Forward to the Kingdom!

A friend in the UCG Cincinnati East congregation shared his meaningful prayer/poem with me. Dean Hostetler wrote this “when I thought I was dying and God gave me a reprieve on life.” He wrote it Aug. 21, 200l, when he was 81 years old.

Our Father, thank you for calling us out of this evil earth

And help us repent of our evil ways and receive a new birth.

Now we’ve been buried with Christ in a watery grave

And left Satan there in his sins to rant and rave.

Our Father, help us to start our new life

Head bowed in prayer...

Free from Satan and all his strife.

Help us to keep Your commandments, Sabbath and Holy Days

That we won’t be distracted by evil and leave Your ways.

Our Father, ahead we can see the light

So help us to follow the straight and narrow and stray not left or right.

Help us live our lives solely for Thee

And if it falls our lot to be martyred, so let it be.

Now through this life of suffering and pain

Doing Your will, we’ll have eternal life to gain.

At death’s door You’ve shown me a raging sea

But through prayer, we find peace and calm, the way it’s to be.

Father, thank You for allowing us to live our allotted time

And through our example others have found their gold mine.

Lord, when we’re martyred for Your sake

Let us remember two wrongs a right does not make.

Our Father, we’ve run hard and long in life’s race

And struggled through all pains of life to see Your grace.

Now that our life is almost ended

May we receive the crown, on which living our life has depended.

So dear Father, be merciful to us, as we prepare to meet You any day

In Jesus’ name we pray

Amen.

By guest blogger Kirsten Nelte

Gareth was born the day the biblical Feast of Tabernacles began, two years ago. We began that Feast excited, exhausted, exhilarated. Especially since we were going to be staying home, my husband Mike and I had prayed that God would make this a very meaningful Feast for us. And it was. In fact, that year, when my son almost died, was the very best Feast of my life.

The first day of the Feast we found the time to listen to a sermon on the Internet during one of our new baby’s naps. A couple of family members came over to visit, we ate good food and tried to get some sleep. The second day our midwife came over to check on Gareth. She took off his clothes and told us to take him to the hospital immediately. Gareth was yellow all over. She knew it was bad. She had no idea how bad.

We took him in to get blood tests. They sent us home, then immediately called us back in.

I scurried to get us quickly packed up. But I didn’t come out of the nursery. My husband, Mike, came in to see what was taking so long and saw me just staring at Gareth’s new dresser full of baby clothes. Tiny shirts, pants, hats, socks—all green and yellow because we had not known if we were having a boy or a girl. “I can’t pick out the clothes our baby might die in,” was all I could say.

Gareth was jaundiced. We tell people that and they say, “Oh, yes, so was my child.” Sixty percent of babies have some jaundice shortly after being born. Jaundice is caused by a high bilirubin count, which in turn is caused by the newborn’s inability to break down red blood cells properly. A bilirubin count above 10 is usually treated. At Gareth’s age, a number above 15 would mean he was in the high risk group for kernicterus, which causes loss of hearing and permanent brain damage. A blood transfusion is usually performed in this case. The highest the doctors and nurses had seen was 28. Gareth’s count was 38.

In the emergency room they placed my tiny baby under blue lights and informed us that we would no longer be able to hold him. The tubes were inserted and the monitors set up as the doctor let us know that Gareth had kernicterus, was probably deaf already and we would just have to wait and see how much brain damage had already occurred.

Our minister came in right around then and prayed for Gareth’s healing, anointing him (James 5:14). At the time, I just could not believe his words of encouragement, his words about how God cares so much for all of us, especially the smallest and weakest, and how everything really would be all right. All I could hear was that Gareth was screaming in a very high pitch. One of the first signs of permanent brain damage. And I wasn’t allowed to hold him.

It is so hard to explain to somebody who has never had a baby how attached you become the instant he or she enters your arms, your life, your soul. I had only had Gareth for two days. Yet…

You may be thinking that I was being facetious when I called this my best Feast ever. But here’s the thing. I had no idea how much suffering was in the world, and how much it twists and crushes and destroys the human heart, until this happened. I had never really known pain before. I had never really appreciated why it was so necessary for Christ to return. Now I know. God’s message to me was clear, and there is no way I will ever forget it. My husband and I heard few sermons during the Feast of 2007. We had very little fellowship with the brethren, besides family members who came to visit us. Our fine food and drink came from a hospital cafeteria. And you could certainly consider a hospital room a temporary dwelling!

At the beginning of the third day, Gareth had a double volume blood transfusion, which means at the end of the process he only had 10 percent of his own blood. Mike and I had to sign a sheet saying we understood that this could mean diseases, other issues I cannot remember now or death. We read a lot of Psalms that day and a bit of Isaiah.

