By Dato Kington Loo
I was baptised during World War II in an Anglican church in India. Although being baptised, and still in my youth, my faith was undoubtedly superficial, and regretfully meaningless. Then, during those important development years in university, when the intellect interceded and everything, including religion, was questioned and tested, my faith was relegated really low down in priority. To be truthful, I was no more than a nominal Christian when I had to fill the blanks on my religion!
This period of spiritual vacuum and dryness continued throughout the decades of my career as an architect. The demands of self improvement together with the sinful practices in the path of career building were many and I had stumbled and unknowingly fallen on many occasions.
But having been guided by my parents on the fundamental importance of moral conduct, a conscience and to be charitable, subconsciously, I conducted my life accordingly in the mistaken belief that all this would counteract my other transgressions.
But now, in my mid-sixties, and I am sometimes told by others that I have already achieved success in my profession and given all our four children their education, there remained an emptiness in my spiritual life.
This was apparent whenever I attended church and witnessed the glow of happiness and contentment in the faces of the believers when they sung songs of praise and worship. I knew that was what was missing in my own life. I then realised that salvation certainly can neither be bought with all our worldly wealth nor earned by the way we have lived.
That salvation is only available by God's grace. All that is needed is our sincere repentance of our sins, ask for forgiveness and accept Jesus as our Saviour. Salvation is always free for us to accept.
This realisation was the turning point. And it touched me and symbolised by my baptism on the last day of 1995. I was born again! Praise the Lord!
I would like to share my personal testimony concerning my health. I had a bypass operation 8 years ago. Until recently, my health was good but I had irregular heart-beats and my doctor advised me that these need to be corrected. How?
Most people would have been bothered at one time or another with rats. To get rid of them, apart from the usual traps and sticky-foot boards, another solution commonly used is Wafarin - a deadly poison usually in the form of little pink granules.
Thus when the rats eat the Wafarin, they would develop severe thirst, they will look for water, and while quenching their thirst, would have severe internal hemorrhage which is followed by certain death.
So what if your doctor prescribes Wafarin for you to be taken daily? It must be more than slightly disturbing. This was what was prescribed for me when my cardiologist diagnosed atrial fibrillation, which is fast irregular quivers of the heart's upper chambers. During these periods, with the heart pumping irregularly and ever so often, even fails to pump any blood at all.
This is when the blood would remain in the upper chamber and possibilities of formation of clots are high. Then, when blood is pumped out of the heart, the blood clots may travel to the brain or elsewhere. The result - a debilitating stroke.
Thus, Wafarin, an anticoagulant, taken in closely monitored and regulated dosages is intended to prevent the blood from coagulating, thereby preventing the formation of blood clots which is the cause of strokes.
Understandably, such a regime in my condition, is highly disturbing. Take the deadly rat poison to reduce the probability of suffering a stroke, or stay off it and face the high risk of being crippled!
I had shared my health problems and apprehensions with members of my fellowship and they prayed for me at our various fellowship meetings. Then, one evening, while having refreshments after our fellowship, they prayed over me. Involuntarily, my knees crumbled and I fell backwards stretched face up on the living room floor. While conscious of those around and above me praying, I began to feel my heart-beats increasing both in strength and regularity. I felt my heart beating strongly against my chest. But I was calm and at peace.
I felt a warm and strong pressure as if someone's hot hand was pressing against my chest. After experiencing this sensation for some time, I 'awoke' to see the radiant faces of the members of my fellowship looking down on me. I asked if anyone had pressed a hot hand on my chest? They assured me that none of them had touched me.
However, they could see my heart beating stronger and stronger under my shirt. Half an hour later, back home and while changing to go to bed, I looked at myself in the mirror when I saw a distinctly dark pink imprint of a palm and five fingers on my chest. This was incredible because no one had touched me.
I asked my wife and son to tell me if I was mistaken. But they confirmed what I had seen myself. Truly, not only has the Lord touched me, but He has left a clear imprint of His hand on my chest. The healing touch of God is not only real, it is also visible!
Some months later, I had an appointment in Singapore for another medical check-up. I am now convinced of the effectiveness of God's healing touch as well as Jesus' promise that all I had to do was to ask, and it will be given (Luke 11:9), I continued to pray and asked in faith that I would have a good report and that another by-pass operation would not be necessary.
After conducting two thallium scans, the specialist pronounced that there was only a minor occlusion in one of the vein grafts which had already been detected some months before by my regular cardiologist. The nuclear specialist said this condition was not unexpected and normal more than eight years after a bypass.
Then the next day, after a series of two echo scans, and to my great relief, thank God, my cardiologist said that I had done very well on the treadmill and that he was surprised that the results were better than the previous time, a few months earlier!
My prayer and those of my fellowship group, have been answered! Praise the Lord! I cannot ask for anything more - except to ask our good Lord to continue to keep me in good health. And that, whatever time is allotted to me, I will try my utmost to contribute to the glorification of His name. The Lord is good and caring. He hears and answers our prayers.
His healing touch is real.
Glory be to our beloved Lord.
No comments:
Post a Comment