The Skeleton Key

“Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know.” Jeremiah 33:3

Exhausted from many days of training leaders to disciple parents and their children to Jesus, I asked my Zimbabwean hosts where I was supposed to spend the night. I had just preached that night to over seven hundred students on a high school campus in Zimbabwe, and it was already well past sunset.

My hosts led me to a dormitory on the edge of a university campus nearby, not far from a high fence which was meant to keep the leopards out. Once we got to my room, they handed me a long, narrow skeleton key. I stuck the key in the lock, and the door popped open. With gratitude, I said goodnight to my hosts.

After preparing for bed, I knelt by my bed to pray. “God, I am leaving for home the day after tomorrow. What is on Your heart?”

Instantly, the quiet voice of God whispered softly to my heart and mind. “Come out under the stars, Don. There is something I want to tell you.”

Hopping up, I pulled on some warmer clothes and laced up my hiking shoes. Grabbing the key, I stepped out of my room, locked the door, and walked out into the night.

I headed down a dirt path, and then knelt in some tall grasses. Looking up at the sky, I gazed with awe at the stars. With no artificial light for many miles, the sky was a brilliant canopy of twinkling galaxies. It was simply breathtaking.

“God, I am here!” I greeted Him. “What is on Your heart? What do You want to tell me?”

Again, He spoke inaudibly to my heart and mind, “Ask Me to do much more for Africa!”

Now I felt that this was a strange thing for God to tell me. Why did He want me to ask Him to do much more for Africa? He could answer His own prayer by doing anything He wanted for the continent. However, I knew it was His voice speaking, and He was clear in what He wanted me to do. In obedience, I stretched up my hands in the darkness to God and prayed out loud, “God, please do much more for Africa!” My short prayer was spoken in faith.

I waited. Would God have anything else to say? The only sound was the sot breezes blowing through the tall grass. I heard nothing more, but His peace was with me.

Standing to my feet, I turned and walked back to the dormitory. Eagerly I pulled out my skeleton key as I neared my room. I was ready to sleep, very ready to sleep. I stuck the key into the lock and turned it once. The door would not open. I tried it again. It still would not open. I tried it again, five times, ten times, fifteen times. The door simply would not open.

“How could this be happening to me?” I grumbled to myself. “The key just worked a few minutes ago. Why isn’t it working now?”

Immediately the still, small voice of God told me, “You are not getting into your room because there is someone you are supposed to meet.”

“Lord, I don’t know anyone here in this dormitory. Besides, the lights are all out, so that means everyone is asleep.”

But God had spoken. There was someone I was supposed to meet.

Not sure where to go, I started walking down the long, dark hallway. “This is crazy!” I muttered again to myself. “No one is awake.”

“Lord, show me—who am I supposed to meet?”

I walked past room after room. Every door was closed. Every light was out. Peering through the darkness I saw one door, the only door in the long hallway with light streaming out from under it. I timidly tapped on the door.

The door swung open, and a man stuck his face out into the dark hallway. Seeing my white face staring back at him, he stepped back, slightly startled. “Who are you?” he challenged me.

Quickly, I told him that there was no reason to be afraid. Then I introduced myself and told him briefly about the discipleship work I had been doing for leaders there in Zimbabwe.

“I am Pastor Willard Sichilima from North Zambia. How can I help you?” he asked warmly.

I held up my key, “I am embarrassed to tell you, but I cannot open my room with this key. It worked before. I am not sure what to do or who to ask for help.”

“No problem!” he exclaimed. “I have been coming here each summer to work on my master’s degree and have stayed in many rooms in this dormitory. Lead me to your room, and I will open it for you.”

As we got near my room, I handed him the key. He confidently slipped the key into the lock and turned the key, and guess what happened? Nothing. He tried again and again, but the key would not open the door.

Baffled, Pastor Willard went and found the night watchman on duty, a strong, young man who towered over me in height and looked like he could have been a wrestler. However, his face was friendly as he gave me a joyful smile. “Please give me the key, sir. I can open any door here for you!”

I was delighted to hear this and handed him the key. He tried to open the door, but it would not budge. He then turned the key with all his might. He pushed and shoved and strained as sweat began trickling down his face. I wondered if the key would break. Still the key would not work.

“Don’t worry! I will get the men’s dean to help us,” the young night watchman promised. In a few minutes, the dean came with a basket full of keys, including many duplicates for my room.

“We will have you in your room in no time!” The dean told me. He took a copy of my key and popped it in the lock and turned. It would not open. Every duplicate key to my room would not open the door!

Why is this happening to me? I silently complained.

God’s voice spoke to my heart in response: “Ask Pastor Willard, ‘What do you need? How may I help you?’”

