Category: Spiritual Experiences

Family Astonished by Son’s Faith Healing /Spiritual Meditations

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Have you or someone you know experienced a healing miracle?  Have you known someone who performed a healing miracle?  Many healings can be rationalized as coincidental, but then there is this one.

At the end of “Her Rejection Forced My Forgiveness”, I promised to reveal how Tim and Anna’s relationship resolved.  Since this isn’t a romance novel, I will only say that God brought Anna and Tim back together.  They married and after a couple of years in Hong Kong for Anna’s job, they returned to the USA. 

In the following excerpt from his book The Long Road to Eternity, Pastor Tim describes a miraculous healing during his first year of seminary.

Anna and I moved to Durham North Carolina in the summer of 1984 so that I could attend Duke Divinity School. Within a week of starting school, I was hired as a student associate pastor at Trinity Avenue Presbyterian Church. It was my first job as a pastor, and I was completely inexperienced: I had never read a responsive reading in church or led a public prayer. I had read the Bible cover to cover twice but knew virtually nothing substantive about it. I only knew that God had supernaturally confirmed to me that I was supposed to be a pastor, and that gave me all the confidence I needed.

One day I came into work at Trinity and Flo, the office manager, told me the son of a family who attended the church had been in a terrible car accident three days before and they were desperate for a Pastor to visit with them in the hospital. Their son had crashed his car going over 110 mph through downtown Durham and was in a coma. I drove to the hospital past the site of the wreck. It must have been a spectacular collision; his car had hit three or four telephone poles and a brick wall on the side of the road, and his car had been ripped to shreds. I drove slowly past and there were pieces of car scattered all around the accident site: an engine block here, an axel there, a fender somewhere else.

I didn’t see how he could have possibly survived that amazing destruction; it seemed completely miraculous. Getting to the hospital, I found his family in the waiting room. His parents described the accident and the extent of his injuries: his back, arms, and legs were all broken, but the main problem was that his skull was not fractured. Had it been his shaken and bruised brain would have had room to swell. The doctors called it a closed skull injury and said the pressure was causing him to be in a semi-coma.

The situation for the family was brutal and made worse by the agony their son was suffering. His every breath was accompanied by a deep groan. It was unbearable for them, knowing that he was in constant excruciating pain.  They told me, “We have been praying for God to heal him for the last three days, but we can’t bare to see him like this anymore, so we are praying now for God to take him. Will you please pray for God to take him quickly?” No one had ever asked me to pray for someone to die before. I said, “First, let me pray over him and see if God will heal him.” 

The nurses issued me in to see him alone; it was my first ever solo pastoral hospital visit. As I saw the broken telephone pole and the pieces of his car along the side of the road it had certainly seemed like a miracle that he had survived, but when I saw him in his bed, the price of the miracle was plain to see. His face had cuts, scrapes, and bruises all over it; his chest, both arms and legs were in casts. His arms and legs were suspended from poles that ran the length of the bed and his back was also in traction. He was indeed breathing in and letting out a loud heart-wrenching moan with each exhale that could be heard around the whole ICU. I spent a few moments taking in the scene and centering myself for prayer. It was sickening to see the extent of his injuries, and troubling to hear him moan. I could understand why his parents were asking the most horrible thing a parent could ask of God – to take their child.

I walked around his bed praying and taking it all in, and finally I stood at the head of the bed behind his head. I prayed to be worthy of the responsibility of ministering to this young man and his family; I prayed for wisdom, and I prayed for the healing power of Christ to be with me. Then I prayed, “God, you hear the torment this young man is going through, you know the pain it is causing his parents. So, I am asking Father that you cure him or take him, but either way please take this young man and his parents out of their misery.” I prayed that twice and then I felt very strongly that I should do a laying on of hands to pray for his healing. I put my hands one on either side of his head, and I prayed for God to allow me to be a vessel of his healing power, that he would let his healing power flow through me. Then I concentrated on letting the healing power of God flow into me and through me into the young man’s head.

I prayed in this way for about 10 minutes, and as I prayed, I felt strongly that something was happening. I could feel God’s healing power flowing through me into him. I felt it so strongly that I was surprised that when I stopped praying, I could see and hear no change. I shrugged, saddened, and turned to walk out towards the waiting room. I was resigned that since there was no change, I would pray with the family for God to take him. But before I reached the family, a nurse came running out behind me, “He’s stopped! He’s stopped” she told me as she rushed past to tell the family. Finally, the horrible moaning ceased after 72 hours. The family rushed in and I followed behind them. He was still, resting peacefully. He went on to make a full recovery though it took 9 months.

Theological Implications of Healing

The theological implications of this experience are clear; God is a God who responds to the prayers of His people and has the power to heal. Today, I think about our ability to access the healing power of God in this way:

  • There is a door between us and God, the barrier between the spiritual and the physical.
  • There is a lock on the door and our prayer is the key that opens the lock.
  • To release the lock, that key (our prayers) must hit a multitude of tumblers in the lock.

I have identified in the scriptures the bumps on the key;  essentials that must be met to open the door.

  • One of the bumps on the key that is our prayer is for someone that God want to see healed and healed at this time.
  • Another bump: our prayer must be for what is best for the person or situation we are praying for or about.
  • Another bump is that God must want the person who is praying to be the instrument of His grace.
  • Another bump is that the person who is praying must have his or her heart right with God so that when he or she prays they can live into being what Paul called us: temples of the Holy Spirit.

You can refer to “The Key to Effective Prayer” for a discussion of all the bumps on the key.  In this case all the tumblers lined up for this young man; the lock turned, and he was healed.

Conclusion

I would like to point out that it was not Pastor Tim’s extensive Biblical knowledge or pastoral experience that allowed him to be an instrument of God’s healing.  It was his personal connection with God that was the conduit for this miracle.  If you would like to develop a closer relationship with God a good place to start is by reading and practicing what you will find in:

How to Meditate to Reach Higher God Consciousness 

A Clear Mind Improves God Awareness

Demystifying Spiritual Growth

Are You Listening to God’s Messages?

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Relevant Scripture

There was an estate nearby that belonged to Publius, the chief official of the island. He welcomed us to his home and showed us generous hospitality for three days.  His father was sick in bed, suffering from fever and dysentery. Paul went in to see him and, after prayer, placed his hands on him and healed him. When this had happened, the rest of the sick on the island came and were cured. (Acts 28:7-9)

Reference

The Long Road to Eternity by Rev. Dr. Timothy W. Ehrlich

Her Rejection Forced My Forgiveness / Spiritual Meditations

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As we approach the end of 2020, many of us will formulate new year resolutions.  An overabundance of these will relate to our physical improvement.  Although our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, let’s also take a serious look at improving our inner Being as well. 

The following experience, as related by my friend Timothy W. Ehrlich in his book The Long Road to Eternity, shows us how important it is to God that we forgive others and the joy it will give us to do so.

On the day of Pentecost all the believers were meeting together in one place. Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm, and it filled the house where they were sitting.  Then, what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them. (Acts 2:2-3)

I flew back to New York practically not needing a plane: the vows we exchanged on the Peak went through my head again and again. I felt that we were truly married in the eyes of God, if not in the laws of man. I was so head over heels in love with Anna; she was so incredibly beautiful, so intelligent, and so talented. I was amazed that her talents as a banker were getting us both over to Hong Kong, to live in a huge apartment paid for by her bank. I began working extra hours as a bartender in addition to being the bouncer, so I could save up some extra money for the move.

Bartenders got a lot of quarters in tips in those days, and I saved the quarters I got from tips to use in the Schooner’s payphone (this being the era before cell phones when almost every business had a coin operated payphone). It cost $12 for an initial few minutes to call Hong Kong, and a dollar or two every minute after that. I accumulated enough quarters to speak with her every few days. 

One morning in August I called Anna at 10 a.m. my time, 10 p.m. her time; twelve dollars in quarters into the pay phone. There was no answer when I knew she should be home. The same thing happened the next morning when I called. Finally, the third day I reached her. Somehow, I knew what she was going to tell me, but it was still a shock to hear it: “I have decided I don’t want to be married to you.” I was stunned. I managed to ask why. She said, “I don’t want to be married to anybody right now, the opportunity here is too big and the job is too demanding, and I don’t want to be married.” I asked, “Is that it? Are we done? You are breaking up with me for good?” She said, “We can still be friends, I’m sorry if I hurt you but I need to do what is best for me.” She said she would be staying in Hong Kong for at least the next three years.

I literally felt like she had died. The breakup was as sudden and terrible as a fatal car crash, but even a little worse, in that she had chosen it. This was a rejection with no second chances; her declaration that she was staying in Hong Kong for the next three years meant that realistically I would probably never see her again. We had been together two years, but in two minutes I had gone from a head-over-heels in love guy about to get married, to a head-over-heels in love guy, whose love had been rejected and whose lover was 12,000 miles away and never coming back.

I said goodbye to Anna believing it was the last time I would ever speak with her and went upstairs to my room in the attic of the Schooner, to lay down on my bed. It was the lowest moment of my entire life. I was in the greatest emotional pain I have ever experienced. It was all at the same time a sudden and unexpected death of a two-year relationship, a rejection of my love, and a cancellation of my plans for a fantastic future life in Hong Kong. I was a mess; tons of negative emotions swept over me. The one constant emotion was pain; I felt like I was in a world of pain that I could not escape; everywhere I looked all I could see was more darkness and pain. I began to pray to ask God to help me with my pain.

