Faith as Simple as an Empty Chair

The Empty Chair

A daughter had asked the local minister to come and pray with her father.When the minister arrived, he found the man lying in bed with his head propped up on two pillows. An empty chair sat beside his bed. The minister assumed that the old fellow had been informed of his visit. "I guess you were expecting me, Bob,." He said. "No, I wasn't expecting you." said Bob. "Who are you?" "I am the new minister at your church" he replied. "When I saw the empty chair, I assumed that you knew that I was going to show up." "Oh yeah, the chair," said the bedridden man."Would you mind closing the door." Puzzled, Pastor James closed the door.  "I have never told this to anyone, not even my daughter." said the man."But all my life, I have never known how to pray. At church I used to hear the pastor talk about prayer, but it always went right over my head. I abandoned any attempt at prayer," the old man continued, "until one day about four years ago, my best friend said to me,'Bob, prayer is just a simple matter of having a conversation with Jesus..' 'Here is what I suggest. Sit down in a chair, place an empty chair in front of you, and in faith see Jesus in front of you on the chair. It's not spooky because he promised, 'I 'll be with you always'  Then just speak to him and listen in the way you are doing with me the same way.'m' So I tried it and liked it so much that I do it a couple hours every day. I'm careful though. If my daughter saw me talking to an empty chair, she'd either have a nervous breakdown or send me off to the funny farm."  James was deeply moved by the story and encouraged the old guy to continue on his journey. Then he prayed with Bob. anointed him with oil and returned to the church. Two days later the daughter called to tell the pastor that her daddy had died that afternoon. "Did he die in peace?" he asked. "Yes, when I left the house about two 0'clock, he called me over to his bedside, he told me he loved me, and kissed me on the cheek.When I got back from the store, an hour later, I found him dead. But there was something strange about his death. Apparently just before he died,  he leaned over and rested his head on the chair beside the bed. What do you make of that?" Pastor James wiped a tear from his eye and said, "I wish we could all go like that."

We live by faith, not by sight.  2 Corinthians 5:7


Hello Friends Since posting someone's faith story last week, I though I will do one every Lord's Day. This story can be found on the following link, if you care to read some other stores of faith. Go to:

Living by Faith Not by Sight

I hope this story lifts your own faith. For Jesus said, that if we have the faith as small as a grain of mustard seed, we can move the mountains in our lives. Nothing is impossible to us. Mathew 17:20

I will be back with my usual post tomorrow, and until then, may your Lord's day be blessed by Jesus our King!