An Open Letter To My Readers

I wanted to share some of the odd things that have gone through my mind lately, some things I've learned and some of the personal experiences I've had in the last few weeks....

A donut shop is a donut shop, regardless of what your partner tells you about how great the doughnut place is that he found. Donuts are sweet and some are a little better than others, but there’s only so much you can do with a doughnut. We’re not talking about gourmet cuisine. We’re talking about doughnuts.

I worked with a woman who hands the size of a six year old girl. She wears extra-small gloves when she can find them. I prayed with her for carpal tunnel syndrome, she felt some tingling when I did, but when I ran into her a few days later, she was still experiencing some symptoms. My plan? Wait for the next opportunity to pray with her and teach her how to keep it.

You can pray with faith for a condition that you’ve seen healed a hundred times and still not see any changes in them. But It doesn’t mean you don’t have faith and it doesn’t mean they weren’t healed. It just means they didn’t feel anything happening at the time.

God likes the fact that I'm content to work as a paramedic. He doesn't expect more of me at this time in my life. I find that comforting.

Staying out of deception comes by trusting others more than you trust yourself. This is easier said than done. First you have to care about whether or not you’re being deceived and that means entertaining the possibility that you might be wrong. Then you must believe it’s possible for someone to have more accurate discernment than you do. Such a person must have the guts to confront you and you must have the humility to allow God to reveal your own blindness. Since these things are not likely to occur with regularity – I believe most of us (myself included) are deceived rather often.

When my daughter is gone, I miss her a lot more than I realized.

I received a compliment from a man this week, who doesn't agree with everything I write, but he respects me because he says I'm "balanced". That was a helpful observation. I don't actually try to be balanced, I just write about what I see, experience and what I get from the Holy Spirit and the bible. It's a mix of different sources and it seems to be appreciated by some people.

I’ve always wanted to have a partner who was fluent in Spanish. Now I have one. He took a week off and things weren't the same. I missed him. And now it looks like he might be moving to a different unit. The only constant is change. The only exception is God.

I went to Walmart to get oil and and oil filter for my car. As I entered the store I was met by at least 4 people with obvious injuries and disabilities. I hesitated, but kept going to the automotive section and got the things I needed. I left without praying for anyone. Ins my heart, I wanted to lay hands on all of them. Heck, I could have been there all afternoon - there were so many people in the store that day who could have been healed. But it was one of those days when I just wanted to get back home and take care of things I wanted to get done.

The fact that a patient is small (say, 6 months old) is no reason to be afraid when you’re in the ambulance with them.

More people should take advantage of golfing early in the morning instead of waiting till later in the day when the course is crowded.

I prayed with a young man in sickle cell crisis. His main complaint was back pain. The more I prayed, the more his pain decreased. It was the first time I remember praying for sickle cell anemia.

Arizona has a lot of cool birds. They make enough noise that you can hear them inside the hospital. If you spend a few minutes outside listening to them instead of your fears and worries, you might not be so stressed out.

I prayed with a 68 year old man who was one of the healthiest men of his age that I've ever seen. No heart problems, no diabetes, no high blood pressure or cancer, no chronic health problems to speak of and he took no medications. The only problem was, he had two bad shoulders and bad knee. I told his about the dreams I've had about healing and asked if I could pray with him. He said "yes". As I prayed over his left shoulder it began to feel warm. So warm that I could feel the heat with my hand. I prayed over the other one and his knee. I'm pretty sure he was glad that I asked.

Using a propane torch is a quick way to rid your yard of weeds.

I've been feeling a bit 'left out' lately. While a lot of my pals are going around the country teaching people about healing. I'm sitting in my ambulance cat-napping between calls and being a dad and husband. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a tad jealous. I received some wonderful comfort from Corma Holmes, who heard God tell her about how I was feeling. She sent me a message and encouraged me and somehow she knew exactly what I was going through. My wife has also been a great encourager, reminding me that God has a special way of using me to reach people. I'm OK with that.

It's important to find the right person to come alongside of if you plan to impact their life for the kingdom of God. While there are hundreds (perhaps thousands) of people you might potentially influence, there are very few you will actually reach in a significant way. I've had a number of partners recently - even a few believers, but not one of them has expressed any interest in learning more about healing or the kingdom of God from me. I'm still looking for "the person of peace." I'll write a separate message on "the person of peace" in a few days.

I like where I'm at. It's been over 20 years since I had a doctor ride in the ambulance with me. I've had two doctors ride with me this week. In both cases we transported a critically ill patient from a clinic to a hospital. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't excited.

I've been having dreams about doing things with people in Scottsdale, Arizona; a place I visit often on duty and it happens to be the city where those doctors have been riding with me to the hospital. God is up to something...not exactly sure what it is yet.

I've been losing my business cards at different places in the Phoenix area. Mostly at hospitals. If you happen to have found one, let me know. You can keep the card, but I'd love to talk with you. My e-mail address is at the top of the page. You can also find me on Facebook or Twitter.

I prayed with a sweet boy of four years old who has asthma and RSV. I talked with his mother about healing. Sowing seeds....

I love the warm, sunny winter weather in Phoenix. I've decided that the 4 months of hellishly hot temps in the summer are worth it, to have 60's and 70's from November through March.

I have no plans to stop blogging. I only wish I had more time to write, because I'd write a lot more if I could. If you're worried about me pulling the plug....don't worry. I'm planning to be around for a long time.

I've been thinking about writing an article for JEMS magazine about healing and EMS. They're always looking for new, fresh ideas. They like to inform their readers about current trends in medicine. I doubt that anyone else is going to write about healing in the ambulance. So I guess it's up to me.

