Thursday, March 8, 2007

"Use it and be blessed"

I received an unsolicited item in the mail today. I decided to replicate the envelope here so that my readers could read what it said on the outside.
Front:
"God's Holy Spirit instructed us to loan you this to start turning things around for you. So, here it is." And also: "Use it and be blessed."
Back:
"Dear God,
With our Bibles opened to St. Matthew 18:19, we humbly and sincerely pray on bended knees for You to anoint this letter with Your precious and holy power to meet the most pressing needs that someone is facing as they open this church letter of prayer.
Heavenly Father, we pray that this one who needs this divine help will write their needs on page two of this letter and will place this blessed, biblical, Acts 19:11, 12, Handkerchief and this sealed Bible prophecy under their side of the bed as they sleep tonight.
Let Thy power from heaven descend upon this home tonight and tomorrow night, after this one has mailed their most pressing needs back to this 56-year-old church ministry. We pray that they will break open this sealed prophecy after sunset tomorrow. Amen."

Let's just say that I did not exactly follow the directions. Enclosed was a letter explaining how the Bible instructs ministers to send Bible faith handkerchiefs to people's homes. It contained a "loaned" (does he want it back?) "paper, Bible faith handkerchief for something good to happen to you." The "handkerchief is a piece of paper with a pattern printed on both sides. It is a standard 8 1/2 by 11 inch paper that looks more like a very small, cheap place mat than anything else. I read on and found out that I was supposed to print my name in the middle of it and the name of someone that I really love who needs God's help under my name. Then I'm supposed to fill out the form on the back that allows me to pray for such things as To be saved, a better job, confusion in my home (why would I want that?), a money blessing, or "I am sowing my seed gift to God's work of $_______". I then take the handkerchief with my name on it and someone else's name on it and put it inside my Bible on top of Acts 19:11-12, put it under my side of the bed, and sleep with it there for tonight and tonight only. In the morning, I am to put the handkerchief with the names and my little prayer form in an envelope marked "The Next Morning" (which I prefer to call the "morning after envelope") and mail it to the ministry. After sunset tomorrow night, after the morning after envelope and its contents have been mailed, I am supposed to open a sealed Bible prophecy. If I do not do the above and do not mail the handkerchief back, I am told that I must destroy the prophecy, "unopened and unread, because this is of a spiritual nature."

Also included were testimonials from people who used this special system and had wonderful results from it. And the unsealed sealed prophecy. Yes, I said unsealed. It was a sheet of paper with cheesy, somewhat fuzzy paintings of Jesus, folded over like a normal letter, with a sticker seal set off center and no longer sticking to the paper enough to actually seal anything. A glance at it told me that it was full of more excessive use of bold and underlined fonts, and had a heading on it that said, "A sign from the Lord about your future." The prophecy was, for all I could tell, something that came from someone at the church, and had a grand total of one biblical reference in it. O me of little faith. It's going in the trash now. Opened. Partially read. Unsealed. The handkerchief is going with it.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Haha, that's funny. I wonder if anyone out there will follow the instructions.

Angie said...

I am sure people do. I'm not gullible enough to believe that following step by step instructions is going to secure an answer to a prayer, for sure. Now if someone wants to lift up my needs before God, that's great. I won't be standing in their way! However, THIS is NOT my approach to supplication!

Anonymous said...

You mean that's NOT the proper approach to supplication? *makes a mental note* LOL

I just re-read your post and I like the part about excessive use of bold and underlined fonts, it made me laugh out loud. Vince is looking at me funny now. :D