The Lord My Healer and Friend

Before I received eternal life I was physically in pain from a broken rib.

I remember going to church for the first time in over 12 years and encountering a peace that I did not know existed. I was suffering from a broken rib at the time that had not healed properly. The rib pain was causing breathing issues and an inability to work effectively at my place of employment. I remember the pastor coming up to my girlfriend and I and sharing about Jesus with us. He talked about Jesus healing people and casing out demons. I had been raised up in a southern baptist church and was taught nothing about what the pastor was telling us. We then left the church and went to our car to leave but something was nudging me to share with the pastor about my broken rib. So I turned around and went back inside. I told him that I had broken it during a fight at a club when I was drinking. Then he, his wife, and their young son prayed for me right there at the church. They put oil on my head and prayed for God to heal me. A couple of days later I was changing my clothes and looked down and my rib was no longer sticking out from my rib cage! I freaked out, I was heavily into drugs then and wasn't sure what I was seeing was true. I showed my girlfriend and she freaked out too! Then once we sort of calmed down we tried to figure out what had happened and that led me to call the pastor and tell him. I will never forget what he said: "well we prayed for you right? I said "okay" and he said "that God would heal you" I said "okay" and then it hit me, Jesus healed me!! God's love came over me like a flood, I immediately got rid of all my drugs and I have been following Him for 26 years now.

I chose to follow Him, I accepted His work on the cross for my sins and receive eternal life from Him.

Now that I have received eternal life I have joy, peace, and purpose.

I went through a horrible divorce with my wife in 2007 and one night as I was driving around feeling hopeless and in despair I decided to pull over and park my car. I sat there as the rain came down, in the dark and decided that I really wanted to continue to feel the hopelessness. So I reached down to put the drivers seat back when my hand encountered a soft feathery feeling. I immediately pulled my hand away and turned on the interior light. Then I looked down near the lever and saw the body of a a bird! I carefully pulled it out and realized that it was a sparrow. That was when I started to laugh at myself, and hear the voice of the Lord remind me that not one of these sparrows falls to the ground without His father knowing about it, are you not more valuable than the birds? I cried tears of joy as I held that bird in my lap, laughed at how ridiculous I must've looked to my Heavenly Father when I try to wallow in my sadness. To this day I do not know how the bird got into my car, we had a garage, I kept the windows closed, and the incident has never happened again.

The last words my mother said to me while on her death bed was "why should I be afraid." It wasn't a question, it was a statement she was making, a declaration of a life well lived in service to her savior and king. The week prior to this encounter with my mother was fraught with doubt and fear, she expressed that she did not want to die and felt afraid. My mother, the woman of faith that she was sharing her fears with me of passing on shook me to my core. It caused me to question many things and face the one doubt that I have always had...eternal life. The night my mother called each of her children into her she had not spoken a word the entire day. The hospice director had expressed to us that the end was near and we were to say our final goodbyes. My mother called my brother in and asked him if he knew "where he was going" he responded that he was spending the night at a nephew's home but my mother was not asking for his earthly destination, she was asking about his eternal destination. As I entered the room I saw her face light up, I went to her side and she looked at me with her eyes wide open and said very confidently "WHY SHOULD I BE AFRAID." That statement immediately silenced all of my fears and doubts! I was quickly reminded of Psalms 27 and I began reading it loudly and sharing the good news with my other family members. Now I know that there is a Heaven and through Christ I have eternal life. I looked forward to seeing Jesus and my momma when I get there.