Delivered from suicide Week 16, 2026

 Ps 89:1(KJV)  I will sing of the mercies of the LORD for ever: with my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness to all generations. 

I am Mr. I. C, I ,am 46 years old, and a health worker who gives thanks to God Almighty for miraculously saving my life! I would have taken my own life and been forever doomed but for his mercies. I want to return all praise to the Lord Almighty for His unfailing love. A love that would not let me go.

October 3^rd, 2023 is a day I will never forget. It was a day I unfortunately had an amputation of one of my legs. A devastating disease left the health team with no option but amputation to save my life. Sadly, after the procedure, I could not get the full complement of the pain medication as I had underlying kidney problems, and so began a journey of perpetual pain and misery. I had had a kidney transplant following chronic kidney disease. But that is a story for another day. Every twitch of the leg, every change in position, was filled with excruciating pain. All 24 hours of the day - no reprieve.  Sleep fled from me, and nothing could comfort me.

By the 3^rd day, I could not take it anymore and resolved to end it all. Being a health worker, the know-how to kill myself was not a problem, and a firm plan of action had already formed in my heart. I am married to an angel of a woman. She is so meek, and when I would speak out or respond harshly, her response was always a meek and quiet spirit. I never let her know I intended to end it all.

The next day was the D- day and I sent my loving, innocent wife on an errand. She got someone, a friend, to tend me while she was away, and I conveniently sent him on an errand as well. Just one injection into my intravenous line would end it all, and quickly too.

Just when I was about to execute my plan, a sister, a fellow health worker whom I had interacted with for basically three times in the last two years, suddenly walked into the ward for a visit! I assumed it was a quick visit, but she got a seat and sat down. smiling sheepishly and trying to start a conversation.

Irritated, I answered in only monosyllables and silence, but she was not deterred. She kept on trying to make conversation, broke out in songs, and just would not leave! Not long afterwards, she began praying. Even when she got a call from her son’s school to come and pick up her child, she still stayed behind until my wife returned! I was so pissed off.

But that night, I managed to fall asleep, and the Lord ministered to me and reminded me of the destination I was heading.  If not for God… 

Ps 103:1-4 (ESV)  Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name! Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy

CJ is a doctor in the South East

The use of soldiers Week 15, 2026

 

So the soldiers are sinning and should all return to the barracks, no, to the prayer room.

That is not what I said at all. You spoke of government ineptitude or complicity. We never spoke about soldiers. Soldiers are meant to protect lives even if it means killing...

Are you not speaking with two sides of your mouth? First, you say, “Do not kill them but pray for them.” Now you say soldiers should kill them. I thought you were a pacifist.

No! That is not the Christian position at all. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. Rom 13:3-14(ESV)  Government is created by God, and soldiers are anointed to carry out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer. Gen 9:6(ESV)  Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image is valid until this day. I am no pacifist.

I thought you were a New Testament man who follows the examples of Christ and the apostles.

But I am my brother. I am. Have you not noticed the use of soldiers in Paul’s journey?)  As the people were trying to kill Paul, the officer in charge of the Roman soldiers received a report that all Jerusalem was rioting. Immediately, he took some soldiers and officers and charged the crowd. When the crowd saw the officer and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul. Act 21:31-32(GW Not only this time, but when over 40 Jews banded themselves together to kill Paul, and he knew of it, he sent information to the commanding officer who took armed men to travel with Paul and give him protection. Then he called two of the centurions and said, “Get ready two hundred soldiers, with seventy horsemen and two hundred spearmen to go as far as Caesarea at the third hour of the night. Also provide mounts for Paul to ride and bring him safely to Felix the governor.” Act 23:23-24(ESV)  There is enough scriptural precedent for that in the New Testament.

Well, we are forming a militia with an oath to protect people’s lives. We have been advised to pray but also defend ourselves. We have the mandate to kill.

Given by whom? Which government has conscripted you? Can’t you see it is a desire to fight for yourself that has come upon you?  Make use of your rights as a citizen to protect yourself from abuse. God expects that too. Act 22:25, 29(ESV)  But when they had stretched him out for the whips, Paul said to the centurion who was standing by, “Is it lawful for you to flog a man who is a Roman citizen and uncondemned?” So those who were about to examine him withdrew from him immediately, and the tribune also was afraid, for he realized that Paul was a Roman citizen and that he had bound him.  If however despite our use of legal rights and appeal to authority the very persons anointed by God to protect us fail us we must, we must avoid taking the laws into our own hands. Rom 8:36-37(ESV)  As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”  No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. Victory is not that we survived at all costs. Victory is that we represented Jesus Christ at all costs. Php 1:21(ESV)  For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. 

The security threat Week 14, 2026

 

How does the Christian respond to security threats? The wanton killings and the ineptitude or complicity of the government are open sores. Ps 44:22(ESV) Yet for your sake we are killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.

See, we must understand the devil’s purpose in coming with sustained violence. The purpose is far deeper than maiming or killing the body. Job 2:4-5(ESV)  Then Satan answered the LORD and said, “Skin for skin! All that a man has he will give for his life.  But stretch out your hand and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you to your face.” It is Satan’s intention that we will curse God and abandon Christlikeness in the midst of these sufferings. In essence, removing Christ from Christian expression.

I don’t need theology. I want practical steps in the face of this massacre. How do we react?

First, be proactive. Be security conscious.  So the city was filled with the confusion, and they rushed together into the theater, dragging with them Gaius and Aristarchus, Macedonians who were Paul's companions in travel. But when Paul wished to go in among the crowd, the disciples would not let him Act 19:29-30(ESV). Do not deliberately go into danger. This was exactly the attitude of Jesus Christ, whom we must imitate. After this Jesus went about in Galilee. He would not go about in Judea, because the Jews were seeking to kill him. Jn7:1(ESV) 

You need information in advance for that. What do I do when they come with machetes and guns? I have every right to defend myself. It is very legal to own a gun, you know.

I would encourage you to get away and hide. No, don’t look at me like that. I know you are a brave and strong man. It is not about courage to face the enemy physically, but courage to do what Jesus Christ did and taught. And behold, one of those who were with Jesus stretched out his hand and drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his ear. Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? Mt 26:51-53(ESV)  If in this life and death situation, Jesus rebuked the use of physical force, it means He never wants us to do it. When He said all who take up the sword, He meant all, including Christians.

We must all die somehow. You mean the anointing of Samson is not there? That fire can no longer come down from heaven to defend the Elijahs of today?

Please don’t. I sincerely beg you. And seeing, His disciples James and John said, Lord, do You desire that we command fire to come down from Heaven and consume them, even as Elijah did? But He turned and rebuked them and said, You do not know of what spirit you are. For the Son of Man has not come to destroy men's lives, but to save. And they went to another village. Lk 9:54-56(MKJV) Just as Steven did, pray also for these evil men to repent. I beg you to remember the real stakes in this whole conflict. It is not about saving my life on earth but representing Jesus Christ accurately, whether by life or by death. My deep desire and hope is that I shall never fail in my duty, but that at all times, and especially right now, I shall be full of courage, so that with my whole being I shall bring honor to Christ, whether I live or die Php 1:20(GNB) .