Alive ‘n kickin’!

Brrring, brrring…“Hello, this is the Brighouse branch…”

“…So, I’ve a Mrs Briggs here who wants to know why she hasn’t received a replacement for her debit card. It’s expired, and she hasn’t got another one…”

“…oh no, it’s not her that’s expired, it’s her card…

“…look, I can tell you she certainly isn’t dead! She’s stood right here in front of me, photo driving license and all! She needs a new card straightaway so she can withdraw some money…”

-o-O-o-

Sandra’s ordeal didn’t end there. The bank made good their promise to replace her debit card. Unfortunately her PIN no longer worked, meaning she had an anxious few days finding money for groceries etc before a new code arrived in the post. [In case you don’t know, you can’t use ‘Contactless’ until a card has been validated via Chip and PIN].

Sandra thinks the confusion dates back to when her husband Stuart died, two years ago. They’d held a joint bank account in the name of Mr S and Mrs S Briggs. When Head Office were informed that S Briggs had died, ‘The System’ decided that Mrs S Briggs was deceased, too! Somehow they continued to send her statements…

-o-O-o-

I wonder how God feels when people declare him dead? I’m surprised to learn that, 1,000 years before Jesus came, some people were saying he wasn’t there. Psalm 10 describes a man who lives purely for his own advantage.

He says to himself, “God will never notice;
    he covers his face and never sees.”

King David starts Psalm 14 by saying,

The fool says in his heart,
  “There is no God.”

-o-O-o-

That was the view of a Californian known as Rupe. Rupe was brought up as a minister’s son, but had lost his faith. So, when asked if he believed in Jesus, he answered,

“I can find no contemporary records of his ever having existed.”

Rupe had become friendly with a Chistian lady who was a commercial artist. She generously produced an elegant brochure for free, to advertise a reading institute that he was about to launch. The lady introduced him to her episcopal priest, Father Dennis Bennett.

Over a meal one evening Rupe explained that he suffered from severe breathing problems due to having a ruptured diaphragm. This is the big muscular wall that separates the abdominal cavity from the chest cavity and serves as the main breathing muscle. The doctors had misdiagnosed a perforated appendix, so he’d developed peritonitis. The infection spread to his diaphragm.

Dennis Bennett invited the sceptical Rupe to the church’s prayer meeting that evening. Rupe thought it would be churlish to refuse after his artist friend had been so kind. He was amazed at the testimonies of healing and answered prayer that he heard. His mind raged against the possibility that God’s presence was real. But yet he found himself weeping. Finally he couldn’t stand it any longer, and walked out. Fr Bennett followed him, and for a while they sat in Rupe’s car.

“Can you heal my diaphragm?” he blurted out.

“No I can’t,” replied Fr Bennett, “but God can!” And there and then, he placed his hand on Rupe’s shoulder and prayed. Nothing happened. But six days later, on a ferry journey, a terrific burst of pain hit him in the diaphragm, with the result that it started working again. It still showed as being defective on a scan, but there followed a  progression of healing which ended in Rupe’s body being completely restored to health. His physical body was transformed so much that he had to buy a complete new set of clothes!

You can guess that Rupe was left in no doubt that God was very much in business and that Jesus not only existed, but is alive today.

-o-O-o-

You can read the whole story in Dennis Bennett’s book, ‘Nine o’clock in the Morning,” published in 1971. Jane and I belonged to All Saints’ Normanton C of E church between 1974 and 2003. The church had been deeply influenced after a week’s visit by Fr Bennett, who’d come with his wife Rita all the way from Los Angeles, not long before we joined.