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D Deliverance
(True stories from the California Highway Patrol…)
A police officer had a perfect hiding place for watching for speeders. But one day the officer found the problem: a 10 year old boy was standing on the side of the road with a huge hand painted sign which said "RADAR TRAP AHEAD."
A little more investigative work led the officer to the boy's accomplice: another boy about 100 yards beyond the radar trap with a sign reading "TIPS" and a bucket at his feet, full of change.
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What are you doing to warn unbelievers about the danger that lies ahead of them?
Source: unknown
Topics/Tags: Warning; Danger; Deliverance
In 1967 while taking a class in photography at the University of Cincinnati, I became acquainted with a young man named Charles Murray who also was a student at the school and training for the summer Olympics of 1968 as a high diver. Charles was very patient with me as I would speak to him for hours about Jesus Christ and how He had saved me. Charles was not raised in a home that attended any kind of church, so all that I had to tell him was a fascination to him. He even began to ask questions about forgiveness of sin.
Finally the day came that I put a question to him. I asked if he realized his own need of a Redeemer and if he was ready to trust Christ as his own Savior. I saw his countenance fall and the guilt in his face. But his reply was a strong "no." In the days that followed he was quiet and often I felt that he was avoiding me, until I got a phone call and it was Charles. He wanted to know where to look in the New Testament for some verses that I had given him about salvation. I gave him the reference to several passages and asked if I could meet with him. He declined my offer and thanked me for the scripture. I could tell that he was greatly troubled, but I did not know where he was or how to help him.
Because he was training for the Olympic games, Charles had special privileges at the University pool facilities. Sometime between 10:30 and 11:00 that evening he decided to go swim and practice a few dives.
It was a clear night in October and the moon was big and bright. The University pool was housed under a ceiling of glass panes so the moon shone bright across the top of the wall in the pool area. Charles decided to leave the arena lights off, and dive by moonlight alone.
Charles climbed to the highest platform to take his first dive. At that moment the Spirit of God began to convict him of his sins. A ll the scripture he had read, all the occasions of witnessing to him about Christ flooded his mind. He stood on the platform backwards to make his dive, spread his arms to gather his balance, looked up to the wall and saw his own shadow caused by the light of the moon. It was the shape of a cross. He could bear the burden of his sin no longer. His heart broke and he sat down on the platform and asked God to forgive him and save him. He trusted Jesus Christ twenty some feet in the air.
Suddenly, the lights in the pool area came on. The attendant had come in to check the pool. As Charles looked down from his platform he saw an empty pool which had been drained for repairs. If Charles hadn't paused on the platform to seek the Lord, he would have proceeded with his dive without realizing that the pool was empty. He had almost plummeted to his death, but the cross had stopped him from disaster.
"For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness;
but unto us which are saved it is the power of God." 1 Cor. 1:18
- Mark Renicker
Source: Mark Renicker
Topics/Tags: Salvation; Conviction; Rescue; Deliverance
Steven Spielberg's movie, Saving Private Ryan, tells the story of an Army captain named John Miller (played by Tom Hanks) who in the aftermath of the World War II D-day invasion at Normandy Beach is ordered to find a solitary private among thousands of displaced soldiers. He must return Private James F. Ryan home to his mother, whose other three sons have just been killed in action.
Captain Miller and the small group of men assigned to him successfully locate Ryan, but then are forced to defend a strategic bridge against enemy tanks and troops. Captain Miller is fatally wounded. In his dying moments, he reaches out to Private Ryan, and with great emotion says, "Earn this! Earn this!"
Many years later as an old man, James Ryan stands in a veteran's cemetery tearfully looking at the tombstone of the man who saved his life. He wonders aloud if he has indeed earned the great gift he received.
Two thousand years ago Jesus Christ died on the Cross that we might live forever. In his final words he did not suggest that we could ever earn such a gift. Instead he cried triumphantly, "It is finished!"
Source: Michael Lester
Topics/Tags: Grace; Salvation; Gifts from god; Deliverance
In Kon-Tiki: Across the Pacific by Raft, Thor Heyerdahl tells how he and a crew of five crossed the Pacific Ocean from South America to the South Pacific Islands on a crude raft of balsa logs bound together with hemp rope. During the three-month journey in 1947, they had little control of the direction of the raft and no way to stop its forward progress. They learned early in the voyage that anything dropped overboard was almost impossible to recover once it passed behind the raft.
Two months into the voyage and thousands of miles from land, Herman Watzinger lost his footing and went overboard. The raft, driven by a strong wind in heavy seas, moved ahead faster than he could swim. The five remaining men were horrified for their friend. They tried to throw him a life belt on a rope, but the wind blew it back at them. In seconds, Herman was all but lost to their sight in the tumble of waves.
Suddenly Knute Haugland grabbed the life belt and dove into the water. He swam back to Herman and wrapped his arm around him, holding his exhausted friend and the rope while the men on the boat drew them back to the boat.
Effective evangelism requires that someone risks and takes the gospel to the one who is lost.
Source: David Denny
Topics/Tags: Risk-taking; Evangelism; Rescue; Deliverance
"The New Testament records tell of forty people, each suffering from some disease, who had been healed by Jesus. Of this number, thirty-four were either brought to Jesus by friends or Jesus was taken to them. In only six cases out of forty did sufferers find their way to Christ without assistance."