Getting the Heart Right With God

In several instances when I was in emotional pain, God had pretty quickly answered my prayers,  but not this time. For an hour I lay on my bed praying for relief from the pain of my broken heart, but after an hour I felt no better. I was surprised; usually I can count on feeling better after an hour of prayer, but I was absolutely no better off.  I prayed, “God, I have been praying for an hour and I feel no better. I don’t understand why you haven’t answered me, never-the-less, I trust in you.” Instantly, I could hear these words from the Lord’s Prayer echo in my head;  

“forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us…’ for if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your father in heaven forgive you for yours.”

This was not God speaking but it was God calling to my attention the thing that was blocking out His Holy Spirit from giving me the help I needed. For years I had been neglecting forgiving others.

Hearing the words of the Lord’s prayer and Jesus’ explanation at the end of the prayer in the  context of my current situation, made me realize my hypocrisy; here I was asking God for help, yet I had not obeyed one of the central teachings of Jesus – a teaching that I repeated in the Lord’s prayer almost every day for last five years: “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” In that moment I suddenly realized that there were many people, at least a dozen I had not forgiven, and against whom I was currently holding a grudge or otherwise was still angry at. In my mind I began to see the face after face of the people I had not forgiven. So, I set about forgiving each one.

One at a time I pictured the face of every person I was holding a grudge against. I was either deeply hurt by that person, or still very angry at that them and had not forgiven them.

I started with Anna and there were many things I was angry with or hurt by or both. Picturing Anna I thought about all the reasons why I was still angry at her. I thought of everything I thought she had done to me that I thought was wrong, and then I gave my hurt and my anger up to God by actually saying the words in my head, “God I am really angry at Anna for…., so I am letting go of that anger and giving it to you. Please take this burden from me.” Then I would think of the next thing I was angry about or hurt by that she had done, and I repeated that formula until I had forgiven her for every single thing I was hurt, sad or angry about. Then I thanked God and moved to the next person.

It was not as easy to forgive Anna as I just made it sound. Before moving on from one hurt to the next, I first would pause and try to feel in my heart if I had truly forgiven her for whatever it was and if I had truly let go of it, or if I still felt anger or hurt when I thought of it. Most of the time on my first try the forgiveness I was saying in my mind didn’t make it down into my heart. Did you know you can forgive someone with sincere effort but not have your forgiveness of that person make the trip between your mind (where you have decided to forgive the person) and your heart where the pain is?

I was not going to settle for that; some of the things I was so hurt by or angry about that I would have to go back and repeat the whole process three or four times until I could truly feel in my heart that I had forgiven her and truly had let go of it.

After I had truly forgiven Anna completely, I repeated that same process for every person I could think of that I was still angry at or hurt by. God helped me bring them to mind. I would say, I forgive you John or Jane or whatever that person’s name was. Then I would see how I was feeling in my heart. If I could feel in my heart that I had truly forgiven the person I would smile and go on to the next person. If I did not feel full forgiveness for that person in my heart I would start at the beginning with that person and go frame by frame picturing in my mind the event or events I was angry about or hurt by and forgiving and giving it up to God until I could feel peace in my heart towards that person.

Anna was the hardest to forgive, after forgiving her the others were easier; but it still took a long time because there were so many people I had not forgiven. The next up was the guy who pushed a chair into me in Sunday school and broke one of my front teeth when I was 12. I forgave him. Next was the across-the-street neighbor from my childhood home who I detested for regularly punishing his two children, my friends Lori and Skipper, with his thick leather belt; I forgave him. There were a few people in the Marine Corps I thought of with anger, so I forgave each of them.  I was surprised at how many people I was carrying bad feelings in my heart towards.

It took about an hour but finally I had dredged up every bit of buried anger and resentment I was holding onto against every person I could think of until I had forgiven every person attached to each of those memories.

I lay there on the bed feeling drained but so much lighter, realizing how heavy unresolved anger and hurt are when you carry them around!   I said, “Wow, I did it! I forgave them all!” I set down a huge burden I had been carrying in some cases for over a dozen years. The pain of losing Anna was still there, but I had forgiven her entirely. Even though I was still heartbroken, I felt I had really accomplished something very good and memorable:

Finishing all that forgiveness, my heart was right with God, and I didn’t know it but that was what God was waiting for. I said to God in prayer, “Well Father, I have forgiven everyone, but I still feel such pain.” Immediately I heard the wind begin to blow above the roof. The noise of the blowing wind increased getting louder and louder until it was roaring.

The Holy Spirit Descends

I was lying on my bed on my back looking up at the ceiling. The ceiling in my attic room was the underside of the roof and looked pretty flimsy compared to the volume of wind so, I was deeply afraid that the roof was going to blow off.  Suddenly, in an instant the wind completely died, and the room became silent.  At that same moment, a golden, glowing, translucent, shimmering substance started coming down through the roof across the whole ceiling.

It came into the room kind of like a flat cloud descending slowly across the whole attic at once. As the edge of the golden substance was slowly coming down towards me, I could see the roof beams and nails through it. Feeling no fear, I was amazed as the edge of the beautiful golden, shimmering substance moving steadily downwards passed over me as it moved down to the floor; and then the whole attic was filled with it, ceiling to floor and wall to wall, but I could still see through it.

As the front edge passed over me, I was filled with complete joy and peace. I realized – this is the Holy Spirit! I could feel it passing through me and staying in me. Then I was shocked and amazed as I realized I wasn’t in pain. I thought, “Where is the pain?!!” Just seconds before I had been in the worst emotional pain of my life, I felt like the whole world was pain and darkness and my heart was broken. Now I realized there was still a little pain, but it had shrunken to what felt like the size of a golf ball. It was amazing that the pain now seemed tiny compared to the amazing joy!

As soon as I realized that my pain was all but gone, the golden shimmering substance started to rise back up from the floor. I did not want it to leave, but at the same speed it came down into the room it now went back up passing my bed, then above me and slowly rose right up through the ceiling and was gone. The wind immediately began to blow loudly again for a few seconds, then it faded way and there was silence again. I found myself grinning from ear to ear.

I lay there staring at the ceiling for quite a few minutes enjoying the wonderful feelings sweeping over me: relief from the pain of loss, lightness from all the forgiveness, and joy from what I had just experienced: hearing, seeing and being immersed in the Holy Spirit. 

I sat up at the foot of my bed grinning and looked out the little attic window facing towards the ferry dock. I remember thinking, “Now what should I do?” What do you do at a moment like that? I was kind of in shock, I felt overpowering happiness, I could not stop smiling; I was trying to wrap my mind around the fact that I had just experienced the Holy Spirit coming to me to wipe away my pain. People go into shock from being suddenly wounded or injured so I suppose it is not surprising to go into shock from being suddenly healed.

I got up still in shock, went outside and walked over the ferry dock next-door to try and find someone to talk to. I was so happy and hoped to find a Christian person to share what just happened to me with but there was no one. Never-the-less, for three whole days afterwards I could not stop smiling.

I have had many wonderful spiritual and secular experiences in my life, but this was the best; that moment has given me strength for the rest of my life. It was years later before learning enough to realize that God had given me my own personal Pentecost: I heard the loud wind then something that kind of looked like tongues of flame descended, and I was filled with the Holy Spirit.

Conclusion

Though emotionally destroyed when Anna broke up with me, I now know what a good thing it was. It took years to fully realize what an unhealthy place I was in at that time both spiritually and emotionally. Before she broke up with me, I was unbalanced spiritually in that I loved Anna more than I loved God. I know now that it is a form of idolatry to love a person more that you love God, but at the time it was great fun to feel that much love for someone – it was intoxicating.

When you love a person more than you love God it creates an emotional problem as well. A human being is not God; therefore, neither is any person (other than Jesus) worthy of worship. If you love a person more than you love God what you are doing is loving the creation more than the creator, and that is suspending reason and logic to such a degree as to make you emotionally unbalanced. I was so attached to Anna emotionally that when she distanced herself from me, my emotional attachment pulled and dragged me over and I fell flat on my face.

God’s number one commandment by volume in the Bible is not as you might think it would be: to love God, or to obey God. The most commonly given commandment is – the first of the ten commandments:

“I am the LORD your God, who rescued you from the land of Egypt, the place of your slavery. “You must not have any other god but me.(Exodus 20:2-3)

So, God used Anna breaking up with me, the worst pain I ever experienced, to help me rebalance myself spiritually and emotionally, and at the same time giving me the best spiritual experience of my life. That day I put God in the place in my heart where He should have been, and He has remained first in my heart ever since. To this day I thank God every day for giving me my own Pentecost experience, hearing and seeing and feeling the Holy Spirit.

The culmination of Tim and Anna’s relationship will be revealed in a future post.

