Wednesday, February 25, 2015

You Never Know How You'll Encounter God

Hello everyone!

I was cleaning out my email inbox today and came across this.  This short story has probably been around for a while, but I thought I'd share it anyway.


You Never Know How You'll Encounter God

 A United States Marine was attending some college courses between assignments. He had completed missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. One of the courses had a professor who was an avowed atheist.

One day the professor shocked the class when he came in. He looked to the ceiling and flatly stated, 'God, if you are real, then I want you to knock me off this platform.. I'll give you exactly 15 minutes.'

The lecture room fell silent. You could hear a pin drop. Ten minutes went by and the professor proclaimed, 'Here I am God. I'm still waiting.'

It got down to the last couple of minutes when the Marine got out of his chair, went up to the professor, and cold-cocked him; knocking him off the platform. The professor was out cold. The Marine went back to his seat and sat there, silently. The other students were shocked and stunned and sat there looking on in silence.

The professor eventually came to, noticeably shaken, looked at the Marine and asked, 'What the heck is the matter with you? Why did you do that?'

The Marine calmly replied, 'God was too busy today protecting American soldiers who are protecting your right to say stupid stuff and act like an idiot.  So, He sent me.'


God bless you!

 ~ littleromanJMJ

Thursday, February 12, 2015

Prayer for Peace in the Middle East

God of mercy and compassion,
of grace and reconciliation, 
pour Your power upon all Your children in the Middle East: 
Jews, Muslims and Christians, Palestinians and Israelis. 
Let hatred be turned into love, 
fear to trust, despair to hope, 
oppression to freedom, occupation to liberation, 
that violent encounters may be replaced by loving embraces, 
and peace and justice could be experienced by all. 
Amen. 

The Reverend Said Ailabouni 
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Chicago, IL