My Buddy Jeff

My buddy Jeff was a trucker. He was big in every way—bighearted, over three hundred pounds, booming voice, unchurched. One snowy day in a motel in Ten Sleep, Wyoming, he had a vision of Christ and the devil. He chose Christ. He found a church and wanted to get people saved. They told him he had to learn a bunch of scriptures before he could go with their outreach team. He was not a good reader and an even poorer student. He became discouraged and quit the church.

We worked together. I sold modular homes, and he delivered them. After work, I went door-to-door to get people saved and had real good success. About one out of every three I talked to gave their heart to Christ. I asked Jeff to go along with me. He said, How many scriptures do I have to know?

I said, None. Just tell them What God did for you. Tell them your vision.

Do I need to bring my big Bible along? he asked.

I said, Heavens, no. Do you want to scare them to death? So we became partners.

Jeff Prays for the Woman with High Blood Pressure

Isold a house to the man in charge of the Mammoth site in Hot Springs, South Dakota. Jeff delivered the house. The man came to see it delivered. Jeff asked where his wife was. He said she couldn’t come because she had a rare high blood pressure condition that could only be cured by an operation, and they only did the operation one place in the United States. She was waiting for the call to come for the operation. Jeff asked if she had been prayed for. The man said, Yes, lots of people are praying for her.

Jeff asked, Has anyone laid hands on her and prayed for her?

No.

Go get her.

A few days later, the man called me and asked if we had a man named Jeff who drove truck for us. I said, Yes, we do.

Is he real, or is he an angel?

He’s real.

The man said, I thought he might be an angel because he asked me to go get my wife so he could pray for her. I went and got her even though she had a very serious high blood pressure condition. He prayed for her and laid hands on her. You could hear him all over the town of Hot Springs. [He does have a big voice.] I thought he might be an angel. When my wife went to her doctor for her regular appointment, they could find no sign of high blood pressure. She doesn’t have to have the operation.

Jonathan Cahn wrote that the word messenger is the word angelos in Greek. It was said of John the Baptist. Behold I send my messenger, or angelos angel. Evangelize has the word angel in it. Anyone evangelizing is an angel carrying the message or good news. I think Jeff was an angel. I learned a lot from him.

My Mother’s Secret Fear

Speaking of angels, I have to tell you about my mother’s secret fear. My mother turned yellow. We rushed her in for an exploratory operation because when you are close to eighty, anything can happen. The doctors did what they call a peek and shriek . A small scope is inserted into the body, and pictures are taken to see what is causing the problem. That’s the peek part. The shriek part is when you see inoperable cancer. They said, We can operate and give you about six months more of life, and if we don’t, you have about three weeks.

When asked what she wanted to do, she calmly said, I’ll take the three weeks. The good Lord has brought me this far, and He’ll take me the rest of the way.

My sister asked, Are you all right with this? (Meaning this passing away.)

She said, I’m a little afraid.

My sister replied, Oh, Mom, you don’t have to be afraid. You’ve done everything that’s mentioned in the Bible. You’ve brought people into Christianity. You’ve fed people, clothed people. You have accepted Christ. You don’t have to be afraid.

Mother said, Oh, I’m not afraid about that. I’ve just never done this before.

The following days were filled with visits from friends and family coming to say goodbye. The house was full the day she said her final goodbye. Everyone remarked how strong and fearless she was, but Mother did have a secret fear.

Her secret fear was based on Hebrews 13:2, admonishing us to entertain strangers: For some have entertained angels unawares. Mother had the idea that God was trying to catch her off guard by sending an angel that looked like a scumbag just to test her. She took it to the extreme. We would say, Mother, that’s Harry, the town drunk. Mother would admit it certainly could be Harry, but what if it was really an angel in disguise?"

Mother took in orphans, homeless, the unwanted, the abused. God was going to have to do a lot better job of concealing an angel than that. She divided her sheets and pillowcases with a lady who had left an abusive husband, also everything else. If you were dirty and stinking, she bought you soap and underclothes. She helped a small town prepare a gala, Mother of the Year celebration, and never mentioned that she would be receiving that same honor in a nearby city. If you came to her door, regardless of race or social standing, she would try to feed you or give you something to drink.

She was in the Angel World Series. God was pitching, and regardless what He sent across her plate, she was not going to let Him strike her out. Everyone was a potential angel, unaware. We used to joke that we’d never seen angels’ underwear, but it wasn’t a joke to Mom. God was there, and He’d given her fair warning. And she certainly wasn’t going to blow it regardless how we felt about it.

