Sunday, June 17, 2012
It began with a shipwreck
Week of June 17
“It all started when I was shipwrecked off the coast of Africa.” This is how my dad started every bedtime story when my little sister and I were growing up. He always made the stories up according to his mood and while the stories were always different, the beginning was always the same; he was shipwrecked off the coast of Africa. We loved his stories.
He had lived a life full of both hard work and temperance. He was a stonemason, didn't smoke, and he drank only a tiny glass of family home-made wine occasionally. He walked about 5 miles daily to relieve the loneliness and grief after my mom died from cancer. My dad was a spirit filled man who prayed the Rosary daily on his knees.
Dad had been ill for about a year while hospitals misdiagnosed him. Finally we got him to Mass General Hospital where he was diagnosed with stage 4 leukemia. He was bleeding internally and that spiked the stroke that killed him. He was 75 when he passed.
I should tell you that in my family we have MANY instances of contact by guides on the other side so we always expect to get word that our loved ones “arrive safely.” So when my dad died my sister and I expected to hear from him.
A short while after the funeral my sister and I were driving separate cars in two different states (Connecticut and Massachusetts) and we happened to be listening to the same program on Public Radio. Faith Middleton was interviewing an author and asked him to read a page from his newly published book. His first words were, “It all started when I was shipwrecked off the coast of Africa.”
I called my sister that evening and we both knew that it was a message from our story telling dad.
I’ve had one other contact from my dad. There came a time several months after his death when I was overcome with grief and was weeping for him in my bed, calling him in fact, wanting him to be near. At the time, I was lying on my left side in the bed, my head on the pillow. I suddenly heard him call my name, loudly and directly, into my right ear as though he were standing next to me. After I heard my name, my right ear 'pinged' and a ringing sound began in an odd way. Not my left ear, nor did both ears 'ping' -- only the right one into which his voice came. I knew immediately it was my dad and I was at peace.
I hope that these stories I have shared give others as much comfort as I received experiencing them.
Diane Valentine Reading
Middletown, Connecticut
Monday, June 11, 2012
Miracle Healings
Week of June 11
While in San Francisco I was ministering in a multi-ethnic church downtown. There were two deaf mute women who arrived late and I realized that God was going to touch them that day. When I prayed for them they both began speaking and each wept as she heard her own words for the first time.
"I can hear, I can hear!"
One woman was also blind. She had no optic nerve in her right eye. When I prayed for her, she received her sight.
During a previous meeting in Washington State I walked up to a woman and prophesied to her (without knowing her condition) that the Lord was going to heal her hips and knees. She laughed and said, "That's going to be hard, I have steel plates in my knees!" She ended up falling to the floor, laughing hysterically, and remained in that intermittent state for several hours. Five days later I received a phone call from the apostolic/pastoral leader of that region who indicated that the woman was completely healed!
Danny Steyne, apostolic leader, Mountain of Worship, Columbia, South Carolina
While in San Francisco I was ministering in a multi-ethnic church downtown. There were two deaf mute women who arrived late and I realized that God was going to touch them that day. When I prayed for them they both began speaking and each wept as she heard her own words for the first time.
"I can hear, I can hear!"
One woman was also blind. She had no optic nerve in her right eye. When I prayed for her, she received her sight.
During a previous meeting in Washington State I walked up to a woman and prophesied to her (without knowing her condition) that the Lord was going to heal her hips and knees. She laughed and said, "That's going to be hard, I have steel plates in my knees!" She ended up falling to the floor, laughing hysterically, and remained in that intermittent state for several hours. Five days later I received a phone call from the apostolic/pastoral leader of that region who indicated that the woman was completely healed!
Danny Steyne, apostolic leader, Mountain of Worship, Columbia, South Carolina
Monday, June 4, 2012
Recession House Sales
Week of June 3
We were moving and had to sell our house but little or nothing was selling. We prayed and decided to try and sell our little three-bedroom two-bath home ourselves.
Joy (my wife) had read articles on for sale by owner and together we did everything to make our house presentable. I did some little fix me up projects which I meant to do a long time ago and she made sure the house was clean and tidy. I purchased some house for sale signs and placed an notice in the daily newspaper for an open house Saturday and Sunday.
On Friday evening after sunset I placed a for sale sign on the front lawn. I literally was pounding the stake in the ground when a car slowed in front of the house. The driver, a young woman, asked if I was the owner. I said I am.
She said, “I have been looking for a house in this neighborhood for weeks?”
“Well,” I said, “ You just found one. We are having an open house tomorrow. Come and see our home in the daylight.” She said she would.
The next day three people came to the open house, one middle age couple and the young woman I had talked with the night before. She was single and a lawyer. Joy walked her around the house which smelled of freshly baked cookies (one of the magazine selling tips). She was definitely interested but wanted to return the next day with her parents.
