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Pastimes : Ask God -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Gregory D. John who wrote (12057)	3/29/1998 9:30:00 PM
From: Emile Vidrine	Read Replies (5) \| Respond to of 39621

"Emile, I am interested... please tell me of the first instance when you realized you were "born again". Hi Gregory, After being married for a couple of years, my wife, Bette, became ill with anal bleeding. The bleeding increased and we searced out medical help Every physician had his own theory, but none could diagnose her disease correctly. At that time, we lived in La. Through a set of circustances we ended up in Chicago. Dr. Larson at the Methodist hosptial diagnosed my wife's illness as ulcerative colitis. Dr. Larson's teatment was somewhat successful for the first year, but then my wife got much much worst. She was having monthly proctoscopes to monitor the progress of the illness. During one of her monthly proctoscopes, Dr. Larson informed my wife that their were precancerous cells present and that she had exhausted all medical help. She informed my wife that without a colestomy she had only about 6 months to live. My wife absolutely refused to have a colestomy. At that time they inserted a waste bag through a hole in the abodominal wall. My wife and I were both agnostics--atheists at that time. My wife came from a Jewish family and I was raised Baptist and Cahtolic. During our University years, I had abandoned my Christian roots. My wife had been raised as an atheist from her birth and continued to manitain her atheism. We read the bible only for ammunition to poke fun at some of our Christian friends. One of these friends was a political activist named Ken Weir who sometimes spent weekends at our home in Chicago. During these visits we frequently discussed religion in general. Ken was a devout Chritian and always brouth the converstion over to salvation in Jesus. I humored him and poked fun at his "medieval ideas". Ken was never discouraged but kept pushing. My wife would sometimes slam a door in his face and tell him to quit pushing his garbage. Despite those heated moments, some of Ken's words about Jesus' love and salvation stuck in my wife's mind. Now back to wife's illness. After the doctor told Bette about her fatal condition, Bette decided to go home to die. She was now passing much blood several times a day. Her weight was down to 90 lbs. and she was as white as a bleached sheet. Life was simply leaving her. Medical science could do nothing. My wife and I both had extensive scientific backgrounds. At first we had absolute faith that medical science could heal her. Now we realized the futility of our faith. Each time my wife went to the bathroom to pass pure anal blood, I stomach tightened and I was terrified. Our mortality was facing us square in the face in our early twenties. What terror and what hopelessness. One day my wife went to the bathroom. As she sat on the toilet passing blood in horrible pain, she thought of some of the words of Ken Weir about Jesus creating everyting. She reasoned that if God had created everything, Jesus could certaintly heal everything. Sitting on that toilet she raised her eyes unto heaven and cried out to God with the words: "God, if your there, please heal me." As she was looking up, the ceiling of the bathroom oepned and she saw angels were walking up and down a ladder. Suddenly a force like a wind came upon her stomach and simply pressed against it. She came out of that bathroom and informed me that God had healed her and that she had seen angels coming through the ceiling in the bathroom. I looked at her in disbelief, and asked her to repeat her words. She did. I said, darling your sickness has affected your mind. Please don't tell that to anyone. She simply smiled. When Bette went for her monthly protoscope, Dr. Larson came out of the examination and told my wife that she had never seen anything like it in all her practice. Dr. Larson is a world famous Ulceraitive colitis expert. She said that she had seen remissions of the disease before but she had never seen a complete regrowth of the colon without scar tissue as had occured in my wife. She told my wife "its a miracle". Now,another terror suddenly gripped my heart. Bette would begin telling our friends about her delusional visions and I would be embarrased. I begged her to keep it quiet, but she started praising Jesus and reading and believing the Bible. She would try to tell me about Jesus but I didn't want to hear and repeated my pseudoscientific dribble as if in a coma. She attended no church, but God soon brought other Christian in her life to fellowship with her and encourage her and teach her how to live with and tolerate her pagan husband. I simply did not believe and continued to poke fun at my old Christian friends and my wife's new Christian friends. A few months after Bette's healing, I remember lying in bed and thinking: we tried medical specialist all over the country and could find no cure. Bette calls upon God and He heals her. I wonder withing my heart, "am I being a bit unscientific here". I quickly put the thought out of my mind as delusional. During the next year I watched my wife return to robust health and beauty. I could not thank God, but I was very grateful to unknown fate. Approx. a year after my wife's healing, a friend was running for governor of an eastern state and asked for my help in the campaing. I agreed to help for a week. W During that week, we worked very hard on political matters and sinned at night. On one of the nights, I was simply in my motel room reading a book that refered to a quote from Genesis. I looked into my motel room night stand and found a gideon bible and looked up the reference. As I opened the bible, a voice spoke to me very clearly and said, "this is the truth that you have been searching for all of your life." Stillness fell upon the room as if I was in a dream. I read a few verses in Genesis about God creating the heavens and the earth and then set the Bible down. I had instantly become convinced that the Bible was in fact the Word of God. I marvelled at the change of attitue that had suddenly come upon my heart and mind. I completed the political work that I had promised my friend and headed home. I did not share this with my wife at firtst, but I immediately started devouring the Bible and believing every Word. During an Aug. day in l970, I got to the Scriptures that told how Jesus had died for our sins that we could have the righteouness of God. The truth and rality of Jesus' redemption flooded my heart. The reality of my sins and darkness of my own heart brought me to my face in worship and gratitude before an the awesome God of love and grace. Tears poor down. Lying on that floor, I told God that I gave him all my politial views, all my social views, all my racial views, all my relgious views and wanted only to do his will and have His views. He is still revealing His will and views in my life. That was the instance I was Born Again of the Spirit of God. Regards Emile