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beach breakwater blue sky clouds

God’s Voice Told Me to Help / Spiritual Meditations

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Have you ever heard God’s voice?  I don’t mean through scripture or as an urging by the Holy Spirit, but God’s actual audible voice.  Not many have, but probably more than you would guess.  The following is an account from one of my pastors, Rev. Dr. Timothy W Ehrlich, which he has included in his book The Long Road to Eternity available on Amazon.  This took place when Tim was a young man, and it relates the first time God spoke to him. 

Every day in my daily prayer I thank God for speaking into my life nine times. I say “into my life” instead of speaking “to me,” because twice God spoke to others on my behalf, and, seven times God spoke directly to me. God has never spoken to me in long conversations like He had with Jeremiah and others; in every instance God was economical with His words. Eight of the times He spoke only a single sentence; and once He spoke two short sentences. God always used the fewest number of words to communicate His message and each time it was at an important moment in my life or that of someone else. This account is about the first time that God spoke to me in words I could hear.

As a theologian it is surprising to me that this time and three of the other times, I heard God speak, His words were not in answer to a prayer request but rather they were given unsolicited! When I say they were unsolicited I don’t mean that God’s communications were unwelcome, far from it, I wish God would speak to me even more though being spoken to by God is also a weight to carry. On this occasion I was not asking for a word or anything from God.

While in the Marines, on a day of liberty; I got off the ship and rented a small motorcycle at the end of the dock and rode around San Juan for hours. I love to ride motorcycles and wanted to take in as much of the city as I could. I traveled around on busy streets and quiet back neighborhood streets and was enjoying the beautiful weather and the interesting scenery. In the late afternoon I was heading back to the ship on a two-lane road that ran parallel to the beach.

As I was thinking about God, I suddenly heard a deep, booming male voice speaking to me. It commanded, “Go to the beach!” Instantly I knew this was God and this was an urgent demand.  Turning the motorcycle into the first street, I drove towards the beach. I spotted a women’s clothing store on the left a short distance from the beach, so I jumped off the bike, and ran into one of their changing stalls and quickly put on my bathing suit. I ran out of the shop smiling an apology to the shop clerks and ran toward the ocean.

In front of me and a little to my left was a long breakwater made of huge concrete blocks that were shaped like the metal jacks I played with as a boy. The breakwater was fifteen or twenty feet wide and extended from the beach straight out into the ocean about 200 feet. There was a strong fast-moving ocean current that was sweeping along parallel to the beach from right to left.  When it hit the concrete breakwater, it turned to flow out away from the shore.

Looking around, I noticed two girls being carried along in the fast-moving current. I could see from their faces that they were scared. As I watched, one of the girls wrapped her arms around the other. My Red Cross lifesaving class taught me that this is a classic drowning scenario; one person panics and grabs the other to keep his or her head above water. But the other person can’t stay afloat with someone wrapped around them.  So they both drown. I knew I only had seconds to act before they both slipped below the surface and were carried away by the current.

There were three Marines, unfamiliar to me, sitting on the sand to the right side of the breakwater. Fortunately, one of the marines had his Marine Corps issued field air mattress, used by the infantry for the many times we were required to sleep on the ground. I ran up to them, grabbed the mattress saying, “Somebody needs this!”  I then ran into the surf, jumped on, and paddled out to the girls. Sliding off, I pushed the mattress into them. They let go of each other and climbed on, draping themselves over it. I hung on to the end of the mattress and let the current carry us out, knowing that it was too strong to swim against and that as soon as we reached the end of the breakwater it would let go of us.  Once we were passed the end, I pulled the mattress and them down the other side and back to the beach.

After many thanks for saving them, the young ladies went their separate way and I walked the mattress back to other Marines. After drying off in the sun, I got back on the motorcycle so it  could be returned on time.

[In the post entitled “Your Inner Being Could Save Your Life. Are You Listening?” you, the reader, will find more current-day examples of God’s spoken directions that saved someone.]

Conclusion

Two things are significant theologically about this experience:

First is that when God chose to speak into my life here (and at other times), it was like a family member who knows they are welcome to come into your home without knocking: although it was a forceful command His voice was familiar and comfortable.

Secondly God demonstrated His foreknowledge; He knew these girls were going to drown and directed my path to beach without a second to spare, on behalf of one or both of those two girls who He obviously wanted saved.

I thank God every day for speaking to me that day and for allowing me to save those girls. I could have no way of knowing then that God would speak to me directly six more times.

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Jesus in clouds

India Pilgrimage Yields Vision of Jesus /Spiritual Meditations

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Have you ever had a spiritual experience that confirmed for you the existence of God?  In the ‘Spiritual Experiences’ category on the Navigation Menu you will find several firsthand accounts from people who have experienced God’s presence. One of them is entitled “A Miraculous Intervention by Accident”. It reveals a young man’s promise to turn his life over to God in exchange for God’s miraculous healing of the young man’s critically injured sister.  The following account is the sequel to that post and reveals the young man’s unconventional search for God in India.

Timmy writes:

After God had healed my sister and baptized me with the Holy Spirit, my senior year at Barlow High School was focused on trying to get answers to these questions:

  • What was the meaning of what had happened to me?
  • What did God want me to do with the life of service that I had committed to Him?
  • How could I learn more about God?

I spent time reading and re-reading two books: The Bible and Be Here Now, a book by the former Dr. Richard Alpert, (now Ram Dass). The story line of Be Here Now is that Alpert had gone to India to meet a holy man, the guru Neem Karoli Baba, who he had read could perform miracles like Christ. His encounter with the holy man convinced him of the guru’s miraculous abilities and their encounter so transformed him that he gave up his job as a professor at Harvard to become a disciple of the holy man. The main point of his book was that all of us can achieve Christ consciousness and amazing spiritual power if we will follow the Buddhist Eightfold Path (right effort, right thought, right employment etc.) and use spiritual disciplines and practices outlined in the book, such as meditation.

The religious philosophy of Be Here Now is that of Zen Buddhism that God is an impersonal power in all and through all, which we can tap into through carefully following Buddha’s Eightfold Path. I already knew that God was not an impersonal God because God heard my prayer and healed my sister, but I was interested in Zen Buddhism because of their spiritual disciplines and the practices they promoted to help one attain Christ consciousness.

Alpert reported that practitioners of the spiritual techniques of Zen Buddhism were able to achieve real spiritual power and obtain amazing spiritual experiences. In contrast, Christianity does not offer an Eight-fold path or any systematic plan to attain Christ consciousness or having the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16). The key point was that Neem Karoli Baba could allegedly perform miracles like Christ; that was fascinating to me and I hoped it was true.

The weight of my experience and my commitment to God was continually pressing on my mind; it pressed so hard that by the time I graduated from high school everything else seemed trivial in comparison. I knew that I must, for the sake of my sanity, my peace of mind, and my personal integrity find proof that God is real so that I could get on with the process of giving the rest of my life to God in whatever form that was going to take.

When I graduated from high school in June of 1974 my only goal was saving enough money to enable me to go to India, meet the holy man, and if I was convinced that he actually could perform miracles like Christ then I would know that he would be able tell me if God was real, and thus I could put my mind at ease about serving God for the rest of my life.

I immediately started working at a job my father got me, as a dishwasher in a pub on Fire Island NY, working 6-8 hours a day for minimum wage. Fortunately, within two weeks, due to a happy set of circumstances, I was promoted to bartender. The pub I was working in, the Schooner Inn was at that time a transplanted British pub. It had about six tables and the bar itself could seat only about a dozen. It had a limited menu, and the bartender was also the cook and the waiter.

I opened the bar every day at noon and I closed it at midnight on the weekdays and 4:00 a.m. on Friday and Saturday. Working those long hours, six days a week I was able to save enough money so that by the time the beach season ended in early October I had enough saved for a round trip ticket and living expenses for, at least, a three month stay in India. I will never forget Peter’s typical English reaction when I told him my plans; he announced to everyone in the bar, “Bloody Timmy’s going to bloody India to see the bloody guru!”

I flew to New Delhi in October 1974. My plan was to spend a few days getting my bearings, then get a train ticket and set off for the mountains in search of the guru. Alpert (Dass) didn’t want to turn the guru into a tourist attraction so only vague information was given as to his location; the foothills of the Himalaya Mountains in the north of the country. True pilgrims would find their way to him. I had his name and photo, a rough idea where he was, and he was famous; I figured it would not be too difficult to find him.

India however was a giant culture shock to me; within a day or two I realized that I was never going to get my bearings; I was in way over my head. I didn’t have the life skills, knowledge, or experience to cope with or take on a solo journey from New Delhi to the Himalayan Mountains and from the end of the train line to who knows where else. My dad had an idea of what I was in for; he tried to talk me out of going, and failing that he gave me his Air Force dog tags to wear saying, “that way when they find your body they will know where to send it.” Once I was in India and saw how difficult it would be to make this journey alone, I thought, “If I go off into the mountains, not only will I likely be robbed and killed, but my body will probably be thrown off a cliff and they will never even find my body or the dog tags to send it back home.”

I didn’t realize until my first day in India what a sheltered and relatively privileged life I had led up to this point. I was shocked by what I saw, from the moment I walked into the arrivals terminal; it was obvious that I was definitely in a third world country, and in a culture that did not value human life the way it is valued in Western nations. Over a million people still to this day live on the streets in New Delhi. I saw homeless people all over the city and almost everywhere I was besieged by beggars of all ages. I had to keep a sharp eye out for the con artists and criminals who mingled where tourists might be found and quickly went after likely targets like me.

