I have not posted a new blog of late since I, being 90 yrs old, had a flu like syndrome and developed pneumonia. I got so short of breath that I almost died and was transferred to Hospice. Everyone thought I would, but God was not ready for me so I am back. My faith stood me in good stead during my ordeal. On two nights I became delirious and hallucinated strange geometric patterns that looked like electronic circuits. I thought it was a harbinger of the end of the world. Then I thought well it is going to come sooner or later so why not now? I had perfect peace about my illness. I had lived a good life and I had something to look forward to. You see we Christians have a futurology. It is part of our worldview that is not possessed by the world. They look forward to extinction, but since they are infinitely interested in existing they have conflict. It is interesting that 90% of people think they going to heaven,or hope they are going, while only 30% of them are born again, and are assured of their future. Think of the alternatives when we die. There are only two of them. We either go to heaven or hell. there is no real choice here, but 70% of people believe Satan's lies and assure themselves of a future that is horrible to contemplate.
I tell you this because it is incumbent on us to offer them the chance to escape. That is why we need to become once again a priesthood of believers. We have to carry the gospel into the world, and witness to them. We all have people who we have as friends or family who are unsaved. All of them have spiritual disease. Since we are along side them we have a chance to ask them how are things these days. They are going to tell us that everything is OK, but if they get stressed they will tell us that they are not OK. There are so many things that can go wrong that sooner or later they will tell us about them. For example a friend of mine for 54 years retired, became handicapped, and we saw little of each other. One day he called me and wanted to come see me. When he arrived he was obviously extremely anxious. He had discovered that he had macular degeneration and was going blind. Treatment was started, but after several treatments there were complications, and he became quite depressed. His primary care physician started him on an antidepressant that helped his depression but he still had panic attacks that were very upsetting. I knew what to do so I called his primary care physician, and asked him to put him on a medication that was specific for panic attacks. I told my friend, though, that Jesus could help too, but he told me he was not ready for that . He did though call me everyday to let me know how he was doing. A couple of weeks later I offered him Christ again, and again he refused. Several phone calls later he grated me with "I'm ready to accept Christ". I was surprised, but not shocked, and explained to him what he was about to do. He accepted this explanation so I told him that two things were necessary, He had to sincerely make Jesus Lord of his life, and believe he was resurrected from the dead (Romans 10;9,10). He wanted to do that so we prayed and he accepted Christ as Lord and Master and acknowledged that he believed he was resurrected. He had, as expected, a radical transformation and was healed. When he calls now he always tells me that he loves me, and asks me spiritual questions. He also tells me about thingS he is reading in the large print Bible I gave him. He was healed of unbelief, which was his primary spiritual disease, and became a new person. You can do the same thing if you are an authentic Christian.
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