The Rest of the Story
Many years ago, a dear humble farmer would travel over 60 miles each Sunday to attend our small, rural church in Mobile. He drove an old used-up, dilapidated truck that was showing its age. You could almost hear him drive in the parking lot because of the worn-out muffler on his truck. When he got out, he would be dressed in some clean, fresh-pressed overalls. He was one of our most faithful members.
Several years after he began attending our little church, he drove all the way down one day to see me in my office. He came in dressed in his usual attire and was carrying a crumpled paper bag. Before he took a seat, he walked over and dumped the contents of the bag in the center of my desk. To my surprise, a collection of pure gold coins rolled out. I’d never seen that much gold at one time anywhere. It was remarkable.
“Preacher,” he said, “I’ve had this gold stored away for many years. When I was younger, I got it by collecting and trading old sewing machines to a group that would export them into other countries and sell them.” I was listening intently. The he continued, “God has been speaking to me about helping our church with the building program for our new auditorium. The only thing I really had of any value was this gold. So, I am giving it to help pay for our new building.” Then, we prayed and he left to head back home.
Nothing like this had ever happened to me before. We had the gold appraised and converted it into cash for our building project. If I remember correctly, it turned out to be around thirty thousand dollars.
We were able to complete our building project successfully and our new auditorium was beautiful. We had carpeted floors, new padded pews and everything we needed… new sound system, new lighting, a stunning platform with decorative stone walls…. It was awesome.
I was greeting folks at the door one Sunday, and saw a brand-new shiny pick-up truck drive in our parking lot. When it stopped, my friend, the gold-giver, got out with a big smile on his face. I was able to get him aside and ask him about his new vehicle. “Well,” he said, “Preacher, some well drilling guys came out to my place a while back, did some testing, and found that my farm was sitting on a large oil field. I now have one oil well and more on the way. God is good, isn’t He?”
That’s the rest of the story
dickbraswell 
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