by Matt | Aug 9, 2012 | Blog
After fifty years of service in Africa, a weary missionary couple descended the gangplank of their boat. Their disembarking was delayed by a throng of press and well-wishers welcoming President Theodore Roosevelt back from his most recent safari. As they made their way through the crowd, the husband expressed to his wife how discouraged he was. After fifty years of spreading the gospel, after losing two children to jungle diseases, there was not a single person to welcome them home. His wife suggested that he talk to God about this during his bedtime prayers. In their cheap little hotel room the exhausted wife fell asleep almost immediately. She awoke in the morning to find her husband smiling and whistling softly as he prepared for the day.
“Boy,” she said, “you have certainly lightened up. Did you tell God about your disappointment?”
“Yes, I did,” he answered. “I told Him how sad and angry it made me that after all the years of service and sacrifice, we had no one to welcome us home.”
“Well,” his wife asked, “what did God say to you?”
With a smile her husband answered. “God said, ‘You’re not home yet.’ ”
by Matt | Aug 9, 2012 | Blog
In his book Tide Rising Bruce Theileman used this illustration:
It is said that Satan once called to him the emissaries of hell and said he wanted to send one of them to earth to aid women and men in the ruination of their souls. He asked which one would want to go. One creature came forward and said, “I will go.” Satan said, “If I send you, what will you tell the children of men?” He said, “I will tell the children of men that there is no heaven.” Satan said, “They will not believe you, for there is a bit of heaven in every human heart. In the end everyone knows that right and good must have the victory. You may not go.”
Then another came forward, darker and fouler than the first. Satan said, “If I send you, what will you tell the children of men?” He said, “I will tell them there is no hell.” Satan looked at him and said, “Oh, no; they will not believe you, for in every human heart there’s a thing called conscience, an inner voice which testifies to the truth that not only will good be triumphant, but that evil will be defeated. You may not go.”
Then one last creature came forward, this one from the darkest place of all. Satan said to him, “And if I send you, what will you say to women and men to aid them in the destruction of their souls?”
He said, “I will tell them there is no hurry.”
Satan said, “Go!”