On July 1, 2003, a visiting evangelist at the First Baptist Church of Forest, Ohio, was conducting an evening revival. Rev. Don Hardman had just finished his sermon on repentance and was closing with prayer. Apparently he felt that he had not accomplished what he was there for. A storm was raging outside, and as he prayed he just kept asking God what else he needed to say. After one loud clap he said that in the Bible, God’s voice was often compared to thunder. He looked heavenward and said, “That’s right, God! We hear you!”
At that moment a bolt of lightning hit the church steeple and surged through the electrical wiring. It blew out the sound system and traveled through the microphone to envelope the preacher in a ball of blue flame. That really got the congregation’s attention. Church member Ronnie Cheney said, “It was awesome, just awesome!”
The evangelist wasn’t hurt and the meeting continued. But 20 minutes later they smelled smoke and realized the church was on fire so they all got out of there.
Do you wish God would respond like that every time you needed him? If you harbor doubts about God, do you think an event like this would be sufficient proof for you? Turning around the Bible verse, you could walk by sight and not by faith!
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Illustration #29386 in the free Kerux Database (http://www.holwick.com/database.html)
“Give Us a Sign -- Kaboom!”
Main source: Richard G. Wimer, http://www.witandwisdom.org, May 4, 2005. His sources were the Findlay Ohio Courier, http://www.thecourier.com/, and http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/2/hi/americas/3044178.stm; secondary source: Sermon Fodder, http://www.sermonfodder.com. See also http://www.snopes.com/religion/bolt.asp.