“Now Lord,” I reasoned, “I only have one hundred US dollars in my wallet for emergency money. What if this pastor from Zambia asks me to help him pay the tuition for one of his children? I don’t have that much! What if he asks me to help him pay for the tuition of all his children? What would I do?”

But God was not impressed with my arguments. As I hesitated, God prompted me again to ask Pastor Willard the questions. I thought of the possibilities as I fingered my wallet in my pocket. I was genuinely afraid that Pastor Willard would ask me for something beyond what I had in my hand. I did not ask the questions but watched as the dean continued struggling to open my door.

God prompted me the third time with urgency! I sighed.

“Pastor Willard,” I finally spoke up. “God is impressing me to ask you, ‘What do you need? How may I help you?’”

Pastor Willard’s face exploded into a big smile. His smile was much too big for my comfort. “That is exactly why I didn’t want to ask him, God!” I cried inwardly. But my mind was jolted back to the moment, as Pastor Willard was already speaking in response.

“That is a wonderful question!” he told me enthusiastically. He then bent over and asked the dean, who was still looking for a working key for my door, “Would you please give me Don’s original key?”

The dean straightened up, looked at Pastor Willard with a puzzled expression, shrugged his shoulders, and handed him the key. Pastor Willard took the key, stuck it in the lock, turned it, and the door opened! We all stood silently around the opened door for a moment, staring in awe.

After thanking the dean and the night watchman for their valiant efforts, I invited Pastor Willard into my room. “God obviously wanted me to meet you, but before you tell me anything, we need to pray.” We knelt down together, and I prayed first.

“Please Lord, help Pastor Willard to tell me only what You want him to share as the need.”

Pastor Willard then prayed, “Lord, please help Pastor Don to hear what You want him to hear.”

We got back up, and I looked at Pastor Willard with expectation. “So, what do you need?”

He followed my question with his own question. “Well, what do you do?”

“I oer training to help parents and other mentors disciple their children to Jesus Christ,” I told him.

“Wonderful!” he responded enthusiastically. “Why don’t you come to North Zambia and train us?”

Instantly I felt relieved. I thought to myself, He is asking me to do something I know how to do. I can do this! I smiled. But immediately God spoke to my heart again, “Don, offering them the training is good, but ask him what he really needs now.”

“Pastor Willard, God is impressing me to ask you, ‘What do you really need now?’”

Pastor Willard paused briefly with his head bowed. Then he looked up with tears in his eyes. “We need a school in North Zambia!”

“Oh,” I spoke nervously. “You mean like a one-room school?” I was trying desperately to keep the request small enough that I might be able to consider it.

“Oh no, Pastor Don, we need a full secondary school campus that is a boarding school for hundreds and hundreds of students.” Now I began to squirm inwardly.

“Actually,” he continued, “We need two secondary school campuses complete with boys’ and girls’ dormitories, classrooms, kitchen, toilets, showers.” He went on listing the needs of both campuses. By now, I was completely stressed and overwhelmed.

“Well, thank you for sharing this with me,” I said weakly, with little enthusiasm. “I’ll pray about what you’ve shared,” I promised. We stood up, shook hands, said good night, and parted.

I knelt and prayed at my bedside once more. God spoke: “This is the man I wanted you to meet, and that request was from Me!”

Crawling into bed, I pulled the covers up across my chest as I tried to sleep. How was I ever going to build two secondary school campuses in Zambia? I wondered to myself as I drifted off to sleep.


Read More – God Still Lives (Don Maclafferty)


From Old Leaks to New Life

From Old Leaks to New Life

And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. Jeremiah 29:13


The church is built upon Christ as its foundation; it is to obey Christ as its head. It is not to depend upon man, or be controlled by man.


“I was filled with sin, lots of regrets, and was very lost in life. I looked happy, but I wasn’t.” 

That’s how 29-year-old JuliAnna describes her life as a young adult living in a camper trailer that was prone to leaking when it rained. Raised in a single-parent home, she didn’t have a father figure and her mother was constantly working—she never felt like she belonged; a sense of loneliness haunted her.

So, while she grew up Christian, she soon wandered away from the faith and became a bartender. To fill that void of loneliness, she turned to worldly relationships. Eventually she had two kids with a boyfriend, but the relationship, rocked by drugs and alcohol use, was anything but fulfilling.

Then, unemployment hit. It seemed as though living in that leaky trailer was a metaphor for JuliAnna’s life. The more she tried to pursue a better life through worldly pleasures, the more her happiness seemed to leak away. She recalls, “I was always in constant battles, chaos, and confusion, not just on the inside, but the outside too. I didn’t understand why.”

