Jerry

Recently my father was admitted to the hospital for a health issue and was there for a week. During the time he was there we were introduced to a young man, who was admitted to the same floor, who was expected to die the same day within hours of his admittance. Hearing the commotion in his room and the crowd of family around the doorway to his room, my sister who was by my dad asked the nurse what was going on. The nurse explained the reason for the commotion few rooms down where the young man was admitted.  The nurse, who was a Christian, when she found out that our family was also Christians, asked my sister if she would want to go over and talk to the young man. My sister took the opportunity and visited him and his family who was gathered there. The Lord used her to speak with him; she shared Christ with the young man, Jerry, and prayed for him. We came to find out that my sister's visit had a calming effect on the young man.

She brought the young man's condition to the Church as a prayer request and the Church prayed for his deliverance. Following evening three of us from our church visited Jerry in the hospital room to pray with him. He was very open with us about his health condition. He seemed to be in his early thirties and had many dreams for his life. He told us that through high school and early college he was an exceptional student, for whom, his family had great expectations. But he fell into the wrong group of friends and became an alcoholic. Now, on that hospital bed he was facing death to come any time as his liver was failing due to his alcoholism and shutting down.  When he was first brought in, the doctors had only given him hours to live, but now his prognosis was that he may live for another ten days. He shared his fear of death, his desire to have another shot at life so that he could marry his girlfriend of many years, give his parents a grand child and live a normal life devoid of alcohol. Though he was born in a Hindu family, he said he had grown up without any staunch beliefs.

We shared Christ again with him and shared our testimonies of Christ's healing power. He accepted Christ as a savior, we prayed with him that night and pointed him to an on-line bible to read. My friend suggested that he start with the book of John in the New Testament.  He thanked us and we left. Few days later my cousin, who was there that night we visited, visited the young man again with another friend to pray. Jerry's condition had gotten much worse and one of his brother politely told my cousin and the friend to not come anymore as they wished for Jerry to pass peacefully and wanted to cremate him according to their religious traditions.  Respecting his wishes they prayed and left.

As a family we, my wife and children, had been praying for Jerry. For me it had become personal following the visit to his hospital room that night and the conversation we had with him. During family prayer we counted each day that the doctors had given Jerry to live and prayed for God to do his miracle, to cure the young man and bring salvation to his extended family. Few days after that last visit to Jerry's room, my cousin called me one late evening, as I was waiting at the bus stop coming home from work, that Jerry had passed away the day after his last visit with the friend from church. I felt empty inside.

At our nightly family prayer, I informed my family that Jerry had passed away few days ago and his family had cremated him. We'd been praying for a dead man! That night I did not feel like reading my bible nor did I have the heart to pray. The scripture that we read that night during the family prayer gave us a ray of hope...

Jesus told her, "I am the resurrection and the life.  Those who believe in me, even though they die like everyone else, will live again.  They are given eternal life for believing in me and will never perish.  Do you believe this, Martha?... (John 11:25-26)

The last sentence echoed with my name at the end... "Do you believe this, .....?" I look forward to seeing this young man in heaven one day!

Israel & the New Breed - It's not Over



God wants your obedience more than your sacrifices.

Recently in a conversation with my son, I came to know that one of his favorite Psalm was Psalm 40.  He told me that this was a Psalm that gave him strength when he needed it.  It made me happy that my 11 year old had a favorite Psalm. It has been and continues to be my prayer that my grandparents'  God, my parents' God, my God, will also be my children's God and a God to generations to come. My grandfather made this God real for me. I'd hoped my children would develop a personal relationship with this God, have their own experiences of God's glory, and those experiences to anchor them for a journey of faith in Christ for as long as they lived.

This conversation with my son came about one recent night during our family prayer as I had asked my son to pick Psalms 37 to read.  Being that it was a departure from our regular scripture reading, he asked me why.  I told him that Psalms 37 has been a Psalm that I have turned to from my childhood when I felt the need for God to carry me through tough times, times of doubt. More specifically there is this one verse, vs. 5 (the New Living Translation or NLT version), "Commit everything you do to the LORD. Trust him, and he will help you."

Psalms 37 is full of God's assurances to his children, the godly! The NLT Bible makes mention of the "godly" 12 times through out this Psalm. I suppose the Psalmist is emphasizing for whom God's assurances are for. The KJV Bible refers to the "godly" as the "righteous."  As a child it was okay to blindly trust in the verse and pray. God answered the prayers of that teenage boy time and again. Today, as an adult, there is more required of me by God.

Who are the righteous or the godly? Deuteronomy 6:25 says, "For we are righteous when we obey all the commands the LORD our God has given us." To such, the Psalmist encourages in Psalms 37:4, "Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you your heart's desires." Psalms 1:1-2 says, "Oh, the joys of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or stand around with sinners or join in with scoffers.  But they delight in doing everything the LORD wants; day and night they think about his law." Such people, we read in verse 3 of the same Psalm, "They are like trees planted along the riverbank, bearing fruit each season without fail.  Their leaves never wither, and in all they do, they prosper."

God's instructions to Joshua, chosen to lead the Israelites following Moses' death, was "Be strong and very courageous [in the face of great challenges, opposition, grave danger, and dark periods of self doubt ].  Obey all the laws Moses gave you.  Do not turn away from them and you will be successful in everything you do.  Study this Book of the Law continually. Meditate on it day and night so that you may be sure to obey all that is written in it.  Only then will you succeed." (Joshua 1:7-8) When you (the Joshua 's of the world) do this, God's promise is, "Everywhere you go, you will be on land I have given you... No one will be able to stand their ground against you as long as you live.  For I will be with you as I was with Moses. I will not fail you or abandon you."  (Joshua 1:3-5)

Going back to my son's favorite Psalm, I read, "You (God) take no delight in sacrifices or offerings.  Now that you have made me listen, I finally understand--you don't require burnt offerings or sin offerings.  Then I said, "Look, I have come.  And this has been written about me in your scroll: I take joy in doing your will, my God, for your law is written on my heart." (Psalms 40:6-8).  If we had a chance to peek into God's scroll, what would we find about us?

God wants our obedience more than the sacrifices of burnt offerings and sin offerings!

Jesus Culture - Holy Spirit