|
One day a man saw an old lady, stranded
on the side of the road, but even in
the dim light of day, he could see she needed help. So he pulled
up in
front of her Mercedes and got out. His Pontiac was still sputtering when he
approached her.
Even
with the smile on his face, she was worried. No one had stopped to
help for the last hour or so. Was
he going to hurt her? He didn't look
safe; he looked poor and hungry.
He
could see that she was frightened, standing out there in the cold. He
knew how she felt. It was that
chill which only fears can put in you.
He said, "I'm here to help
you, ma'am. Why don't you wait in the car where
it's warm? By the way, my name is Bryan
Anderson."
Well, all she had was a flat tire, but for an old lady, that
was bad
enough. Bryan crawled under the car
looking for a place to put the jack,
skinning his knuckles a time or two. Soon he was able to change
the tire.
But he had to get dirty and his hands hurt.
As
he was tightening up the lug nuts, she rolled down the window and began
to talk to him. She told him
that she was from St. Louis and was only just
passing through. She
couldn't thank him enough for coming to her aid.
Bryan just smiled as he closed her trunk. The lady asked how much she owed
him.
Any amount would have been all right with her. She already imagined
all the awful things that could
have happened had he not stopped. Bryan
never
thought twice about being paid. This was not a job to him. This was
helping someone in need, and GOD
knows there were plenty, who had given
him a hand in the past. He had lived his whole life that way,
and it never
occurred to him to act any other way.
He
told her that if she really wanted to pay him back, the next time she
saw someone who needed help,
she could give that person the assistance they
needed.
He
waited until she started her car and drove off. It had been a cold and
depressing day, but he felt
good as he headed for home, disappearing into
the twilight.
A
few miles down the road the lady saw a small cafe. She went in to grab a
bite to eat, and take the
chill off before she made the last leg of her
trip home. It was a dingy looking restaurant. Outside
were two old gas
pumps. The whole scene was unfamiliar to her. The waitress came over and
brought
a clean towel to wipe her wet hair. She had a sweet smile, one that
even being on her feet for the
whole day couldn't erase. The lady noticed
the waitress was nearly eight months pregnant, but
she never let the strain
and aches change her attitude. The old lady wondered how someone who had so
little
could be so giving to a stranger. Then she remembered Bryan
After the lady finished
her meal, she paid with a hundred dollar bill. The
waitress quickly went to get change for her hundred
dollar bill, but the
old lady had slipped right out the door. She was gone by the time the
waitress
came back. The waitress wondered where the lady could be. Then she
noticed something written on the
napkin.
There were tears in her eyes when she read what the lady wrote: "You
don't
owe me anything. I have been there too. Somebody once helped me out, the
way
I'm helping you.
Under the napkin were four more $100 bills.
Well, there were tables to clear, sugar bowls to fill, and people to serve,
but
the waitress made it through another day. That night when she got home
from work and climbed into
bed, she was thinking about the money and what
the lady had written. How could the lady have known
how much she and her
husband needed it? With the baby due next month, it was going to be
hard....
She knew how worried her husband was, and as he lay sleeping next to her,
she gave him a soft kiss and whispered soft and low, "Everything's going to
be
all right. I love you, Bryan Anderson."
The SCIPTURE SAY'S “WHAT
YOU SOW THAT TOO WILL YOU REAP".
A
Powerfull True Story Contributed to this site by Bro. John Mathew
Beautiful story....
makes you understand that things happen for a
reason
The brand new pastor and his wife, newly assigned
to their first ministry, to reopen a church
in suburban Brooklyn, arrived in early October
excited
about their opportunities When they saw
their church, it was very run down and needed
much work. They
set a goal to have everything
done in time to have their first service
on Christmas Eve.
They worked hard, repairing pews, plastering walls,
painting, etc, and on December 18
were
ahead of schedule and just about finished.
On December 19 a terrible tempest - a driving
rainstorm hit
the area and lasted for two days.
On the 21st, the pastor went over to the church.
His heart sank when
he saw that the roof had
leaked, causing a large area of plaster about
20 feet by 8 feet to fall off
the front wall of the
sanctuary just behind the pulpit, beginning about
head high.
The pastor
cleaned up the mess on the floor,
and not knowing what else to do but postpone
the Christmas Eve service,
headed home.
On the way he noticed that a local business was
having a flea market type sale for charity
so he
stopped in. One of the items was a beautiful,
handmade, ivory colored, crocheted tablecloth
with exquisite work, fine colors and a Cross
embroidered right in the center. It was just
the
right size to cover up the hole in the front
wall. He bought it and headed back to the church.
