Trouble Communicating

By Johnny Angel

Dear friends,

Sometimes we can have trouble with our communication. We may say one thing and mean another thing. And sometimes we may just not be speaking clearly. Consider the following story:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

About a century or two ago, the Pope decided that all the Jews had to leave Rome. Naturally there was a big uproar from the Jewish community. So the Pope made a deal. He would have a religious debate with a member of the Jewish community. If the Jew won, the Jews could stay. If the Pope won, the Jews would leave. The Jews realized that they had no choice. They looked around for a champion who could defend their faith, but no one wanted to volunteer. It was too risky.

So they finally picked an old man named Moishe, who spent his life sweeping up after people, to represent them. Being old and poor, he had less to lose, so he agreed. He asked only for one addition to the debate. Not being used to saying very much as he cleaned up around the settlement, he asked that neither side be allowed to talk. The pope agreed.

The day of the great debate came. Moishe and the Pope sat opposite each other for a full minute before the Pope raised his hand and showed three fingers. Moishe looked back at him and raised one finger.

The Pope waved his fingers in a circle around his head. Moishe pointed to the ground where he sat. The Pope pulled out a wafer and a glass of wine. Moishe pulled out an apple.

The Pope stood up and said, 'I give up. This man is too good. The Jews can stay.' An hour later, the cardinals were all around the Pope asking him what happened. The Pope said: 'First I held up three fingers to represent the Trinity.

He responded by holding up one finger to remind me that there was still one God common to both our religions. Then I waved my finger around me to show him, that God was all around us. He responded by pointing to the ground, showing that God was also right here with us.

I pulled out the wine and the wafer to show that God absolves us from our sins. He pulled out an apple to remind me of original sin. He had an answer for everything. What could I do?'

Meanwhile, the Jewish community had crowded around Moishe, amazed that this old, almost feeble-minded man had done what all their scholars had insisted was impossible! .

'What happened?' they asked.'Well,' said Moishe, 'First he said to me that the Jews had three days to get out of here. I told him that not one of us was leaving. Then he told me that this whole city would be cleared of Jews. I let him know that we were staying right here.'

'And then?' asked a woman.

'I don't know,' said Moishe. 'He took out his lunch and I took out mine.'

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now I offer you this thought. How is your communication with God? Are you letting others do it for you? By this, I mean are you letting other people hand you down your faith by what they tell you. Or are you daily talking to God by opening up His word and fixing your thoughts on Him? God can speak so much to us when we take out time to be one-on-one with Him!

And I also would like to pose another question. Are you letting your worries, failures, and desires clog up your communication with God? It's a lot easier to hear Him speak when we chill out and trust Him to get us through whatever is happening.

===================================================== 
prayer requests:
~	pray for three year old Josh as he is going through great 
difficulty with a brain tumor -- I get updates almost daily on how he is 
coming along -- God is working through the situation -- this is something 
that I strongly urge everyone to pray for
~	pray also for Josh's mother Tangy and the rest of his family 
and friends as they are dealing with this situation
~	another way that we can pray is to send a get 
well/encouragement card -- the Lord teaches us in the Bible that what 
we have done to the least we have done unto Him -- sometimes we 
have to put feet on our prayers and take actions that the Lord directs 
us to take -- you can send a card to Josh at the following address:

Joshua Crim c/o
Lexington Medical Center
2720 Sunset Blvd.
West Columbia, SC 29169-4810  

~	pray for a girl who has been stuck with all her father's 
medical bills and is also dealing with his recent death
~	pray for a girl named Ashley -- she has a strange tumor on her 
knee that is causing her extreme pain and concern -- she will be going 
through surgery and the outcome looks very uncertain
~	pray for a friend of mine who has a lot of schoolwork and 
tests to deal with right now and is also feeling flu symptoms in the midst 
of it all -- if you've been in school much at all whether elementary 
school or a higher level of education, you know it's hard to study when 
you're sick


N Prayer,
Johnny <*}}}><