“I am still here”
I want to tell you a story about a Texan! We are historically fighters! This story is about a man named Ray Benavidez, a master Sargent in the us army. He was a soldier in Vietnam , special forces and he has a story to tell!
In 1965 he was in Vietnam ,he stepped on a land mine that paralyzed him. He was in the hospital and was being discharged and he was stung by several things that drove him to a decision.
His career was over,he couldn’t walk,the flag burnings and media criticism by the media of the troops.
He was from Cuero tx,born of imagrant farmers,that both died as he was a very young child. He had nothing to go back to and no way to get there as a cripple. So when the hospital was dark at night he started training.
He would crawl on his elbows and chin to a nearby wall and try to lift himself unaided. But in months time he would stand in great pain and just over a year later he would walk out of that hospital!
But on may of 1968 he was back in Vietnam. There came a call from the 12 man special force patrol that was surrounded by a battalion (1000) enemies.
Benavidez hears the call on the radio and hops on a helicopter armed only with a knife and a med bag and gets in the fight!
He saved many but was found with 37 separate bullet,bayonet,and shrapnel wounds after his 6 hour fight.
As they collected the wounded and the dead he was examined and placed in a body bag and as they began to zip up the bag ,Benavidez spit in the doctors face saying i am alive!
Paul would talk of the times that he would almost die, he would tell of the problems,situations,and pain but each time he would come back with a I am still standing/here.
2 Corinthians 11
23 Are they [self-proclaimed] servants of Christ?—I am speaking as if I were out of my mind—I am more so [for I exceed them]; with far more labors, with far more imprisonments, beaten times without number, and often in danger of death. 24 Five times I received from the Jews [e]thirty-nine lashes. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent adrift on the sea; 26 many times on journeys, [exposed to] danger from rivers, danger from bandits, danger from my own countrymen, danger from the Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger on the sea, danger among those posing as believers; 27 in labor and hardship, often unable to sleep, in hunger and thirst, often [driven to] fasting [for lack of food], in cold and exposure [without adequate clothing].
He said each time he prayed for God to remove the thorn in his flesh,God would reply, my grace is sufficient and my strength is perfect in your weakness.
Moses was a murderer wondering on the back side of a desert when God called him. Moseses response to God was i can’t because ……..i did things,i cant talk good….
God tells him that I will be with you! That will be a token,a visible,tangible representation! I have sent you!
I don’t know what the backside of a desert looks like but I do understand what it is like arguing with God about what and how He can do in your life as Moses did!
I understand what some of you are facing, your very own giant….and I must assure you that if God allowed it to stand before you then he has already empowered you to defeat it! You don’t need what everyone else says will work, you just need what God has given you!
You need to get up,SPIT IN THE ENEMIES FACE AS HE TRIES TO COVER YOU UP ,and say I AM NOT DEAD YET!!!!
The enemy has told you that there is no way! But God says i am the way,truth ,and life!
I am writing to some here that has all but given up, you don’t see the point anymore…..you have fought until you have become weary,you are wounded and you think this may be the end…… but god has sent me here to preach now is the time!
We need to get so offended or stung as Benavidez that it pushes us past what we see,what we are told and we do not accept anything but what God says is for us!
God wants to use you! To change the culture of our community,country and world! He wants to use you to enlarge His kingdom, will you stand and say I am still here?