Fwd: The Believer

["sholt@vt.edu" <sholt@vt.edu>]

Poster: "sholt@vt.edu" <sholt@vt.edu>

This is a religious post.
I am sincerely sorry if this offends some people, but I felt the message of 
faith in God and oneself was important enough to risk the number of flames 
I am going to get.

Briana of Skye



----- Forwarded message begins here -----

                       It takes guts to say "Jesus"

This is a true story of something that happened just a few years ago at
USC.  There was a professor of philosophy who was a deeply committed
atheist.  His primary goal for one required class was to spend the entire
semester attempting to prove that God COULD NOT exist. His students were
always afraid to argue with him because of his impeccable logic. For
twenty years he had taught this class and no one had ever had the courage
to go against him.  Sure, some had argued in class at times, but no one
had ever REALLY gone against him (you'll see what I mean later). 

Nobody would go against him because he had a "reputation". At the end of
every semester, on the last day, he would say to the class of 300
students, "If there is anyone here who STILL believes in God, stand up!"
In twenty years, NOBODY ever stood up. They knew what he was going to do
next. He would say, "Because anyone who believes in God is a FOOL. If God
existed, he could stop this piece of chalk from hitting the ground and
breaking. 

"Such a simple task to prove he is God, and yet he can't do it." And every
year he would drop the chalk onto the tile floor of the classroom and it
would shatter into a hundred pieces. All of the students could do nothing
but stop and stare. Most of the students were convinced that God couldn't
exist. Certainly, a number of Christians had slipped through, but for 20
years they had been too afraid to stand up. 

Well, a few years ago there was a freshman who happened to get enrolled in
the class. He was a Christian, and had heard the stories about this
professor.  He had to take the class because it was one of the required
classes for his major. And he was afraid. But for three months that
semester, he prayed every morning that he would have the courage to stand
up no matter what the professor said or what the class thought. Nothing
they said or did could ever shatter his faith, he hoped. 

Finally, the day came. The professor said, "If there is anyone here who
still believes in God, stand up!" The professor, and the class of 300
people looked at him, shocked, as he stood up at the back of the room. The
professor shouted, "You FOOL! If nothing I have said all semester has
convinced you that God doesn't exist, then you are a fool! If God existed,
he could keep this piece of chalk from breaking when it hit the ground!" 

He proceeded to drop the chalk, but as he did, it slipped out of his
fingers, off his shirt cuff, onto the pleats of his pants, down his leg,
and off his shoe. And as it hit the ground, it simply rolled away,
UNBROKEN. The professor's jaw dropped as he stared at the chalk. He looked
up at the young man and then ran out of the lecture hall.

The young man who had stood up proceeded to walk to the front of the room
and share his faith in Jesus for the next half hour. 300 students stayed
and listened as he told of God's love for them and of his power through
Jesus. 

"Yet to all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave
the right to become children of God - children born not of natural
descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God." 

"But He knows the way that I take, when He has tested me, I will come
forth as gold." Job 23:10

(Passed from one Christian to the next as a message of encouragement and 
hope.)

------ Forwarded message ends here ------

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