God Story #10

It seems some time ago there was an Iranian Christian minister that was driving through the Iranian countryside with his wife. They stopped in a small town on the way to their destination to get some water. As they went into their equivalent of a grocery store to purchase the water, the man and his wife noticed an individual standing against the wall holding a machine gun. The wife pulled her husband aside and told her that he needed to give him the Bible that they had in the car. The husband prayed about it as they continued shopping in the store but ultimately decided against it. As they went back to the car and were putting their items away, the wife asked him once again to give him the Bible. The man refused because he was afraid. They drove away and made it out of town, and the wife continued to pray, and finally the man relented. "All right," he said, "I will go back and give him the Bible. If he shoots me, then he shoots me." They drove back to the store and the man with the machine gun was still standing there. The minister walked up to him and placed the Bible into his free hand. The man with the machine gun immediately began crying. "I don't live here," he said. "I had to walk for three days in order to get to this village. But three days ago an angel appeared to me and told me to walk to this village and wait until someone had given me the Book of Life. Thank you for giving me this book."

Because of this event, the minister became a courageous witness for Christ. Eventually, along with many other co-workers in the Iranian church, he was martyred for his faith.

God Story #9 (Prayer Foils a Bank Robbery!!!)

A woman at a check-cashing store in Indianapolis had a rather unorthodox way of foiling a potentially dangerous (and fatal) situation. She used prayer. When Gregory Smith, a 23 year-old male, attempted to rob the store and pulled a gun on clerk Angela Montez, Ms. Montez's first reaction was to start praying. At first taken aback, then the robber began crying. He explained to Ms. Montez that he was an ex-servicemen with a young baby and could not find work. "We're going to be homeless," he said. "I've tried everything." Eventually, he reached into his pocket and the clerk became frightned beause he thought she was going to be shot. However, he said "It's okay" and emptied the chamber and gave her all the bullets. After talking and praying together for about 40 minutes without any disturbances, Smith allegedly left after taking $20 and Montez’s cellphone. The next day Smith turned himself in after his mother had seen him on T.V. and urged him to do it. An awesome story indeed, and we should pray for that criminal to become a Christian and to get on the straight and narrow.

Shirley Goodnest and her daughter Marcy...

I read a really interesting article written by Max Lucado recently. He was discussing the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, and the ministry it performs to Christian believers every day.

When you place your faith in Christ, Christ places his Spirit before, behind, and within you. Not a strange spirit, but the same Spirit: the parakletos. Everything Jesus did for his followers, his Spirit does for you. Jesus taught; the Spirit teaches. Jesus healed; the Spirit heals. Jesus comforted; his Spirit comforts. As Jesus sends you into new seasons, he sends his counselor to go with you.

God treats you the way one mother treated her young son, Timmy. She didn't like the thought of Timmy walking to his first-grade classroom unaccompanied. But he was too grown-up to be seen with his mother. "Besides," he explained, "I can walk with a friend." So she did her best to stay calm, quoting the Twenty-third Psalm to him every morning: "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life..."

One school day she came up with an idea. She asked a neighbor to follow Timmy to school in the mornings, staying at a distance, lest he notice her. The neighbor was happy to oblige. She took her toddler on morning walks anyway.

After several days Timmy's friend noticed the lady and the child.

"Do you know who that woman is who follows us to school?"

"Sure," Timmy answered. "That's Shirley Goodnest and her daughter Marcy."

"Who?"

"My mom reads about them every day in the Twenty-third Psalm. She says, 'Shirley Goodnest and Marcy shall follow me all the days of my life.' Guess I'll have to get used to them."
You will too. God never sends you out alone. Are you on the eve of change? Do you find yourself looking into a new chapter? Is the foliage of your world showing signs of a new season? Heaven's message for you is clear: when everything else changes, God presence never does. You journey in the company of the Holy Spirit, who "will teach you and will remind you of everything I have told you" (John 14:26 NLT).



You see, the Holy Spirit has a very, very important ministry. The Holy Spirit convicts unbelievers of their need to become Christians, convicts believers of sin in their lives, and intercedes for the Christian when he or she prays. Thanks be to God for sending His counselor the Holy Spirit!

"Mr. Vandal, Jesus loves you too."

***Jesus and the woman at the well***


A Church in Keene, New Hampshire was recently very badly vandalized with several anarchist and atheist statements spray painted all over the building. Needless to say, the building was very badly defaced. The intial reaction of the pastor of the church and the parishioners was one of anger, however, they have now displayed Christ-like character in that they responded to this terrible act of vandalism by posted a message on their billboard to the passing motorists. The message simply reads: "Mr. Vandal, Jesus loves you too."