I would have given up and gone home after two or three days, but the airline ticket I had purchased had a variable return date: I could stay in India as long as three months, but I had to stay at least two weeks.  So, I decided to make the best of it and get to know the city of New Delhi. I walked around, took in the sights and did some shopping.  Always foremost in my thought was my prayer – “God if you are real, would you please give me a sign? God if you are really God, please give me a sign?”

Each day in New Delhi brought its own adventure. Every morning, as I stepped outside my hotel, little children in rags crowded around begging for money. One day I found a man dying on the sidewalk, ignored by passersby and I spent the day trying to help him. Another day I was eating a banana while standing on a crowded sidewalk in a working-class neighborhood. I put my hand to my side for a moment and something warm and wet took the banana right out of my hand. I turned around and was face to face with a holy cow that snuck up behind me to grab the banana with her tongue. One evening there was a huge commotion on the street outside my hotel, a religious parade was going by, complete with an elephant and many musicians. I decided to go down to the sidewalk and check it out, but I was grabbed by some young men, told to “dance rock and roll” and pushed into the middle of the parade and had to be rescued by a policeman.

On one of my days around New Delhi I took a motorcycle taxi (a three wheel vehicle where the driver sits on a motorcycle up front and the passengers sat in a covered two person cab on the back) to visit a jewelry shop to buy a present for my mom. My cab was traveling through a poorer section of the city down a busy major road that had three lanes in each direction. All the traffic suddenly slowed way down; I could see up ahead.  

Four large cows were crossing the road a few cars ahead of us and traffic came to a stop to allow them to cross. But instead of strolling across the road, they laid down blocking all lanes. We could not back up because of the traffic behind us; we could not go around them because there were tall concrete curbs.  We were stuck.  I discovered that while cows are considered holy in India, and no one would kick, poke, or hit them, apparently yelling at them and beeping one’s horn is allowed.

But the cows were not going anywhere so, accepting the situation, I started looking around. I sat in the tiny motorcycle taxicab looking out to my right side. There were some two-story buildings set back about 50 feet from the curb. It was an incredibly beautiful day; above the row of buildings the sky was deep blue and there was not a cloud anywhere. I looked around the driver to see if there was any movement on the part of the cows and there was not, they were laying there on the road and seemed to be enjoying the sun as unconcerned by the many horns blowing, as if they were in some bucolic pasture in the country.

I looked back to my right and there was Jesus standing in the air only seven or eight feet away from me, and he was looking right into my eyes. I quickly took in the whole picture: He had long dark brown hair, brown eyes, a beard, and mustache and was dressed in a full-length beige tunic or robe with a rope belt around his waist.

He was standing inside a door sized and shaped area that started about three feet off the ground; it had a bright white background that was completely opaque and blocked out my view of the buildings and sky behind him. His sandaled feet stood on the same white as the background. I looked into his eyes and he was looking deeply into mine; His gaze was piercing yet compassionate.

I wish I could tell you that my immediate reaction to seeing Jesus was to exclaim, “Thank you God for this amazing miracle!” but I was being the scientific observer. I said to myself, “How is he doing that?” I leaned out of the cab to get a closer look. It was literally as if a door to heaven had opened in front of me, three feet up from the pavement.

I looked down at the bottom edge of the doorway, the closest part to me, trying to understand what was going on. There was no frame around the door, but I could see that at the edges the opaque white faded into amazingly bright rectangular blocks of the primary colors. They looked to be about ½”high and 1/5” wide and were staggered like bricks in a wall. Those tiny blocks of light were intensely bright and the most beautiful and perfect colors of blue, yellow, and red that I have ever seen. They formed a boarder around the door around an inch wide with six rows of blocks. The blocks closest to the door were the brightest and the outer two lines of blocks the colors were not as bright or intense, the fifth line being somewhat transparent and the sixth line fading into invisibility.

I looked back up at Jesus’ face and He was still looking into my eyes. I could feel the full weight of his presence, Christ was standing here in front of me, but I felt no fear or even shock – it somehow seemed natural. It looked from his expression that he had complete knowledge of my every thought, including my recent “How is he doing that?” but there was no condemnation in His eyes, just compassion. I felt immediately unworthy to meet his gaze and I turned my eyes to the inside of the cab. Instantly the thought flashed through my mind, “This is Jesus and as long as he is here, I need to be looking!” I looked back but he was gone. The whole vision had lasted no more than 10 seconds.

I settled back in my seat. The cows stood up and began to move off the road and we were rolling again. I was stunned; what had seemed so normal when it was happening now hit me and I tried to take it in. It is now forty-seven years later but as I think about it, I sigh, and my heart still beats faster. I saw the living savior with my own eyes! He came to me in the middle of a clear blue-sky day. He didn’t say a word, but he didn’t have to, I got the message: He is alive and of course God is real, and He knows and cares about everything that is going on in our hearts and minds all the time.

It was such a relief to get the answer to the question I had been seeking for so many years. God is definitely real! I could not ask for more powerful proof. Since that time I have reflected on how cool it was that God answered my request for a sign of His reality by sending Jesus because the next deep religious question I was going to have was, “God, now that I know you are real, is Jesus really your son?” How amazing it is that God would answer my prayer in such a spectacular way as a vision of Christ which answered both of my most important spiritual questions at once.

It is a great advantage for me as a pastor to have seen the risen Christ; I don’t have to take it on faith that He is the risen savior alive forever, I have looked Him in the eye. To this day I thank God for that experience every day. It remains a most important moment of my spiritual life because that experience confirmed that my path was set; the rest of my life was to be spent serving God. Now that I have the benefit of education and experience, two things stand out to me about that vision:

  • the shocking realization that God has an amazing knowledge of what is going on in our hearts and minds.
  • God’s compassion for us exemplified by giving a vision like that to an eighteen-year-old who was nobody special in the eyes of the world.

When I was begging him for a sign, I never would have expected such a powerful and perfect answer to my prayers.

Finally, it was my last day in India. I went to the American Express office to cash a Travelers Check for the trip back. As I walked towards the office, I saw a group of attractive looking young women standing at the end of the block talking. I walked in their direction to get a closer look when I saw a bundle on the sidewalk which they were ignoring. The bundle was the general size and shape of an infant. It was wrapped in a dirty light-colored cotton blanket.

I walked towards it; I had to look; and as I knelt on the sidewalk I said, “Please don’t let it be!” but it was. I gently pulled back the blanket: and it was a dead baby! I gently touched its face, but the baby’s skin was cold, I checked it several times but no pulse. If the baby had been alive, I would have taken care of it, even if it meant missing my flight. Dead, it was India’s problem. I covered its face again with the blanket, stood up and walked slowly away; it was I thought a symbol of how I found India to be: overwhelming poverty everywhere and a resignation to the plight of the poor.

On the plane that evening, I thought about all that had happened in the two weeks I was in India: the several other narrow escapes (I haven’t bored you with), the amazing things I’d seen; the few friends I’d made, and of course the miraculous vision of Christ that answered my prayers. My disappointment at not seeing the Guru was forgotten.

About an hour into the flight I began to pray, and I finalized my agreement with God. I gave God my complete and eternal loyalty to the agreement with God that I made on the day of my sister’s accident. I simply said, “Okay God, I will serve you for the rest of my life!” I was relieved to be on the plane and exhausted; my mission was accomplished – I had a clear and undeniable sign of the reality of God. I slept almost the whole flight back.

Conclusion

About a year ago I did a Google search for Neem Karoli Baba; I was shocked to discover he had died on September 11, 1973, over a year before I got to India. I would have loved to have met him, but it would not have altered my path which obviously was not with gurus, but with Christ.

In India God gave me the answer I had been seeking, proving Christ’s words to be true, “seek and you will find.” God also gave me a second demonstration of His knowledge of us and compassion for us. Each subsequent miracle I have seen or been a part of has shown that to me more and more – God truly knows what is in each of our hearts, and He truly loves each of us. Still to this day God’s omniscience, omnipotence and omnipresence thrill and amaze me.

This post is an excerpt from Rev. Dr. Timothy W. Ehrlich’s book entitled The Long Road to Eternity available at Amazon.

Pastor Ehrlich has consented to publication of more posts describing his spiritual experiences. Watch for them in the next few months.

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Relevant Scripture

Last of all, as though I had been born at the wrong time, I also saw him.  1 Corinthians 15: 8 (NLT)

fire imposed on top of key and handwritten pages

An Astonishing & Undeniable Spiritual Healing/Spiritual Meditations

On By Spiritual MeditationsIn Spiritual ExperiencesLeave a comment

We don’t often hear about spiritual healing experiences and when we do we are usually left wondering if there was a logical or scientific reason for what appeared to be a miraculous event.  After all, our bodies have an amazing ability to restore themselves and time can be a healer.  But in his book, “The Long Road to Eternity” (available on Amazon) my friend and pastor, Rev. Dr. Timothy W. Ehrlich, describes a life-threatening burn incident that was miraculously healed within one hour.

