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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.”