Friday, January 23, 2009
-
emails i collected long time ago...
:
> Daddy's empty chair
>
> A man's daughter had asked the local minister to come
> and pray with her father.
> When the minister arrived, he found the man lying in bed with his
> head propped up on two pillows.
>
> An empty chair sat beside his bed.
>
> The minister assumed that the old fellow had been
> informed of his visit.
> "I guess you were expecting me," he said.
> "No, who are you?"
> said the father.
>
> The minister told him his name
> and then remarked,
> "I saw the empty chair
> and I figured
> you knew I was going to show up,"
> "Oh yeah, the chair,"
> said the bedridden man.
> "Would you mind closing the door?"
>
> Puzzled,
> the minister shut the door.
>
> "I have never told anyone this,
> ! not even my daughter,"
> said the man.
> "But all of my life I have never known how to pray.
> At church I used to hear the pastor talk about prayer,
> but it went right over my head.
> I abandoned any attempt at prayer,"
> the old man continued,
> "until one day four years ago,
> my best friend said to me,
> "Johnny, prayer is just a simple matter
> of having a conversation with Jesus.
> Here is what I suggest."
>
> "Sit down in a chair;
> place an empty chair in front of you,
> and in faith see Jesus on the chair.
> It's not spooky because he promised,
> 'I will be with you always'.
> "Then just speak to him in the same way
> you're doing with me right now."
>
> "So, I tried it and I've liked it so much that I do it
> a couple of hours every day.
> I'm careful though.
> If my daughter saw me talking to an empty chair,
> she'd either have a nervous breakdown
> or send me off to the funny farm."
>
> The minister was deeply moved by the story
> and encouraged the old man to continue on the journey.
> Then he prayed with him,
> anointed him
> with oil,
> and returned to the church.
>
> Two nights later the daughter called
> to tell the minister that her daddy had died that afternoon.
>
> "Did he die in peace?" he asked.
>
> "Yes, when I left the house about two o'clock,
> he called me over to his bedside,
> told me he loved me
> and kissed me on the cheek.
> When I got back from the store an hour later,
> I found him dead.
> But there was something strange about his death.
> Apparently, just before Daddy died,
> he leaned over and rested his head
> on the chair beside the bed.
> What do you make of that?"
>
> The minister wiped a tear from his eye and said,
> "I wish we could all go like that."
>
> >
> I asked God for water,
> He gave me an ocean.
>
> And when I asked God for a flower,
> He gave me a garden.
>
> I asked God for a friend,
> He gave me all of YOU...
>
aaron chua thanked jesus at12:42 AM