In January 1989, my second year as pastor at the Olivebridge church, I attended a seminar at a church in Kingston New York on healing through prayer and the laying on of hands. It was being put on by the International Order of Saint Luke, an interdenominational religious order dedicated to the Christian healing ministry. Part way through the afternoon session as I was sitting in a lecture, I heard the pay phone in the hallway ringing. Ordinarily I would not leave an educational seminar to answer in someone else’s church, but I had a strong feeling I should answer that call so I left the classroom and answered the phone.

I was amazed that the call was for me. I don’t know how they found me but it was a member of my Samsonville church calling to tell me there was a gas explosion in the church kitchen and Edith, one of my parishioners, was severely burned with third-degree burns over most of her body. The caller had been there and seen what happened: the oven had been turned on to preheat but no one realized the pilot light was not lit. Edith needed to use the oven and found it was still cold so she started to light the stove but it was filled with gas. It caused an explosion and a fire ball blew her backwards, set her hair on fire and burned all the clothes off the front of her body. An EMT who treated Edith before she was put into the ambulance told the woman who called me that Edith had third-degree burns over her whole body, and that it was not easy for a woman her age to survive something like that.

This was terrible news; it literally could not have happened to a nicer person. Edith was practically a living saint; she was filled with the fruits of the spirit, a dear sweet lady, humble, simple, generous, kind, patient and had a great sense of humor. She practically lived at church; when the church doors were open for anything she was there. Edith was in her 70s at that time. She had come over from England at the end of World War II as a war bride. She missed England but definitely had bloomed where she was planted.

I was told she was taken to a hospital in Kingston; it was not far from me. I got off the phone and interrupted the class to share the news and ask for prayer for Edith. The leader of the class who happened to be the president of the order of Saint Luke stopped the class. He said, “we need to pray.“ He took me out into the hallway, put his hands on my shoulders and I put my hands on his shoulders, and we bowed our heads and pray together for several minutes. It was a powerful prayer time and I felt like an electric current was going through us as we prayed. I immediately felt better.

When I took the call about Edith, he had been teaching that when you pray for healing, you need to have faith that you have received what you prayed for. He said, “you always need to end your prayers requesting healing by sincerely expressing your thanks to God in the confidence that God will grant your request.“ As we prayed, we thanked God for miraculously healing Edith but honestly, I wasn’t expecting a miracle. I thanked the teacher and drove as quickly as I could to the hospital.

It took less than an hour from the time I received the call until I walked into the intensive care unit. At that hospital the intensive care unit was one large room with beds separated by curtains. As I walked into the room I could hear Edith singing! Edith sat behind me singing in the choir every Sunday for the previous 18 months; I knew her voice very well and I was expecting to hear moans of pain, not singing! I found the curtain she was behind and stopped before stepping into her area. I knew that her clothes have been burn off and my earlier experience as a hospital chaplain taught me that third-degree burns victims are often left naked and I was hesitant to walk in on her. I called out “Edith, are you there? She said, “Oh Tim, it’s a miracle! Praise God!“

I said, “Are you decent?“ She said she was so I stepped behind the curtain and she was sitting on the edge of the bed in a hospital gown, her hair was singed and she was grinning widely. She broke into laughter as she told me the story. When she lit the match the explosion blew her across the room, it had blown off or burnt off all of her clothing and it was horrible. She said, “Tim I was in the worst pain of my life. The worst pain ever! And then about a half hour ago the pain just went away. The doctors don’t understand.  The doctor said to me, ‘you were brought in with third-degree burns but now they are first- degree and even less in some places. I can’t explain it’. He can’t explain it, but I can. It’s a miracle! Look at my skin, it is like a sunburn; I am just a little pink and it doesn’t even hurt! “

I have often heard God called the great physician, but it is really amazing to see God in action, to see a dramatic healing like that in response to prayer. The theological lesson here is don’t be afraid to pray for healing for yourself or someone else, and don’t forget to pray with enough faith that you can genuinely thank God for the healing in advance.

Yet we must ask, “Why isn’t everyone we pray for, healed?”  Pastor Tim explains:

God responds to the prayers of his people and He has the power to heal. There is a door between us and God. It is the barrier between the spiritual and physical. There is a lock on the door and our prayer is the key that opens the lock. To unlock the lock the key (our prayer) must hit all the tumblers and each bump on the key represents a different aspect of an effective prayer.

* One of the bumps on the key is that our prayer is for someone that God does want to see healed and healed at this time.

* Another bump: our prayer must be for what is best for the person or situation we are praying for or about.

* Another bump is that God must want the person who is praying to be the instrument of His grace.

* Another bump is that the person who is praying must have his or her heart right with God so that when he or she prays they can live into being what Paul called us: temples of the Holy Spirit.

In this case all the tumblers lined up, the lock turned and she was healed.

Your prayer life can be more effective by developing greater Spiritual Consciousness through the practices mentioned in the Biblical verses found in Key to Effective Prayer.  Miracles are rare but God is present and active in our lives.

If you found this article interesting, inspiring, informative or helpful, please follow us and share by clicking on one of the social media icons.  Many more posts to feed your soul can be found on the Navigation Menu.

Relevant Scripture

Does God give you the Holy Spirit and work miracles among you because you obey the law? Of course not! It is because you believe the message you heard from Christ. (Galatians 3:5)

Reference

The Long Road to Eternity by Rev. Dr. Timothy W. Ehrlich

night sky milky way cross

Stunning Vision Reveals Heavens Lobby/Spiritual Meditations

On By Spiritual MeditationsIn Spiritual Experiences2 Comments
Is a revelation during a coma, a dream, a vision or something else?
 
Throughout the Bible, God spoke to people in many ways, each unique and wonderful, including visions and dreams. Many people use these two words interchangeably, and they are similar. Both involve our Lord giving direct revelation. However, one of the main differences is that dreams come to us during sleep, while visions occur when we are awake. But what if a revelation comes to someone during a coma?  Is this a dream, a vision or something unique?
 
Some will say that God uses dreams primarily to speak to us, reveal His plans, enable Spirit-directed communication, warn of impending trouble, and establish prophetic revelation.  And that He uses visions to reveal Himself and His glory.  If these are the only two options, then my friend Matthew experienced both or perhaps a combination of the two.  He will tell you his experience and you can ponder the answer.  But first a little more depth on visions and how we should respond to them.

Characteristics of a God-given Vision

Each of us goes through life-changing moments when a new vision is given, but questions often arise. Before the interpretation or meaning of a vision is provided, the receiver can experience confusion and begins to seek God’s interpretation of what was seen.  These are the primary ways a believer can accept that the vision is from God:
 
• A God-given vision reveals His holiness, glory, and power
 
• A God-given vision exposes your own humanness and frailty.
 
• A God-given vision will leave you astonished and sometimes even numb for days.
 
• A God-given vision will always be followed by its interpretation.
 

Four Steps to Turning a Vision into Reality

It’s one thing to receive a vision. It’s another thing when you don’t understand it or know what to do with what you’ve received. Thankfully, the prophet Habakkuk revealed what you must do to bring your “waking dream” to fruition:
 
1. Pray
Prayer is the key to dreams, visions, revelations, interpretation, and knowledge. Pray and ask God to reveal the meaning of your “waking dream” to you.
 
2. Write the vision down
Time can dim your memory.
 
3. Act upon the vision
Step out in faith and act upon what God has shown you. The instant you begin to act upon what you have seen, you begin cooperating with God to bring it into being.
 
4. Wait for it
This may sound contradictory to acting upon the vision but waiting is an important part of making the vision a reality. In the videos and conversation below, Mathew will tell you how parts of his vision have been revealed but not all at this point.  Even as you step out in faith, we must realize that God’s timing is crucial: For the vision is set for an appointed time; But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it delays, wait for it. (Habakkuk 2:3) It will always be fulfilled.
 
Let’s look at a few select visions mentioned in the New Testament.

Jesus’ Vision(s)

Jesus may have had numerous visions.  Was it a vision that told Him where the colt was that He was to ride into Jerusalem before His final Passover there?  Was it a vision that showed him the man the disciples were to follow to discover the location for the last supper?  Perhaps, or maybe, being fully anointed with God’s Spirit, He just knew.  However, the Bible clearly says that He saw Nathaniel under a fig tree before He met him.
 
Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”
 
“Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” Nathanael asked.
“Come and see,” said Philip.
 
When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, “Here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.”
 
“How do you know me?” Nathanael asked.
 
Jesus answered, “I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.”
 
Then Nathanael declared, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the king of Israel.”
 
Jesus said, “You believe[ because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You will see greater things than that.” He then added, “Very truly I tell you,  you will see ‘heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on  the Son of Man.”   (John 1:45-51)

Peter’s Vision

Through his vision, God told Peter that the Gentiles were to be accepted into the Kingdom of Heaven.  Represented as food that was forbidden under Jewish law, he was told that they were not to be considered unclean.
About noon the following day as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray. He became hungry and wanted something to eat, and while the meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance. He saw heaven opened and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners. It contained all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles and birds.
 
Then a voice told him, “Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.”
 
“Surely not, Lord!” Peter replied. “I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.”
 
The voice spoke to him a second time, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.”
 
This happened three times, and immediately the sheet was taken back to heaven.
 