And so the end came. At the funeral, the church was full of potential angels, people Mother had mothered or helped in some way. Everyone had something good to say. I thought to myself, God, you certainly didn’t slip any angels past my mother. Then I had the sneaking suspicion that maybe He had slipped one past me.

The Woman with the Crippled Ankle

My buddy Jeff and I went to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. We stopped to visit some Natives who were Christians. When we were ready to leave, they asked us to visit their neighbors. They said, We have been talking to them about becoming Christians, and we think they are almost ready.

We said, We will go see them. Where do they live?

Follow that trail. It’s the first house you come to.

We drove down the trail to the house. Only the children were home. They pointed to some people on foot about a mile away and said, That’s our folks coming. They went to get the mail. They’ll be here in a while. We said we would wait. The folks were coming very slowly. When they arrived, they apologized for taking so long.

The lady said, I broke my ankle a while ago, and it never healed right. So I can’t walk very fast because I’m in pain all the time.

I asked, If Christ healed your ankle, would you become a Christian?

She said, Yes.

I said, Let me pray for your ankle. I knelt down and laid hands on her ankle. She was standing on her porch.

I prayed and then said, Jump up a little. I said that because I had an experience with another lady named LJ. LJ came to the church out of the drug scene. She found Christ and became a new creation.

One Sunday, she came to church crying in pain. I saw her standing at the back of the church, weeping, and asked, What’s wrong, LJ?

She said through her sobs, They broke my ankle, and I’m in so much pain I can’t stand it.

Who broke your ankle? I asked thinking someone was going to answer for this.

The doctors, she answered. It was crooked. They broke it on Thursday to straighten it, but now I’m in a lot of pain. But I have an appointment for tomorrow [Monday] for them to look at it.

Well, let’s pray for it. I said, Christ promised to take our suffering, as well as our sicknesses. I motioned to the congregation. Let’s all stretch our hands toward LJ and pray that God will fix her ankle. We prayed. I said, LJ, just jump up a little on that foot.

She said, I couldn’t do that. It would hurt too much.

I said, Just a little jump, please.

No, I can’t do it, she replied.

LJ, just a little. Please!

No, no, I can’t.

Please, LJ, please just try it.

She jumped just a little. Still crying, she jumped again. Still crying, she said, It doesn’t hurt anymore.

Jump higher, I said.

She did and said, It doesn’t hurt anymore.

I said, Run up here to the front of the church. She did. She came up on the platform. Jump, LJ. She did. The people clapped and cheered.

I didn’t see her again until Tuesday. She was walking down the street in her tennis shoes. LJ, you don’t have your cast on. What happened?

She answered, I went to the doctors yesterday for my appointment and told them it doesn’t hurt anymore. I said I want the cast off. The doctor said that was impossible since it had just been broken last week. She said, It is well, and I want the cast off. The doctor said it couldn’t come off for at least six weeks. She said, I want it off now.

He said, We’ll x-ray it and check it. So they x-rayed it, and he said, What did you say happened to your ankle?

The people at my church prayed for it, and God healed it. You can take the cast off.

Oh, we couldn’t possibly do that. We just broke it last Thursday.

LJ insisted, Take it off!

The doctor said, Let me look at the x-ray again. He left the room and went back to view the x-ray. When He returned, he asked, Tell me again what happened.

She said, I went to church. The people in the church prayed for me, and God healed my ankle.

The doctor was stunned and said, I’ve never heard of that before.

She said, That’s because you don’t go to our church. He took the cast off, and she was walking down the street in her tennis shoes the day after seeing the doctor, and that’s when she told me what happened at the doctor’s office. Anyway, I was still trying to get the Indian lady to jump a little.

She said, Oh, I couldn’t. It would hurt too much.

I said, Please! Just jump up a little.

She said, I can’t. It would hurt too much.

Please! Just a little.

Jeff bellowed, Jump! She jumped clear off the porch, cleared all the steps, and fell in a heap crying. I thought, Oh my, what have I done?

Her husband, still on the porch, in deep concern, said, Are you all right?

She was still crying but answered, It doesn’t hurt anymore. She got up and walked up the steps with no trouble at all.

I reminded her, You said you would give your heart to Christ if He healed you. Will you?

She answered, Yes!

Her husband said, I will too. They gave their hearts to Christ.

When we were ready to leave, we said, We will come back in a month and visit you.

The woman said, "Don’t leave yet.