I read one of Aesop’s Fables this week: The Lion and the Mouse. I hadn’t read the fable for many years, and I had never related it to the Christian faith—but this time, I did.
If You Ever Wonder Why God Puts Certain People in Your Life...
A long time ago, in a parking lot far, far away, no. This was before there even was a Star Wars.
I was sitting in the passenger side of the old blue Dodge with my brother-in-law. This car would one day become mine, but I didn’t know that then. It was his car, for jaunts to church or seminary or other errands, not the big family car we normally drove when we were all together. He stopped by his college for some reason, and I was with him. I can still smell the SoCal heat in that car mixed with a little dust and that recently turned-off car smell. We were talking.
If there was anyone on earth that I could trust to say these things to, it was him.
At that moment, I was the unhappiest I think I had ever been.
The Prayer Meeting--that Lasted 100 Years
In my last blog, I wrote about Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf and the influence he had on denominations’ focus on having a personal relationship with Christ and a more emotional experience of salvation, and on mission work/ evangelization.
But Zinzendorf also was part of a movement that many Christians today don’t know about. Zinzendorf was part of a prayer meeting that—through hundreds of men and women who took turns praying—continued twenty-four hours every day for more than one hundred years.
Yes, a prayer meeting that lasted for more than 100 years.
What is True Christian Friendship?
When you think of friendship, what comes to mind? People who affirm you? Those with whom you can share your heart? Someone you could call in the dead of night—and they would be happy to help you?
I think each of those is true. And, such friends are rare.
But, what is even rarer is the friend who sees something even better in you than you see in yourself and wants you to be the best You. They see the person whom you truly are in Christ.
The Stone in the Road
There is an ancient story known as “The Stone in the Road.” The story concerns a wealthy man who lived in a castle. He loved the people of his village and worked hard to serve them, planting lovely trees in the village, making picnics for the children, putting up Christmas trees. He wanted their world to be beautiful and pleasant.
But, this wealthy man was concerned because the people of the town did not seem to want to work, Instead, they seemed to envy his wealth.
One day, he placed a large stone in the middle of the road and hid behind a nearby bush to see what would happen.