Monday, June 16, 2014

Shades of Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 2:1 - 4:37)

Recently, we hosted a group of volunteers from Black Forest Academy in Kandern Germany.  They worked at the Longido Baptist primary school.

During their time there, a Maasai friend related this story to us:

"Someone stole our decorator cloth from our church (many churches here drape various colored cloths at the inside front of their churches for decoration).  All the members were upset and we wanted to go out and find the thief.  After some discussion, we all came to the conclusion that we should pray for the person(s) who took our cloth and forgive him/them for these actions.  So we did just that -- prayed for and forgave those involved even though we did not know who it was.  Two weeks later, a man entered our church during worship.  He was no ordinary person.  He had placed his arms in a pair of pants and was wearing the pair of pants like a shirt.  He was wearing a shirt like a pair of pants.  He was moaning and walking around, confused and unable to utter complete or comprehensible sentences.  Then he got down on his hands and knees and began walking and bellowing like a cow!  We did not know what to do!  After several minutes of this "grazing", the man suddenly came to his senses.  He stood up and spoke plainly, confessing that
he was the one who stole the cloth. He repented of his thievery.  He also asked us to forgive him for his wrong doing.  We told him that we had forgiven the person who stole the cloth 2 weeks ago.  He said that he had been acting "crazy" for 2 weeks.  Now he said he had relief since he confessed, repented, and asked for our forgiveness.  He remained with us for worship and we were able to talk more with him."

This modern "Nebuchadnezzar" experienced grace from God's people.

How many others need God's grace demonstrated in their lives through the actions of God's people?