Punishment for Missing Church

[phkrause]

A country preacher decided to skip services one Sunday to spend the day hiking in the wilderness. Rounding a sharp bend in the trail, he collided with a bear and was sent tumbling down a steep grade. He landed on a rock and broke both legs.

With the ferocious bear charging at him from a distance, the preacher prayed, "O Lord, I'm so sorry for skipping services today. Please forgive me and grant me just one wish--make a Christian out of that bear that's coming at me!"

At that very instant, the bear skidded to a halt, fell to his knees, clasped his paws together, and began to pray aloud at the preacher's feet: "Dear God, please bless this food I am about to receive."

[Nic Samojluk]

This old story gets better every time it is reprinted! Thanks for posting it.

Now let me add a real anecdote: Many decades ago, when taking pictures on Sabbath was being questioned by some Adventists, we decided to use our old camera on a Sabbath afternoon outing.

I dropped the camera, and it broke. I concluded that this was a confirmation that it was wrong to engage in such a sinful behavior. Somehow, I did change my mind on this later on.

Here is another anecdote. A couple of decades ago we were collecting funds for a church building in Ukraine. We sent some of the funds, and requested a picture of the small congregation. The response we got was that they did not take picture on the holy Sabbath hours.

I answered that my our donors wanted some pictorial evidence before committing additional funds for the project. We got the pictures by return mail.