Incredible on the Peoria.com Forums

2 men meet, become friends, but go their separate ways.

Over the course of the next 5 years, each endures his own personal trip through a personal Hell.

One man's brother has a chance encounter with the other man, never knowing that this new person and his brother even know each other, but being close to God, he prays for both men.

Each of the two men, after hitting rock bottom, discover God and Jesus and begin to climb out of Hell.

Each prays, 1 for relief from severe financial hardship, the other for place to live, since his marriage is possibly ending.

5 years apart, both men cross paths in church. 1, a recently referred to actor by the other, a first time actor, shake hands, smile and regard each other with their stories of the journey they're on and find out that soon, both will be working for the same company.

A week later, they meet again and prayers are answered as the man in need of financial help has an extra bedroom which the man who needs a place to live eagerly accepts an offer to take and a friendship is re-forged!

This is my newest story! And I praise God for the magical way that he works!

the power of prayer: when 5.5 billion people are all praying together and making things work for each other and then attributing it all to god rather than humanity.

while psychological studies suggest: "Religious people are more likely [than the nonreligious] to help in situations in which helping makes them look good to themselves or others. They are not more likely to help, however, in private situations in which no one will know that they helped."

hmm...

I don't know anything about that. All I know is that my friend is in need of something I can provide.

BTW, I've come out on the losing end plenty of times, helping out people that I barely knew, but it doesn't stop me, nor has it ever, from trying

WHICH psychological studies "suggest" this? Link please.

And if someone is helping someone else in order to "look" good, I can tell you for sure they ain't Christians. The Bible personally teaches about this as this was one of Jesus' biggest pet peeves against the Pharises and Saduccees. He spoke against them many times for doing everything to look religious on the outside but being rotten to the core on the inside.

I personally know plenty of people who give very privately to help others. Sometimes they give publicly in order to make a connection with the receiver in the hope that the receiver will seek them out for further spiritual guidance...as in the case of Kevster and HK. Had Kevster now done that with HK he would still be wandering around in an awful state of mind. I'm sure Kevster doesn't expect HK to ever pay him back or "owe him one" or even acknowledge him as the one who led him to Christ. From what Kev has said, he's just thrilled that HK has managed to turn his life around.

That's just one example I can list here. I'll be happy to list more if you so desire.