When the experts from Israel arrived, they brought with them a soldier who had gotten his left leg blown off when a homicide bomber exploded himself in a crowded hotel. When security and the soldiers ran in to help this man, a second terrorist blew himself up and the soldier had his leg blown off. He was highly honored by the Israeli government, for even after his injury he was able to shoot another homicide bomber that was waiting outside the hotel for people to flee.
They asked me if they could have a stick before we started to cut them up to help the soldier. He was walking with a wooden leg and so I told him to sit down and that I was honored to be able to give him a stick. He lifted his pant leg and rolled it up to below the knee where the wooden leg attached. I kneeled down to the soldier's feet while he took the wooden leg off. I looked up at him with great compassion in my eyes and told him that his leg would be back as normal because Jesus Christ the Savior of Israel and the world came down to earth and died on the cross for his salvation. I asked him if he was waiting for the Messiah to come back to save Israel and he said, "Yes, I wait every day for that blessed hope." I told him that the messiah did come to save Israel two thousand years ago and he was crucified on the cross that I was about to stick into his body. I asked him, "If your leg grows back as normal, will you then believe in Jesus as the Messiah?"
He spoke humbly and said, "Only God could bring this kind of healing, so if I am healed I will forever believe Jesus Christ to be my Messiah and King."
I told his buddies that came with them that the God of Abraham, Issac and Jacob was about to do a great miracle right before their very eyes. I told them that on this cross hung their Messiah and now it was time for them to receive Him and believe. I then had the soldier roll down his pants over the amputated leg.
"Okay," I said, "roll up your other pant leg and close your eyes." The soldier closed his eyes tightly as if he were going to be shot or something. I said, "God brought you here today so you may believe that your Messiah is filled with compassion for you."
I took the stick and thrust it into the calf of his other leg; he barely flinched at the pain. I knew the Israeli soldiers were tough as nails and he opened his eyes as his other pant leg started to wiggle.
"I'm feeling something happening," he shouted and suddenly within an instant there was another foot sticking outside his pants.
The group's eyes flashed like light bulbs during an Academy Awards preview. He stood up and jumped with great joy and he started speaking his native language and praising God for his healing. He ran over to me and hugged me, almost breaking my back because of his excitement.
With tears streaming down his face, he dropped to his knees and said: "I will forever worship my Messiah Jesus Christ who came for my healing. What must I do to be clean in His sight?" he begged.
I asked him to repeat what I said in prayer and I was astonished as I heard the prayers of the whole group of Israeli men that came with him come to the Lord Jesus Christ that day. My life couldn't have been more fulfilled that day as I wondered what kind of effect this would have on the Jewish people of Israel. The group's lives were transformed the instant they witnessed the growing back of the leg of the soldier I burst out laughing as I asked the soldier if he thought his other shoe would fit.
The entire group then burst out laughing together. "I don't know, I may have to go to the shoe store today!" he exclaimed in great joy. His face was beaming like the bright morning star. I told the group, which included master wood workers from Israel, that their Messiah was indeed a carpenter too. |
