During the end of September and beginning of October, Sheri's Dad had three occurrences of "passing out" - one of which ended him up in the hospital thanks to a fall. During October he had several normal previously scheduled check-ups with his various doctors. Last Thursday was his cardiology appointment. In reading the follow-up report from that visit, the doctor termed those "passing out" events as "ABORTED SUDDEN DEATH". The doctor explained to him during that visit that on each of those occasions his heart had gone wild - beating chaotically. This caused his heart to stop - he was clinically DEAD - but then his heart restarted. Because his heart restarted, he is physically alive.
Since the fall of Adam and Eve, all people come into this earthly life as "spiritually dead". Ephesians 2 describes that life. People are DEAD in trespasses and sins - they conduct their lives in the lusts of the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and the mind and are by nature children of wrath. That is a dark and dismal picture - a wild and chaotic life.
"But God".. those words give a picture of changing that dark, dismal, wild, chaotic, fear-filled life. "BUT God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, MADE US ALIVE together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)... Because Jesus paid the penalty for sin by His death we can be MADE ALIVE. Colossians 2 adds that when we are made alive we are forgiven all our sins. From a spiritual perspective maybe this episode would be termed "ABORTED SPIRITUAL DEATH" or "ABORTED ETERNAL DEATH"
2nd Corinthians 5 reminds us that those who are in Christ, are new creations. Instead of conducting ourselves in the lust of the flesh, we should walk by faith; we should make it our aim to be pleasing to God; we should be compelled by the love of Christ and God has given us the privilege to be ambassadors for Christ imploring those who are spiritually dead to be reconciled to or made right with God.
Prayer and Praise
- It is good to give thanks to the Lord. Praise the Lord for His goodness, His mercy, His truth, His love, His faithfulness (God is Worthy of our praise!).
- Praise the Lord for modern medical technology. Duane Anderson, author of most of the current materials available through S&E, is scheduled to have a different pacemaker and defibrillator device implanted on December 7. He is currently wearing a life vest which has an external defibrillator. Pray for strength for him and Joanne as they go through this process.
- Praise God for those He has placed in positions of "governing authority". Pray for our current and future elected officials. Pray that the policies they enact will not prohibit sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ openly.
- During the month of November, remember those who are in parts of the world that suffer true persecution for their trust in Jesus Christ. Pray that the Bible training materials provided by S&E will be a help and comfort to them as they minister to those whom they serve.
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Praise the Lord for His sovereignty and wisdom. As people around us have been focusing on earthly political power, only God could have orchestrated the weekly email topics (numbers 68-72 of the Matthew series) which have been sent out this month covering the reality of Jesus' Coming Kingdom including: "Jesus Taught About Riches and Rewards", "Jesus Gave a Parable About Laborers", "Jesus Heard the Request of James and John", "Jesus Explained About True Leadership" and "Jesus Offered Himself as King". Praise the Lord for His coming eternal Kingdom.
- Pray for wisdom for the S&E board in planning for the coming year at their upcoming meeting this weekend.
We praise the Lord and Thank YOU - for YOUR part in this outreach. May God continue to be glorified as we serve HIM together.
