Posted by
Ikester on Tuesday, July 15, 2008 9:32:32 PM
At the National Prayer Breakfast in 1984, President Ronald Reagan recommended prayer and obedience as the way to change world history:
We in this room and millions more everywhere, turn to God in prayer. Yet, so often, we direct our prayers to those problems that are immediate to us. In a world torn with strife, where divisions seem to be increasing, have we thought about the greatest tool we have - the power of prayer and God's help? How much mega-tonnage do we have in this room? Have we been neglecting it?
This power of prayer is illustrated by a story from the fourth century - a monk living in a remote village spent most of his time in prayer or tending the garden from which he obtained his sustenance. One day he thought he heard the voice of God telling him to go to Rome. Believing he had, he set out. Weeks and weeks later he arrived, having traveled mostly on foot. He followed a crowd into the Coliseum. There amid the great crowd, he saw the gladiators stand before the Emperor, saying, "We who are about to die salute you." Realizing they would fight to the death to entertain the crowds, the monk cried out, "In the Name of Christ, stop!" But his voice was lost in the tumult of the great Coliseum.
Suddenly the crowds saw a scrawny figure making his way to the gladiators - crying out over and over again -"In the Name of Christ, stop!" They thought it was part of the entertainment and were amused. When they realized it wasn't, they grew belligerent and angry. As the monk pled with the gladiators, one of them plunged his sword into his body. His last words, as he fell to his death in the arena sand, were, "In the Name of Christ, stop!"
The gladiators stood looking at the form lying in the sand. A silence fell over the Coliseum. Someplace in the upper tiers, one individual made his way to an exit and left. Others began to follow. In the dead silence, everyone slowly left the Coliseum. That was the last battle to the death between gladiators in the Roman Coliseum. Never again did men kill each other for the entertainment of the crowd.
The tiny voice could hardly be heard above the tumult. "In the Name of Christ, stop!" But it is something we could be saying to each other throughout the world today (from American Quotations, Wm. Federer).
Enough said. Ikester