One day a friend of mine told me that once his mother had had an ulcer. He told me that they didn't have much money, she could either have an operation for the ulcer or he could have a college education. Since both of them were Christians they prayed, and God took away the ulcer. I said, "Wow, that's for me!", so I started reading the Bible. I came across some verses in Matthew 7:
Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. Therefore whosoever hearth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that hearth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.Well, this got to me, since my parents had taken me to church while I was growing up and I had even joined. However, I realized that I had only joined to keep people from bugging me to join. I also read in Matthew 7
Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.I wanted to be sure that I found the right way. In John 3:16 I read For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. That is the point at which I confessed my unworthiness and sins to God and asked Jesus to save me and to be the Lord of my life.
It was at that point that things started changing. It was as if my conscience had been reawakened. I could look at things now an suddenly realize that it was messing my life up and I should get rid of it. I developed an insatiable desire to read God's Word, the Bible, which I did, up to an hour and a half a day.
Back to the ulcer. After I had had it for about three months people said that I should enter counseling. After six months in group therapy the therapist said I should have been getting better by then. The internal medicine doctor told me that I would be taking anti-acid the rest of my life. Finally after I had had the ulcer for nine months I found the book, How to Win Over Depression . When I applied the Christian principles in it, the ulcer went away within two weeks. I told the internal medicine doctor what had happened and told him that God had healed me. He said that he believed me.
That was back in 1975. Time passed and I developed hypoglycemia in the late 1980's. At the same time I had to deal with a wayward son (We had adopted him from Korea and he had seen both of his birth parents kill themselves, one from alcohol and the other with poison) I won't go into details, but it whole ordeal placed a great deal of strain on me. For the last six years, though, I have had chronic pancreatitis, and live in constant pain. I have been going to a pain clinic, but they are nearing the end of what they can do for me. I pray every day that Jesus would return soon. I have tried to return to my first love of sharing God's Word with others by giving New Testaments to those around me. If Jesus returns soon, as I believe he will, then there won't be lots of Christians around to share the Word with others in the near future. That makes it doubly important to get Bibles, and New Testaments into people's hands now. Where I can, I am also trying to get Spanish New Testaments in to the hands of our Spanish speaking friends. (In the Washington, DC area the are a LOT of Spanish speaking people who have immigrated to the U.S.)
This page was last updated on 9 June 2003
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