A Shooting Star
“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.” [1.John 4:1]
Phoebe Ann Moses was born August 13, 1860, in a log cabin on the Ohio frontier. Because of poverty and hardship, eight-year-old Phoebe began helping support her widowed mother and seven siblings by hunting. She soon discovered that she was a marvelous shot. By age 15 she had sold enough game to pay off the mortgage on her mother’s farm and was enough of a local celebrity that she was invited to Cincinnati to enter a shooting contest with a traveling show marksman. Not only did she win the match with Frank Butler by one point, but she also won his heart and they married a year later.
For several years the Butlers performed together – and Phoebe adopted the stage name “Annie Oakley.” In 1885 the couple joined the legendary Buffalo Bill in his Wild West Show. For the next 17 years, Annie Oakley was the show’s star attraction with her marvelous shooting feats. Barely 5 feet tall, she was billed as “Little Sure Shot.” In a single day, she used a .22 caliber rifle to shoot 4,472 of 5,000 small glass balls tossed in midair. With the razor thin edge of a playing card facing her at 90 feet, Annie could cut the card with one bullet and then puncture it with five or six more shots before it hit the ground. Her sharp shooting won her many awards and captivated audiences worldwide, including several heads of state in Europe. She even knocked the ashes off a cigarette held by the German Kaiser Wilhelm II!
Annie Oakley was the first American female superstar, and she remained a remarkable shot into her sixties. Even after a train accident that caused temporary paralysis and five spinal operations, and a car accident that left her wearing a steel leg brace for over a year, Annie was still setting records. Today, her name remains synonymous with precision marksmanship.
Friends, the Bible teaches that true prophets will also have consistent accuracy in their predictions. John warns us that we must test those claiming to be God’s prophets – and one important test is whether or not their predictions come true! “As for the prophet who prophesies of peace, when the word of the prophet comes to pass, the prophet will be known as one whom the Lord has truly sent” (Jeremiah 28:9).
