Wednesday, January 23, 2019 -
It is unbelievable to me that I have now been in prison for 50 days! I never thought I’d be here this long! God really must have a purpose for me being here. When I was traveling to Kentucky with Kathie, in the rear seat of our Yukon, on December 5, I got one call after another, or text or email, referring me to the story of Joseph. That continued from a number of people even after I arrived at the prison. Ever since Kathie would tell me to look for the cupbearer. I told her that I doubt anyone would ask me to interpret their dreams here. Well, I was wrong, and I must repent.
This morning I prayed before I went to work at 9 am that if God put “CJ” in my path again, the Lord would give me the words to speak to him. It turned out when “CJ” got his tray, he went and sat with someone else.
But lo and behold, after eating, he came and sat down across from me, and one of the first things out of his mouth was, “I’ve been having the weirdest recurring dream at night.” I said something like, “Tell me about it,” or “Why was it weird,” I can’t remember.
He said he was out of prison (he’s actually supposed to get out in April), and could not find his fiancé anywhere, no matter where he looked. Each time he had this dream, he panicked, and then woke up! I immediately said, “Well, God sometimes speaks to us in dreams, maybe she is going to leave you.” He said, “No, she’d never do that,” and we went on talking about something else.
It wasn’t until later in the afternoon, that I put two and two together. Was I supposed to interpret his dream, I questioned myself. I told myself, “I don’t know how to interpret dreams!” I had actually just read in the book by Erwin Lutzer, “The Church in Babylon,” about Daniel interpreting Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. I struggled with this for a while and prayed God would if I was to interpret “CJ’s” dream, that He would reveal it to me. I even went back and read about Joseph interpreting the cup bearer’s and baker’s dreams, when he was in prison, to see if God gave him an immediate interpretation, which I did not do.
Suddenly, God gave me a revelation: “If “CJ” did not get his life right with God, she was going to leave him: I had only revealed the latter to him this morning, but not the condition for her leaving. I am now eagerly looking forward to seeing “CJ” next week and giving him the rest of the interpretation of his dream.
His fiancée, who got saved after going to prison, has been desperately trying to get “CJ” to accept Jesus and make Him Lord of his life. Pray this will be the impetus he needs to make that commitment!
Later this afternoon, “J,” my cellmate, told me he hurt himself lifting weights today, something he’s not done for a couple of months. He told me he hopes he didn’t tear something in his shoulder, because he’s torn his rotator cuff before. I then felt compelled to recount another one of the miracles God has done for Kathie, me, and our family during our 37 ½ years of marriage! I told him how Kathie fell while skiing in a downhill race in Alberta and tore her rotator cuff. The doctor in Niagara Falls, where we were living, sent her to physical therapy. Kathie’s pain was excruciating, and the longer she did physical therapy, the worse it got. Eventually, it was discovered that a piece of her shoulder bone chipped off and the physical therapy was causing the nerves and tendons to completely sever in two in her shoulder. The doctor ended up sending her to the Cleveland Clinic for surgery, where they repaired the damage and removed the severed bone.
However, two years later she was still in severe pain, having to wear a tens unit for pain all of the time. I also washed her hair and rolled it for her. She could not raise that arm and was told she’d never be able to raise it again. The pain remained so unbearable Kathie told our pastor one Sunday she wanted the elders to pray over her, and anoint her with oil (James 5:14). At the time, we were members of a Bible church in Lewiston, New York, and they simply did not pray that way for the sick, anointing them with oil. But the pastor gathered all the elders together anyway, at Kathie’s pleading, to pray for her.
But there was no oil!
Kathie was quite upset, reminding them that the Scripture says to anoint her with oil, and she didn’t care if it was Crisco, she wanted to be anointed. They said it wasn’t needed, so they bowed their heads to pray, “Lord, if it be your will, please heal Kathie.”
Kathie came out of that church quite upset at those men, for their weak prayer and lack of faith. She got into the car, crying. I had already rolled the windows down (that car didn’t have A/C). Kathie’s Bible was open in her lap. All of a sudden, there was a gust of wind, and it blew the pages of Kathie’s Bible to where it says, “Not by their faith, but by yours are you healed,”
Immediately, Kathie’s pain miraculously left her shoulder to never come back. She was also miraculously able to gain full mobility to that arm. Except…
Years later, after having moved from Niagara Falls to Waynesboro, Virginia, the pain suddenly came back. Kathie called the orthopedic doctor and made an appointment, grabbed her x-rays, either from New York or Cleveland Clinic, I’m not sure which, and went to see Dr. Rowe. After making a new x-ray of her shoulder, he came into the room and slapped the new x-ray next to the other one Kathie had brought with her. “Whose x-ray is this,” he demanded to know of the x-ray she brought. The x-ray Kathie had brought clearly shows the bone missing where the surgeons had removed it. The x-ray Dr. Rowe just had taken showed the bone fully intact as if nothing had happened. “Bones just don’t grow back like that,” the doctor angrily told Kathie, “it has to be someone else’s x-ray!”
Kathie began uncontrollably shouting praises to the Lord that He had healed her and put her bone back the way it belonged – that God truly did a miracle, that He is a miracle-working God and healed her completely. Dr. Rowe told Kathie nothing was wrong with her and to get out.
The minute Kathie walked out the front door of the building and stepped off the burg outside the doctor’s office, the pain in her shoulder once again disappeared, never to return!
Fast forward sixteen months, Kathie and I were skiing again, took a spill, and hurt her leg. The pain in her leg persisted, and so after arriving back in Waynesboro, we called Dr. Rowe’s office.
The lady on the other end of the line said, “I’m sorry, Dr. Rowe is dead. He had just discovered he had a severe form of cancer and was dead shortly thereafter. The pain left Kathie’s leg and she’d realized that God had orchestrated the pain so she could proclaim God’s healing power to that doctor just at the right time, and then in a few months, confirm to her exactly what He was doing in and through her.
Praise the Lord for His amazing healing power and the many miracles He has done in our lives. They serve as God’s reminder that He knows what He’s doing today. Just as God constantly reminded the Israelites how He delivered them from Egypt, He’s constantly reminding Kathie and me of the many glorious, miraculous things He’s done in our lives!