to get there, and they were ready to take him back upstairs. I pushed him back up in the wheel chair, thinking how it is strange that when we get old all things are reversed. When we were children, our parents had to care for us, nurture us, see us through our illnesses, our bumps, our bruises, but as we get older, we have to now do this for them. What a priviledge it is to return things to your parents that were provided for you so many years ago. Love, compassion care and more. If all Christians could only see how important this is, we could eliminate a lot of lonely shut ins- nursing homes and more.
Well they then did a chemical test on Dad, giving him a drug which makes the heart work harder, speeding up the hard rate, and then taking images of the heart while this all going on.
Well, Mom was a nervous wreck, it was taking a lot of time for some reason for his last imaging with the drug stress test. She could see back in the area where he lay in the imaging machine. She could see several people coming over there and all about him this brought her some concern which was very human on her part to be concerned. I admit I was as well. She walked back there and asked what was going on. Well the machine broke down during his imaging and they had to call the Techs over to fix it while he laid there. They finally got it up and running and he was done. I pushed him once again upstairs to his room in ICU. Knowing it would now be a wait for the Cardiologist to come up to Dad's room. I am talking to Dad while he is sitting up and he is conversing back. I am also watching the cardiogram hookup and noticing his pulse is rising, he is throwing a few PVC's (that's pre-venticular contractions and his pulse rate is rising and bouncing up and down like a ping pong ball. The only reason I can use all these terms and have any understanding of them at all is that I served the Glenwood Springs Emergency Services for 3 years as a certified Firefighter One and Medic. I also had Advanced Cardiac Support training and could interpret cardiac charts, as I took a nursing level course at St. Mary's Hospital in Grand Junction, Colorado in the subject. I had worked on many a heart patient in the back of an Ambulance in my years there at Glenwood Springs Emergency Service.
Anyway, I call the nurse and ask her if they had yet given Dad his new Beta Blocker, Metopropyl, as his heart was definitely starting to go Tachy and was showing something other than a sinus rhythm. The nurse said no, so she comes in and gives him the pill. Well I waited a bit and assumed he would be fine. As I was leaving I noticed his BPM (beats per minute) was 146. I pointed to Mom and went on. Within an hour of getting home she calls me, crying and upset saying Dad was back in Atrial Fibrillation and the Cardiologist was telling her he was going to have some more invasive procedures. She was very upset and asked me to return and bring his CPAP, which is a breathing machine designed for people with sleep Apnea like myself and my Dad. I got there as soon as I could. On the way, I stopped and breathed a prayer for Dad. Asking the Lord to heal him, and let me have some more years of his wonderful laughter and jokes if it was within His will. I love his smile and and he loves to laugh. I like to make him laugh.
I arrive to find Mom and Dad in tears. Mom told me to talk to the Cardiologist nurse specialist that was the Cardiologist Assistant. Her and I walked around the corner from Dad's room and begin to talk. She begin to tell me the imaging shows some heart disease and damage, and that he will have to stay there and Monday they are taking him in for a Cardiac Catherization. Just as she is giving me the bad news, the Cardiologist walks up and says, "no, wait a minute, we have a change of plans". He tells her and I to follow him in to the room. We do, and he begins to speak.
He says, "I have some good news for you". He says, (quoting)" I don't undertand it but when I and the other Cardiologist were looking at your imaging, we saw diseased and damaged heart tissue.. He said so we took the images to confer with the other Cardiologist and when we all set down together, to look at the images again, there was no damage or diseased tissue showing in the images. We are going to send you home!
"I don't understand it", he replied.
My Dad says, "Well know one can know as much as God and the Doctors".
I and my Mom said it was God. The doctor agreed.
He tells us Dad will live fine with the Atrial Fib as I have since 1997, for him to continue to take the medication, get some exercise and come back for an Echogram in June, a visit with the Cardiologist for a followup in about a month, but he would need no other treatment that they can see as of now.
He is to get himself a new CPAP facial mask fitting on Monday and to use it every night, but he has a good Ventricular beat and he would be fine, go home.
