Can There Be Any Doubt?
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Contents
From the StoryShare Archives: "Can There Be Any Doubt?"
A Story to Live By: "Peace Breaks In" by John Sumwalt
An Easter Vision: "A Comforting Presence" by Kathryn Taughinbaugh
Good Stories: "Moving the Rock"
Scrap Pile: "Although the Doors Were Shut" by John Sumwalt
Can There Be Any Doubt?
John 20:19-31
I am glad we have the story of Thomas in John's Gospel. It lets us know that there is room for doubters in the church. Thomas sets a good example for all of us who experience doubt. Be honest about your doubt. Don't pretend to believe what you don't believe. Say it like it is: "Unless I see the mark of nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe" (John 20:25b). That's honest, plain-spoken doubt, and for Thomas, as it has been for many of us, it was the beginning of faith. We can never truly have faith until we come to grips with our doubts.
(See John's complete sermon on doubt in last year's Easter 2 edition of StoryShare, which you can access by choosing Cycle B and then Easter 2 from the pull-down menus under "Search StoryShare Archives.")
A Story to Live By
Peace Breaks In
by John Sumwalt
When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you."
John 20:19
Susan Andrews, pastor of Bradley Hills Presbyterian Church in Bethesda, Maryland, tells of a widowed parishioner whose eyes filled with tears as she spoke to her in the Fellowship Hall one Sunday after worship.
" 'Bob came back and crawled into bed with me. He didn't say a word. He just appeared -- and then faded away. I felt immediate peace and warmth and hope, and now I don't feel alone.' Then glancing up in pink but eager embarrassment, she asked, 'You don't think I'm crazy, do you?' " (Susan R. Andrews, "Jesus Appears," The Christian Century, March 1999)
A few months after I had shared this story in a sermon, I went to the hospital to visit Mavis Meyer, a member of our church who had received word the night before about the death of a favorite niece. I listened as she poured out her grief, and then as an afterthought asked her if she had had any sense of her niece's presence since her passing. She looked at me knowingly and said, "Not yet, but after my husband died six years ago, he was often in my bedroom at night. One night after I had been in bed for a while trying to sleep, I opened my eyes and there was my husband and my late stepson hovering over me. I was so startled that I exclaimed, 'Go away!' " We both laughed, and then she told me that she had never spoken of this to anyone before.
An Easter Vision
A Comforting Presence
by Kathryn Taughinbaugh
When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you."
John 20:19
My grandma, Dorothy Taughinbaugh, passed away in 1995, when I was in third grade. It came as a complete shock to me and my family. After she died, almost every Sunday I would pray to God during our silent prayer time, asking to hear her voice one last time.
In August of 2001, just before my sophomore year in high school, I went on my first church mission trip to an Indian reservation in Red Lake, Minnesota. It was very calm and peaceful there, and we had a worship service every night. In the last worship service, during our prayer time I heard a familiar voice. It didn't sound like the guy who was leading the prayer. The voice said, "I love you and I am always watching over you." This voice was my grandma's, and when I heard it I started crying and couldn't stop, I was so overwhelmed. I'm so happy that God answered my prayer.
Kathryn Taughinbaugh is a senior at Rufus King High School in Milwaukee. She is a leader in the Youth Fellowship group at Wauwatosa Avenue United Methodist Church and serves on the design team for CONVO, an annual convocation for United Methodist Youth in Wisconsin.
Good Stories
Moving the Rock
But Peter and the Apostles answered, "We must obey God rather than any human authority. The God of our ancestors raised up Jesus, whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior that he might give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins."
Acts 5:29-31
A man was sleeping one night in his cabin, when suddenly his room filled with light and God appeared. The Lord told the man he had work for him to do, and showed him a large rock in front of his cabin. The Lord explained that the man was to push against the rock with all his might.
So this the man did, day after day. For many years he toiled from sunup to sundown, his shoulders set squarely against the cold, massive surface of the unmoving rock, pushing with all of his might.
Each night the man returned to his cabin sore and worn out, feeling that his whole day had been spent in vain. Since the man was showing discouragement, the Adversary (Satan) decided to enter the picture by placing thoughts into the weary mind: "You have been pushing against that rock for a long time and it hasn't moved."