The Atheist and the Chief from Fiji

K.P. Yohannan, in his book Revolution in World Missions, relates an interesting story about the Island of Fiji when it was just opened up for trade with the local tribespeople some time ago. A merchant who was a hardened atheist and skeptic came through one day and was talking to one of the local tribal chiefs and was in his hut. Noticing that the chief had a bible and some other religious materials around his house he commented that "it's a shame that these missionaries are over here preaching all of this nonsense. I feel bad for you." The chief looked at him and pointed to a large rock outside. "Do you see that rock?" he said. "We used to use that rock to smash people's heads in to get at their brains." Gesturing to the stove, he said, "We used to use that stove to bake the bodies of people and then feast on them...so, if it weren't for the 'nonsense' of these missionaries as you call it, I can assure you that right about now your head would be smashed in and you would be baking in that stove for our feast." Such is the wonder of God that even a hardened Fijan tribal chief can go from being a murderer and cannibal to a man of peace!

God Story #5

William J. Murray is the current leader of the Religious Freedom Coalition, a socially conservative organization in Washington D.C. Although he is also noted for being very supportive and helpful in his activism for aiding Christians in Islamic and Communist countries, he is perhaps most well-known for being the son of Madalyn Murray O'Hair, who was known as the "most hated woman in America" because of her controversial personality and atheism. In his book "My Life Without God", Mr. Murray mentions that his mother very much despised her father, and has propagated the theory that many atheists have a defective relationship with their own human fathers. Mr. Murray is definitely an example of the power of God to influence and convict!

We Could Learn a Lot From......

GEORGE WASHINGTON CARVER
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Although Mr. Carver was a very successful inventor and pioneer in the uses of the peanut, he was also very much a class act. The man had to overcome many great and personal obstacles to reach success. Growing up in a one-room at the close of the American Civil War, he along with his mother was originally a slave owned by a man named Moses Carver. Unfortunately, he and his mother were later abducted by the Ku Klux Klan. Although he would eventually be returned to his original owner, his mother was never seen from again. But Mr. Carver was also a man of great prayer, always asking God how he could be used of Him for the greatest good and success. He began work on the uses of the peanut and sweet potato and recommended that farmers plant that instead of cotton. This would also lead to another great trial in his life in that farmers lost a lot of money due to his recommendation that they plant peanuts and sweet potatoes instead of cotton. Did George Washington Carver get bitter? No he didn't...instead he cried out to God to show Him the proper direction and God led him back to his lab and he would go on to discover hundreds of practical uses for the peanut and sweet potato. So, he is a good example of not giving up and staying the course!

God Story #4

The power of prayer to our God is so powerful that people can even be raised from the dead. What? What did I just say? Yes, I said that people can be raised from the dead! A man by the name of Randy, who is a brother to the missionary in the lepers post, had the unfortunate incident where he drowned in a camp swimming pool. He had already been pronounced dead and was prayed for one last time by his Pastor. Here's the story:

His second oldest brother, Randy, had drowned at a church youth camp swimming pool and was pronounced dead by the medical doctor who was there. The doctor had already called to secure a place for Randy at the morgue of the local hospital so his parents could come and identify their son’s body. The pastor of their church was there that day and felt the Lord was directing him to pray for Randy one last time before they took his body away. Pastor Floyd Lawhon stopped the doctor and paramedics from moving the stretcher, and asked everyone to help him pray again.

The power of God gripped more than one hundred people as they all watched Randy’s lifeless body, his face already a dark blue, begin shaking and changing back to a normal color! He threw up quarts of pool water, and then started to cry and ask everyone to tell him what had happened. The doctor beside him could only say, “Son, all I know is that you were dead when I got here to the pool. You had already drowned. But that preacher just prayed for you and now you’re alive!”

God Story # 3

This next God Story is more along the lines of divine intervention once more. God is extremely powerful, and these stories are a testament to that fact. God and His angels protect people from becoming hurt or injured in many instances, and in many cases the methods that He uses are unexplainable in any other way!


Mother’s Prayer

Mrs. Goodyear looked at the clock for the twentieth time that evening. "Eleven-thirty, and such a stormy night, too! Where can the boy be? I hope he is not in trouble. He is getting so difficult and wayward."

Very worried, she knelt beside the kitchen table, and with her hands clasped on her Bible, prayed that God would protect her dear Tom, bring him home safely, and turn his heart to the Lord.

