Dear God, It Didn\u2019t Happen<\/b><\/p>\n
Shortly after I got my driver\u2019s license I was driving too close to the middle of a narrow road and I sideswiped another car. The crash tore the front fender, two doors, and the rear fender from my dad\u2019s car. After I found out everyone was okay, I stood in the ditch and prayed, \u201cDear God, I pray this didn\u2019t happen.\u201d I opened my eyes and saw that the car was still wrecked, so I closed my eyes, squinted real hard, and prayed again, \u201cDear God, it didn\u2019t happen.\u201d Then I opened my eyes, but it happened anyway.<\/p>\n
Jay Kesler, Raising Responsible Kids, Wolgemuth & Hyatt, 1991, p. 75<\/p>\n
Golf Without a Ball<\/b><\/p>\n
A golfer who had been playing badly went to a psychiatrist who told him to relax by playing a round of golf without a ball. \u201cDo everything you would normally do, but use an imaginary ball,\u201d advised the psychiatrist.\u201d The golfer tried it the next day. He stepped up on the first tee, imagined he got a 260-yard drive, made a fine approach shot to the green, then putted for a par. The round went splendidly and as he approached the 18th hole, he met another golfer playing the same way\u2014no ball.<\/p>\n
The other golfer had seen the same psychiatrist. They decided to play the last hole together and bet $10 on the outcome. The first golfer swung at his imaginary ball and announced that it had gone 280 yards right down the middle of the fairway. The second golfer matched his drive. The first fellow then took out his 5-iron and after swinging at his imaginary ball, he exclaimed, \u201cLook at that shot! It went right over the pin and the reverse spin on it brought it right back into the hole! I win.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo you don\u2019t,\u201d said the second golfer. \u201cYou hit my ball.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bits and Pieces, February, 1990, p. 16<\/p>\n
It Is Literal<\/b><\/p>\n
To become a Christian is to accept an extra dimension to life. From the Christian\u2019s point of view the notable thing about the unbeliever\u2019s world is how much SMALLER it is. The unbeliever is imprisoned in a decaying universe.<\/p>\n
Imagine you took a child to the theater to see some tragedy like, say, HAMLET, at the end of which the stage is littered with corpses. And suppose you had difficulty comforting the child afterward, so distressed was he at the spectacle of the deaths. \u201cBut the man who played Hamlet is not really dead,\u201d you explain. \u201cHe is an actor. He also lives a life outside the theater. He has a wife and family and, far from being dead, he is probably now at home with them enjoying a late supper.\u201d:<\/p>\n
If there is one word the Christian secretly wants to use to describe the unbeliever\u2019s outlook, it is LITERAL . . . like the child who takes the play for reality.<\/p>\n
Harry Blamires<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dear God, It Didn\u2019t Happen Shortly after I got my driver\u2019s license I was driving too close to the middle of a narrow road and I sideswiped another car. The crash tore the front fender, two doors, and the rear fender from my dad\u2019s car. After I found out everyone was okay, I stood in … Continue reading “Reality”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1031"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1031\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}