There are several revelations that have lit up the world through history. John the Baptist gave us the sign of the new era when he said: “Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” Up until that simple declaration there was no way out of sin except for an intricate religious system of law and sacrifices.
Martin Luther brought back into focus a way of life lost to generations when He said, “The just shall live by faith.” This lifted the burden of fear off of the world who had no confidence in a heavenly future.
F.F. Bosworth said: “Physical healing is in redemption.” This gave confidence to millions to claim and receive their healing when no physical evidence was present.
What simple statements are bringing peace, power, and purpose into your life?
Scriptures: John 1:29, Rom. 1:17, 1 Peter 2:24, Isaiah 53:3-5
More physicians today believe that medicine alone cannot deal with some of today’s worst illnesses, according to a statement issued by an organization composed of medical professionals who believe in divine healing.
Dr. Sean Thomas George, a consultant physician from West Australia, told his amazing story at an Australian Conference on “Spirituality and Medicine.” George told the crowd that after returning with his intern from a clinic session on the south coast of Australia, he felt minor chest pains and he was “unusually hot.” He decided to stop the car and as he got out, still feeling the discomfort, he called his wife, also a doctor, to let her know what was happening. She suggested that he drive straight home.
George said he felt “divinely directed” to enter a clinic, where he used an electro-cardiogram to diagnose a heart attack and to receive a few drugs they had on hand. The pain continued to get worse, and 11 minutes later his heart completely stopped beating! Not only did he have a heart attack but he was in cardiac arrest. For the next 60 minutes a team of doctors and nurses used more than 4,000 chest compressions and gave him 13 electrical shocks.
His heart and lungs did not respond. After one hour and 10 minutes, George was pronounced dead. Ten minutes later, his wife arrived and was told to go in and say her last words.
His wife, also a medical doctor, understood the seriousness of the situation and as a believer in Jesus Christ as Her Savior, she decided to humbly ask God to intervene. She held Dr. George’s hand and prayed “Lord Jesus, he is only 39, and I am only 38 and we have a 10-year-old boy. I need a miracle.” As soon as she said this it was as though someone had breathed life into Dr. George again and his heartbeat came back. George had come back from the dead.
Four hours later, George was flown to Royal Perth Hospital where doctors carried out an emergency procedure to clear a severely blocked artery on the right side of the heart. The attending physician thought George would not survive, and even if he did, he would be completely brain dead on a ventilator. In ICU, George had kidney and liver failure and went into a deep coma.
Against all odds, he opened his eyes three days later, was discharged after two weeks, and returned to full-time work following three months of steady recovery!
Perhaps today you find yourself in a difficult situation and you are in need of help? I want you to know that a prayer as simple as Mrs. George’s prayer could be the key to your miracle today!
My brother-in-law Pat is one of those amazing individuals who exemplifies the “COURAGE TO CARE.” Several years ago he was fighting a fire in downtown Detroit, a city that is infamous for the fires set in its scores of abandoned buildings.
What did Pat do? He jumped through a tiny basement window just in time to stop a man from setting a policewoman on fire! Somehow Pat wrestled her free of the assailant who had just doused her with gasoline and had a lighter in his hand! His act of courage saved the woman, the house, and possibly his entire company.
I asked Pat – “How did you do this?” His response was simple: ”You do the things you must to protect people. I am not sure I even thought about it…I just acted!”
I want to challenge you today to act on your instinct to help! Don’t be a bystander in life when you can be a participator! You can find the courage to care and you can change your nation, your family and your life!
Don’t ask what life can do for you, but ask, “What can I do to better the lives of others?” Remember Jesus said, Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends!
In 1988, an earthquake devastated the northwestern section of Armenia, killing an estimated 25,000 people. After the earthquake, a father rushed to his son’s school only to discover that the school had been flattened. The father remembered dropping off his son earlier that day, and as he did every day he told his son, “No matter what, I’ll always be here for you!”
When the father saw the school he feverishly began removing rubble from where he believed his son’s classroom had been. The other parents were wailing, “My son!” “My daughter!” Some even told the father to go home, that there was no chance any of the students were alive. But the father replied, “I made my son a promise that I’d be there for him anytime he needed me. I must continue to dig.”
Courageously, he proceeded alone. He simply had to know: is my boy alive or is he dead? With seemingly supernatural strength, this father continued to dig…for 8 hours…12 hours…24 hours…36 hours.
