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If you haven’t been in the military, or a patient in a hospital, or in jail, you may not have been blessed
with the services of a chaplain.
He’s a minister who, in a sense, follows in the very footsteps of Christ…helping persons who are
in stress, and possibly in a situation that is completely out of their hands. A person who cares, at times when no one else
may even be aware of your need. And who comes to sooth a heart when that person may not even know The Christ he represents.
June 4, 1944, was the world’s D-Day, when allied troops went ashore in France. But June 4, 2008, was
my wife’s personal D-Day at St. Joseph Hospital in Kansas City, as she waited for a serious operation. And it was the
day that Brother Robert Day, the hospital’s chaplain for that day, walked into her room where she and I waited for the
surgeon’s call.
He knew immediately that he was among friends. A minister can tell by faces and body language whether his
visit means anything to a family, and we must have had a positive look, because in minutes, we were talking as if we had expected
him.
In the course of the conversation, Brother Day told of visiting a patient while the surgeon was also in the
room. And after asking the bedridden person whether he could pray about the situation, he also asked the doctor whether he
could pray that the physician’s hands be guided by the Christ. And as he prayed, the doctor’s face began to shine…to
glow as surely as the face of Moses after he had talked with God on Mount Sinai while receiving the Ten Commandments. (34th
chapter of Exodus).
Afterward, the surgeon said he had never had such an experience. If you aren’t acquainted with the Christ,
the same Christ who was in the room with them, is waiting for you to accept Him. He is an unopened gift, already given to
you, and all you have to do it to open it. He has said, “Behold, I stand at the door an knock. If any man hear my voice,
and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.” (Rev 3:20). You may, or may not, have
an experience such as the surgeon had, but you will have Christ in your heart. And that is the most important decision of
your lifetime. Talk with Him. Now.
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