For see, God has so designed our hearts that even when they don't beat perfectly, the ventricular lower half of our heart does all the work and keeps it going. Even when the Atrial just can't get it together all the way, the Doctors have come up with medicines, like the one I am on, which will help our bottom half of our heart keep up a good beat for years to come, and keep the life blood flowing through our veins. God is the great designer and the inspiration for many of these wonderful things discovered by Doctors and researchers. He gives men the ability to see beyond the surface of our skin and look inside. He gives them many abilities to heal us, but ulitmately when it gets down to the bottom wire, he holds all the juice that heals us and keeps us alive. A Doctor can never be God, he can only be a hand of the Lord and only when the Lord chooses to use them. God does use Doctors, but sometimes in cases like this he humbles even the best of Doctors with the surprises that he holds in His hands.
In my mind, that is a miracle!
Confirmed by the Doctor's. No sign of damage or disease. One minute two Cardiologist are saying he is in trouble and I am thinking now I have to call my boss to make arrangements to return to work later, changing flights, my sister was about to fly down and others suddenly between the time these two Cardiologist are going to confer with others, God does a miracle and there is no sign in the images of a problem, and I get to take my Dad home.
What an Awesome God we have!
He is and has always been "the Great Physician"!
This is one of the many confirmed miracle stories I can tell.
God has not ceased from doing miracles, but we must always remember, He does them when He chooses to, in His own timing, His own way, and in His own day. We can't manipulate the Father to do anything for us, even prayer doesnt manipulate God, not when we pray in His will.
"Not my will, but your will be done", this allows us in our heart to see God first and our desires second,this allows us to see God.
Dr. J
in Albquerque, New Mexico with a smile on his face.
I too had suffered the same heart problem my father has back in 1997, Atrial Fibrillation. She told me they were going to do what they did with me, and if the drugs to get his heart back into normal sinus rhythm didn't work they were going to stop his heart with electrocardio shock and "hope" that it would return to normal.
Well come Tuesday she calls and tells me they can't get him back to a normal sinus rhythm with the drugs so they are going to have to shock him to get it back. On top of all the other things that were going on in my life, I was very upset.
My wife understood that and placed a call to her former sister in law who attends the "church" we all go to in Athens, Texas. She called back in minutes and the "church" had decided to purchase me a plane ticket home at the cost of a round trip to Albuquerque and back home by Southwest Airlines, so I could be with my Mom and see my Dad.
I called my boss, who has been a wonderful guy when it comes to understanding the need to be with family. He is Mormon, and I can say for the Mormons- family is all important. We may have deep doctrinal differences but he has always been a standup guy and understanding when it has come to my needed time off work for family matters. I have love for him and his family. I pray for their conversion to truth everyday.
I have deep doctrinal differences in the areas for "church" practice even with the "church" I attend as you can tell by my writings. I attend because there is always a need for love above all things for those we have a relationship with.
Love conquers all.
My wife and step kids and step grandchildren like going there and I personally have a love for their Pastor, as he is a guy that has a sincere love for others. Though we may have differences on my view of things versus his view, we have a love and respect for each other. I admit I am not a consistent building attendee, because of my deep held beliefs in what I beleive should be early Christian Orthopraxy (church practices) for the church. I love God's people whereever they may be and love the body of Christ. I will be talking more about this in future writings, as I have said some very firm things in regard to this. I stand on these things as much as I do what is considered Orthodoxy( church beliefs or doctrine, as taught by Christ, the Apostles and the early church). I have considerable differences over what has happened to Christianity as a result of the changes made by the early church fathers (the paternalistic age) once the Apostles had passed on. I however, will never allow these differences to affect my love for my Christian brethern that may not understand these things or what has happened to the Ekklesia and how we need to return to the practices of the early Ekklesia. Understanding can only be taught most often to others by love and not debate, example and not force.
I want to say the body that gets together there at Faith Church in Athens is like any of the rest of us, they have problems wrestling with the world, the flesh and the devil everyday, but the one thing that helps them conquer often is love for one another and a very understanding and listening Pastor. Brother Leon Wallace is a fine men, and loves God's children. He is only trying to fulfill what he believes God has called Him to do, and the gift of teaching the Holy Spirit has bestowed upon him.
The believers there surely aren't perfect in their faith or their walk and neither am I. I love them all dearly, though we have lots of differing opinions about things. I want to thank those that were behind the decision to provide the funds for my trip home to be with my parents and those that gave this money and took it from their pockets to provide a point of love to me to come out here and be with my family.