While Peter was wondering about the meaning of the vision, the men sent by Cornelius found out where Simon’s house was and stopped at the gate. They called out, asking if Simon who was known as Peter was staying there.
 
While Peter was still thinking about the vision, the Spirit said to him, “Simon, three men are looking for you. So get up and go downstairs. Do not hesitate to go with them, for I have sent them.”
 
Peter went down and said to the men, “I’m the one you’re looking for. Why have you come?”
 
The men replied, “We have come from Cornelius the centurion. He is a righteous and God-fearing man, who is respected by all the Jewish people. A holy angel told him to ask you to come to his house so that he could hear what you have to say.”
 
Then Peter invited the men into the house to be his guests.
 
The next day Peter started out with them, and some of the believers from Joppa went along.  (Acts 10:9-23)
 

Paul’s Visions

Paul experienced many visions in his lifetime. (2Corinthians 12:1)  He had a vision of Ananias coming to him to restore his eyesight (Acts 9:12) and a vision or a dream of a Macedonian man beseeching him to come to his region with the Gospel. (Acts 16:9,10)  Following is another example of a vision he had.
“When I returned to Jerusalem and was praying at the temple, I fell into a trance and saw the Lord speaking to me. ‘Quick!’ he said. ‘Leave Jerusalem immediately, because the people here will not accept your testimony about me.’
 
“‘Lord,’ I replied, ‘these people know that I went from one synagogue to another to imprison and beat those who believe in you. And when the blood of your martyr Stephen was shed, I stood there giving my approval and guarding the clothes of those who were killing him.’
 
“Then the Lord said to me, ‘Go; I will send you far away to the Gentiles.’ ”  (Acts 22:17-21)
You will find an extensive list of Biblical visions in the Relevant Scripture section below.

Visions Today

In many parts of the world, God seems to be using visions and dreams extensively. In areas where there is little or no gospel message available, and where people do not have Bibles, God is taking His message to people directly through dreams and visions. This is entirely consistent with the biblical example of visions frequently used by God to reveal His truth to people in the early days of Christianity. If God desires to communicate His message to a person, He can use whatever means He finds necessary—a missionary, an angel, a vision, or a dream. Of course, God also can give visions in areas where the gospel message is already readily available. There is no limit to what God can do.

Matthew’s Spellbinding Vision

Matthew was 26 when he suddenly became seriously ill.  To allow his body to have a better chance of survival, doctors put him into a coma, during which he nearly died.  The doctors were unable to safely bring Matthew out of his unconsciousness after one to two weeks as initially planned.
 
He remained in the coma for 28 days during which he experienced a nonstop vision that continued each time he fell asleep after he  came out of the coma.  What he saw was truly amazing and the lengthiest vision I have ever heard or read about outside of Revelation.
 
Many near-death experiences include the soul walking toward a bright light and this is included in one part of Matthews vision, not regarding himself, but watching someone else walk toward that light.   He describes this in the second video below.
 
Matthew’s vision elevated his soul into a starry universe, sometimes referred to as the Second Heaven,  where he saw other souls moving along a pathway of stars that led into infinity.  And Jesus was his tutor.
 
In this home video Matthew provides an excellently detailed description of what he experienced.  You will be mesmerized.
 
 
After watching Matthew’s video, I had a couple of questions for him.

Me: Have you ever wondered if your illness/coma was INTENDED to provide the vision?

Matthew: “YES!  I tell everyone that God brought it upon me on purpose. I was in a place in my “salvation” where God could not really speak to me. (Prideful and focused on earthly things.) He had to slap me out of it. I call the experience “my walk in the wilderness”.

I believe we experience tribulation and hard times to refine us in Christ. They are sometimes out of chastisement to correct us, and sometimes to just open our eyes. ALWAYS for correction of some type. (Or in some cases as example to others also). But I don’t think I would have payed as much attention if it was just a dream. This experience got my attention BIG TIME and still has my attention 20 years later.

 
Daniel 11:35 And some of them of understanding shall fall, to try them, and to purge, and to make them white, even to the time of the end: because it is yet for a time appointed.”
 
Me: What do you think was God’s purpose for your vision?  What was He trying to tell you? Is this something you have discovered or is it still to be discovered?
 
Matthew: ”I grew tremendously closer to the Lord through that event. I no longer fear tribulation and death. (I still don’t like them though… LOL) But I also believe God was preparing me for the end times ministry he has set up for me, whatever that should be. Much of what I was shown 20 years ago is starting to happen now… Soooo… It really has me looking back at what I was shown and re-looking at it.
 
I have been shown answers to some, but other parts are still being revealed. I was shown a lot. We’re talking near a month of a continuous vision, then continued visions for weeks after I awoke. That’s a lot of information to process.”

As an example of something that has been revealed to him, Matthew sent to me this video regarding death and the importance of intercessory prayer.

 
 

Conclusion

According to Catholic documents, most people have their visions early in life and move into greater spiritual communion with God after that. In that sense the vision achieved its purpose, boosting one along the spiritual path to something richer.
 
However, we must be careful when it comes to visions and the interpretation of visions. We shouldn’t measure ourselves against these experiences or pursue them as they are clearly not prerequisites to grace and are meant only for those God chooses.
 
We must keep in mind that the Bible is finished, and it tells us everything we need to know. The key truth is that if God were to give a vision, it would agree completely with what He has already revealed in His Word. Visions should never be given equal or greater authority than the Word of God. God’s Word is our ultimate authority for Christian faith and practice.
 
If you believe you have had a vision and feel that perhaps God gave it to you, prayerfully examine the Word of God and make sure your vision agrees with Scripture. Then prayerfully consider what God would have you do in response to the vision (James 1:5). God would not give a vision to a person and then keep the meaning of the vision hidden. In Scripture, whenever a person asked God for the meaning of a vision, God made sure it was explained to the them. (Daniel 8:15-17).

Relevant Scripture

In the last days, God says, I will pour out My Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.  (Acts 2:17)
 
The Most High God covenanted with Abraham in a vision. (Genesis 15:1-21)
 
God spoke to Jacob in either a dream or a night vision. (Genesis 46:2-4)
 
Balaam experienced a vision of the Almighty. (Numbers 24:1-19)
 
Samuel experienced a vision as a child. (1Samuel 3:1-21)
 
Nathan experienced a night vision concerning King David. (2Samuel 7:4-17; 1Chronicles 17:1-15)
 
Iddo, the seer, received multiple visions concerning Jeroboam.  Exactly what his visions and writings were concerning is not stated in the Bible.  He did write genealogies and kept records of some of Israel’s Kings. (2Chronicles 9:29; 12:15)
 
Job experienced both visions and dreams. (Job 7:14)
 
Isaiah experienced a vision concerning Judah and Jerusalem. (Isaiah 1:1)
 
Isaiah also saw the Lord sitting upon a Throne in His Temple. (Isaiah 6:1-4)
 
Ezekiel experienced multiple visions. (Ezekiel 7:13; 8:1-4; 11:24)
 
Daniel apparently received both dreams and visions of the Lord. (Daniel 2:19; 8:1-27; 9:21-24)
 
Obadiah received a vision concerning Edom. (Obadiah 1:1-21)
 
Nahum received a vision of the destruction of Ninevah approximately one hundred years after Jonah preached there.  Apparently, they had backslidden again, and it was “time to pay the piper.” (Nahum 1:1-3:19)
 
Peter, James and John had a vision (The Transfiguration) of Moses and Elisha while on the Mountain with Jesus. (Matthew 17:1-13)
 
Zacharias had a vision of the Angel of the Lord. (Luke 1:11-22)
 
Ananias had a vision of the Lord concerning Saul of Tarsus. (Acts 9:10-12)
 
Saul of Tarsus had a vision of Ananias coming to him to restore his eyesight. (Acts 9:12)
 
Cornelius had a vision of an Angel coming to him to reveal how he could hear the Gospel preached. (Acts 10:1-48)
 
Peter had a symbolic vision of the Gentiles being accepted into the Kingdom of God. (Acts 10:9-48)
 
Paul had either a vision or a dream of a Macedonian man beseeching him to come with the Gospel. (Acts 16:9,10)
 
The Lord appeared to Paul in either a dream or a vision bringing him encouragement and guidance. (Acts 18:9,10)
 
Paul experienced many visions in his lifetime. (2Corinthians 12:1)

References

“How to Recognize God-Given Visions” by Benny Hinn Ministries
 
“Prophecy Visions And Dreams” by OpenBible.info
 
“Supernatural Biblical Guidance” by Paster John Hamel
 
“What are Visions” by Alice L. Camille
 
 
 
 
EKG line fist 'life'

Walking Miracles When God Heals / Spiritual Meditations

On By Spiritual MeditationsIn Spiritual Experiences1 Comment

I don’t often hear about people being healed by God. Perhaps this is because with modern medicine and the ability of our amazing bodies to heal themselves, it is often difficult to recognize a miracle. But in the two experiences below, it is pretty obvious that healing miracles do happen.

Walking Miracle – Once Totally Paralyzed

My name is Riekie and this is how God healed me.

I gave my life to Christ when I was 11 years old. His love and guidance have always been with me.

The summer after my high school graduation, I came down with Polio. By the time I got to the hospital, I couldn’t move anything – I was completely paralyzed – I couldn’t even swallow.

