Pragmatic Religion
Source: James Emery White, You Can Experience an Authentic Life,
pp. 33-34.

Years ago in Germany, there was a young Jewish boy who had a profound sense of admiration for his father. His family's life centered on the acts of piety and devotion prescribed by their religion. The father was zealous in attending worship and religious instruction, and he demanded the same from his children.

While the boy was a teenager, the family was forced to move to another town in Germany. There was no synagogue in the new town, and the pillars of the community all belonged to the Lutheran church. Suddenly the father announced to the family that they were going to abandon their Jewish traditions and join the Lutheran church. When the stunned family asked why, the father explained that changing religions was necessary to help his business.

The youngster was bewildered and confused. His deep disappointment soon gave way to anger and a kind of intense bitterness that plagued him throughout his life. That disappointed son, disillusioned by his father's lack of integrity, eventually left Germany and went to England to study. He sat daily at the British Museum, formulating various ideas and writing a book. In that work, he introduced an entirely new world-view, envisioning a movement that would change the social and political systems of the world. Drawing from past experiences with his father, he described religion as an "opiate for the masses" that could be explained totally in terms of economics and personal gain.

Today, millions of people still live under the system invented by this embittered man, and millions more suffered under previous regimes that incorporated its values. His name, of course, was Karl Marx, and his idea was communism. And it all began with his father's misuse of the name of God for the sake of profit.

Love My Enemies
Source: Michael G. Moriarty, The Perfect 10: The Blessings of Following God's Commandments in a Postmodern World, pp. 141-142.

Richard Wurmbrand, who spent fourteen years suffering in a Communist prison, reminds all believers with less than ideal circumstances that "if the heart is cleansed by the love of Jesus Christ, and if the heart love Him, you can resist all tortures." He says, "God will not judge us according to how much we endured, but how much we could love." The love of God demonstrated in the lives of his people is potent.

Wurmbrand gives an example: "A Christian was sentenced to death. Before being executed, he was allowed to see his wife. His last words to his wife were, 'You must know that I die loving those who kill me. They don't know what they do, and my last request of you is to love them, too. Don't have bitterness in your heart because they kill your beloved one. We will meet in heaven.' These words impressed the officer of the secret police, who attended the discussion between the two. He told me the story in prison, where he had been put for becoming a Christian."

Healed, But Not Cured
Source: Tony Campolo.

Tony Campolo tells a story about being in a church in Oregon where he was asked to pray for a man who had cancer. Campolo prayed boldly for the man's healing. That next week he got a telephone call from the man's wife. She said, "You prayed for my husband. He had cancer." Campolo thought when he heard her use the past tense verb that his cancer had been eradicated! But before he could think much about it, she said, "He died."

Campolo felt terrible. But she continued, "Don't feel bad. When he came into that church that Sunday, he was filled with anger. He knew he was going to be dead in a short period of time, and he hated God. He was 58 years old, and he wanted to see his children and grandchildren grow up. He was angry that this all-powerful God didn't take away his sickness and heal him. He would lie in bed and curse God. The more his anger grew towards God, the more miserable he was to everybody around him. It was an awful thing to be in his presence."

But the lady told Campolo, "After you prayed for him, a peace had come over him, and a joy had come into him. Tony, the last three days have been the best days of our lives. We've sung. We've laughed. We've read Scripture. We prayed. Oh, they've been wonderful days. And I called to thank you for laying your hands on him and praying for healing."

And then she said something incredibly profound. She said, "He wasn't cured, but he was healed."

I think…that bitter man found something he had never thought he would find in the midst of misfortune. He found a prosperous spirit, a sense of spiritual prosperity and well-being that he thought he never would have in life. God took away the one thing that he valued the most, his health, and replaced it with something that, on the surface, promised to be evil but resulted in something good. How lovely was his suffering, and how beautiful his death. How precious his sorrow and his pain.

Thank God for this? Without a doubt. Thank Him for our sickness? You know, that might not just be a bad idea. A monument to the pain may be the reminder of our gain.

The Wall Came Down
Contributor: Johanna Radelfinger

There was a merchant who had identical twin sons. The boys worked for their father in the department store he owned and, when he died, they took over the store. Everything went well until the day a dollar bill disappeared. One of the brothers had left the bill on the cash register and walked outside with a customer. When he returned, the money was gone. He asked his brother, "Did you see that dollar bill on the cash register?" His brother replied that he had not. But the young man kept probing and questioning. He would not let it alone. "Dollar bills just don't get up and walk away! Surely you must have seen it!" There was subtle accusation in his voice.

Tempers began to rise. Resentment set in. Before long, a deep and bitter chasm divided the young men. They refused to speak. They finally decided they could no longer work together and a dividing wall was built down the center of the store. For twenty years hostility and bitterness grew, spreading to their families and to the community.

Then one day, a man in a car stopped in front of the store. He walked in and asked the clerk, "How long have you been here?" The clerk replied that he'd been there all his life. The customer said, "I must share something with you. Twenty years ago I was 'riding the rails' and came into this town in a boxcar. I hadn't eaten for three days. I came into this store from the back door and saw a dollar bill on the cash register. I put it in my pocket and walked out. All these years I haven't been able to forget that. I know it wasn't much money, but I had to come back and ask your forgiveness."

The stranger was amazed to see tears well up in the eyes of this middle-aged man. "Would you please go next door and tell that same story to the man in the store?" he said. Then the man was even more amazed to see two middle-aged men, who looked very much alike, embracing each other and weeping together in the front of the store. After twenty years, the brokenness was mended. The wall of resentment that divided them came down.