This is a true story...
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This is a true story. Tom Kelker was an over-the-road salesman, home only on weekends. He and his wife seldom came to church, feeling that church would interfere with the little time they had together. So when Tom's sister "got religion" -- and not just any religion, a healing, charismatic religion, there was some consternation in the Kelker household. Tom decided to stop at this new congregation and look it over for himself. He stopped in, listened, shrugged, and walked out when the service ran over an hour. He lit a cigarette and sat in the dark parking lot, listening to the singing inside. Suddenly, one of the deacons was standing next to him, asking him what he could do for him. Tom had a flash of brilliance -- he would challenge this man, prove him false, and so convince his sister to quit the place. "I have one leg shorter than the other," he challenged. "Think you can fix that?" The man shrugged, "No, I certainly can't. But God can. Let's pray and see." With that, he knelt down and prayed for Tom. Tom said later it was as though he had grabbed an electric wire -- his whole body sang, felt hot, and then -- he felt his leg grow. When he came home, Tom went through every pair of pants in the closet -- the difference between the legs had been enough that he always had to have his business pants tailored -- and every pair of pants had to be re-altered to accommodate the now normal leg. And all the casual pants and jeans, unaltered, fit perfectly! A few years later, Tom died of cancer, in great pain. The whole town turned out for the funeral, because he had become very active in his church and community as a result of that miraculous healing in the parking lot. The question of the hour, of course, was: How could it have been that Tom was cured of a condition that caused him little trouble, but died such a death? "Everybody dies," the pastor said. "But Tom did not go down to his death in fear, for he knew whom he believed, and where he was going. Maybe that was the only reason he was healed as he was." But many people grumbled at that sermon, and left the church shaking their heads, wondering still if He who grew a leg could not have cured the cancer. -- Herrmann