About 24 hours after the transfusion, some caring family members sent us home to get some sleep. We were away from the hospital about four hours. In that time, we cried, we prayed, and then we tried to rest. I woke up about an hour later to Mike frantically throwing our blankets around the room. “Where’s Gareth? Where’s Gareth?” he kept asking. “Where’s my son?” I gently woke him from his nightmare, only to realize we were in a real one. We held each other, cried some more, but didn’t really sleep that night.

The fourth day we were able to hold Gareth for small amounts at a time. Then a lady came with a hearing test for infants and gave us the whole spiel about how, even if the results were quite bad, it was still possible for Gareth to gain some hearing later on. The human brain is incredible, after all.

God is incredible, after all.

He promises that some day He will take away the pain; He will wipe away every tear. That includes all the parents who have lost their little ones, or who have seen their helpless babies undergo pain and suffering.

Gareth’s hearing test came back totally normal, which also indicated that there was no brain damage at all. The doctors and nurses said it had to be a miracle. He was completely healed.

That was the best Feast ever.

Kirsten Nelte attends the United Church of God congregations in Tacoma and Bellevue, Washington.

Editor’s note: Thanks, Kirsten! If you have answered prayer story you’d like to share, let me know. For more answered prayers, see our answered prayers category.

After seeing the popularity of made-up words like freakonomics and staycation, I decided it was time to coin one of my own. Ta-dah: SpirituReality!

The popularity of “spirituality” has risen, even as interest in “religion” and organized churches declines. But part of the popularity of being a “spiritual” person may be that it is kind of vague and can mean just about anything you want it to mean. Spiritual can be a warm and fuzzy feeling or even an invisible aura. But for most people, compared to the real, solid physical things our lives depend on, the spiritual realm doesn’t seem very real.

Enter “spirituReality.” It’s my way of trying to say: The spiritual realm is actually more real than those physical things we focus on.

Take a mountain, for instance. Jesus Christ said spiritual power could make a mountain move (Matthew 21:21)! Actually, the mountain wouldn’t be there in the first place if the invisible, spiritual God hadn’t created it.

God is real, and our short lives are just a vapor compared to Him (James 4:14).

One of my favorite examples of spirituReality comes from the book of 2 Kings chapter 6. The enemy Syrians had sent “horses and chariots and a great army” to surround the city where the prophet Elisha and his servant were. When the servant saw the army, he cried out, “What shall we do?” (verse 15).

Elisha’s answer showed he understood spirituReality: “Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them” (verse 16).

What? A great army vs. two guys? What was Elisha thinking!

Elisha knew the servant didn’t understand, so he decided to ask God to open the curtains to the real reality that the servant couldn’t see. “Elisha prayed, and said, ‘Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.’ Then the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw. And behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha” (verse 17).

Ever tried to find a picture of a chariot of fire?

Now I’ve never seen a chariot of fire, but I’m pretty sure it could beat any other chariot, tank, missile, submarine, destroyer, bomber or anything else that real, physical men could throw at it.

SpirituReality. That’s what I’m talking about.

What do you think? Is my new word catchy? Corny? Contrived? Confusing? Creative?

Thanks to her mom’s encouragement, Tiffany Schulz shared a story of answered prayer to add to our series:

About a year ago I had gotten a new job. I was very excited about it, as this was the first permanent job I’d had in some years. All I had been able to get were temp jobs, and they didn’t offer any insurance or benefits to their workers.

I eagerly filled out the information to start receiving health insurance that my new job offered. But with the costs attached to receiving their health insurance, I had to pick and choose what I really wanted. So I chose a health insurance plan and an optometry plan. I decided that I probably wouldn’t need any dental coverage…at least not to the point where I’d have an urgent need to go see a dentist within the next year, after which I could choose to add it on if I felt the need. I thought by waiting to receive the dental coverage, it would be a way to save a little bit of money.

Toothache!

About a month later, my wisdom teeth started to come in. The first one that came in didn’t really bother me that much. So, I thought I’d be able to let them grow in, and there would be no need to have them removed.

But then the second one started to come in. And that one was painful. It was the bottom right tooth, and it came in by pushing the tooth next to it over, so that it would have room to grow.

There was nothing that I could do, though, so I just had to tough it out.

Then…the third one started to come in. This one was the bottom left tooth. The pain was excruciating. It was nothing like the first two. It was coming in, in a way that was cutting into my cheek. My cheek quickly became swollen, to the point that I couldn’t close my mouth without biting down on it. The pain from the tooth pushing through the skin became sharp and intense. It spread across the side of my jaw and up into my ear. It got to the point where I couldn’t sleep at night.

It was one of these nights at about 3 a.m., laying there crying, that I started to wonder how much longer I could handle this. The tooth itself hadn’t even broken through the skin yet. I knew that I had several more months before it would complete its process of coming in.

So I started to pray.