Thus, he gave the man the impression that the task was impossible and that he was a failure. These thoughts discouraged and disheartened the man. Satan said, "Why kill yourself over this? Just put in your time, giving just the minimum effort, and that will be good enough."
That's what the weary man planned to do, but he decided to make it a matter of prayer and take his troubled thoughts to the Lord. "Lord," he said, "I have labored long and hard in your service, putting all my strength to do that which you have asked. Yet after all this time, I have not even budged that rock by half a millimeter. What is wrong? Why am I failing?"
The Lord responded compassionately, "My friend, when I asked you to serve Me and you accepted, I told you that your task was to push against the rock with all of your strength, which you have done. Never once did I mention to you that I expected you to move it. Your task was to push. And now you come to Me with your strength spent, thinking that you have failed. But, is that really so?
"Look at yourself. Your arms are strong and muscled, your back sinewy and brown; your hands are callused from constant pressure, your legs have become massive and hard. Through opposition you have grown much, and your abilities now surpass that which you used to have. True, you haven't moved the rock. But your calling was to be obedient and to push and to exercise your faith and trust in My wisdom. That you have done.
"Now I, my friend, will move the rock."
Scrap Pile
Although the Doors Were Shut
by John Sumwalt
John 20:19-26
One of the first things people see when they come to our church is a sign, as they are leaving the lower level of the parking ramp, which reads, "Did you remember to lock your car?" The sign is there, I would guess, because there was a time when people who parked there had things stolen from their cars -- presumably by thieves who are not members of this congregation.
There was a time not so long ago when we didn't worry much about locking our doors. How many of you grew up in a time and a place when you didn't lock your house or your car door?
Times have changed, and we are all the poorer for it. At least two or three times a year I lock my keys in the car or get locked out of my own house or office because I can't find my keys. One time I locked my keys in the car while at a meeting downtown and had to call my wife to come and rescue me, only to discover when she arrived that I had actually left one of the back doors of the car unlocked! I felt like a fool, which of course, as she would agree, was an appropriate feeling.
Did you ever get up in the morning and discover that you had left a door or window unlocked? Then comes that sinking feeling as you realize that you and your family had been at risk because of a careless oversight.
In his book A Celtic Twilight, W.B. Yeats tells the story of a family who lived in a cottage on the end of a long path near the sea. "One night Mrs. Abernathy, who lived there with her family, left the door open, as she was expecting her son. Her husband was asleep by the fire; a tall man came in and sat beside him. After he had been sitting there for a while, the woman said, 'In the name of God, who are you?' He got up and went out, saying, 'Never leave the door open at this hour, or evil may come to you.' She woke her husband and told him. 'One of the good people has been with us,' he said."
It frightens us when we discover that we have left a door open, and yet the open door can sometimes be our salvation.
Psychiatrist and spiritual writer Thomas Moore says that, in psychotherapy with his clients, he has heard many "dreams of doors left ajar and windows cracked open. The dreamer was deathly afraid of who or what might come in because of this negligence, and of course as a therapist I suspected that whoever it was, was probably someone useful or necessary."
In his book Original Self: Living with Paradox and Originality, Moore quotes Emily Dickinson:
The Soul should always stand ajar
That if Heaven inquire
He will not be obliged to wait
And then Moore adds:
"Life needs a point of entry, a crack in our defenses.... The door ajar is yet another image for... caring for the soul. It is not a project, as is the job of personal growth or self-improvement. It is not so much something we do as it is something done to us. Our role is to stand out of the way or allow a point of entry. It is helpful to learn how to defend oneself so as not to be undone entirely by the... (many) possibilities of love and life, but we don't need to seal ourselves off altogether. We need only to keep the door unlocked or allow a window to remain undone a crack." (pgs. 26-27)
It is not easy to stand out of the way or allow a point of entry for God's spirit when we have experienced some great hurt in our lives. Very often after a tragedy or a trauma we are inclined to say, "I'm never going to let myself get hurt like that again." And we lock everyone and everything out that might possibly hurt us.
We have all known people who have stopped seeing friends, stopped going to church, refused to date or accept any kind of social invitation. Most of us have done this at one time or another in our lives. We think that if we lock all of the doors we can keep ourselves absolutely safe.