On Sunday she returned with her parents and we all went through the house together. I talked with her dad about the heating system, utility bills and the roof while Joy chatted with her mother about curtains, closet space and kitchen cabinets. It was a good visit and they left saying they would have to talk about it.
On Monday the phone rang non stop. But all the calls were from real estate agents wanting a listing and telling us the pitfalls of trying to sell the house ourselves.
On Tuesday the newspaper called asking if we wanted to renew our ad for the open house, the deadline for the weekend was Wednesday. There was no call from the young attorney.
On Wednesday, I renewed our advertisement for an open house on the weekend. On Thursday we received no calls regarding the house.
On Friday we received a call from the young woman who asked if she could come over. We met with her that evening and she made a verbal offer. We talked a little more and I made a counter offer and she accepted it and we made out and signed the appropriate Real Estate forms( which by the way are available from your local pharmacy.)
The following Monday more calls came from the real estate agents offering their services. When we told them the house was under contract they were shocked. We had sold our house in one week for 97% of the asking price.
What they didn’t know was that we had prayed throughout the whole process and made God our real estate agent.
Fast forward 20 years. It is now the height of the current recession. It was time to sell our cottage on a lake in Massachusetts. This time we hired a human real estate agent but still made God our spiritual real estate agent and we covered the entire process in prayer. It was the middle of the summer and prices were depressed and that weren't many buyers out there.
Our agent set the price higher than I thought it would sell. "We can always come down," she said. We had an open house and within one week we had three offers. One of which became our buyer at 97% of our asking price. PTL.
Mal Salter
West Hartford Ct.
Sturbridge Ma.
We were moving and had to sell our house but little or nothing was selling. We prayed and decided to try and sell our little three-bedroom two-bath home ourselves.
Joy (my wife) had read articles on for sale by owner and together we did everything to make our house presentable. I did some little fix me up projects which I meant to do a long time ago and she made sure the house was clean and tidy. I purchased some house for sale signs and placed an notice in the daily newspaper for an open house Saturday and Sunday.
On Friday evening after sunset I placed a for sale sign on the front lawn. I literally was pounding the stake in the ground when a car slowed in front of the house. The driver, a young woman, asked if I was the owner. I said I am.
She said, “I have been looking for a house in this neighborhood for weeks?”
“Well,” I said, “ You just found one. We are having an open house tomorrow. Come and see our home in the daylight.” She said she would.
The next day three people came to the open house, one middle age couple and the young woman I had talked with the night before. She was single and a lawyer. Joy walked her around the house which smelled of freshly baked cookies (one of the magazine selling tips). She was definitely interested but wanted to return the next day with her parents.
On Sunday she returned with her parents and we all went through the house together. I talked with her dad about the heating system, utility bills and the roof while Joy chatted with her mother about curtains, closet space and kitchen cabinets. It was a good visit and they left saying they would have to talk about it.
On Monday the phone rang non stop. But all the calls were from real estate agents wanting a listing and telling us the pitfalls of trying to sell the house ourselves.
On Tuesday the newspaper called asking if we wanted to renew our ad for the open house, the deadline for the weekend was Wednesday. There was no call from the young attorney.
On Wednesday, I renewed our advertisement for an open house on the weekend. On Thursday we received no calls regarding the house.
On Friday we received a call from the young woman who asked if she could come over. We met with her that evening and she made a verbal offer. We talked a little more and I made a counter offer and she accepted it and we made out and signed the appropriate Real Estate forms( which by the way are available from your local pharmacy.)
The following Monday more calls came from the real estate agents offering their services. When we told them the house was under contract they were shocked. We had sold our house in one week for 97% of the asking price.
What they didn’t know was that we had prayed throughout the whole process and made God our real estate agent.
Fast forward 20 years. It is now the height of the current recession. It was time to sell our cottage on a lake in Massachusetts. This time we hired a human real estate agent but still made God our spiritual real estate agent and we covered the entire process in prayer. It was the middle of the summer and prices were depressed and that weren't many buyers out there.
Our agent set the price higher than I thought it would sell. "We can always come down," she said. We had an open house and within one week we had three offers. One of which became our buyer at 97% of our asking price. PTL.
Mal Salter
West Hartford Ct.
Sturbridge Ma.
Sunday, May 27, 2012
A Boy Challenges God
Week of May 27
It started like any other day for Jay, an eight-year-old going on nine thank you, but what happened that afternoon would change his life in a flash.
Jay was growing up in a new subdivision in Woodhaven Woods, Michigan where his dad was serving as a minister. The homes were new and had flat back yards with no fences and all backed into a wood line fifty to seventy yards deep. It was a great place for an eight year old to grow up and play.