I asked God for the healing of my tooth. I told Him how I had no dental insurance, and there was no way my husband and I (being in our first year of marriage) would have the money to have the tooth removed at full cost. It was completely out of my control. I asked God to please take it in His hands.

As I finished my prayer, I felt all of the pain in my jaw disappear. I laid there as I felt the swelling inside my mouth simply go away. I timidly closed my jaw, and to my astonishment, I was able to close it without biting the inside of my cheek. The sharp pain I had climbing up the side of my face and into my ear was completely gone.

I had been healed. Instantly. God had heard my prayer, and answered with mercy.

It is something I will never forget. I continue to thank God for what He did that night.

It’s been a month now, and the tooth has stopped coming in. I’ve experienced no pain since He healed me, and I have full faith that I never will.

God saw my need, and He provided.

Thanks, Tiffany! If you have answered prayer story you’d like to share, let me know.

Artur Aleksandrov graduates through answered prayers!

The latest UCG Nordic/Baltic/Eastern European Newsletter has an inspiring story of answered prayer. A courageous high school senior in Tallinn, Estonia, came in contact with the United Church of God about two years ago, and has come to believe in the importance of keeping the biblical Sabbath.

But “he had important exams to take, some of which had to be taken on the Sabbath Day. If not taken, he wouldn’t be able to graduate, and worse, [he would] be denied admission for further education and [would] look at a bleak future. This did not dissuade Artur.  He put God first.  And God responded and blessed him mightily.  The words below are Artur’s. We found them inspiring as we hope you will, too.”

Click on the this link to see “Putting Faith in God First–Artur Aleksandrov’s Courageous Story.”

Thanks to Herb Teitgen and his daughter Carla Erickson for these updates, photos and reflections about the flooding he asked us to pray about:

“We need volunteers to sandbag!” That was the call to action heard on the radio stations in the Fargo and Grand Forks, North Dakota, areas, during the flood in March 2009.

Volunteers filled thousands of sandbags.

Volunteers quickly responded in the communities up and down the Red River. Sandbags went up around homes, subdivisions, schools and businesses that were in harm’s way. 

In the Fargo/Moorhead area the Red River crested at 40.6 feet on March 28. Flood stage is 18 feet; major flood stage is 30 feet.

Mr. Teitgen’s house was spared. He said, “I was grateful that God was merciful and held back the rain that was predicted, so it wouldn’t flood so much.”

One couple who lost five company buildings, but whose house was spared, stated, “We were grateful for God’s protection with only minor seepage, but the sewer backup really stinks!”

An elderly United Church of God member had to be evacuated for two weeks, uncertain when she would return to her apartment, and stayed at another elderly lady’s home.

One young man mentioned he was encouraged to see people responding so quickly, neighbors helping neighbors, as well as the local hotels providing rooms for evacuees. 

Another member mentioned that she is grateful for being protected from the floodwaters. She explained, “I think America saw the ideal when this area went into action. People didn’t blame…strangers just showed up to help. I wish everyone could know how amazing it is to have faith in people restored!”

Here’s what a Bismarck/Mandan Church member had to say about her area, where the Missouri River flooded, “It was heartwarming to see everybody pitching in with cheerful attitudes to support one another in a time of need.”

Scene of the flooding in the Fargo area.

She added, “There will be lost revenue for…farmers. This is due to water still standing on fields [that] won’t dry up for several weeks.  This will affect food supply of the USA.” She stated positively, “Thy Kingdom Come (today would be good!).”

Everett Corbin, a member of the United Church of God in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, reported:

April 10 an EF-4 tornado (estimated at 170 miles an hour) took a 15-mile route through the outskirts of Murfreesboro, damaging and destroying homes in an area a half-mile wide. According to the Daily News Journal, some 50 people were injured, including the death of a young mother and her infant child. Some 117 homes were totally destroyed and at least 845 damaged to various degrees.

I was driving toward the VA Hospital, viewing the menacing black twister on the left side of the highway… The tornado tore across the highway, with debris of every kind thundering into my van, and a huge piece of one home landing on top of my vehicle, then lifting and sailing away.

I was too afraid to be scared, and immediately said more than one silent prayer. God once again came to my rescue in the nick of time. When it was all over, there were a few scratches, nothing more, on the hood of my van.

Some said it sounded like a freight train roaring through, but all I heard were the thuds of these missiles from destroyed homes as they came at me from all directions.

God does indeed protect us in sending angels to our rescue time and time again.

We are always saddened to hear of the death and destruction caused by these terrifying twisters, but are so glad to hear that Mr. Corbin is safe. Please pray for everyone’s protection especially during this tornado season (weather.com says “tornadoes are more prevalent from April through July,” though they can form any time of year).

 For more answered prayers, see our answered prayers category.

