What's the point of all those Padre Pio miracles?

This posting is about Padre Pio, the 20^th century Italian monk who by all accounts had a very close-knit and active relationship with Jesus.  His life was marked by willing personal sacrifice and hundreds of miracles. Some of the things that happened are so unusual that his biography reads like fiction.  But according to hundreds of witnesses and recorded statements from people whose lives were converted by interaction with Padre Pio, these things really happened (I’ll mention some later in this article).    

If you believe what was reported about Padre Pio, there are a couple of ways to react to such a story.    

1. “How curious!  How fascinating!  This is a great conversation piece.  When I’m done with this story, I’ll search for other oddball stories, like how a restaurant just set the world record for making the world’s largest cheeseburger.”
2. “There must be a reason these things happened.  There must be something God wants us to learn from Padre Pio’s life, and I want to find out what that is… (right after I finish my cheeseburger… I got a hankering for one).

I finished my own large cheeseburger, so I decided to really think about the ‘meaning’ behind his life.

Let me first catch you up on who this Padre Pio is, and why he’s attracted attention for years.

A rare photo of the stigmata on Padre Pio's hand.

• Lived in Italy from 1887 – 1968.  (Alive while I was alive, which makes him more credible than some middle-ages dude... there are photos and videos after all).
• From an early age behaved well, loved God, followed the rules, kind to others.
• At the age of five, began to have spiritual ecstasies and apparitions, including visions of the Blessed Mother Mary.  But he didn’t report them to others until years later “Because I thought they were ordinary and happened to everybody.”...

(Read the rest at Wtness.org)

Source:  Padre Pio, Man of Hope by Renzo Allegri, Published by Servant Publications, 2000.
Two (of many) websites about Padre Pio:  Biography of Padre Pio.  A few Miracles of Padre Pio.  

Tell her "God hates mommies and daddies” (what?!)

Graham Cooke

[Graham Cooke] tells the story of being invited to a church in England. Following the Sunday morning service, the pastor invites him to his house for dinner. When he arrives at the house he is introduced to some of the church elders as well as to a young lady whom he is told is soon going to be sent out by the church as a missionary to China. Following the meal, the pastor then asks if he would pray for the lady. First, however, the young woman shared her vision for China and what she hoped to be doing. It was then time to pray. Immediately [Graham] bowed his head, and the Lord spoke a clear word into his spirit. "Tell her I hate mommies and daddies." This man has a good sense of humor and thought to himself, Sometimes I detest this gift. Why can't I be a teacher? The Lord, however, kept impressing this thought upon his mind, "Tell her I hate mommies and daddies."  

He then shared some valuable insight into the "prophetic" realm. He said, "the mind receives information , the spirit receives revelation, and the mind and the spirit don't always agree." The
Bible says, "the natural mind understands not the things of the Spirit of God, because they are foolishness" (see 1 cor. 2:14). And his mind was saying, "this is foolishness. This doesn't make sense. Why should I tell her that You hate mommies and daddies, and I'm not going to embarrass myself by saying that You hate mommies and daddies. I can't."

(Read the rest at Wtness.org)

God helped without being asked. Gave caregiver energy to continue after the point of exhaustion.

She was stressed out from caregiving, but God helped

I once felt "led" to stop at a yard sale -- I walked around aimlessly but picked up two record albums and bought them for $1 each. One was a children’s record that was for physical education / dance instructors, the other was a Gaither Trio children’s record from 1980.

Later, I felt led to give them to a drama instructor at Lindenwood Christian Church who I didn't know very well. Feeling stupid I brought them to church not really knowing what to do, but had my opportunity, and oddly nervous I told him that I really didn't know why but I felt God wanted me to give him these two records.

He was really wowed and shocked and thought he was dreaming. They were HIS records that disappeared from a church office in 1989, and he was trying to get duplicates on eBay to no avail. He even showed me where he had attempted to write his name on one of them as a child. He had prayed that God would help him find these records on the internet.

Rarely are miracles this obvious. Just a chance meeting in the street or meeting the right person in an unlikely place, or an unlikely/impossible chain of events that others don't believe, are examples.

A Grace of God… is something that could not have happened without God's intervention.

(Read the rest at Wtness.org)

Why she obeys God immediately (most of the time)

(this blog has grown up and is now a full website.  Please go instead to www.wtness.org.)
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I was driving home that evening at 7pm, and I found myself pulling into the driveway of that neighborhood church.  I did not intend to pull in but rather I just found myself pulling in with a strong urgency. I even remember saying to myself, "Well, OK Lord….".  So I get out of my car and walk into the clothing bank area and there walking out in front of me was a young lady crying…..  I ask her what the matter was and she explained how this other woman (another beneficiary of the clothing giveaway) was continually grabbing the stuff she needed out of her hands and taking it.  (I did get a worker to speak to that rude woman.)  She continued to cry and say that she just got off a plane with her 2 children and had no car seat and she needed help – she was young, single, obviously looking for a new place to live and start over.  I immediately said, without even thinking, “Well, you can have mine”.  I went to my car and got it out then thought – "Now what am I gonna do? I don’t have one."  Literally within seconds my phone rang. I answered to someone saying "Hey – I have 2 car seats for you – I am on the way to drop them off, are you home?"



(Read the rest at Wtness.org)   

Carol T. from Ford Motor Company

One reason she listens to God's voice daily

Carol T., the leader of my Ford Motor Company lunchtime Bible Study (not her real name; read the previous story to see why), told this story to me back on March 30, 2006, and at the time I wrote it down.  I hauled it out of my old notes today.  I am pleased to say that it makes plain Carol's steady progression in her walk with the Lord, because now in 2011, I see that she responds more quickly to His call.

A few years back, Carol was praying regularly and felt the need to tithe someplace.  She thought she heard she should tithe to her mother's church.  But she postponed taking any action for two weeks  (remember this number).

After those two weeks, she sent a check in the mail to the pastor as a love offering.  That very afternoon, her mom (who knew nothing about the mailed check or the delayed decision) called to say, "Carol, we need to pray.  There's a family in our church which has basically not been able to feed itself for two weeks."

Ahem.  Two weeks. 

What Carol told me she took away from this episode was that had she immediately taken action at the time God had prompted her, it may have been able to prevent that family from dealing with hunger the past two weeks.  She said this helped her believe that not only God's instructions, but his timing is important to act upon.