Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Angels or impostors?

Back in January, I was at a multi-church “Holy Convocation.” The guest preacher was a pastor from California. I don’t remember his name or the name of the church he pastors.

In the Friday evening service, he told a story about one time when he was in the Philippines. He was taking a cab to the Manila airport to fly back to the U.S. The taxi driver asked if he was by chance a pastor, and he said yes. The driver told the minister he had been praying all day for God to send a pastor to ride in his cab, because his daughter was very ill in the hospital and he wanted someone to pray for her. He asked if the pastor had a few minutes to spare to stop by the hospital on the way to the airport and pray for his child.

The pastor agreed, and they drove to the hospital. I don’t recall if the pastor said the man took him to the girl’s room, or just told him the room number and waited in the cab. But the pastor went in and prayed for the girl, who may have been in a coma (I don’t recall, it has been almost 3 months since I heard this story). In any event, after he prayed for her, she got better (awoke from the coma, or her vitals went to normal, or the fever left and she said she felt OK – I don’t recall).

Monday, April 11, 2011

Whose image is on it? ¿De quién es la imagen?

Luke 20:20-25

20 Keeping a close watch on him, they sent spies, who pretended to be honest. They hoped to catch Jesus in something he said so that they might hand him over to the power and authority of the governor. 21 So the spies questioned him: “Teacher, we know that you speak and teach what is right, and that you do not show partiality but teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. 22 Is it right for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”  23 He saw through their duplicity and said to them, 24 “Show me a denarius. Whose portrait and inscription are on it?”  25 “Caesar’s,” they replied.  He said to them, “Then give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”

In the Sunday School class I attend, we’ve been working our way through the Gospel of Luke. This well-known passage was part of what we covered this week.