Knowing He Cares

Just yesterday I was waiting for a train when I saw a young woman who was crying. She was on her mobile phone but had a tissue to her eyes and appeared to be hearing bad news. 

I waited for her to put her phone down and then approached her to ask her why she was crying. She burst out in sobs, with tears rolling down her cheeks to say that her uncle had just died. I told her I was sorry to hear that and immediately began to minister to her. I told her that through this she has to trust God that His ways our not our ways and thoughts not our thoughts; that He can do things through this in her family that will turn for a blessing.

I said that she should not get angry with God for the time they didn't have, but thank Him for the time they did have. I hadn't even asked if she was a Christian but was led of the Spirit to minister the hope of the Word. He was nearly 60 and lived in Africa - I pointed out that life expectancy in Africa is generally quite low so he definitely had a good innings as the British would say! I asked if her last time with him was happy and she said that it was. I said that many people's last time with a lost loved one was negative, so she was blessed in that also and could keep the memories.

She said that her family couldn't take another hit and that she was struggling with her faith; I was able to minister that God will not give her anything beyond what she can handle and that she should take all things by prayer, with thanksgiving for all His blessings, to Him.

I told her that when you are wounded badly it causes a scar. Overtime the pain goes but the scar will always be there. I said that she would never forget her uncle, but in time her heart would heal. I asked if I could pray for her, telling her that of all the trains I could've caught and all the times I could have come, God had me here for her to show that he loves her. I prayed for the healing of her heart and the blessing of her family through this.

I then got out my Bible and said that I wanted to read her a scripture. She requested Psalm 109 and after I had finished reading the train came. We got on and I then deliberately changed the subject to if she worked in town and what she did. I found out that she was a database analyst for a cosmetic company and I mentioned that I was on my way for a data collection appointment. When my stop came I gave her a flyer for our fellowship and she thanked me for ministering to her. The tears had stopped flowing and I left her smiling.

Glory to God that He would position willing ministers to reach out to the saints in need! When a young lady could have shipwrecked her faith in grief, God had a soldier there ready to call her back to the glory of His Kingdom!

The Father is With Us

I was travelling by bus today and I noticed a child in a pram was crying incessantly. It was one of those cries that you could tell was from being irritable, rather than from any real need such as being sick or hungry.

The father was with the child, rather than its mother, and he mostly seemed to ignore the child's protestations; the only thing he would do was to offer the occasional  reassuring word. What the child didn't understand was that they had to get where they were going and that they couldn't get there without riding on a hot and sticky bus.

My mind immediately went to the Father in Heaven. Here we are going through the journey of life moaning and crying out much of the time. We often have to think to realise all the things to be thankful for, but find it very easy to write a long list of wants and reasons to complain. We feel neglected and irritable; we wonder why we have to be stuck in such a situation and why God is not helping us like we think He should.

We must understand what that child couldn't: the Father is right there with us all the time, but there are things we have to go through that are necessary for us to reach our destiny in Christ. God in His grace will give us the occasional word from scripture or over the pulpit to comfort us, but to molly-coddle us would be doing us a disservice - spiritual babes, and then children, have to learn to go through unpleasant experiences with patience and faith.

At the end of every sticky bus ride is a refreshing summer breeze and a nice glass of mango juice - hopefully!

What Are the Chances?

I remember an incident that happened a couple of years ago that really illustrated God's special providence - His ability and desire to move in people's lives to point them towards truth. This is not a Calvinistic over-powering of human agency, but an example of the love and desire for redemption that took Christ to the cross.

I was with my wife and sister-in-law, travelling by underground train through central London. There was a lady on her own with a large suitcase, so I offered to help her take it down the stairs. As I handed it back to her I reached in my coat pocket for a church flyer and invited her along. She politely said that she was from America and so wouldn't be able to attend, but on seeing the name of our church said "The Potter's House? I'm from a small town in the middle of Arizona, but we do have a Potter's House. I've never been, but maybe I'll visit now."

She had come from thousands of miles away, and from a small town in the middle of nowhere, only to have a chance meeting with a member of the fellowship who was willing to help and to step out and invite her to church. I think I mentioned that this could be God calling her out to the church, and I fully believed it. I just can't wait to reach one of the Arizona conferences one day and see if I get an excited tap on the shoulder!

A Snippet of Our Time in Kenya

The Best Prayers to Pray

Recently I found my personal evangelism waning. Although our church has its regular local outreaches and national teams travelling to our various fellowship churches around the country, if we cannot or do not share our faith outside of set church programs then it is not as living and active as we think.

We pray for many things, and most of those for ourselves, but the best prayers to pray are those that will be a blessing to others. Although I would never deny His heart to bless and help us personally, I have found God to much more readily answer selfless prayers than selfish ones. My case in point happened just this morning.

I had been contending for a renewed passion for souls and a leading of the Spirit in personal evangelism for many weeks in prayer. This morning I sat down on the tube train and a man and woman got on who began to talk loudly to each other. The lady sat next to me and the man across from her so I could hear every word of their conversation. They began to talk about the ubiquitous antisocial networking site Facebook, and in doing so the man mentioned a friend that had died suddenly while travelling. He was just 28 and had been out partying, only to not wake up in the morning. The man had then found out about his death by checking the comments on Facebook.

I knew that this was a Holy Ghost opportunity to bring up eternity, but didn't want to suddenly interject in their conversation. I took a church flyer out of my bag thinking that I could just hand it to him as I got off the train, but only to find that he was getting off at the same stop. I let him run on ahead until I could find an open spot to hand it to him, praying inside that he would get the same connection as me. Sure enough, we were running for the same train, which had just pulled onto the platform. At the very same moment we reached the platform through the crowd, and in the same spot, as the doors closed and the train pulled off.

Knowing this was God I said "I hate it when that happens". And that was how I started my conversation with Rob. I said I was sorry to hear that his friend died and asked if he thought there was anything beyond death. He asked what I believed and then started a fantastic 15 minute conversation on eternity, corruption, salvation and my testimony.

He asked me questions about death in the world, reincarnation and Spiritualism and I was able to give him answers which he readily listened to. We again got off at the same stop, finding out that we worked in the same town. As he shook my hand and said it was nice to meet me I handed him the flyer that now meant a lot more to him than before we had that blessed conversation. I immediately thanked God for answering my prayers for a renewed leading of the Spirit in personal evangelism and prayed those seeds would bare fruit.

Take a moment to pray that you may be a blessing to others in fellowship, ministry and giving - and especially to the lost in evangelism.