Dissatisfied with her living conditions, JuliAnna soon left her boyfriend and that trailer with her two kids—only to move in with a drug addict, a move that would result in great loss!  It’s no surprise that genuine happiness continued to elude her, and that void of loneliness remained. She knew she had to find something that would lead her to a better life.

That’s when JuliAnna began searching for the bigger picture, hunting for an online Bible study that could fill that void.  From the literally millions of options, only one resonated with her—the Amazing Facts online Bible School. And it had been very easy to find too … thanks to you.

JuliAnna loved the beautiful scriptures, facts, and illustrations in the lessons. “I was also captured by how much God and Jesus really loved me—and it was the truth.” And the more she understood and embraced what God’s Word said about right living, the more her life began to change. She moved into an apartment, but most important, she found a solid church family, where she’s now a greeter and worship coordinator.

Good things continued to happen: JuliAnna found a new job, and she married a fellow believer. Now, the couple are buying their first home. That Christ-less void in her heart was filled because you provided the life-changing resources that touched her heart!

And it’s made a world of difference. Today, JuliAnna says, “I’m different in so many ways.” She’s not only financially stable and living a healthy lifestyle, but she’s also “kinder, a better friend, and more caring.” She declares, “I’m very grateful for Pastor Doug and Amazing Facts. Everything you teach is so relatable!”

And we’d like to say a big “thank you” to you, whose generous giving and prayers make this ministry possible!


Amazing Facts is a non-profit, donor-supported ministry.
We greatly appreciate your prayers and financial support.


The Best Policy

Honesty is The Best Policy

A homeless man in Boston found a backpack containing more than $40,000 in cash and traveler’s checks. Even though he had a fortune in his hands—a fortune he desperately needed—he contacted the police and turned in the bag, and the man who lost the bag got it back, along with all the money it contained. Boston police honored the finder, Glen James, for what he had done. But the story wasn’t over for honest Mr. James; an online fund was started for him, and in just two days it had raised over $90,000!

A man with nothing found riches, and gave them away, only to receive more than he could have ever imagined. That’s how the good news of salvation works: when you give whatever you have to God —your heart and your mind, your entire life—you end up with far more than you had before. Peter, never afraid to give voice to what was on his mind, once asked Jesus, “We have left all and followed You. Therefore what shall we have?” Jesus responded with a promise to humanity that will flood your heart with peace:

“Everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My name’s sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and inherit eternal life” (Matthew 19:29).

You don’t ever need to feel as though making a decision for Jesus will be to your detriment. Jesus was clear: honor me, and I’ll honor you. As James wrote, if you humble yourself in the sight of the Lord, then He will lift you up (James 4:10). And we don’t have to pretend that finding more than $40,000 wouldn’t be a temptation. Some would consider the easy thing would be to keep the cash and take care of personal or family needs, yet the honest decision brought real rewards. A decision for Jesus does the same—and whether or not you’re better off in this world isn’t the point. The greatest gift of all is eternal life—and that’s coming soon!

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Zeus and the Potsherds

Zeus and the Potsherds

One day, Zeus, the King of all Gods, was very angry with the people. He called Hermes, who is the Messenger of the Gods, and ordered, “Hermes, your job is to write down a list of all the bad things done by all the people.”

Hermes asked, “But where do you want me to write them down and what shall I do with it?”

Zeus answered, “Write them on Potsherds, Hermes, and then pile them up in a box. Remember, that’s all you have to do and I will do the rest.”

Now “Potsherds” are broken bits of pottery, which the Greeks used to write on in the olden days. They would pile up these written Potsherds one on top of the other and store them in a box.

Hermes did his job and piled up all the Potsherds. Zeus then picked them one by one, and punished every person according to the bad deeds they had done.

This is why the bad people, whose Potsherds are at the bottom of the pile, get their punishment later. The ones whose names are on top of the pile get punished first!

Everyone will have to face justice, sooner or later.

shortstories.com


 

The Swan and the Owl

The Swan and the Owl

Once upon a time, there lived a Swan near a lake in a forest.

One night, an Owl saw the Swan gliding on the lake in the moonlight. He praised the Swan and soon, the two became friends. They met near the lake for many days.

The Owl soon got bored of the place and told the Swan, “I am going back to my forest. You are welcome to visit me whenever you want to.”

One day, the Swan decided to visit the Owl. It was daylight when the Swan reached the Owl’s home. She could not find him, as he was hiding in the dark hole of a tree.

The Owl told the Swan, “Please rest till the sun sets. I can come out only at night.”

Early next morning, some people were passing by. On hearing them, the Owl hooted.

The people thought it was not a good sign to hear an Owl hoot. So, one of them wanted to shoot the Owl.

The Owl flew away and hid in a hole near the lake.  The poor Swan did not move. The arrow hit the Swan and she died.

Never leave your friends in difficulty.

shortstories.com