I was very scared. As I prayed through most of the night, a calm came over me as I felt God’s love and protection [I have found this to be a distinguishing characteristic of God’s presence on the scene]. I kept thinking of Deut 33:27 “The eternal God is your refuge and underneath are the everlasting arms”. I felt those loving arms supporting me and protecting me.

The day they were going to put me in an iron lung, my fever broke and function began to return. Thanks be to God! I gradually began to walk and use my right arm, but the left one was completely paralyzed. However, over time some function returned. God was with me every step of the way.

My favorite Psalm became #139

You have searched me, LORD,
and you know me.
You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
Before a word is on my tongue
you, LORD, know it completely.
You hem me in behind and before,
and you lay your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.
Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.

God’s right hand was holding me fast and healing me.

During 2 months of rehab, my room mates were a young mother of 2 preschoolers (ages 2 and 4) and a 20-year-old member of the Ice Capades. We weren’t allowed visitors because this was before medical science was very knowledgeable about contagion. The mom missed her kids and the skater was going to miss a year of performing and could only return if her legs regained total strength. I was missing my first year of college with a full tuition scholarship. Whenever any of us was sad, we would all name 3 things we were grateful for. It worked every time – you can’t be grateful and depressed at the same time.

Now fast forward 2 years. I was wondering why God had spared me. What was it He had in mind for me? I thought and prayed about it and the answer was always the same ‘Become a nurse. Take care of My people’

Again Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”
He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.” (John 21:16)

Since childhood I had felt a calling to become a nurse, but after the Polio the doctors said it was no longer possible. They said I wasn’t strong enough and I had a pronounced weakness in my left hand and arm.

But I could feel the Holy Spirit nudging me [a feeling of urgency when God is encouraging us to act on something] so I applied to a school of nursing. There were 12 faculty members who did applicant interviews; one of them would decide if I would be admitted.

As it happened, the lady who interviewed me had one leg smaller and thinner than the other and walked with a limp. She said that I might have to do things differently, but that I should be able to find a way. Her final decision was “If I can do it, you can do it”. God sure did send me the right interviewer!

There were periods of challenge and fatigue, but God was always with me; every minute of every day. And I became a nurse.

Prayer:
Let us pray that God may strengthen us through His Holy Spirit, so that Christ may live in our hearts in love. And may we grasp how wide and long and deep is His love. We pray in His name. Amen

I want to share with you this wonderful contemporary song about God’s healing grace. I think you’ll like it.

Entitled “Walking Miracles”

Walking Miracle – 7% Chance of Recovery

Hi there, my name is Matthew.

About 20 years ago, I came down with a sudden sickness with much of the same symptoms of Covid19. Within 24 hours, I had respiratory distress diagnosed as double pneumonia. Because my body was laboring so hard to stay alive, the doctors wanted to put me in a coma. I agreed. It was only supposed to be for a week or two. I continued to get worse, with pancreatitis, adult respiratory distress syndrome, and other nasty things. The doctors tried to bring me out of the coma twice but were unable to do so without damage to my heart.

After 25 days the pastor of my church was told by the Spirit to “go lay your hands on Matthew and pray for his healing”. At approximately the same time the youth pastor at my church received the same message. This they did and three days later I awoke.

The doctors had told my wife that I only had a 7% chance to live. And that I would probably not have any more children and may have brain damage because of the high fever. It took several months of rehab to regain my strength but I’ve got three more kids now and the only remaining damage from the whole experience is nerve damage in one foot because the hospital medical staff did not put a boot on it..

While I slept, I was actually walking with the Lord. He had taken me up in the Spirit, and He used my coma to show me things.

In a video, Matthew is  going to describe his spellbinding 28-day vision in the next post. For a while his visions continued after he came out of the coma.  It is very unusual and deserves our attention considering the larger topic of visions, so please stay tuned. You will be amazed.

If you found this article to be interesting, informative, inspiring or useful please share it by clicking the social media icons below.  Thanks.

Relevant Scripture

Then Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelek, his wife and his female slaves so they could have children again, (Gen 20:17)

“See now that I myself am he! There is no god besides me. I put to death and I bring to life, I have wounded and I will heal, and no one can deliver out of my hand. (Deut 32:39)

LORD my God, I called to you for help, and you healed me. (Psalm 30:2)
Heal me, LORD, and I will be healed; save me and I will be saved, for you are the one I praise.(Jer 17:14)

Jesus turned and saw her. “Take heart, daughter,” he said, “your faith has healed you.” And the woman was healed at that moment. (Matt 9:22)

Aware of this, Jesus withdrew from that place. A large crowd followed him, and he healed all who were ill. (Matt 12:15)

then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. (Acts 4:10)

angel blowing kiss

Real Love Never Ends | Spiritual Meditations

On By Spiritual MeditationsIn Spiritual ExperiencesLeave a comment

Have you heard from your loved ones who have died? They have “full access to happenings on earth”, Gareth Atkins states, unambiguously, in his book Making and Remaking Saints in Nineteenth-Century Britain.

Who is he referring to and what are they doing with their access? The following excerpt is from the book Creed, by Adam Hamilton, the pastor of a large Methodist church. He explains how this idea syncs up with basic Christian beliefs.

The Communion of Saints

The apostle’s creed (central to Christian belief) speaks of the communion of saints. It is important to realize that the “saints” in the New Testament were not those who had been canonized by the church after death; rather, this was (the apostle) Paul ‘s preferred way of referring to all Christians. He addressed many of his letters either to “the saints” or “to those who are called to be saints.”

There’s one last thing to note about the phrase “communion of saints”. It involves the word communion and is one of the most beautiful ideas in Christian theology. The idea is that those who are becoming saints here on earth, and those who are saints in heaven (link post on heaven), still commune together.

I think our loved ones who have died continue to love and care for us and await the day when we will be reunited. I think they do pray for us. While protestants don’t pray to saints, they can pray for them, and I believe we can ask God to share with them what is in our hearts.

I believe the communion of saints means that there are moments in our lives here on earth when God says to those dear to us in heaven, “I want you to see something,“ and allows them to join us from above. I can’t prove it by quoting a chapter and verse in the Bible, but when I think of the communion of saints, this is one example of what I think that looks like.

Rev. Hamilton goes on to describe what has become a common practice at weddings in which a candle is lit in honor of a deceased close friend or relative.

Sometimes a memorial table is set up with photos and mementoes representing the inclusion of the deceased in the happy occasion. But do our deceased loved ones visit us on earth in special circumstances, as Hamilton and Atkins suggest?

Love Permeates the Curtain Between Life and Afterlife

Messages from heaven are real for those who receive them. However, this is a personal gift which is not perceived by people around them.

The Love of Fathers and Daughters

During an outdoor wedding, my friend Sophia, noticed a robin alight on a wall adjacent to the ceremony. The bird remained there until completion of the wedding; its attention fixed on all that was happening. Because it was odd behavior for a bird, Sophia wondered if someone close to the wedding party had recently died and was able to find out later that the bride’s father had just passed on…. someone who would definitely want to be there to see his little girl wed.

(This brings up a question about how God uses animals, which I’ll address in a future post.)

My friend, Jan, is an organist. She played for a wedding in which the bride’s father was to walk his daughter down the aisle. Unfortunately, he inopportunely passed away and his brother performed the honors. But during the rehearsal, Jan witnessed a diaphanous white vapor following close behind the bride and her uncle as they processed up the aisle. It was the bride’s mother who made the identification when she mentioned that she felt a strong presence of her deceased husband during the practice. He didn’t want to entirely miss giving his daughter away.

Family Love Overcomes Death’s Division

God’s great love for “the communion of saints” allows the love of the earthly saints and the heavenly saints to continue to be exchanged. This is a common occurrence, which I also have experienced with both of my parents and my grandmother, soon after their earthly departure.  Although, I had never told them, upon reaching heaven, my family knew what my concerns were and gave me the verifications that would relieve my mind. Based on their messages there can be no doubt that they were the source.

When Other People are the Conveyors of Love Messages

Not everyone, however, receives these messages via the ‘still small voice’ of the Holy Spirit, or their family members. Because He is all-loving and all-knowing, sometimes God uses methods of communication that are more vocal; that are more appropriate and effective for the person and situation. Sometimes He uses other people. This was the case with Lucy.

In December of 2015, Lucy’s mother died at her home in Austria. Lucy lives in the US, and made regular trips to see her mother, but she wasn’t there at the time of her mother’s passing. Rationally, she knew that the chances of her being in Austria when her mother died were unlikely, but she still regretted her own absence. To help bridge the gap after her death, Lucy would sometimes smell a lock of her mother’s hair so that she would feel closer to her.

A couple of months after her mother’s passing, Lucy was invited by a friend to attend an annual fashion show at which representatives of various clothing lines and beauty products would be available for consultation. Now, Lucy is a very busy lady and had declined her friend’s invitation for several years. But this time her friend insisted that she take a little time to have some fun and accompany her to the event. Lucy did not immediately accept but told herself that, if she found purple shoes to match a particular outfit that she wanted to wear, she would consider going. “What are the chances of that?” she thought.

