I saw this man at a hot dog machine getting mad because the hot dog wouldn't come out. Boy, that guy was mad. He'd put some money in the machine and was going "bam! bam! bam!" on the machine because nothing was coming out. He was actually hitting the machine!
People get mad when they don't get what they've paid for. They'll start punching hot dog machines. They'll talk to them too: "Give me my hot dog. Boo!" You know, they'll do or say all kinds of stupid things to a machine. I'm sure you've seen that kind of thing before.
I figured I had to teach that man to sit on his problems. So I went up to him and said, "What's the matter, sir?" He said a few choice words: "Blankety-blank machine! It won't give me my hot dog!" "Well, did you pray for it instead of beating it up?" I asked him.
He looked at me like I was insane. "Pray for a hot dog machine?" he asked me.
"I'm going to pray for this machine to give you your hot dog," I told him.
Well, it was a way to get the Word of God to him. You can laugh about that, but the man needed Jesus. When you're cussing at a hot dog machine in the airport, you need God, believe me.
I felt so stupid, though, laying my hands on that machine. Just as I was doing it, the devil spoke up: "Suppose the weenie doesn't come out? Then what?"
You know how that would look? Now I was the one talking to a machine. I was standing there laying hands on a machine and talking to it! It looked like I was doing no better than what that man had done! He was punching and cussing at it, and I was laying hands on it and praying for it! I did it anyway. I laid my hands on that machine and said, "devil, turn loose of that weenie! Turn loose of that thing in Jesus' name."
As soon as I said that, the hot dog fell out - bam! It fell out right there at the bottom of the machine like it was supposed to. The guy was shocked, and so was his friend. That man had a hippie friend, some dude who was standing right there watching. And when the hippie saw that hot dog drop down, he said, "Say, brother, can you get me one?"
That dude wanted a free hot dog!
"Naw," I said, "you've got to pay for yours!"
But the hot dog came out! I used that hot dog machine as a pulpit to proclaim the good news of the gospel. You laugh about that, but if you pull all the humor out of it, what do you have? I got to witness about Jesus because a hot dog machine didn't work! Did Jesus ever do that? Of course He did! He didn't use a hot dog machine, but He used other things to prove that God's power really works.
Remember the fig tree that Jesus cursed in Matthew 21:18-22? That's an example of a time when, like the hot dog machine, nothing came out! Jesus cursed a fig tree and told it not to bear fruit. What happened? The tree died. The fig tree died, and no more fruit came out of it.
God will use miracles to proclaim His power. Jesus did it, and He wants us to do it too. There are people out there who need help. They've got terrible problems, and God will use anything-even hot dog machines-to prove He's real.
On second thought, I realized I should have prayed for that man's hot dog to come out with chili and mustard on it. That really would have been a miracle!
Excerpt permission granted by Harrison House Publishers