At last, well past midnight, there were sounds in the yard. Evidently Tom had returned and was putting his bicycle away.

A few minutes later the boy entered, looking very pale and weary.

“Hello, Mother," he said. “Still up? I think I'll go straight to bed. A bit tired tonight"

"You're very late," said Mother. "Has anything happened?"

"I'll tell you all about it in the morning," he said, and with that he went upstairs to bed.

Mother, worried and anxious, followed. "Tom,” she said, “what has happened?”

"Well," said Tom, "Will and I had a strange experience about an hour ago. We were cycling home through the storm, when we felt ourselves moving rapidly downhill. It was pitch dark, and since we had no lights on our bikes it was almost impossible to see where we were going.

Suddenly I felt a hand on my shoulder, pulling me back. I thought it must be Will, and called to him. He called back to me that he had just felt a hand on his shoulder, and thought it was mine.
So we both stopped and got off our bikes, wondering what it all meant. Will said that he thought he would walk to the bottom of the hill, and I agreed to go with him. When we got there, we found a rock slide right across the roadway. If we had run into it, we would most likely have been killed."

“Thank God," murmured Mother, stroking Tom's hair. "I am so thankful that He cared for you."

"But, Mother, how could God have had anything to do with it?"

"Tom, when was it you said you felt that hand on your shoulder?"

"I should say about an hour ago. I suppose it must have been about half past eleven."

"I was praying for you then," said Mother. "That's why I am sure God had something to do with it. He sent His angel to protect you tonight, Tom."

"Do you think so?" asked Tom.

"I'm sure He did," said Mother, "because He wants you to give your heart to Him. I hope you will someday."

So saying, Mother kissed him good night and tiptoed out of the room. When she had gone, Tom lay thinking for a little while. Somehow he still felt that hand on his shoulder. Was Mother right after all? If so, was he not a most ungrateful boy? At least, should he not say Thank You to God for looking after him? He thought he should. By and by he got out of bed and knelt in prayer-for the first time in many months.

Mother, listening, heard the movement, guessed what it meant, and felt so happy.

That was the turning point in Tom's life. Beside his bed he gave his heart to God. From that hour he was a different boy.

Still looking for discernment...

*****Read on and I will explain the Dr. Pepper bottle here in just a little bit*****

When I started this blog, I purposefully decided that I would not include too much about myself in here because I believe that the purpose of this blog beyond all the mishmash of jokes, stories, song lyrics, funny pictures, and other things was to glorify God and to help people. However, I would like to say that I am still looking for discernment on why I feel the need to eventually become a pastor. (see the calling or catharsis post much earlier for more on this) If you have come across this blog and come from an evangelical Christian perspective, and have went through this process or know someone who has went through this process, I would greatly appreciate your prayers for this time in my life. I had a very interesting conversation with my current pastor tonight. We discussed a lot of things, but we mostly discussed we were at right now and how close I could have came this year to having a failed marriage, destroying myself, and/or generally ruining my life. If you have read the earlier introductory post on this you would know that I have had a year so difficult that would peel paint off of the walls. Here is basically what is on my heart right now: I have had an EXTREMELY difficult past 2-3 years...I have been through depression, car accidents, panic attacks, alcoholism, bitterness, rejection from all kinds of people in my previous career, and many other potentially fatal and poisonous things to the spirit of serving the Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, yes, I have been through the ringer. That being said, I still believe in my eventual call to be a pastor. This is a conviction I have that is not going to go away. I believe that I can, at some point, be of assistance to people that have had these struggles because of my life experiences. However, there was some very important things that my pastor told me that I think would be beneficial to me not just as a future pastor, but as a person and as a husband. I think that the best thing that I can do at this moment is to continue to serve Him and like the Dr. Pepper can at the top of this post, to "let it settle". In other words, this very painful year has shook my can up, and I need to not open it right away. I do think that I have a lot to be thankful for. April has been a wonderful, wonderful partner to me and has stuck with through a lot of things blowing up in my face. I think that I will focus on being a good husband and will play it by ear with all of the other things. I do know that as a part of my dicernment process I will be a non-degree seeking student at one of these online Bible Colleges, but the most important thing right now is taking care of the little things and remembering that "he who has began in good work in you will continue it until the day of Jesus Christ." (Paraphrase of Phillippians 1:6) When and if the day comes that I will be a pastor leading a church somewhere, I can be confident that God will have molded me into an individual worthy of this awesome responsibility and calling. For now, however, the best thing to do is to look after the little things. If you come across this blog, I would appreciate your prayers for me in this area.

