Asthma Story
In 1976 or 1977 my wife held a
women's Bible Study at our house
Wednesday mornings from 10:00 until Noon.
One Wednesday morning just before
Noon I went to the local Christian
Bookstore, and bought a new study Bible for myself. I arrived
home just as my wife's Bible Study was ending. As I entered our
living room I found one lady sitting on our couch, wheezing as she
breathed. I asked her what was wrong, and she wheezed, "Asthma."
I had been attending a local pastor's
Bible Study, and the previous
session he had taught about 'spiritual points of contact' when praying
for healing. He mentioned the 'laying on of hands', 'anointing
with oil', and 'cloths taken from the Apostle Paul and applied to sick
people, who were immediately healed.
So, with that topic in mind and a
woman sitting on our couch having as
asthma attack, I thought, "They didn't have Bibles to carry around 2000
years ago, but what better spiritual point of contact is there than a
Bible? so I handed my new Bible (still in the box) to this lady,
told her to give it a hug, and began to recite the first verse of
Scripture to pop into my head:
Heb 4:12 For
the Word of God is
living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even
to the dividing apart of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow,
and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
I got about half way through reciting
that verse when this woman gave a
huge exhalation and exclaimed, "It's gone!"
Some years later I saw the
movie 'Mrs. Doubtfire', and when they
showed a person being given a Heimlich Maneuver to a choking victim I
thought, "That's exactly what it looked like when that lady was set
free from whatever was causing her asthma attack!
Fifteen years after the event in our
living room I ran into that lady
at
a local bank. She began to say to me, "I don't know if you
remember..." and I said, "I remember it vividly!" She then told
me, "I have not had 'a lick' of asthma since that day."
It's nice to have that feedback years
later.