21
Oct

EACH GIVES

   Posted by: pastordiehl   in Power of Forgiveness

Back during the days of the Cold War following World War II, victorious Russia, not trusting anybody, blockaded the capitol city of Berlin between West Berlin, under the control of the American Army, and East Berlin, under the control of the Russian Army. There was tense hostility between the two cities and the now-infamous Berlin Wall was soon to be constructed. To demonstrate their dislike of the free West, the communists in East Berlin one day took a truck load of garbage and dumped it across the line into West Berlin.

The people of the West could have retaliated, but instead dumped a truckload of valuable food supplies over onto the East Berlin side. Above it they placed a sign: ‘EACH GIVES WHAT HE HAS’.

What do you have to give your enemy? Bitterness and resentment, or grace and blessing. The choice will be determined by what’s really in our heart. Think about it.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 21st, 2009 at 8:00 am and is filed under Power of Forgiveness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

One comment

Rene' Bute
 1 

This is a good story that I had not heard before…a good illustration for doing what we SHOULD do and not what we WANT to do sometimes.
I have seen this work firsthand in my children at homework time. If I show frustration, then they get frustrated too. If I slow down and think, then they do too. They model everything we do. That should be a little scary to most of us parents!
It also applies in the secular world. If we are with non-believers, and are spewing forth dirty jokes or ripping apart a mutual aquaintance, then the non-believer isn’t going to want anything to do with our ‘christianity.’ It isn’t going to be any different that what he already has going in his own life.
We really do have to present something to them that is desirable. If we aren’t, then we need to change what’s in our hearts, which is the source of what comes out.

October 21st, 2009 at 1:45 pm

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