Monday, July 1, 2013

From The Doctor's Diary - 55- The Right Word

I was invited to speak at a convention in Tiruvananthapuram in Kerala, India. The message that the Lord had given me to preach was the following: "We are doomed to die!" he said to his wife. "We have seen God!" But his wife answered, "If the Lord had meant to kill us, he would not have accepted a burnt offering and grain offering from our hands, nor shown us all these things or now told us this." (Judges 13:22,23) This is a happening in the Old Testament of the Bible where a childless couple meet an angel of the Lord who gives them the message that they are going to be blessed with a child. When Manoah, the man realizes that they had seen the angel of the Lord, he felt they were going to die, but his wife corrected him saying that,"If the Lord had meant to kill us, he would not have ......... shown us all these things or now told us this." My message that day was about dreams and visions that the Lord gives his children. I said, "If the Lord shows a blessing coming to you, pray that it may come to pass, whereas if the Lord showed something calamitous was going to happen, pray fervently that it may not happen and the Lord will hear your prayer and the disaster will be averted." I stressed the point that....."If the Lord had meant to kill, he would not have shown......" and when I repeated it, a man in the crowd raised his hand and shouted, "Praise the Lord." Later, after the meeting was over, the same young man approached me, shook my hand and said, "Thank you, that message was definitely for me. I had seen a couple of dreams last week, in which I saw my wife die. I have been very sad and depressed because of the same since almost a week. I believe the Lord has spoken to me and heard my prayer and will bless my wife with a long life. I prayed with him briefly. Travelling back, that evening, I marvelled at how much the Lord cares for each of his children. The Holy Spirit had chosen just the perfect verses to speak to one of his, who was burdened and feeling low. God is good, all the time. Praise his Holy Name.

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

From The Doctor's Diary- 54- A house for sale

An old lady wanted to sell me her house. She waited for me to finish the morning consultations at my clinic in Kerala. When I saw her, I remembered that she was one of my patients but had not consulted me for a long time. When she told me she wanted me to buy her house, I smiled. I didn't want a house; even if I wanted, I didn't have the money to buy it. I told her the facts. She insisted that I take a look. Just to get her off my back, and considering her advanced age, I said I'll consider her request, though I had no intentions of going to her house. She gave me an address and I saw that it was on my way to work. I was tired from the morning work and drove home for lunch and the rest of my day was busy as well. The next morning, as usual I drove to work, having forgotten all about the lady and her house. But just as I passed the house, all about the lady and her talks suddenly came back in a flash. The house was just adjacent to one of the biggest Pentecostal Institutions in Kerala. I had by then passed her house, but felt a strong urge in my spirit to stop by and take a look. I put my car in reverse gear and stopped just outside the gate. She answered the door bell and was happy that I had come. As I entered the house, I saw 3 Bibles and 2 Christian song books lying on a table.
So you are a Christian? I asked. She laughed and said, "No, I am not." Then how and why these Bibles? I asked. She answered, "Since my house is so close to this Institution, many Pastors and Evangelist stop by to see me and pray for me."

Surely they must have spoken to you about Salvation through Jesus Christ."I interrupted her. "Yes, yes", she said, but I don't believe in all those things.
Then what's your belief about life after death? I asked, now realizing why the Lord had sent me to her house. I believe that after I die, I will be absorbed into the atmosphere, she said with confidence.
Here was an amazing scenario. This lady had been living so close to an Institution that churned out 100's of new Ministers of the Gospel every year and had been visited by many Pastors who must have spoken to her regarding salvation through Christ and she had presented several copies of the Living Word Of God, yet she was utterly lost and in her own imaginary world.

God, in his mercy, was giving her another chance to accept Christ as Saviour and had brought me to her house to speak once again of his agape love in sending his Son Jesus to the cross for her sake. I took time to  present the Gospel message to her and explained to her God's purposes in sending her to me and then sending me to her; the sale of the house, I said, was just a side story. She listened patiently, but seemed unhappy that I was not interested in buying her house. I left shortly after that, urging her to accept the things I had spoken to her.
A few days later, I came to know that she had sold her house and had moved to her brother's house in another district of Kerala. Whether she accepted God's gift of salvation remains a mystery to this day.