I want to now return the spiritual blessing that comes with giving by writing what has transpired since their gift of love.
I want to tell the story of a miracle. My story while here.
I am not one to jump on the miracle boat, or fanciful stories often told by various groups. I approach everything in light of scripture and reality. I don't just accept stories told, I believe just as Jesus had the Leper follow the prescribed verifications for healings as laid out in the traditions of men (The Talmud)and in the Torah (Law of Moses) we should verify all miracles today with the methods provided us today to show the truth of the Gospel of Christ and the power of God in people's lives.
The Leper had to first go show himself to the Priest as prescribed by the Law of Moses and then offer a gift to God. (Luke 5:12-14
The man born blind and healed by Jesus, had to face the interrogation as prescribed by the Talmud and His family had to be interrogated by the high priest as well. (John the 9th chapter)
Jesus told the Leper and the blind man to do all these things as the Pharisees had developed a teaching to verify miracles in their writings known as the Talmud. Moses had prescribed a means in which the Leper was to be proven healed. They did this as there were many fanciful stories told of healings, demons being cast out and more, and many teachers who were not Jewish, etc. This was their way to determine the authenticity of a miracle. It was also as written in the Talmud only certain miracles would be able to be performed by the Messiah to prove he was the Messiah.Interestingly enough, Jesus did all of these.
Today, if we doubt a miracle we can use doctors, reports and all kinds of scientific verifications.
Jesus's miracle was proved using their prescribed methods to the "T" and most of all because there had never been anyone heal a Leper which was one of the things according to their traditional teachings that would verify who was the Messiah.
Only the Messiah, if he came would be able to do this.
Believe it or not, when the Jewish leaders crucified Christ they absolutely, beyond a shadow of doubt, knew they were crucifying the Lord of glory, the Messiah.
Anyway, back to my story.
There should never be any guess work, imagination or making things that aren't true true. That is deception. So I can tell you now, I don't just accept someone's stories of miracles unless they are verifiable. So, I tell you this story because it is true and happened to myself and family while I was here.
Thursday my father was given a stress test, the typical one, running the treadmill and cardiac analysis while having it done. He didn't do that well on it, but his heart seem to be doing well after they had shocked him Wednesday, and had returned to normal sinus rhythm. Wednesday night he did well, heart looked good. Thursday, he did well, Friday morning (today) they had decided to give him a chemical stress test and do some cardiac imaging as well, to insure that once his heart had to do some work he wouldnt have another heart attack.
This morning I got up a little late tired from running to and fro from the hospital for days now, I over slept and wasnt up at the hospital yet when they had Dad do a different physical stress test, and some imaging. Mom had spent the night with Dad there at the hospital. I rushed to get there, and they were ready to take him back upstairs. I pushed him back up in the wheel chair, thinking how it is strange that when we get old all things are reversed. When we were children, our parents had to care for us, nurture us, see us through our illnesses, our bumps, our bruises, but as we get older, we have to now do this for them. What a priviledge it is to return things to your parents that were provided for you so many years ago. Love, compassion care and more. If all Christians could only see how important this is, we could eliminate a lot of lonely shut ins- nursing homes and more.
Well they then did a chemical test on Dad, giving him a drug which makes the heart work harder, speeding up the hard rate, and then taking images of the heart while this all going on.
Well, Mom was a nervous wreck, it was taking a lot of time for some reason for his last imaging with the drug stress test. She could see back in the area where he lay in the imaging machine. She could see several people coming over there and all about him this brought her some concern which was very human on her part to be concerned. I admit I was as well. She walked back there and asked what was going on. Well the machine broke down during his imaging and they had to call the Techs over to fix it while he laid there. They finally got it up and running and he was done. I pushed him once again upstairs to his room in ICU. Knowing it would now be a wait for the Cardiologist to come up to Dad's room. I am talking to Dad while he is sitting up and he is conversing back. I am also watching the cardiogram hookup and noticing his pulse is rising, he is throwing a few PVC's (that's pre-venticular contractions and his pulse rate is rising and bouncing up and down like a ping pong ball. The only reason I can use all these terms and have any understanding of them at all is that I served the Glenwood Springs Emergency Services for 3 years as a certified Firefighter One and Medic. I also had Advanced Cardiac Support training and could interpret cardiac charts, as I took a nursing level course at St. Mary's Hospital in Grand Junction, Colorado in the subject. I had worked on many a heart patient in the back of an Ambulance in my years there at Glenwood Springs Emergency Service.