I just received a wonderful newsletter put out by the United Church of God congregations in Fairview Heights, Illinois, and St. Louis and Rolla, Missouri! It’s called Women of Promise, and thankfully they were willing to let me share a few of the great articles here in this blog.

This first short article, by editor Karen Meeker, tells a story of answered prayer that ties in with the solemn and meaningful biblical festival that Jesus kept with His disciples on the evening before He gave His life (Luke 22:15). Members of the United Church of God still commemorate the Passover today.

Mrs. Meeker wrote:

Passover season always evokes memories in me-of stirring events in the Bible, and stirring events in life. One such event occurred about 20 years ago. We had observed the solemn night with all its symbolism, and the last song had been sung when we received a message that one of our members was having an emergency C-section due to serious complications.

We, along with several others, rushed to the hospital to learn that a baby boy had been born, and it was touch and go for both mother and son. My husband and another elder anointed and prayed for them both to be healed, and we passed a fretful night and ensuing days and weeks not knowing what the outcome would be.

I bumped into the mother and dad recently at a 50th wedding anniversary celebration for mutual friends. They both told me, each in their own excited way, that their baby boy, Ben, now a fine young man, had been baptized and would take the Passover with them for the first time this year.

It seemed so symbolic-a firstborn son who was spared his physical life as a tiny baby was now to be granted the possibility of eternal life through the miracle of baptism and the laying on of hands. This will indeed be a Passover to remember for friends and family alike.

If you would like to receive a PDF file of Women of Promise, send me your e-mail address.

Another reader sent a story of how God answered her prayers. Debbie Indelicato, a deaconess in the St. Louis, Missouri, congregation of the United Church of God, shared this story about her early experiences coming to know God:

“It was a very cold winter day, snow flying all around in between the tall downtown buildings, gray slush piled up to the public bus tires and everyone pushing ahead to get on and get out of the freezing cold to head home. Snuggled in my seat next to a window looking out, my thoughts were on God as they had been since I had just started coming to the Church of God. I came out of a different religious belief that had been with me all my life.

“But this was so real, so different. I had always had faith that there was a God, but I was troubled by what I was beginning to get myself into. I really needed more proof about, ‘God, are you real?’

“As I was staring out the window and the bus was slowly driving down the busy street, I saw two little blonde-headed girls standing on the corner of the street with their mother. Their hands were beet red from the freezing snow and wind; their hair was matted to their heads from the wind and snow. They only had sweaters on and were crying.

“My heart sank; tears ran down my cheeks. I sat there and in a small prayer I asked God [to] give these two little girls coats and gloves…

“The next day going home from work was the same. Everyone was crowding around each other to get on the bus heading home. I snuggled in my usual spot next to a window. The bus slowly drove down the street. As we passed the same street corner, I saw the same two little girls from the day before in the most plush, warm, cozy pink coats you had ever seen! They had boots and gloves on, and the hood of their coats hid their beautiful blonde hair.

God answered the prayer! The girls had on warm coats!

“God not only answered my prayer, but He told me loud and clear, ‘Yes, I am who I am.’

“Yes, indeed God answered my prayer while I cried all the way home with joy.”

We appreciate hearing inspiring stories like this! Hearing actual accounts of miracles can help our trust in our loving, all-powerful God to grow.

If you have a story of answered prayer you would like to share, we’d love to hear it!

Back by popular demand, here is another miraculous story of answered prayer. This one is from Lawrence Brazell, a member of the United Church of God congregation in Hickory, North Carolina.

“I was alone and heading home from surveying a tract of land in Wilkes County, North Carolina. It had started snowing before we finished the survey and, by then, it was really coming down.

“I was driving my truck about 45 m.p.h. because the road was covered with snow. At the same time, I was looking through the trees in the woods-it’s amazing how far one can see through the trees with snow on the ground! Before I knew it, I was on to a sharp curve in the road that I had forgotten about.

“As soon as I hit the curve, I started to slide in the slick snow. I knew better than to hit the brakes hard, but it was too late. The truck was headed off the road to the right.

“I quickly said “God, help me!” and in less than a second it felt as if a giant hand had picked up the truck and set it down in the road. It seemed as if someone else was steering it through the curve. I had no control of the steering at this point. I heard a terrible roaring sound that seemed out of this world. I kept looking straight ahead because I was afraid to look left or right.

“What went on in my mind until I got home, I do not remember. I never mentioned this to anyone for quite some time. I’m quite sure that I thanked Almighty God for quickly answering the shortest prayer I have ever given.”

Thanks very much to Mr. Brazell and his pastor, Ron Kelley, for passing this on to me. This story reminds of an inspirational promise from the book of Isaiah:

“Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand” (Isaiah 41:10).

Praying and studying God’s promises can help our faith grow.

If you have a story of answered prayer you would like to share, let me know.