Most of the trees were hardwoods, like oak and maple, tall and straight. All except one as Jay remembers. That tree was forked about four feet up. One fork was badly decayed and hollow near its base while the other was solid and healthy.
Jay remembers the afternoon was very windy, lots of threatening clouds but it wasn’t cold and it wasn’t raining. He was standing in his yard when he challenged God. He doesn’t know what prompted him. He just did. What goes through and eight year olds mind anyway? Jay tells it this way.
“ I saw the trees swaying and said, ‘Ok God. You knock over a tree and I will never doubt you again.’ Within seconds there was a loud crack. Even though
I was several hundred yards away but I could see it was the forked tree that had fallen. Some parents gathered around the forked tree and I went over to see. It was then I saw that the solid half of the forked tree had cracked all the way to the ground and toppled. Surprisingly, the decayed half was still standing. You could look right threw and see light on the other side. I don’t know what was holding that tree up. It looked as if it would fall over at any minute so the parents were keeping the children at a safe distance.
I thought about it later. God knocked over the strong but held up the weak. You could read into that. The weak half of that tree never did fall on its own. Some men cut it down later to insure it wouldn’t fall on anyone.
I didn’t tell anyone about this experience for the longest time. I guess I thought that was between God and me. Even now, decades later I have only shared this experience with a few others for fear of being seen as bragging or worse. But there is no doubt in my mind that God felled the strong half of that tree that day.
Jay Hessler
Woodhaven Woods
Michigan
It started like any other day for Jay, an eight-year-old going on nine thank you, but what happened that afternoon would change his life in a flash.
Jay was growing up in a new subdivision in Woodhaven Woods, Michigan where his dad was serving as a minister. The homes were new and had flat back yards with no fences and all backed into a wood line fifty to seventy yards deep. It was a great place for an eight year old to grow up and play.
Most of the trees were hardwoods, like oak and maple, tall and straight. All except one as Jay remembers. That tree was forked about four feet up. One fork was badly decayed and hollow near its base while the other was solid and healthy.
Jay remembers the afternoon was very windy, lots of threatening clouds but it wasn’t cold and it wasn’t raining. He was standing in his yard when he challenged God. He doesn’t know what prompted him. He just did. What goes through and eight year olds mind anyway? Jay tells it this way.
“ I saw the trees swaying and said, ‘Ok God. You knock over a tree and I will never doubt you again.’ Within seconds there was a loud crack. Even though
I was several hundred yards away but I could see it was the forked tree that had fallen. Some parents gathered around the forked tree and I went over to see. It was then I saw that the solid half of the forked tree had cracked all the way to the ground and toppled. Surprisingly, the decayed half was still standing. You could look right threw and see light on the other side. I don’t know what was holding that tree up. It looked as if it would fall over at any minute so the parents were keeping the children at a safe distance.
I thought about it later. God knocked over the strong but held up the weak. You could read into that. The weak half of that tree never did fall on its own. Some men cut it down later to insure it wouldn’t fall on anyone.
I didn’t tell anyone about this experience for the longest time. I guess I thought that was between God and me. Even now, decades later I have only shared this experience with a few others for fear of being seen as bragging or worse. But there is no doubt in my mind that God felled the strong half of that tree that day.
Jay Hessler
Woodhaven Woods
Michigan
Sunday, May 20, 2012
Road Sign
Week of May 20
I recently moved to Minnesota from Florida. As I was driving home from a job interview my mind started to wonder. I thought about my future in this new state. Lord am I suppose to take this job or the one I interviewed for yesterday? I was getting tired of waiting for what God has for me next. I could feel myself getting anxious as I was thinking about money. Can I afford to live alone? How much longer can I work just part time without health care benefits? How much time off will I get and what about the holidays, and on and on and on.
At this point I realized the beautiful city backdrop of buildings sparkling in the sunlight was behind me. Seeing the city skyline is one of my favorite views and somehow, as I looked at my new home city rushing past my car window, I had relaxed and been lost in my thoughts. I had missed my exit and was in unfamiliar territory. As I looked to get my bearings I saw a bright yellow sign ahead. I struggled to read it, and as I got closer, I thought I saw the word trust. I laughed out loud for there, in big letters, and I am not kidding were the words-”TRUST ME!” – God.
Even though I was traveling seventy miles an hour, I felt like time had just stopped. With a chuckle I let go of all those thoughts and decided to do what I was told and leave the details up to God and to TRUST HIM.
As I got off the highway and turned my car around to find my way back to a familiar highway, I knew it was no mistake that I had become lost and saw the yellow billboard. Also in that moment of quietness I recalled that in the morning I had asked God to reveal himself to me with this interview and to make it obvious what I was to do. He made it obvious. God continues to amaze and amuse me.
