[Pim Pendergast]

I’ve noticed that Ray Comfort likes to use anecdotes – such as this – on his Facebook page, so I thought I would start a thread for True Christians™ to share their anecdotes.

A famous faith healer (whose name is unknown) invited those in the audience (at an unknown venue) with ailments to come forward for healing. If they had enough faith, he assured them, they would be healed.

There was a skeptic (whose name is also unknown) in the audience that night who didn’t believe in miracles. He thought the healer was a charlatan and wondered how he would react if he thought he had performed a real miracle. So the skeptic had a plan. He would pretend to be a paraplegic, and when the healer prayed for him, he would leap out of his wheelchair and dance around the dais, shouting, “I’m healed! I’m healed!” The healer would be exposed as a fraud and the audience exposed as gullible sheeple. In time this prank would become a hallowed urban legend in atheist circles.

The unknown skeptic boldly wheeled himself up to the front. He snickered as some ushers came forward to assist him getting up onto the dais. Laying hands on him, the famous unknown healer prayed for him. But when the skeptic went to get up, he found that he couldn’t move his legs. “I can’t get up!” he cried. “I’m paralysed!”

The whole audience at the famous unknown venue somehow knew this man was a skeptic who was faking his condition in order to expose the healer as a fraud and undermine their faith. Ironically, thanks to God’s intervention, the skeptic’s actions had only ended up strengthening their faith. True story.

Whether the unknown skeptic’s paralysis was temporary or permanent is unknown. The important lesson to take away from all this is that God is not mocked.

Gal 6:7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.

Fear Him!

[Naomi Ruth Lamb]

My father tells a story from his youth. His family attended a Baptist church in Newark, Delaware. The pastor of the church hired a colored man to clean the sanctuary once a week - sometimes twice - but of course this man did not attend Father's church since those people had their own on another side of town. The colored man's name was Zebedee, but most people called him Ol' Zeb.

Father said that the church held a picnic on the grounds a couple times a year. One of the picnics was a watermelon fest and the other was a pitch-in, where mother and the other ladies brought in a favorite dish to share. Ol' Zeb, of course, loved watermelon and asked the pastor if he could clean the sanctuary the day of the watermelon fest. Father said he just knows Ol' Zeb probably thought someone would share some watermelon with him. The pastor agreed but told him he'd need to stay away from the congregation while they enjoyed fellowship and sweet, tasty watermelon. Ol' Zeb promised he would honor that.

Well, when the fest was about half over, Father looked up and saw Ol' Zeb standing in the window overlooking the church grounds, watching people eat watermelon. Several of the church members also saw Ol' Zeb and were amused by his facial expression, which reminded them of a puppy wanting a bone. No one offered Zeb any watermelon, but the church was very clean. Father and I laugh and laugh when he tells that story.

[Pim Pendergast]

A man raped and murdered a woman and disposed of her body in a shallow grave. He went back to his normal life and carried on as if nothing had happened.

The body was soon discovered, however, and police interrogated their prime suspect – the woman’s boyfriend. He denied any involvement, but detectives didn’t believe him. Eventually, he was arrested and charged with murder. The case went to court, and the man was convicted and sentenced to death.

Years later, the murderer’s conscience got the better of him and he turned himself into police and confessed. But there was nothing they could do. An innocent man had already been convicted and executed for the crime. It was a case of double jeopardy. So the murderer walked free with a clear conscience.

In the same way, we cannot be punished for our sins if we simply confess them to God. His innocent son was tortured and temporarily executed in our place. It’s like a case of double jeopardy. Whatever sins we might have committed, we can simply walk away scot-free. Knowing that an innocent person was punished for your crime will clear your conscience like nothing else.

1 Jn 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

[Pim Pendergast]

This isn't my anecdote; it's one of Jack Chick's, so you know it'll be good. Tiny Shoes tells the story of how God lovingly kills a man's child with pneumonia from a foot infection in order to draw him to Christ. It warns against the evils of lying (1 Jn 2:22), drunkenness (Rom 13:13) and gambling. Don't be like the man in this story. Soften your heart. Turn to Jesus now lest He take away your children.

[Faith_Machine]

Thank you Dr. Pendergast, for this wonderful reminder of the value of anecdotes. I'm a afraid I don't have any anecdotes of my own to share, but I do want to add that in addition to anecdotes, another powerful tool is The Testimonial.

For example, I recently got in on the ground floor of an excellent business opportunity, The Freehold Nutritional Supplement Sharing Network. I learned that, despite all the good our nutritional supplements and homeopathic cures do for people, we are not legally allowed to list the medicinal benefits of our products, because those benefits haven't been "scientifically proven."



Not being able to tell people about all the benefits they'd get from using our products was a real bummer at first, but then my upline sales manager trained me in the art of sharing Testimonials. What I learned is that although I can't say, "This homeopathic remedy will make your cancer go into remission," it is perfectly legal for me to show people short videos of individuals saying they are cancer patients and they feel much, much better now that they're using our product!



Now I keep these videos on my iPad, which I carry with me everywhere. Since I learned about the power of The Testimonial, my sales have really taken off.

I can't cite any hard statistics on this, but it's been my experience that use of Testimonials can increase your network marketing revenues by as much as 400 percent!

Say, I think I just gave you some anecdotal evidence! How 'bout that?

God just never stops surprising me.

[Naomi Ruth Lamb]

Originally Posted by Pim Pendergast

This isn't my anecdote; it's one of Jack Chick's, so you know it'll be good. Tiny Shoes tells the story of how God lovingly kills a man's child with pneumonia from a foot infection in order to draw him to Christ. It warns against the evils of lying (1 Jn 2:22), drunkenness (Rom 13:13) and gambling. Don't be like the man in this story. Soften your heart. Turn to Jesus now lest He take away your children.

Brother Pendergast,

Tears came to my eyes as I read this. Isn't it amazing that we serve a God so magnificently benevolent, kind, and loving as to use the gentleness of a child's death to draw someone to His eternal gift of life in Heaven? To think of spending eternity singing and praising His Name sends shudders up and down my entire body. Oh, I hope I can lead that heavenly choir! No doubt Jack Chick will be shouting and dancing in the Spirit when he sees the results of his work. GLORY!

NRL