A pastor in Ohio tells...
Illustration
A pastor in Ohio tells this story:
I once called on a church member who told me that he had quit coming to church because I had said in one sermon that I have a dilemma; though I believe in God and the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead I cannot provide proof of either. When he told me that a preacher should not preach what he cannot prove, I thought he was joking, but as he talked I realized that he was indeed serious.
I explained that my inability to supply physical proof of God or even the resurrection put me in some pretty good company; after all, ten disciples who talked to the risen Lord could not provide the kind of proof that Thomas wanted, and despite the testimony of Stephen and of hundreds of jailed believers, Saul remained unconvinced. To come to believe, both men had to experience the risen Christ for themselves, and yet, even after that happened, they could not prove to anyone else that their experiences were real. Yet their lives were different, changed for the better, from that point forward.
Well, four months later I called on this man in the hospital. There, he said he now understood my dilemma. I asked him what changed his mind and he said, "When they brought me into the emergency room I was clinically dead. Yet, because I met Christ on the other side, I was more alive at that moment than I have ever been before." He said that he knew it was Christ without being told because he had never before felt such love. With tears in his eyes, he said that he understood what I was talking about, for though in his heart he knew that God was real, and that Christ was indeed raised, he had the same dilemma that I had; he couldn't prove it, either. Yet his life was different, changed for the better, from that point forward as well.
I once called on a church member who told me that he had quit coming to church because I had said in one sermon that I have a dilemma; though I believe in God and the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead I cannot provide proof of either. When he told me that a preacher should not preach what he cannot prove, I thought he was joking, but as he talked I realized that he was indeed serious.
I explained that my inability to supply physical proof of God or even the resurrection put me in some pretty good company; after all, ten disciples who talked to the risen Lord could not provide the kind of proof that Thomas wanted, and despite the testimony of Stephen and of hundreds of jailed believers, Saul remained unconvinced. To come to believe, both men had to experience the risen Christ for themselves, and yet, even after that happened, they could not prove to anyone else that their experiences were real. Yet their lives were different, changed for the better, from that point forward.
Well, four months later I called on this man in the hospital. There, he said he now understood my dilemma. I asked him what changed his mind and he said, "When they brought me into the emergency room I was clinically dead. Yet, because I met Christ on the other side, I was more alive at that moment than I have ever been before." He said that he knew it was Christ without being told because he had never before felt such love. With tears in his eyes, he said that he understood what I was talking about, for though in his heart he knew that God was real, and that Christ was indeed raised, he had the same dilemma that I had; he couldn't prove it, either. Yet his life was different, changed for the better, from that point forward as well.