Beth Bishop
Minneapolis, Minnesota
I recently moved to Minnesota from Florida. As I was driving home from a job interview my mind started to wonder. I thought about my future in this new state. Lord am I suppose to take this job or the one I interviewed for yesterday? I was getting tired of waiting for what God has for me next. I could feel myself getting anxious as I was thinking about money. Can I afford to live alone? How much longer can I work just part time without health care benefits? How much time off will I get and what about the holidays, and on and on and on.
At this point I realized the beautiful city backdrop of buildings sparkling in the sunlight was behind me. Seeing the city skyline is one of my favorite views and somehow, as I looked at my new home city rushing past my car window, I had relaxed and been lost in my thoughts. I had missed my exit and was in unfamiliar territory. As I looked to get my bearings I saw a bright yellow sign ahead. I struggled to read it, and as I got closer, I thought I saw the word trust. I laughed out loud for there, in big letters, and I am not kidding were the words-”TRUST ME!” – God.
Even though I was traveling seventy miles an hour, I felt like time had just stopped. With a chuckle I let go of all those thoughts and decided to do what I was told and leave the details up to God and to TRUST HIM.
As I got off the highway and turned my car around to find my way back to a familiar highway, I knew it was no mistake that I had become lost and saw the yellow billboard. Also in that moment of quietness I recalled that in the morning I had asked God to reveal himself to me with this interview and to make it obvious what I was to do. He made it obvious. God continues to amaze and amuse me.
Beth Bishop
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Saturday, May 12, 2012
Mother's Day Wish
Week of May 13
One of my earliest memories of my Mother is walking with her downtown, she with a tight grip on my hand. She would often say "hussle you duffer." I wonder decades later how did she know then what kind of golfer I would be.
In grade school a teacher was explaining what each pupil's name meant. When she got to me she said, "Malcolm means bald headed monkey." Your laughing. So did my classmates. I was mortified. I ran home after school and confronted my Mother. "Why did you name me Malcolm, my teacher told the class in manes bald headed monkey." Without any hesitation Mom said, "Your teacher is mistaken, it means bald headed eagle." I returned to class and the teacher announced the correction in class. A boy's ego restored.
My first Christmas away in the army I received a care package from Mom containing a small Christmas tree and a stocking with sweets and a swizzel stick. A non drinker herself it was her way of acknowleging my manhood. When I returned home a few years later I made a trip to see a gal I had met overseas. Mom asked me to promise her I wouldn't get married on that trip and that I would return and finish college. I kept both promises. Looking back I know that girl wasn't right for me and finishing college lead to grad school and eventually a rewarding carreer.
How do you remember your Mom? I don't think I ever told her these memories I have shared with you. I wish I had. She's gone now. If your mom is still living take some time this week to share some fond memories you have of her.
In some ways I think a mother's love for a child might be the closest human example we have giving us an inkling of God's unconditional love for each of us.
Saturday, May 5, 2012
How to find a dream job.
I was working as a secretary in a steamship company in New Orleans. I had been there a couple of years but because I had studied to be a legal secretary, I was ready to get a job with a law firm. I started to seek God’s guidance to help me find a job where I could utilize my legal training. During lunch hour, I would take my Bible and head behind the office building where there were benches and fountains.
While I was out there I would often see homeless people and panhandlers. There was one man in particular that was there every day. Eventually, he came to me and asked what I was reading and I told him. He asked if I was a Jesus freak and I said yes I am. He said I made him feel uncomfortable when he was trying to ask people for money. I told him I had no condemnation for him, but that I thought he seemed able bodied enough to work. I also shared my desire to get a job with a law firm.
We became speaking friends and one day he said, “Since you know God so well, why don’t you pray that I get a job.” At that moment I put my hand on his shoulder and started praying out loud. “Not here, not now,” he protested. I just kept praying. That was on a Thursday. On Monday he came running up to me at lunch. He was clean and groomed and I hardly recognized him. An attorney who he had been asking for money had hired him.
I was happy for him but I was jealous. I said (silently of course) God, I am the one who wanted a job with a law firm, have you mixed things up here or what? I was sure God knew what he was doing and I thanked him for giving this man a job. About a week later, the man came to me and said, “I have an interview for you at the law firm. The senior partner needs a secretary.” I thought this would take an act of faith for me to go on an interview at the recommendation of this man. Were they just humoring him? Those thoughts vanished immediately because I knew no matter what; I would do nothing to cause him to waiver in his belief in answered prayers. I was not going to let pride prevent me from going and thereby show a lack of faith.
I thanked God for the opportunity, went on the interview and I was hired on the spot. The attorneys still tell people that the best employment recommendation they ever had was from a homeless man. I quickly remind them that God alone was the employment agency. God will answer your prayer when you step out in faith. God also has a wonderful sense of humor.
Carolyn Bourgeois
New Orleans, Louisiana
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