Anyway, I call the nurse and ask her if they had yet given Dad his new Beta Blocker, Metopropyl, as his heart was definitely starting to go Tachy and was showing something other than a sinus rhythm. The nurse said no, so she comes in and gives him the pill. Well I waited a bit and assumed he would be fine. As I was leaving I noticed his BPM (beats per minute) was 146. I pointed to Mom and went on. Within an hour of getting home she calls me, crying and upset saying Dad was back in Atrial Fibrillation and the Cardiologist was telling her he was going to have some more invasive procedures. She was very upset and asked me to return and bring his CPAP, which is a breathing machine designed for people with sleep Apnea like myself and my Dad. I got there as soon as I could. On the way, I stopped and breathed a prayer for Dad. Asking the Lord to heal him, and let me have some more years of his wonderful laughter and jokes if it was within His will. I love his smile and and he loves to laugh. I like to make him laugh.
I arrive to find Mom and Dad in tears. Mom told me to talk to the Cardiologist nurse specialist that was the Cardiologist Assistant. Her and I walked around the corner from Dad's room and begin to talk. She begin to tell me the imaging shows some heart disease and damage, and that he will have to stay there and Monday they are taking him in for a Cardiac Catherization. Just as she is giving me the bad news, the Cardiologist walks up and says, "no, wait a minute, we have a change of plans". He tells her and I to follow him in to the room. We do, and he begins to speak.
He says, "I have some good news for you". He says, (quoting)" I don't undertand it but when I and the other Cardiologist were looking at your imaging, we saw diseased and damaged heart tissue.. He said so we took the images to confer with the other Cardiologist and when we all set down together, to look at the images again, there was no damage or diseased tissue showing in the images. We are going to send you home!
"I don't understand it", he replied.
My Dad says, "Well know one can know as much as God and the Doctors".
I and my Mom said it was God. The doctor agreed.
He tells us Dad will live fine with the Atrial Fib as I have since 1997, for him to continue to take the medication, get some exercise and come back for an Echogram in June, a visit with the Cardiologist for a followup in about a month, but he would need no other treatment that they can see as of now.
He is to get himself a new CPAP facial mask fitting on Monday and to use it every night, but he has a good Ventricular beat and he would be fine, go home.
For see, God has so designed our hearts that even when they don't beat perfectly, the ventricular lower half of our heart does all the work and keeps it going. Even when the Atrial just can't get it together all the way, the Doctors have come up with medicines, like the one I am on, which will help our bottom half of our heart keep up a good beat for years to come, and keep the life blood flowing through our veins. God is the great designer and the inspiration for many of these wonderful things discovered by Doctors and researchers. He gives men the ability to see beyond the surface of our skin and look inside. He gives them many abilities to heal us, but ulitmately when it gets down to the bottom wire, he holds all the juice that heals us and keeps us alive. A Doctor can never be God, he can only be a hand of the Lord and only when the Lord chooses to use them. God does use Doctors, but sometimes in cases like this he humbles even the best of Doctors with the surprises that he holds in His hands.
In my mind, that is a miracle!
Confirmed by the Doctor's. No sign of damage or disease. One minute two Cardiologist are saying he is in trouble and I am thinking now I have to call my boss to make arrangements to return to work later, changing flights, my sister was about to fly down and others suddenly between the time these two Cardiologist are going to confer with others, God does a miracle and there is no sign in the images of a problem, and I get to take my Dad home.
What an Awesome God we have!
He is and has always been "the Great Physician"!
This is one of the many confirmed miracle stories I can tell.
God has not ceased from doing miracles, but we must always remember, He does them when He chooses to, in His own timing, His own way, and in His own day. We can't manipulate the Father to do anything for us, even prayer doesnt manipulate God, not when we pray in His will.
"Not my will, but your will be done", this allows us in our heart to see God first and our desires second,this allows us to see God.
Dr. J
in Albquerque, New Mexico with a smile on his face.
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