By
this time it had started to snow. An older
woman running from the opposite direction was
trying to catch
the bus.. She missed it. The pastor
invited her to wait in the warm church for
the next bus 45 minutes
later.
She sat in a pew and paid no attention to the pastor
while he got a
ladder, hangers, etc., to put
up the tablecloth as a wall tapestry. The pastor
could hardly believe
how beautiful it looked and
it covered up the entire problem area.
Then he noticed the
woman walking down the center
aisle. Her face was like a sheet.. "Pastor,"
she asked, "where
did you get that tablecloth?"
The pastor explained. The woman asked him to check
the lower right
corner to see if the initials, EBG were crocheted into
it there. They were. These were the initials of the woman,
and she had
made this tablecloth 35 years before, in Austria
The woman could hardly believe
it as the pastor
told how he had just gotten the Tablecloth. The
woman explained that before the war
she and
her husband were well-to-do people in Austria .
When the Nazis came, she was forced
to leave.
Her husband was going to follow her the next week.
He was captured, sent to prison and never
saw her
husband or her home again.
The pastor wanted to give her the tablecloth;
but
she made the pastor keep it for the church.
The pastor insisted on driving her home, that
was the least
he could do.. She lived on the other
side of Staten Island and was only in Brooklyn
for the day for
a housecleaning job.
What a wonderful service they had on Christmas
Eve. The church was
almost full. The music and the
spirit were great. At the end of the service, the
pastor and his wife
greeted everyone at the door
and many said that they would return.
One older man, whom
the pastor recognized
from the neighborhood continued to sit in one of the
pews and stare, and the pastor
wondered why he
wasn't leaving.
The man asked him where he got the tablecloth on
the front wall because it was identical to one
that his wife had made years ago when
they lived
in Austria before the war and how
could there be two tablecloths so much alike.
He told
the pastor how the Nazis came, how he
forced his wife to flee for her safety and he was
supposed to
follow her, but he was arrested and
put in a prison.. He never saw his wife or his home
again all the
35 years in between.
The pastor asked him if he would allow him to
take him for a little
ride. They drove to Staten
Island and to the same house where the pastor
had taken the woman three days earlier.
He helped the man climb the three flights of
stairs to the woman's apartment, knocked on
the door and he saw the greatest Christmas
reunion he could ever imagine.
True
Story - submitted by Pastor Rob Reid
You can't dance with the devil
so don't try A scorpion, being a very poor
swimmer, asked a turtle to carry him on his back across a river. "Are you crazy?" exclaimed the turtle. "You'll
sting me while I'm swimming and I'll drown."
"My dear turtle," laughed the scorpion, "if
I were to sting you, you would drown and I would go down with you.
Now where is the logic in that?"
"You're
right!" cried the turtle. "Hop on!" The scorpion climbed aboard and halfway across the river gave the turtle
a mighty sting. As they both sank to the bottom, the turtle resignedly said:
"Do you mind if I ask you something?
You said there'd be no logic in your stinging me. Then why did you do it?"
"It has nothing to do
with logic," the drowning scorpion sadly replied.
"It's just my character." Another Contribution by Bro.John Mathew Judges 6:12
"The Lord is with you, mighty warrior."
God always looks at His children for what they will be, not
what they are now. The Lord already had seen Gideon as a leader of others, not just a laborer who threshed wheat. Gideon was an Israelite who lived during a time of oppression from the Midianites. God had allowed Israel to be oppressed because of its rebellion. However, the Israelites cried
out to God, and He heard their cry for help. He decided to free them from the oppression of their enemies. God chose a man
with little experience in such matters to lead an army against Midian. When God
came to Gideon through a visit by an angel, the angel's first words to him were, "The Lord is with you, mighty warrior."
God always looks at His children for what they will be, not what they are now. The Lord had already seen this man as a leader
of others, not just a laborer who threshed wheat. The apostle Paul said, "I can do everything
through Him who gives me strength" (Phil. 4:13).
God has reserved an inheritance for you and me. He has foreordained that we should accomplish great things in His name-not
so that we will be accepted or become more valued, but to experience the reality of a living relationship with a God who wants
to demonstrate His power through each of us. What does God want to accomplish through you
today? He used Gideon, with only 300 men, to deliver Israel
from an army of more than 100,000. He demonstrated His power through one man who was willing to let God use what little faith
he had to free a nation from oppression and bring glory to the God of Israel. The Lord delights in showing Himself strong
through those who will trust Him.
Enson George
Issac
|
