Inside Story: The Stolen Cow
Jacque Thermil
Roseline lives in a village in northwestern Haiti. She felt rich, for she owned three cows. But she also felt grateful to God for her wealth and had dedicated one of her cows to God. Now the cow was about to give birth, and Roseline would give the calf to the Lord.
One day after finishing her morning devotions, Roseline went to tend to her cows. But her dedicated cow was missing. She walked up and down the path calling to the cow, but there was no response. She realized that the cow hadn’t wandered off to find a lush stand of grass; it had been stolen.
Roseline started out to town to report the theft to the mayor’s office. On the way she stopped at her pastor’s home and told him that her cow had been stolen. “I’m not afraid,” she told the pastor, “because this cow and its calf are dedicated to God. Nothing will happen to them that God doesn’t wish. But I pray that the thief will bring the cow back because she belongs to God.”
The pastor smiled at Roseline’s faith and promised to pray for the cow and its calf. Then Roseline continued on to the mayor’s office to report the missing cow and to ask that if someone returned a cow to let her know, for it was hers. Roseline never doubted that the cow would return home before her calf was born.
The next day Roseline again walked down the path to the pastor’s house. “God’s cow has come home!” she said, excited.
“What happened?” the pastor asked, curious.
“The thief himself brought back the cow,” Roseline responded. He told me that every time he looked at the cow he was troubled. He sensed that there was something about this cow that made him uncomfortable, but he didn’t know what it was. Finally he couldn’t stand it any longer and brought the cow back to me! He even apologized for taking her.” Then Roseline hurried on to town to report to the mayor that God had sent her cow home safely.
Two months later when the calf was born, Roseline gave it to God. She cared for it until it was old enough to leave its mother, and then she sold the calf and gave the money to the Investment offering.
A portion of Investment offerings helps start new work and supports work in large cities around the world. Thank you for giving your mission and Investment offerings.
Jacque Thermil is a pastor serving in northwestern Haiti.
Produced by the General Conference Office of Adventist Mission.
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(1)
Thanks to God that the thief got touched by the lord's power to take back the cow to troubled woman. The story really encourages me to always put all my worries to the lord and a wonderful answer will always be given to me. Am also happy to discover this source of spiritual parent which i hope it will help me much to prosper spiritually. Thank you very much and may God bless you biggest.
A faith-building piece indeed. That was really challenging.
Pls let us note some things.
1. The woman "beleived" right from home that the cow would return.
2. The woman went to see her Pastor,not necessarily to show him that she has faith,but to lay the issue to his awareness.
3. She went further to the mayor for same reason.
Now, Christ told the woman "thy faith hath made thee whole",not "thy touching me",but "thy faith". This means faith was all she needed and she had it.
In Matt 9, we read "according to thy faith,be it unto you",not "according to thy works",but "thy faith".
Now, if this woman TRULY had faith,would it be necessary that she starts walking to and fro the city? Is that in itself-the act of doing the informal searching-not a sign that she had little or no faith?
I believe a reason why she did not go for a real search was because she had no suspect in mind.
Does not the faith she has demand that she added no works upon it to see to the restoration of the cow? I mean, does her action not show that she probably felt if she did not bring the case before those two authorities she may not get the cow?
Now, I say this to bring to our thoughts the unsoundness of the arguement against "faith and works" in favour of "faith alone".
The Bible talks about a certain "faith which worketh by love" (Gal 5) and "mixing our works with faith" (Ro 9). This is exactly what this woman did.
She believed His cow would return. Then she acted on this faith by going to see those authorities,to fulfil all righteousness.
Greetings from Nigeria.
Happy Sabbath.
Being faithful to God requires a pure and true heart. This was shown by the women whose was stolen. Being challenge sometimes you need to be relax and think for the best solution for that problem. May we always be calm and reflect God's character to people around us.