It was like that for those who were closest to Jesus when he died. The disciples were behind locked doors in the upper room after Jesus was crucified. They had good reason to try to shut out the world. They were devastated by Jesus' death and they feared for their own lives. Those who had killed Jesus could easily come for them next.
It was probably foolish for them to be together at all, especially in Jerusalem. But they needed to be together, and how could they leave Jerusalem without Jesus? So they came together, numbed by the shock of Jesus' horrible death, filled with guilt perhaps, because they had all fled when he needed them most. Some of them had denied him. They huddled together, barely able to speak, unable to eat, their hearts breaking, wondering how they could possibly go on. They could not imagine a life without Jesus.
The doors were locked, their hearts and minds were closed, numb with grief.
In her wonderful book My Grandfather's Blessings, Rachel Naomi Remen tells about a woman who was dating a man whose first wife had suffered a long and painful death from cancer. He and his children had been hurt deeply and were now slowly recovering and learning to love (live) again:
"Less than a year into their courtship, when Celia found a lump in her breast, she had not thought much about it. She had found lumps in her breasts before. She had gone to the doctor alone and was alone when she received the devastating news: This lump was not like the others. This lump was malignant.
"Almost her first thought was of Richard and his children. They had been profoundly wounded by cancer only a few years before. They were still healing from it. How could she bring this terrible thing into their lives again? She had called Richard immediately and, without telling him why, had simply broken off their relationship. For several weeks she refused his phone calls and returned his letters. But Richard had not given up and had continued to pursue her, begging her to see him.
"Finally she relented and arranged to meet with him and tell him good-bye, thinking perhaps this would convince him to stop pursuing her and go on with his life. Richard appeared to be under great strain. Gently he asked her why she had broken with him. Almost in tears, she told him that she had found a lump in her breast and that it was malignant. She had undergone surgery a few weeks before and would begin chemotherapy the following week. 'You and the children have lived through this once already,' she told him. 'I won't put you through it again.'
"He looked at her, open-mouthed. 'You have cancer?' he asked. Dumbly she nodded, the tears beginning to run down her cheeks. 'Oh, Celia,' he said, beginning to laugh with relief. 'We can do cancer... we know how to do cancer. I thought you didn't love me.' " (Rachel Naomi Remen, My Grandfather's Blessings, River Head Books, 2000, pgs. 203-204)
The disciples were huddled together behind locked doors. Suddenly Jesus stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." You would think this would have been enough to break through all of their barriers of grief. But not all of them were there that first time Jesus appeared. Thomas was missing. Like so many of us, he had a difficult time bringing himself back into community. It was easier to be alone in his grief, and when the others told him what had happened he expressed grave doubt; he said he would have to see and touch for himself.
A week later the disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. And although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you."
I invite you today to always leave the doors and windows of your lives open, just a crack, so that, as Emily Dickinson says, "That if Heaven inquire, he will not be obliged to wait."
But if you cannot bring yourself to do this, do not despair, Jesus will come. You may lock every door, put up every psychological barrier, but Jesus will come. God will keep pursuing you until at last you can open your heart and let the love flow in.
**********************************************
New Book
The second volume in the vision series, Sharing Visions: Divine Revelations, Angels, and Holy Coincidences, is available from CSS Publishing Company. For more information about the book visit the CSS website at http://www.csspub.com. You can order any of our books on the CSS website (see the complete list below); they are also available from www.amazon.com and at many Christian bookstores. Or simply e-mail your order to orders@csspub.com or phone 1-800-241-4056. (If you live outside the U.S., phone 419-227-1818.)
Books by John & Jo Sumwalt
Sharing Visions: Divine Revelations, Angels, and Holy Coincidences
Vision Stories: True Accounts of Visions, Angels, and Healing Miracles
Life Stories: A Study in Christian Decision Making
Lectionary Stories: Forty Tellable Tales for Cycle C
Lectionary Stories: Forty Tellable Tales for Cycle A
Lectionary Stories: Forty Tellable Tales for Cycle B
Lectionary Tales for the Pulpit: 62 Stories for Cycle B
**************
StoryShare, April 18, 2004, issue.
Copyright 2004 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to the StoryShare service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons, in worship and classroom settings, in brief devotions, in radio spots, and as newsletter fillers. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., P.O. Box 4503, Lima, Ohio 45802-4503.
From the StoryShare Archives: "Can There Be Any Doubt?"
A Story to Live By: "Peace Breaks In" by John Sumwalt
An Easter Vision: "A Comforting Presence" by Kathryn Taughinbaugh
Good Stories: "Moving the Rock"
Scrap Pile: "Although the Doors Were Shut" by John Sumwalt
Can There Be Any Doubt?
John 20:19-31
I am glad we have the story of Thomas in John's Gospel. It lets us know that there is room for doubters in the church. Thomas sets a good example for all of us who experience doubt. Be honest about your doubt. Don't pretend to believe what you don't believe. Say it like it is: "Unless I see the mark of nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe" (John 20:25b). That's honest, plain-spoken doubt, and for Thomas, as it has been for many of us, it was the beginning of faith. We can never truly have faith until we come to grips with our doubts.
(See John's complete sermon on doubt in last year's Easter 2 edition of StoryShare, which you can access by choosing Cycle B and then Easter 2 from the pull-down menus under "Search StoryShare Archives.")
A Story to Live By
Peace Breaks In
by John Sumwalt
When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you."
John 20:19
Susan Andrews, pastor of Bradley Hills Presbyterian Church in Bethesda, Maryland, tells of a widowed parishioner whose eyes filled with tears as she spoke to her in the Fellowship Hall one Sunday after worship.
" 'Bob came back and crawled into bed with me. He didn't say a word. He just appeared -- and then faded away. I felt immediate peace and warmth and hope, and now I don't feel alone.' Then glancing up in pink but eager embarrassment, she asked, 'You don't think I'm crazy, do you?' " (Susan R. Andrews, "Jesus Appears," The Christian Century, March 1999)
A few months after I had shared this story in a sermon, I went to the hospital to visit Mavis Meyer, a member of our church who had received word the night before about the death of a favorite niece. I listened as she poured out her grief, and then as an afterthought asked her if she had had any sense of her niece's presence since her passing. She looked at me knowingly and said, "Not yet, but after my husband died six years ago, he was often in my bedroom at night. One night after I had been in bed for a while trying to sleep, I opened my eyes and there was my husband and my late stepson hovering over me. I was so startled that I exclaimed, 'Go away!' " We both laughed, and then she told me that she had never spoken of this to anyone before.
An Easter Vision
A Comforting Presence
by Kathryn Taughinbaugh
When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you."
John 20:19
My grandma, Dorothy Taughinbaugh, passed away in 1995, when I was in third grade. It came as a complete shock to me and my family. After she died, almost every Sunday I would pray to God during our silent prayer time, asking to hear her voice one last time.
In August of 2001, just before my sophomore year in high school, I went on my first church mission trip to an Indian reservation in Red Lake, Minnesota. It was very calm and peaceful there, and we had a worship service every night. In the last worship service, during our prayer time I heard a familiar voice. It didn't sound like the guy who was leading the prayer. The voice said, "I love you and I am always watching over you." This voice was my grandma's, and when I heard it I started crying and couldn't stop, I was so overwhelmed. I'm so happy that God answered my prayer.
Kathryn Taughinbaugh is a senior at Rufus King High School in Milwaukee. She is a leader in the Youth Fellowship group at Wauwatosa Avenue United Methodist Church and serves on the design team for CONVO, an annual convocation for United Methodist Youth in Wisconsin.
Good Stories
Moving the Rock
But Peter and the Apostles answered, "We must obey God rather than any human authority. The God of our ancestors raised up Jesus, whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior that he might give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins."
Acts 5:29-31
A man was sleeping one night in his cabin, when suddenly his room filled with light and God appeared. The Lord told the man he had work for him to do, and showed him a large rock in front of his cabin. The Lord explained that the man was to push against the rock with all his might.
So this the man did, day after day. For many years he toiled from sunup to sundown, his shoulders set squarely against the cold, massive surface of the unmoving rock, pushing with all of his might.
Each night the man returned to his cabin sore and worn out, feeling that his whole day had been spent in vain. Since the man was showing discouragement, the Adversary (Satan) decided to enter the picture by placing thoughts into the weary mind: "You have been pushing against that rock for a long time and it hasn't moved."