--Dr. J. Wilbur
Source: Morris Chapman
Topics/Tags: Healing; Witnessing; Deliverance; Salvation
In Ireland, a busload of miners was on their way home from the mines. It was a particularly cold day, windy, with just enough icy rain to make the road down the mountain especially dangerous. The miners were all ready for warm soup and a good mug of beer. The bus driver, however, was understandably nervous about the weather and the conditions under which he had to navigate the unweildy bus on the ice in the wind. They were driving down a narrow road which wound around the hill, so that on one side was the sheer mountain face, on the other a drop into the valley.
As the driver came around a curve, some distance ahead of him, sitting in the middle of the road was a young boy, playing in the snow, his back to the bus. The bus driver had only a few seconds in which to make a decision what he must do. If he hit the brakes hard enough to avoid the child, he would send the bus into a skid on the ice, which would either land it over the cliff edge or into the rock wall, surely killing some if not all of the miners in his care. If he used the breaks only enough to slow and not skid, he would not be able to break in time to avoid hitting, and surely killing, the little boy. The bus driver had to decide.
As the bus came to a slow grinding halt, the bus driver leapt from the seat and went barrelling out the doors. Some of the miners followed after him. Several yards behind, in the snow, lay the body of the child. Dead. The bus driver had bent over the little limp form and turned it up, craddling it in his arms. The miners gathered round and removed their hats, all speechless.
The little boy was the bus driver's son.
Source: unknown
Topics/Tags: Jesus, the christ, death of, voluntary; Atonement; Deliverance; God, savior
I once heard about a young boy that had a large fierce white cat named Lollypop. The cat had one problem: he loved to climb trees. When he got to the top of one of those tall pine trees, however, he could not get down and would let out a howl that could be heard throughout the entire neighbor. One day when his parents were away, the boy heard that familiar howl and took it upon himself to rescue "Lollypop." Using a stepladder, he climbed the tree, and with great determination he reached the howling cat, only to discover that he also could not make the descent!
When his dad arrived he heard his son's howls above those of the cat. In the rescue that followed there came a point when the boy's short legs would not reach the next limb. When his father said, "Jump, son." he responded with a leap of faith knowing that his father had never failed him. This demonstrated faith not only effected his rescue but also proved his obedience to the his loving father who caught him.
Topics/Tags: Faith; Rescue; Deliverance; God, strength of
Alexander H. Stephens served as Vice President of the Confederacy. He was a cripple, and died shortly after becoming the governor of Georgia. When it became known that he was soon to die, that the physicians had no hope of prolonging his life, the great men of state crowded his bedroom and besought him to sign important documents.
But Stephens waved them away and called for his private secretary -- and told him to bring out of his desk an old, faded paper. The secretary found it. It was the petition of an old humble woman back in the hills seeking the pardon of her sinful son in the penitentiary.
With the great state officials begging Stephens to lay it aside and take up weightier matters, he replied: "No. I am going to sign this. The great matters of state will take care of themselves." And, being propped on his pillow, Governor Stephens took the yellow, faded appeal of the heart-broken mother who had no other intercessor at the governor's mansion. He dipped the pen in the ink, and across the appeal he wrote "P-A-R-D-O-N-E-D." Underneath he scrawled his name, "Alexander H. Stephens, Governor." The he dropped back upon his pillow -- dead.
Likewise, almost 2,000 years ago, high on the hill called Calvary, the Son of God was dying. All the sins of the world were upon Him. At His side a thief and murderer, an outcast, hung suspended between time and eternity. He was unfitted to go into eternity, and he was being forced out of the era of time. He cried out, "Lord, remember me when Thou comest into thy kingdom." From the bruised lips of Jesus came the answer that has echoed down the corridors of the ages: "Today, thou shalt be with me in Paradise." The man judged unfit to live with men was made suitable to live forever with Jesus!
Source: Robert G. Lee, SERMONIC LIBRARY, pp. 93-94.
Topics/Tags: Pardon; Deliverance
"Satan has built many gates to keep the people from the gospel of Jesus Christ. We need 'Gate Busters' who will come set the people free!"
-- International Mission Board (SBC) missionary Thad Puckett
Source: Your Church On Mission With God, 4/1999.
Topics/Tags: Deliverance; Bondage; Satan; Obstacles
Hold the fort! Jesus is coming!
After the fall of Atlanta in July 1864, General John B. Hood, commander of the Confederate Army, marched westward to attack the communications of General Sherman with Chattanooga and Nashville. He hoped to draw Sherman's army from Georgia. One of the posts he attacked was Allatoona Pass, commanded by the grave and capable General Corse. Sherman himself went back with part of his army as far as Kennesaw Mountain. From the summit of the mountain he signaled the beleaguered garrison, "Hold the fort! I am coming!"
Major Whittle, an evangelical Christian, related this incident to the hymn writer P. P. Bliss, who was inspired to write,
Hold the fort, for I am coming,
Jesus signals still;
Wave the answer back to heaven,
By Thy grace we will.
Source: David J. McCleod, "The First Last Thing," Bibliotheca Sacra 156:622 (Apr/Jun 1999), pp. 77-78.
Topics/Tags: Jesus, the christ, second coming of; Certainty; Promise; Deliverance
Browse By Topic D Deliverance