Church Stuff
I’m glad to see that other people are continuing to ask questions about the church and ecclesiology. Here are a few posts I’ve run across this week:
- Bryan at “Charis Shalom” in “Rethinking Church“
- Eric at “A Pilgrim’s Progress” in “Church Gatherings: Are All things To Be Done for ‘Worship’?“
- Douglas at “Douglas Weaver” in “What is the Church?“
There were other good posts, but I wanted to highlight these three.
Also, if you haven’t read it yet, make sure you read Strider’s (“Tales from Middle Earth“) latest story in a post called “What Can Pop Up At a Funeral“. Strider tells the story of a modern-day resurrection.
This story may not be what you expected, but Strider’s tale reminded me of it. This is an abbreviated, but true story.
My friend called on the phone. Her father was extremely sick and in the hospital. His heart was failing and the doctors had told the family that he would not live through the night.
My friend’s husband was out of town. My friend had injured her back and was unable to drive. She asked me if I could drive her to her parents’ home, a three hour drive, the next morning, so she could be with her mother.
We alerted the church to pray. The church had already been praying for her father and family.
My friend and I left very early the next morning. She had not talked to her family since the previous night. This was before cell phones, so she did not call her family or the hospital as we drove.
My friend asked that we go to the hospital first to see if her father might still be alive. When we arrived, we went to his room. The bed was empty and made up. We assumed he had died. We asked the nurse at the desk, and she told us he had been moved to another room and floor.
Assuming that he was in very critical condition, and that I would not be allowed into his room, we agreed that I would leave, get gas and something to eat, and meet again in the lobby a couple of hours later.
When I returned, as I was walking up to the front entrance of the hospital, someone kept honking a car horn in the parking lot across the street. I ignored it. Then someone yelled my name. I turned. My friend was sitting in a car with her father.
He had been released from the hospital. He had lived through the night. When he had awaken that morning, he felt much better. The doctors had checked on his heart, and said it was fine. According to their tests, including imaging tests (CAT scan?), he had a different heart in his chest than he had the night before. They said he had the heart of an eighteen year old. They said they had never seen anything like this case.
My friend’s father was not a believer, and never became one. He died several years later, but not from heart problems. However, the experience made a deep impression on him. He wrote a very long letter to the pastor of our church thanking the church for prayer, which made a deep impression on the church.
God does work in mysterious ways, which we do not always understand. We prayed, and when he was healed it was as unbelievable as that night Peter was knocking at the door and no one would answer the door except Rhoda, because they were busy praying, presumably for Peter.
Sam,
Thanks for sharing this story with us. Have you ever considered starting your own blog to share these stories? (Not that I don’t want you to share them here…)
-Alan
Thanks for highlighting the post, Alan. We seem more often to fit in the world rather than stand out.
Bryan,
I think you’re right.
-Alan
Alan,
You post twice a day. I don’t know if I could keep up with that pace.
My friend has an interesting story, but isn’t much of a writer, so I am helping her write her story. In print, it could easily be seven books.
She thinks God is providing for her, so doesn’t think it necessary to try to sell the story. We’re thinking about posting it on the net, maybe a couple of chapters a week at first, then more frequently if it picks up an audience.
I guess I could set up a site, write posts on controversial Christian topics, which might attract hits, and make her story a secondary feature of the site. If the story attracts an audience, it could become the main attraction, with chapters added several times a week, and the blog could be secondary and less frequent.
What do you think? We know there are lots and lots of sites and blogs our there.