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Tim George
A recent request for sick leave to the U.S.S. Saratoga read: Dear Captain, When I got home I found that my father’s brick silo had been struck by lightning, knocking some of the bricks off at the top. I decided to fix the silo, and so I rigged up a beam, with a pulley and whip at the top of the silo, and hoisted a couple of barrels full of bricks to the top. When I got through fixing the silo there were a lot of bricks left over. I hoisted the barrel back up again, secured the line at the bottom, and then went up and filled the barrel with extra bricks. Then I went down to the bottom and cast off the line. Unfortunately, the barrel of bricks was heavier than I was and before I knew what was happening, the barrel started down and jerked me off the ground. I decided to hang on, and halfway up I met the barrel coming down and received a severe blow on the shoulder. I then continued on up to the top, banging my head against the beam and getting my fingers jammed in the pulley. When the barrel hit the ground it busted the bottom, allowing all the bricks to spill out. I was now heavier than the barrel and so started down again at high speed. Halfway down I again met the barrel and received severe injuries to my shins. When I hit the ground I landed on the bricks, getting numerous painful cuts from the sharp edges. At this point I must have lost my presence of mind because I let go of the rope. The barrel then came down and struck me another heavy blow on the head, putting me in the hospital for three days. I Respectfully request five days extension of leave.
My friend Norm is a United Methodist pastor. A while back Norm was telling me about one of his parishioners -- Bill. Bill was gravely ill in the hospital, and Norm was visiting with him when the doctor came in, and point-blank told the patient: “Bill... you’re dead! There’s no hope. You’d better get your things in order.” Just that bluntly. No hope. No comfort. No “how are you doing?”
After answering a few questions, the doctor left. Norm said that he and Bill sat there in silence for a few minutes just in shock, trying to take in what the doctor had said. Then Norm turned to Bill and said, “Bill, don’t you think you need now’s a good time to get right with Christ?” And there in that hospital room, Bill turned his life over to Christ. And he turned it all over to God.
The next day Bill was moved to Riverside Hospital in Columbus. A different doctor came in and said, “Bill, we’re not going to give up yet. We’re going to try a different medicine, and a different therapy.”
And with a gleam in his eye, Norm told me, “And you know what? He got better! He was healed! He turned it all over to God, and God healed him!”
Someone has said, “When you have nothing left but God, then for the first time you become aware that God is enough.”
Jerry Falwell
I believe that God heals diseases. He is Jehovah Raphe, the One who is able to heal. Over twenty years ago I was in the hospital in York, Pennsylvania, when I heard that the doctor had asked Kathy Hughes to sign the donation papers for the vital organs because in their medical opinion Charles Hughes was functionally dead. His father, Dr. Robert Hughes, went to the hospital chapel to pray for him, and I got on the phone to ask the entire Thomas Road and Liberty family to pray. I called for a day of prayer and fasting, and today Charles Hughes is alive and pastoring a church in Madison Heights. He has come back from the "figurative dead" to complete his seminary degree, his doctor’s degree; and today he works for us at Liberty.
HE WAS HEALED
Tony Campolo tells a story about being in a church in Oregon where he was asked to pray for a man who had cancer. Campolo prayed boldly for the man’s healing.
That next week he got a telephone call from the man’s wife. She said, "You prayed for my husband. He had cancer." Campolo thought when he heard her use the past tense verb that his cancer had been eradicated! But before he could think much about it she said, "He died." Compolo felt terrible.
But she continued, "Don’t feel bad. When he came into that church that Sunday he was filled with anger. He knew he was going to be dead in a short period of time, and he hated God. He was 58 years old, and he wanted to see his children and grandchildren grow up. He was angry that this all-powerful God didn’t take away his sickness and heal him. He would lie in bed and curse God. The more his anger grew towards God, the more miserable he was to everybody around him. It was an awful thing to be in his presence.
But the lady told Compolo, "After you prayed for him, a peace had come over him and a joy had come into him. Tony, the last three days have been the be...
On April 25, 1985 (12 years ago) over 5,000 students on Liberty Mountain fasted for one day and prayed for the healing of Vernon Brewer, the Dean of Students. He was loved by the students so they fasted and prayed. Vernon had cancer and was given 6 months to live. He’s alive and well 12 years later because of prayer and fasting.
Praying for the sick – well, we’ve got that one down. I recently saw a cartoon where an elderly woman is standing at the church door talking to the pastor. Her remark, as she hands a thick manila folder to him, “My doctor copied my chart, complete with medicines and prognosis…just copy it into the prayer list, please.”
“God certainly can, and sometimes does, heal people in a miraculous way today. But the Bible does not teach that He will always heal those who come to Him in faith. He sovereignly reserves the right to heal or not to heal as He sees fit.” [Joni Eareckson and Steve Estes. A Step Further. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1978) p. 127.]
CURED
A woman went to her doctor’s office. She was seen by one of the new doctors, but after about 4 minutes in the examination room, she burst out screaming and ran down the hall.
An older doctor stopped her and asked what the problem was, and she explained. He had her sit down and relax in another room.
The older doctor marched back to the first and demanded, "What’s the matter with you? Mrs. Terry is 63 years old, she has four grown children and seven grandchildren, and you told her she was pregnant?"
The new doctor smile...
Tim (The Rock) Raines returns to the Montreal Expos at age 41 Apr. 13, 2001 writes the TheStar.Com.
MONTREAL (CP) - Tim Raines wasn’t prepared for the deafening cheers from the usually quiet crowd when he stepped to the plate in his first game back in Montreal.
For Raines, it was like being in the World Series and batting with two outs in the bottom of the ninth and the winning run on base.
``It was that type of ovation,’’ said Raines, who spent his first 12 seasons with the Expos before returning this year at age 41.
Raines has been in the World Series, winning it twice with the New York Yankees. But his comeback from lupus might be an even more impressive feat for one of the best leadoff hitters in baseball history. Raines’ career appeared to have ended on July 19, 1999, when the Oakland Athletics placed him on the disabled list with a kidney inflammation. He was subsequently diagnosed with lupus.
``Lupus took me away from the game, and I wasn’t ready to give it up,’’ Raines said. ``That drove me back.’’
Nobody, other than Raines, understood the odds against him better than his wife.
``He didn’t have any muscle and he was up to about 225 pounds from the lupus,’’ Virginia Raines said. ``With all the medication he was taking, his body was so weak that he couldn’t do much.’’
Gradually, Raines was able to reduce his medication to the point where he now just takes three pills a day, along with vitamin supplements.
And so there was a thunderous reception in Montreal last week. It might have been the most gratifying moment for the man known as The Rock.
``I had tears in my eyes,’’ said his wife, Virginia. ``I knew I was going to get goosebumps, I had those, but then I started crying. It was unbelievable. It was fantastic.’’
The cheers continued throughout Raines’ first at-bat.
This was just one humanbeing playing baseball, coming back as if from the dead.
Fanfare of Lemiuex in NHL, now Jordan too in NBA?
Greatest comeback story is Jesus coming back from the dead in easter story? What does that mean to you?
Do you cheer? Listen to what effect it had on some people in John 20.
A doctor had recommended surgery to Eleanor Schmidt of Bakesfield, CA and referred her to a specialist. Arriving early for her appointment, she found the door unlocked and the young surgeon, deeply engrossed in reading, behind the receptionist’s desk. When he didn’t hear her come in, she cleared her throat. Startled, he closed the book, which she recognized as a Bible. She asked, "Does reading the Bible help you before or after an operation?" He dispelled her fears by his soft-voiced, one-word answer: "During." (as reported in Reader’s Digest).
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