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Health Devotional
Blood of the Overcomer
And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood. Heb. 13:12, NIV.
John Hendee, in his book Ambassadors for Christ, tells the story of Dr. Felix Ruh, a Jewish physician in Paris, whose granddaughter died of diphtheria. Vowing that he would find out what killed his granddaughter, Dr. Ruh locked himself in his laboratory for days. He emerged with a fierce determination to prove, with his colleague Louis Pasteur, that the "germ theory" was more than a theory. The French medical association had disapproved of Pasteur and had succeeded in getting him exiled, but he did not go far from Paris. He erected a laboratory hidden in the forest in which to continue his forbidden research.
As scientists, doctors, and nurses watched, Ruh opened a steel vault and took out a large pail filled with black diphtheria germs, which he had cultured carefully for months. The pail contained enough germs to kill everybody in France. The scientist went to each of 20 beautiful horses and swabbed their nostrils, tongue, throat, and eyes with those deadly germs. The scientists waited several days to see the outcome. Every horse developed a terrific fever, and all but one soon died. Most of the doctors and scientists wearied of the experiment and did not remain for what they thought would be the death of the last horse. For several more days the final horse lingered, lying pathetically on the ground. One morning, though, the horse's temperature began to drop, and by night the fever was gone entirely. Soon the animal was able to stand, eat, and drink.
Then Dr. Ruh took a sledgehammer and struck that beautiful horse a death blow between the eyes. The scientists drew all the blood from the veins of the animal that had developed the disease but had overcome it. After driving rapidly to the municipal hospital in Paris, they forced their way past the superintendent and guards and into a ward where 300 babies had been segregated to die from diphtheria. With the blood of the horse they forcibly inoculated every one of the babies. All but three recovered completely.
They, like us, were saved by the blood of the overcomer. Unlike those infants, no one forces the choice upon us. Accepting the blood of Jesus is a choice we must freely make today.
Have you let the Holy Spirit fill your life with the blood of the Overcomer?
John Hendee, in his book Ambassadors for Christ, tells the story of Dr. Felix Ruh, a Jewish physician in Paris, whose granddaughter died of diphtheria. Vowing that he would find out what killed his granddaughter, Dr. Ruh locked himself in his laboratory for days. He emerged with a fierce determination to prove, with his colleague Louis Pasteur, that the "germ theory" was more than a theory. The French medical association had disapproved of Pasteur and had succeeded in getting him exiled, but he did not go far from Paris. He erected a laboratory hidden in the forest in which to continue his forbidden research.
As scientists, doctors, and nurses watched, Ruh opened a steel vault and took out a large pail filled with black diphtheria germs, which he had cultured carefully for months. The pail contained enough germs to kill everybody in France. The scientist went to each of 20 beautiful horses and swabbed their nostrils, tongue, throat, and eyes with those deadly germs. The scientists waited several days to see the outcome. Every horse developed a terrific fever, and all but one soon died. Most of the doctors and scientists wearied of the experiment and did not remain for what they thought would be the death of the last horse. For several more days the final horse lingered, lying pathetically on the ground. One morning, though, the horse's temperature began to drop, and by night the fever was gone entirely. Soon the animal was able to stand, eat, and drink.
Then Dr. Ruh took a sledgehammer and struck that beautiful horse a death blow between the eyes. The scientists drew all the blood from the veins of the animal that had developed the disease but had overcome it. After driving rapidly to the municipal hospital in Paris, they forced their way past the superintendent and guards and into a ward where 300 babies had been segregated to die from diphtheria. With the blood of the horse they forcibly inoculated every one of the babies. All but three recovered completely.
They, like us, were saved by the blood of the overcomer. Unlike those infants, no one forces the choice upon us. Accepting the blood of Jesus is a choice we must freely make today.
Have you let the Holy Spirit fill your life with the blood of the Overcomer?
Used by permission of Health Ministries, North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists.
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