I had a dream about people being removed from the earth, one at a time by God. It was like what he did with Enoch. He found people who loved Him so much and He just took them up into heaven, but not in large numbers. It happened one at a time. I'll write a note about it and post it on Facebook for discussion.

I've also had dreams where God has been talking about eating healthier and exercising. It's personal. But if might be a good word for you, too. I like the junk food at the hospitals, but I need to lose some weight and get in shape.

The last thing I need is to end up in the hospital or worse, in the back of someone's ambulance.

- 'till next time

p.s. - I've decided to purchase uniform shorts for the summer. But don't get your hopes up. I don't plan on taking pictures ;)

Proving God's Existence Scientifically

Is it reasonable to ask- "If God exists, why don't you prove it?"

I think it is, and I think we owe the world some evidence.

I once believed you either chose to believe in God or not and the choice wasn't based on evidence; it was just your opinion. I recently learned you can demonstrate the existence of God to people, which makes me wonder why we don't do it more often.

After spending years in a church where the presence of God was absent, I went to a church where I began to feel and see unusual things. It didn't take long to realize I was feeling the tangible presence of God. I studied the teaching of Brian Fennimore, who said you can bring God's presence into virtually any setting. My wife and I began to ask The Holy Spirit to bring His presence into our living room and sure enough - we could feel His presence show up every time we asked. This was a radical thing to us.

I used to love debates about God's existence. I once talked to a woman I worked with for 12 hours about it. We covered everything I could think of. She was happy to talk and listen, but at the end of the day she was no more convinced than before. The apostle Paul said his message did not come in excellence of speech, but also in the demonstration of God's power. (1 Cor. 2:4)
It was the power of God that was missing from my argument.

Words are necessary to convey ideas; we need them. But the argument needs evidence. Christians talk about a personal God who interacts with them; it's the one thing that sets ours apart from other belief-systems. But when we tell our friends about God, we often forget the personal experience (the evidence). God needs to show up and do something. Perhaps we've been taught that when our friend makes a commitment to God - something will happen then. I'd like to suggest you don't need to wait. I love this story:

My wife and I went to her hair styling appointment together. She likes having me along - she know's I'll have a few God stories to tell her stylist, Angie, who is open to discussions about God and the supernatural. While she did my wife's hair, we talked about miracles and resurrections. She used to work for a funeral home, so she's familiar with dead bodies. The discussion was going well, so I told her we would show her evidence of God's existence before we left.

When it was time, I told Angie we would ask God to bring His presence into the room so she could know He was real, and experience Him personally. I wanted to prepare her for the experience, but I didn't want to coach her into feeling something that wasn't God. I explained that we did this before with my mother -in -law and explained what she felt. I described what God's presence feels like to me and my wife shared what it feels like to her. We told her it's a little different for everyone.

I knew she suffered from chronic neck pain; we'd talked about it before. I thought maybe God would heal her neck tonight. We all stood with our hands out and eyes closed as I asked God's presence to come. After about 30 seconds, I asked Him to bring His power to heal. We waited about 2 minutes then we opened our eyes and talked abut it.

"Wow- that was so weird" she said."As soon as you asked God's presence to come, I felt something like a force pushing me forward. I was thinking to myself , I'm gonna fall over, and I was telling the force hey, knock it off." I informed her a lot of people do fall over when God's presence is strong, like you see at Benny Hinn meetings. She laughed because she thought it was people just acting stupid (I didn't tell her I held the same opinion until recently).

Then she told us about her pinkie fingers. "I feel a burning sensation in both of my pinkie fingers. It's not uncomfortable, it's just really warm. It started in my fingers and traveled down the outside of my hands and into my wrists." She placed her fingers on her cheeks to see if the heat was real. I asked if she has carpal tunnel syndrome. Her eyes grew bigger, "Yeah, how did you know? I'm ambidextrous, so I have in both wrists." It seemed to me as though God was healing her carpal tunnel problem as we talked about it. (Not her neck pain, as I thought) I'll report back on this later if she is healed.

Time for discussion:

What is scientific evidence? In an experiment we look for observable phenomena that occur under a given set of circumstances with outcomes that remain consistent in subsequent trials. This "scientific method' is the basis for all research in the fields of science. Every time I ask God to bring His presence into my local area, anyone near me can feel (observe) a change taking place in their body. Furthermore, the sensations (observations) are nearly always the same. The experiment can be repeated over and over with nearly the same results each time, regardless of the geographic setting. I've even developed a hypothesis or a working theory about specific things that will happen, how long the process will take etc. I always explain to the individual what I'm going to do, and what things they might expect. I've never yet had a situation where the person reported that nothing happened.

Many people are under the impression that God's existence cannot be proven scientifically. Even in the church, we tend to believe that proof is not available and faith is all we have. I would disagree with this idea based on the results of my experiments and those of others. Although unconventional because of the subject being studied, the results of these experiments meet the criteria for scientific evidence. God's existence can be proven scientifically. And since God is not picky about who he hangs out with, it's something we can all do. (Acts 10:34 )

My only goal that night was to give Angie some personal evidence that God exists- mission accomplished. In fact, she learned a lot about God from her experience. She learned that God is invisible and yet, He can have experiences with us. She learned we can make a request for him to show up, and he does it. And we can ask for specific things like healing and he does them, too. If she thinks about it enough, she might ask why He healed her carpal tunnel syndrome - and she might run into God's love, mercy and compassion.

When we demonstrate to people that God exists by giving them an experience, we don't just prove His existence, we show them his nature. Many people imagine God (if he did exist) as a mean, twisted, and perverted deity, bent on making people suffer. I like watching God heal because of what it represents - a God of love, mercy and compassion. When they are healed, it forces them to reconsider their understanding of Him. No debates. No long - winded arguments. God settles the debate in person. I love it when He does the talking.