However, five days before the show she was passing a local shoe store and thought she should at least make an effort, so she walked in. As soon as she was inside the door, she spotted purple shoes on the clearance rack in the back of the store. They were her size and the required shade of purple. Astounded, she made the purchase and was out of the store within minutes, now committed to attend the event.

During the show, Lucy felt urged to meet a man who was representing cosmetics. Having enjoyed the show and finishing lunch, she approached him on the pretense of making a small purchase. After the initial greeting, his first question to her was not about cosmetics but was “Did your mother recently pass away?” When she replied that she had, he grabbed her arm and said “I want you to know that she is right here with you” at which point he described Lucy’s mother. The man then said “She wants you to know that it is OK and she understands that you couldn’t come to Austria when she was dying. Don’t fret anymore.” He then told her how she, Lucy, smelled her mother’s hair on a regular basis.

Afterward, Lucy told her friend that she now knew why she had to come to the fashion show.

Biblical Reference to the Saints Among Us

Adam Hamilton rounds out his thoughts on deceased saints with these words:

in chapter 11 of the new testament letter to the Hebrews, the author describes the heroes and heroines of faith that came before his time, mentioning, among them, the patriarchs and matriarchs of ancient Israel. He begins the new chapter by writing “therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith” (Heb 12:1-2)”

Conclusion

As heaven is more wonderful than we can imagine, it is not surprising that our deceased loved ones are given the opportunity to occasionally observe the joyous events in the lives of their earthly family and give comfort, care, and messages.

Rev. Katie Shockley explains further our continuous close proximity with other saints.

When we gather in worship, we praise God with believers we cannot see. When we celebrate Holy Communion, we feast with past, present and future disciples of Christ. We experience the communion of saints, the community of believers –– living and dead. This faith community stretches beyond space and time. We commune with Christians around the world, believers who came before us, and believers who will come after us. We believe that the church is the communion of saints, and as a believer, you belong to the communion of saints.

References:

 Creed by Adam Hamilton

Atkins, Gareth (1 August 2016). Making and Remaking Saints in Nineteenth-Century Britain. Manchester University Press. p. 227. ISBN 9781526100238. In the other direction, he was willing to state unambiguously that the ‘saints in paradise’ had full access to happenings on earth.

 

Confession-Blogging Was Not My Idea | Spiritual Meditations

On By Spiritual MeditationsIn Social Issues, Spiritual Experiences, Your Spiritual LifeLeave a comment

You would think that we all have something we consider worthy of being conveyed to others.  But not me.  I had no aspirations to write, but my husband suggested it, so I took it under advisement for several days.  My passion for spiritualty was the only realm in which I felt I could generate any worthwhile thoughts.  Yet I had no topic ideas whatsoever. Because my husband’s suggestion came out of what looked like thin air, I thought perhaps God was behind it.  So I prayed something like “God, if you want me to do this, I’m going to need your help and some topic ideas”.  As I got up from that prayer, eight topics poured into my mind, so rapidly that I had to run to write them down, so as not to forget any.  As this was not the first time that God had spoken to me, I recognized His voice and knew He was endorsing the blogging project.  So here I am, a year later.

If  you did not start following my blog from the beginning, you’ve missed the story of God’s big intervention in my life – the first post listed below.  This one I did feel had to be told as it is a good example of how God is active in our world.  I hope you will find these, my first articles, interesting and/ or inspiring.

Clouds that represent God's presence with my at the airport

God’s Faithfulness Changed My life and Restored My Income by introducing Me to a Lady on an Airplane.

https://yourspiritualinspiration.com/2018/08/18/god-makes-things-happen/

 

Sunset over mountains and trees

A Glimpse Through the Thin Curtain between Life and Afterlife as Witnessed by Myself and a Friend.

https://yourspiritualinspiration.com/2018/08/23/curtain-between-life-afterlife/

 

Methaphor for the many who have entered the afterlife

Afraid of Death? Get to Know Your Unknown.  This points to the conclusion that Near Death Experiences are real with profound significance and meaning, and also provide evidence of life after death.

https://yourspiritualinspiration.com/2018/09/15/afraid-of-death-know-your-unknown/

 

Our genetics select the needy. You are born to help.

Why do You Think Low-Income Families Deserve Your Help?  Do we have a moral obligation to share the fruits of our inherited personality traits with individuals who inherited traits that don’t make money?

https://yourspiritualinspiration.com/2018/09/02/low-income-families-deserve-help/

 

 

 

 

car with front left flat tire

Coincidence or God Incidence?| Spiritual Meditations

On By Spiritual MeditationsIn Spiritual Experiences2 Comments

It happens all the time. Something surprising and fortuitous falls into place just as you would wish and just at the right time. And you wonder if some metaphysical force had something to do with it. Was it a coincidence or a God incidence? I’m going to tell you about two firsthand experiences, that I have to believe were conducted by God. Let me know what you think.

How Many Incidents are Too Many?

My husband, Bob, and I were traveling from Atlanta to near Tampa, a 455-mile drive on interstate 75. We had just finished working the two-week January gift show and our car trunk was full of products.

Suddenly the car in front of us swerved to the left and a second later we found out why. Directly in front of us was a stack of wooden pallets example ofwhat was hit by ar in God incidentwooden pallet that had fallen off a truck and we were headed straight for it. In spite of my husband’s efforts to avoid the pallet, there were cars all around us and we had no choice but to hit it. The collision caused us to violently swerve and spin around.  I was expecting the impact of another car, but it never came.  We, eventually stopped on the side of the road as the traffic whizzed by, terrified, but amazed, that we hadn’t been hit by one or more cars and badly injured.

After somewhat calming his nerves, my husband slowly continued down the highway. It only took moments before we realized the car had been damaged and would need immediate repairs. We pulled off the highway at the next exit where we were surprised to find a tire and repair shop. It was midafternoon and they were still open and able to make the repairs while we waited.

Replacing 2 tires and 3 chrome rims allowed us to continue our journey but now it was dark outside. A few miles down the road the car started sputtering which produced the dreadful sinking feeling. Because of the chaos of the last few hours, Bob had forgotten that he had been looking for a gas station before the accident. Once again, we pulled off the highway at the next exit.

This was an uphill exit so we could only coast part way. Bob walked to the top to find only empty space. We were in a rural area of South Georgia. It was cold and dark and there were no lights anywhere.

Not having AAA roadside service, we called 911. After what seemed like hours, a police woman with a bad cold arrived. She was there to provide security, but we still needed to obtain gas ourselves. It was miles to a gas station.

As we considered our option, a man in a pickup truck pulled in front of us and asked if he could help. Appraised of our situation, he offered to return with some gas. In the meantime, my husband couldn’t let the sick police woman stand in the cold by herself, so out he went. Twenty minutes later we started to wonder if our truck driver would be back.

Thankfully, he did return. It was when he got out of his truck that we could see that he had long hair and a beard and around his neck was a giant Christian cross. He poured the gas into our tank, we thanked him profusely, and offered him money to pay for the gas, which he adamantly refused. We started the car….well, we attempted to start the car.

We had initially made several attempts to get to the top of the ramp. And because we had the emergency light on since we stopped, our battery was now dead. But our Good Samaritan hadn’t left yet. So back he went to get charger cables.

A while later we were finally able to continue our trip. However, by now, I don’t think the police woman thought us capable of taking care of ourselves. So, she followed us to the next exit where we could get gas. We were so grateful for her care that we pulled a few gift items out of the trunk and, against her protest, we insisted that she take them.

As we entered the restaurant next to the gas station, we were exhausted and emotionally drained. But also, giddy and laughing at how unbelievable the day had been. We had made it out alive.

We survived the accident without a scratch. We found a tire garage immediately at the first exit. A Good Samaritan went out of his way, twice, to help. God incident? Maybe God was making our crooked path straight. What do you think?

September 11, 2001 – World Trade Center

In August of 2001, my husband, Bob and I were in NY city for a trade show. We represented several gift manufacturers and were negotiating with another company to represent them as well. The new company had a small office and 7 employees at the World Trade Center and wanted us to visit their office after the trade show and before leaving town. As much as we would have liked to do so, we were unable to fit the visit into our schedule.

On Sept 11, 2001, I was in my home office. Bob was on the phone with a lady at one of the companies we worked with, who told him that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. I ran to the TV to see what was being broadcast and I watched as the 2nd plane flew into the side of the 2nd tower. This was obviously, no accident. Our first concern was for the people that we had met, who worked there.  It took several anxious days before we were able to connect with anyone from the company. The story they told was nothing less than a miracle.

The owner of the company was delayed in leaving a trade show in Boston. As a result, she asked an employee to cover for her at a 2nd trade show, so neither of them was at their office. A third employee was running late and a fourth had to drop off her child at daycare before coming in. She was on the bridge crossing into Manhattan when the 1st plane struck. The fifth employee stayed home with the flu and the 6th had left the building to run some errands. The 7th company employee was at the printer’s working on their catalog.

No one from the company was at their World Trade Center office on Sept 11th when the planes struck. Someone was taking care of this little group.

What was the latest God incidence you have had?

Relevant Scripture

Psalm 34:7
The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and he delivers them.

Isaiah 45:2
I will go before you and make crooked places straight

Psalm 23:4
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me: