WE LIVE BY FAITH NOT BY SIGHT Johnson peter

Johnson Peter
WE LIVE BY FAITH
A man's daughter
had
asked the local
minister
to come and pray
with
her father. When
the
minister arrived, he
found the man lying
in
bed with his head
propped up on two
pillows. An empty
chair
sat beside his bed.
The minister
assumed
that the old fellow
had
been informed of
his
visit. "I guess you
were
expecting me," he
said.
"No, who are you?"
said
the father. "I'm the
new minister at
your
church," he replied.
"When I saw the
empty
chair, I figured you
knew I was going
to
show up." "Oh yeah,
the
chair," said the
bedridden man.
"Would
you mind closing
the
door?"
Puzzled, the
minister
shut the door. "I
have
never told anyone
this,
not even my
daughter,"
said the man. "But
all of
my life I have never
known how to pray.
At
church I used to
hear
the pastor talk
about
prayer, but it went
right over my
head." "I
abandoned any
attempt at prayer,"
the
old man continued,
"until one day about
four years ago my
best
friend said to me,
"Joe,
prayer is just a
simple
matter of having a
conversation with
Jesus. Here is what
I
suggest. Sit down in
a
chair; place an
empty
chair in front of
you,
and in faith see
Jesus
on the chair. It's not
spooky because he
promised, "I'll be
with
you always." Then
just
speak to him in the
same way you're
doing
with me right now."
So, I tried it and I've
liked it so much
that I
do it a couple of
hours
every day. I'm
careful
though. If my
daughter
saw me talking to
an
empty chair, she'd
either have a
nervous
breakdown or send
me
off to the funny
farm."
The minister was
deeply moved by
the
story and
encouraged
the old man to
continue
on the journey.
Then he
prayed with him,
anointed him with
oil,
and returned to the
church. Two nights
later the daughter
called to tell the
minister that her
daddy
had died that
afternoon.
"Did he die in
peace?" he
asked. "Yes, when I
left
the house about
two o'
clock, he called me
over
to his bedside, told
me
he loved me and
kissed
me on the cheek.
When
I got back from the
store an hour later,
I
found him dead. But
there was
something
strange about his
death. Apparently,
just
before Daddy died,
he
leaned over and
rested
his head on the
chair
beside the bed.
What do
you make of that?"
The
minister wiped a
tear
from his eye and
said,
"I wish we could all
go
like that."
We live by faith, not
by
sight. 2 Corinthians
5:7 referenced Johnson peter myfriend aderemiakinbo.blogspot.com