Thus, he gave the man the impression that the task was impossible and that he was a failure. These thoughts discouraged and disheartened the man. Satan said, "Why kill yourself over this? Just put in your time, giving just the minimum effort, and that will be good enough."
That's what the weary man planned to do, but he decided to make it a matter of prayer and take his troubled thoughts to the Lord. "Lord," he said, "I have labored long and hard in your service, putting all my strength to do that which you have asked. Yet after all this time, I have not even budged that rock by half a millimeter. What is wrong? Why am I failing?"
The Lord responded compassionately, "My friend, when I asked you to serve Me and you accepted, I told you that your task was to push against the rock with all of your strength, which you have done. Never once did I mention to you that I expected you to move it. Your task was to push. And now you come to Me with your strength spent, thinking that you have failed. But, is that really so?
"Look at yourself. Your arms are strong and muscled, your back sinewy and brown; your hands are callused from constant pressure, your legs have become massive and hard. Through opposition you have grown much, and your abilities now surpass that which you used to have. True, you haven't moved the rock. But your calling was to be obedient and to push and to exercise your faith and trust in My wisdom. That you have done.
"Now I, my friend, will move the rock."
Scrap Pile
Although the Doors Were Shut
by John Sumwalt
John 20:19-26
One of the first things people see when they come to our church is a sign, as they are leaving the lower level of the parking ramp, which reads, "Did you remember to lock your car?" The sign is there, I would guess, because there was a time when people who parked there had things stolen from their cars -- presumably by thieves who are not members of this congregation.
There was a time not so long ago when we didn't worry much about locking our doors. How many of you grew up in a time and a place when you didn't lock your house or your car door?
Times have changed, and we are all the poorer for it. At least two or three times a year I lock my keys in the car or get locked out of my own house or office because I can't find my keys. One time I locked my keys in the car while at a meeting downtown and had to call my wife to come and rescue me, only to discover when she arrived that I had actually left one of the back doors of the car unlocked! I felt like a fool, which of course, as she would agree, was an appropriate feeling.
Did you ever get up in the morning and discover that you had left a door or window unlocked? Then comes that sinking feeling as you realize that you and your family had been at risk because of a careless oversight.
In his book A Celtic Twilight, W.B. Yeats tells the story of a family who lived in a cottage on the end of a long path near the sea. "One night Mrs. Abernathy, who lived there with her family, left the door open, as she was expecting her son. Her husband was asleep by the fire; a tall man came in and sat beside him. After he had been sitting there for a while, the woman said, 'In the name of God, who are you?' He got up and went out, saying, 'Never leave the door open at this hour, or evil may come to you.' She woke her husband and told him. 'One of the good people has been with us,' he said."
It frightens us when we discover that we have left a door open, and yet the open door can sometimes be our salvation.
Psychiatrist and spiritual writer Thomas Moore says that, in psychotherapy with his clients, he has heard many "dreams of doors left ajar and windows cracked open. The dreamer was deathly afraid of who or what might come in because of this negligence, and of course as a therapist I suspected that whoever it was, was probably someone useful or necessary."
In his book Original Self: Living with Paradox and Originality, Moore quotes Emily Dickinson:
The Soul should always stand ajar
That if Heaven inquire
He will not be obliged to wait
And then Moore adds:
"Life needs a point of entry, a crack in our defenses.... The door ajar is yet another image for... caring for the soul. It is not a project, as is the job of personal growth or self-improvement. It is not so much something we do as it is something done to us. Our role is to stand out of the way or allow a point of entry. It is helpful to learn how to defend oneself so as not to be undone entirely by the... (many) possibilities of love and life, but we don't need to seal ourselves off altogether. We need only to keep the door unlocked or allow a window to remain undone a crack." (pgs. 26-27)
It is not easy to stand out of the way or allow a point of entry for God's spirit when we have experienced some great hurt in our lives. Very often after a tragedy or a trauma we are inclined to say, "I'm never going to let myself get hurt like that again." And we lock everyone and everything out that might possibly hurt us.
We have all known people who have stopped seeing friends, stopped going to church, refused to date or accept any kind of social invitation. Most of us have done this at one time or another in our lives. We think that if we lock all of the doors we can keep ourselves absolutely safe.