God Story #2

For the second God story I am going to focus on an what can happen when the power of God gets ahold of an individual who is not living life right. An individual named Richard Schlotter, who is now an Assembly of God pastor in Iowa, is an example of how powerful God is when an individual yields to Him. Although this man has been in the ministry for the past three years (2 as a youth pastor and 1 as a senior pastor) he lived a life of drug addiction and incarceration before becoming the Man of God he is today.

"I knew my life had to change."

When Schlotter was 23, he found himself in the county jail facing a drug manufacturing charge, facing the possibility of ten years in prison for the offense. To make matters worse, his wife was planning on divorcing him. The ministry team from the very church that he pastors today came to his cell and told him about the Gospel. Richard Schlotter cried out to God to forgive him of his sins. He became a new person that day and decided to change his lifestyle and become a better husband to his wife Kelly if given the chance.

"I didn't deserve my wife because of the bad choices I had made"

Mr. Schlotter began fervently praying that his wife's heart would be softened toward him. He knew that it would be a long, difficult road ahead of him because of how he had treated her. The guilt he felt was particularly strong for an incident where he was in a drug-induced state and threatened to kill his wife and two children and held them hostage. After three months however, his prayers were answered and his wife sent him a letter saying she wanted to visit. God helped to restore the relationship when she visited and later his wife and two boys became believers as well. After serving 18 months of his sentence, he began a Sunday School class for former inmates such as himself which eventually grew to 50 members. He would later become the youth pastor and then senior pastor at the very church that visited him when he was an unbeliever.

While this isn't necessarily an example like the last entry, this is still important because it demonstrates what God can do when a life is yielded to Him, as Mr. Schlotter did. There is a 4 Him song that touches on the issue a lot better than I can:

Lay it all on the Line

So don't go wastin' your time
Holding on to your life
There are treasures that I have possessed
Meant the world to me

But they never filled the emptiness
I needed something more than these
In the middle of my wilderness
God reached down to me
When I let go to His tenderness
I found this life was more than I ever dreamed

CHORUS

So don't go wastin' your time
Holding on to your life
Just lay it all on the line
Gotta make up your mind
There can be no more compromise
Just lay it all on the line

It's a matter of surrendering
Every hidden fear
And by letting go of everything
Jesus will meet you there

In the heart of every one of us
There's a call to faith
Even though we'll never measure up
That's why the Savior, that's why the Savior came

Gone are the days of holding on
This is the time to surrender
Now is the moment you've got to let it go
Just let it go (repeat)

Don't go wastin' your time
Gotta make up your mind
There can be no more compromise
Just lay it all on the line


You see, I am also a lot like Pastor Schlotter and this has a lot to do with my motivations for starting this blog. Just like him, God met me in my wilderness as well and when I finally did relinquish what I was holding on to, God did meet me there!

*For more information on Pastor Schlotter and his family go to: http://www.fpagoi.org/?TargetPage=541345FF-993D-4829-B134-C8FB1C9FB169

God Story #1

I'm thinking about adding another segment on here that I thought would be pretty neat. Even though I really only got one reader so far (I appreciate you, abstractscientist) it's my goal that anyone who comes across the blog will either be encouraged, get a little chuckle, or get some inspiration of some sort; at the same time I also desire to glorify God. So, that being said, these stories are just examples of people who have been affected in some positive way by this higher power we call God. Miracles or Divine Intervention by another term. Here's the first one:

God is raising up a new kind of workplace believer who is experiencing the power of God in their daily work life. My friend, Emeka Nywankpa, was a barrister (lawyer) in Nigeria. Emeka spoke at a conference a few years ago on the subject of how the spiritual impacts the physical.

Emeka shared a story about arguing an important Supreme Court case in his country. There were five points to argue in the case. The morning the trial began, he prayed with his wife and junior lawyers in his chambers. During his prayer time, he sensed that the Holy Spirit was telling him, "Do not argue points one through four. Only argue point five." Imagine making such a change just before you are to argue a case before the Supreme Court!

In the courtroom, Emeka announced that he wished to drop points one through four and only wished to argue point five. The judge was shocked, but gave him permission to proceed. He argued point five and sat down. The other attorney got up, and then for twelve minutes stumbled around trying to defend his position, unable to get a coherent word out.

Finally, he approached the bench and said, "Your Lordship, it is unfortunate that my learned friend has dropped the first four points. I wish to yield the case." The other attorney had only prepared for the first four points. Emeka won the case. God had given him a strategy to win his case supernaturally. It made no sense to him, but he obeyed and God gave him victory in a very unusual way.