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SIGNS
A clap of thunder may sometimes sound like the sound of
God’s voice. A guest evangelist at a church in rural Ohio recently found out
that that may be truer than he thought. The guest speaker was preaching at
First Baptist Church in the small Ohio community of Forest. During his Tuesday
evening message, he emphasized penance and asked for a sign from God.
At that moment, the church’s steeple was hit by lightning,
blowing the sound system out, and setting the church on fire. Church member
Ronnie Cheney says, “It was awesome, just awesome.” The lightning apparently
traveled through the microphone and enveloped the preacher, but he was not
injured. Cheney says, “You could hear the storm building outside…He (the
evangelist) just keep asking God what else he needed to say. He was asking for
a sign and he got one.”
The service continued for about twenty minutes after the
strike until the congregation realized the building was on fire and evacuated.
The local fire department put the fire out quickly, but the building suffered
$20,000 in damage.
—Associated Press, July 3, 2003. Lightning Hits as Preacher
Asks for Sign From God,
Illustration by Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell.
We may ask for signs from God, but all we really need is the
sign than Jesus provided.
Matthew 12:39-40 NLT “But Jesus replied, “Only an evil,
faithless generation would ask for a miraculous sign; but the only sign I will
give them is the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was in the belly of
the great fish for three days and three nights, so, I, the Son of Man, will be
in the heart of the earth for three days and nights.”
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