Then, in the 38th hour, he heaved away a heavy piece of rubble and heard voices. “Armand!” he screamed. “Dad! It’s me…Armand! I told the other kids not to worry. I told them that if you were alive, you’d save us! Dad, take them out first, I know you’ll be here for me!”
Moments later the father was helping his son Armand and 13 other frightened, hungry, thirsty boys and girls climb out of the debris. How could this happen? When the building collapsed, these children had been spared in a tent-like pocket. When the townspeople praised Armand’s dad, his explanation was, “I promised my son, ‘No matter what, I’ll be there for you!'”
Who is your neighbor? Who are you required to help in this world? Should you be involved in the business of rescuing others? Or is it just better to sit by and watch people suffer?
A religious leader asked Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?” Jesus replied with a story about a man who was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes and beat him, leaving him almost dead.
A priest saw the injured man and quickly passed on the opposite side of the road. So did a second priest! Then a Samaritan man, considered lowlier than a dog but evidently having some wealth, took pity on the stranger, bandaged his wounds, put him in an inn and cared for him. Jesus then posed this question, “Which of these three men was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hand of the robbers?”
The religious leader responded, “The one who had mercy on him.” In every human soul, there is a void—an emptiness, waiting to be filled. What will you pursue to fill that void—success, family, prosperity, education? Or are you willing to step out and set a different standard for your life? A standard that can make a difference?
Our third power-phrase is this: The difference between great and small people is that while all may fall, small people just fall but great people get up again.
You see, positive thinking is the power to look at your situation and find just one positive aspect, one positive thought that you can hold on to in order to transform your negative situation into an opportunity!
Regardless of what you may face today remember this, NEVER GIVE UP! You may be at the end of your rope but remember… one positive thought has the power to loosen the grip of impossibility and propel you forward into possibility!
The second power-phrase I want you to ponder this week is: “Great people are ordinary people with extraordinary determination.”
Standing before a large audience of farmers, Dr. Schuller recalled another family tragedy. During the great depression and several years before the tornado disaster, a drought destroyed the family crops, forcing his father to mortgage everything to survive. Dr. Schuller recalled entering the bank and seeing a sign on the wall that stated “Great people are ordinary people with extraordinary determination.”
Five years after the destructive tornado, Schuller’s father had completely rebuilt the farm, paid off the mortgage taken after the Great Depression drought and retired a successful man!
Have you ever considered how to generate a positive thought? Over the next three days I want to introduce 3 power-phrases for you to frequently recite, and allow them to fill your sails with the wind of positive expectation!
First, Tough times never last but tough people do.
This phrase comes from the title of one of over 37 books authored by Dr. Robert Schuller, pioneer of the first television church service.
Living positive in a negative world, or developing positive thinking patterns in difficult situations, provides a creative energy and stamina necessary to tackle life’s biggest challenges.
You may be thinking, “If you only knew the problems I am facing!” Well, Dr. Schuller’s family certainly had their own share of problems. His own father, at the age of 60, lost everything when a devastating tornado destroyed their livestock, their crops, the family home and their barn. Nothing was left! Ten farms were utterly destroyed by that storm. Only one man rebuilt! http://bit.ly/1EFXOOW
A man once wrote of this experience. As a small town prepared to be flooded before the building of a large dam, a unique thing happened. In the months before the flooding, all improvements and repairs stopped! Why paint a house if it will be destroyed in a few months? As week by week the town deteriorated, the man offered this conclusion, “Where there is no faith in the future, there is no power in the present.”
Hope is the picture of the future. Without that picture there is no confidence to move forward and certainly no power by which to live!
If you need hope today, you’ll find inspiring resources at LeslieMcNulty.com—you will find stories of people just like you discovering hope for everyday life! http://bit.ly/1EEHSMX
Recently a leading global medical research institute listed these benefits attributed to positive thinking:
- Longer life expectancy
- Increased resistance to the common cold
- Lower rates of depression
- Lower risk of heart disease and related death
- Better overall psychological health
- Lower stress levels
- Better stress management and coping skills
- Increased physical well-being
These facts alone should enthuse you about the real life benefits of thinking positively. One positive thought can indeed cultivate the dream that is in your heart! http://bit.ly/1FcdCOj