It was like that for those who were closest to Jesus when he died. The disciples were behind locked doors in the upper room after Jesus was crucified. They had good reason to try to shut out the world. They were devastated by Jesus' death and they feared for their own lives. Those who had killed Jesus could easily come for them next.
It was probably foolish for them to be together at all, especially in Jerusalem. But they needed to be together, and how could they leave Jerusalem without Jesus? So they came together, numbed by the shock of Jesus' horrible death, filled with guilt perhaps, because they had all fled when he needed them most. Some of them had denied him. They huddled together, barely able to speak, unable to eat, their hearts breaking, wondering how they could possibly go on. They could not imagine a life without Jesus.
The doors were locked, their hearts and minds were closed, numb with grief.
In her wonderful book My Grandfather's Blessings, Rachel Naomi Remen tells about a woman who was dating a man whose first wife had suffered a long and painful death from cancer. He and his children had been hurt deeply and were now slowly recovering and learning to love (live) again:
"Less than a year into their courtship, when Celia found a lump in her breast, she had not thought much about it. She had found lumps in her breasts before. She had gone to the doctor alone and was alone when she received the devastating news: This lump was not like the others. This lump was malignant.
"Almost her first thought was of Richard and his children. They had been profoundly wounded by cancer only a few years before. They were still healing from it. How could she bring this terrible thing into their lives again? She had called Richard immediately and, without telling him why, had simply broken off their relationship. For several weeks she refused his phone calls and returned his letters. But Richard had not given up and had continued to pursue her, begging her to see him.
"Finally she relented and arranged to meet with him and tell him good-bye, thinking perhaps this would convince him to stop pursuing her and go on with his life. Richard appeared to be under great strain. Gently he asked her why she had broken with him. Almost in tears, she told him that she had found a lump in her breast and that it was malignant. She had undergone surgery a few weeks before and would begin chemotherapy the following week. 'You and the children have lived through this once already,' she told him. 'I won't put you through it again.'
"He looked at her, open-mouthed. 'You have cancer?' he asked. Dumbly she nodded, the tears beginning to run down her cheeks. 'Oh, Celia,' he said, beginning to laugh with relief. 'We can do cancer... we know how to do cancer. I thought you didn't love me.' " (Rachel Naomi Remen, My Grandfather's Blessings, River Head Books, 2000, pgs. 203-204)
The disciples were huddled together behind locked doors. Suddenly Jesus stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." You would think this would have been enough to break through all of their barriers of grief. But not all of them were there that first time Jesus appeared. Thomas was missing. Like so many of us, he had a difficult time bringing himself back into community. It was easier to be alone in his grief, and when the others told him what had happened he expressed grave doubt; he said he would have to see and touch for himself.
A week later the disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. And although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you."
I invite you today to always leave the doors and windows of your lives open, just a crack, so that, as Emily Dickinson says, "That if Heaven inquire, he will not be obliged to wait."
But if you cannot bring yourself to do this, do not despair, Jesus will come. You may lock every door, put up every psychological barrier, but Jesus will come. God will keep pursuing you until at last you can open your heart and let the love flow in.
**********************************************
New Book
The second volume in the vision series, Sharing Visions: Divine Revelations, Angels, and Holy Coincidences, is available from CSS Publishing Company. For more information about the book visit the CSS website at http://www.csspub.com. You can order any of our books on the CSS website (see the complete list below); they are also available from www.amazon.com and at many Christian bookstores. Or simply e-mail your order to orders@csspub.com or phone 1-800-241-4056. (If you live outside the U.S., phone 419-227-1818.)
Books by John & Jo Sumwalt
Sharing Visions: Divine Revelations, Angels, and Holy Coincidences
Vision Stories: True Accounts of Visions, Angels, and Healing Miracles
Life Stories: A Study in Christian Decision Making
Lectionary Stories: Forty Tellable Tales for Cycle C
Lectionary Stories: Forty Tellable Tales for Cycle A
Lectionary Stories: Forty Tellable Tales for Cycle B
Lectionary Tales for the Pulpit: 62 Stories for Cycle B
**************
StoryShare, April 18, 2004, issue.
Copyright 2004 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to the StoryShare service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons, in worship and classroom settings, in brief devotions, in radio spots, and as newsletter fillers. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., P.O. Box 4503, Lima, Ohio 45802-4503.
