Got this one today...
I got this from a sister in our hall, it show's when we have that gut feeling to go back to a door we were just at to follow that feeling! I hope you enjoy it.
We enjoyed this experience and you will probably enjoy it as well.
The Brewster's This is a personal experience that was given at our Public Talk on December 30,2001. It was so exceptional that I asked the speaker if I could have a copy so that I can share it with others.
So you guys are the others....
Patsy had the greatest respect for her mother who raised six children without much help from a alcoholic husband. Her mother wasn't satisfied with her religion so she began looking for the true one. Unfortunately, after looking at many different religions she came across one that wasn't true, but to her it sounded as if it were true. So she became a member and raised her children in this religion.
At age 41 the mother went to a doctor for a checkup. The doctor found cancer in her left breast that was, he said, the size of a pinhead and thus operable. If she had the surgery the doctor said she could probably expect to live another 30 or 40 years. Patsy's mother went to her minister to ask if it would be all right to have the surgery. He put a guilt trip on her, saying, "I can't tell you that you cannot have the operation, but it would show lack of faith for you to have it. You are being tested like Job and if you have faith then God will heal you and the whole church will be built up and all your family will come in the church."
So the mother never receive any medical treatment again. She lived another two years as the cancer took over her whole side and even grew out of her body. During that time the minister of her church would come over with other members of the church and pray for Patsy's mother to be healed.
The mother would be sure that she was fixing to be healed and for the moment she would feel better as she anticipated the cure. The minister continued to tell her that she would be healed so she never gave up hope.
Finally, she died an excruciatingly painful death without any pain medication.
At the graveside funeral, the daughter Patsy approached this minister and looked him in the eye and said "Why ? Why did my mother have to die a death like this ? She did everything you told her to do. So why" The minister looked back at her in the eye and said "Obviously your mother did not have enough faith." A that Patsy told him, "I will never serve a God as cruel as that !"
Now Patsy began a life designed to "get even with God." She began to do all the things that she had learned were wrong. She became a lead singer in a heavy metal rock band. Eventually she married and had children but didn't treat her family well. She was always telling them that they were dragging her down and keeping here from signing a singing contract to go to New York and become a famous singer.
Finally, her husband had enough of this and decided to give Patsy her freedom He was going to give her a divorce. Then Patsy began to realize that she truly loved her husband and didn't want to live without him. So she decided to commit suicide. Going over to the refrigerator she got the gun down off the top of it and walked over to the kitchen table to write her suicide note and kill herself before the children came home from school.
At the table she started thinking, "Religion got me into this mess, maybe religion can get me out of it. I know what I'll do. Since I know a lot of Bible verses from my mother's religion, I'll use the Bible to blast all these people! So she went and got her King James Bible and let it fall open and the first verse she read was Romans 12:17, "Recompense to no man evil for evil." She didn't like that verse so she closed the Bible up and let it fall open again this time to a scripture that said something like, "Return to me and I shall return to you." She didn't like that one either so she closed the Bible again and opened it to Isaiah 55:1-3 where Jehovah invites thirsty ones to come to him.
Now Patsy decided to come to God in prayer. However, when she prayed she wanted to be sure that no other god would hear her prayer so she said:
"I'm praying to the God of Abraham , Isaac and Jacob. If you still have a people left on earth that are really serving you, could you have them call on me in the next 30 minutes."
Before 30 minutes went by, two of Jehovah's Witnesses knocked at her door. The two sisters were presenting THE WATCHTOWER on the four horsemen of the apocalypse. Patsy took the magazines and as she looked at the article, it seemed to make more sense than anything she had ever read before. So she went to God in prayer again. "God, I have really been duped by religion before and don't want to be again. If these really are your people could you please make them come back again within 3 0 minutes.
As the two witnesses were driving away, they got to the top of the hill and one said to the other: "That woman really needs the REASONING BOOK !
And they turned the car around and drove back to place the REASONING BOOK with her. This time, after the witnesses had left, Patsy went to God again in prayer. "God, I know I'm really pushing it this time, but I need to be sure since I've had such a bad experience with religion before. Would you make them come back one more time within the next 30 minutes."
The two witnesses had gone home, but one of them decided that she wanted Patsy to know what the topic of the Sunday talk would be about so she called up another witness that lived nearby Patsy and asked her if she would run over and tell Patsy the topic. She did and Patsy greeted her at the door with opened arms saying, "You're one of Jehovah's Witnesses aren't you ?"
That Thursday night Patsy came to her first meeting and never missed another. She went to the next assembly and cried because she couldn't get baptized. But, in March she went to a circuit assembly and was baptized.
Then she signed up to auxiliary pioneer and later became a regular pioneer in 1990...
This is the life experience that Patsy told us at a lunch at the Pioneer Service School in August of l991 Now you see why I wanted it to share with others. Feel free to share it with still others. It's very encouraging.
Myrna