So, I am scheduled for another colonoscopy, will history repeat itself?
To most, a colonoscopy is a non-eventful medical procedure. But when I had my last colonoscopy, I endured a heart attack while in the recovery room. I remember the last words I heard was my wife saying, “Bill your lips are blue!”
It was a blessing in disguise because it happened in the presence of medical professionals. After being transferred to another hospital, it was then I learned I was a “walking dead man.” Though I was symptomatic, I did not know how bad I was. Therefore, by God’s Divine providence, He provided me with a diagnosis.
That heart attack set off a chain of events that changed my life (or way of life). A few months later I endured three full cardiac arrests. After waking up in another hospital, my doctor told me they had declared me “clinically dead.”
Since I am apprehensive of another colonoscopy, I sought the medical advice of three different medical professionals. My primary care physician, cardiologist, and nurse practitioner. All of them agree that another colonoscopy is a necessary but reasonable risk.
Through various hospitalizations, the Lord taught me much. He taught me to pray less for myself and more for others. He convicted me of being too specific or too self-seeking in my prayers. Too much of what I desired or hoped for, for myself or others. That I wrongfully thought it necessary to tell an all-knowing (omniscient) God all the details of what was going on. The fact is, His foreknowledge (proginōskō) already knew. He taught me to give prayers of thanksgiving more often.
The Lord reaffirmed that those bumper sticker cliches “Prayer changes things,” or “There’s power in our prayer” are man-centered. The fact is there’s no power in my prayer. But there is power in an Omnipotent God and how He sovereignly decrees to answer our prayers.
My Mentor in how to pray is the Lord Jesus Himself. Even under the most difficult circumstances, far worse than any of us have experienced, or ever will. God recorded throughout His Scriptures, Jesus prayed, “Father, Thy will be done!”
It says to Christians in 1 John 5:14,
“And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us:”
Therefore, the Godliest prayer a man can pray, is, “Lord let Your will be done, not mine!” (Domine, fiat voluntas tua!)
If His will is that I experience no difficulties, I will rejoice and give thanks. If He decrees me to have another heart attack, or full arrest(s,) by His grace I will rejoice and give thanks. If He decrees me to die, I will truly be rejoicing and giving thanks. For God’s elect, death is not the end of the world, it is the beginning of an eternity with Him.
“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” - 1 Thessalonians 5
To know more about the salvation He has given me, click here or below.
Update 01/02/24: I am home from the procedure. My report is below in comments.
My sermon notes on Psalm 1, for our Sunday School class
Video on ‘Living the Gospel that you preach’, by Pastor Paul Tripp
What does it mean to be “Blessed,” and how do we Biblically understand and apply this word?
About The Author
Bill Rhetts
An ordinary sinner saved by an Extraordinary Savior. Radically saved, and radically changed, by a Radical God. For more details, see the above 'About me' tab.
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I had the procedure today, thanks for your prayers. Though I was anticipating another heart attack, it went well. I’d be a liar to say there was no fear as the anesthesiologist was putting me to sleep. Knowing my history, the hospital staff did the procedure in a part of the hospital that was not their norm. I’m sure the insurance company will be surprised at the bill when they receive it. But it was dollars per man hour well-earned and well-spent. I can’t say enough great things about all of the employees on the team. But I must say even greater things about our Lord. Not only does God possess an omniscient nature, whereas He knows everything everywhere at the same time. He possesses a foreknowledge (proginōskō), that He knows beforehand the appointment would be made today. He knew beforehand the patient in front of me would be late, causing my procedure to be late. He knew beforehand that I would fall short in total trust and submission to Him, as I waited. God’s proginōskō (His foreknowledge) already knew the medical prognosis that He decreed beforehand. He foreknows and foreknew that I would have Gospel tracts in my clothes coming into the hospital and stuffed in the pockets of my hospital gown. He foreknew EVERY person I offered a Gospel tract to, would gladly accept it, except one nurse.
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Ironically that nurse said she did not need the Gospel because she taught Bible studies, and that she learned how to put her Bible studies together mostly from her ‘favorite’ pastor Greg Laurie from California. I should have told her he was my former pastor in the 80s, and why she should RUN from that man and his online teachings. That I was a false convert under Laurie’s heretical Arminian Pelagian hocus-pocus sinner’s prayer.
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After leaving that ecumenical sensual worldly “church,” and the Lord later saving me, I learned Laurie was “mentored” by Lonnie Frisbie. Frisbie was a Pioneer of the Calvary Chapel movement. He was a known homosexual who later died of AIDS. The recent sinful movie Jesus Revolution was about those guys, but they don’t admit Frisbie was a homosexual in the movie. Whatever happened to the yesteryears when alleged Christians said their “favorite pastor” was their own pastor?
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Sorry for that rabbit trail. Nevertheless, Almighty God foreknew all of today’s events, and He decreed it all. Including the medical diagnosis/prognosis the hospital gave. God is good all the time. And so, I give thanks to Him and boast in Him. Soli Deo Gloria and Semper Reformanda!