When we think God's big, He is EVEN BIGGER!
So today (July 29th) is my spiritual birthday! This night nine years ago (2002), I was invited into my sister's room. My two sisters were talking about the Gospel and details I've never really came to grasp before that night. I was fourteen years old.
Alone in my room before bed, I prayed to God that I wanted to lay my life before Him and turn to Him. I wanted Him to know I wanted to change. I can't explain the incredible feeling I had. I can't describe it. I just remember this awesome feeling coming over me and writing it all in my journal.....before I was very good at describing my thoughts in writing. After writing I ran into my sister's room and let her read what I wrote. While she was reading I felt awkward, because I know I didn't write my feelings out very well. But she told me she was so excited for me and WELCOME TO THE FAMILY! :)
I wish I could tell you that life after that night was absolutely wonderful and that I focused my life on living out God's calling for His believer. But I didn't.
But that's not the post I was planning on writing about. So that's for another time.
Tonight I want to share about what happened today.
Today a LOT of wonderful, God's blessings, overflowing kind of days! I saw God in my life today more than I have in awhile.
While at work today, during nap time, I prayed about my day. Lord, I know today is my spiritual birthday and the actual day doesn't mean anything, but may You be glorified through my day. Please, I pray, have something happen today that is unbelievable and reminds me of You.
I got my prayer answered a couple hours later. Plus I got my prayer answered a SECOND time later in the evening.
First of all, I had a wonderful discussion with my boss and we discussed some things about the upcoming school year. They are going to have another baby and we had to discuss how things should be. She was really open to my opinion and was actually asking for MY input. She said she needs help and WANTS to hear what I think. She's interested in learning what it is like to have more than one child. She doesn't know any different then her almost 3-year old daughter. We talked and had great conversation for about an hour and a half.
Second of all, after work I came home with an uplifting feeling and a lot of energy to go DO something rather than stay stuck in the apartment all night. Jon was willing to "go out" and so we landed at B-Bops. Eating outside in shade, which was actually really nice. We headed over to Best Buy but stopped at Boarders next door because they were having a going out of business sale.
Walking inside we expected not to purchase anything.
It REALLY became clear that we were not going to end up with anything because Jon got stopped by an older gentleman asking him about the shirt he was wearing. (A shirt he got from Crown College...a Christian shirt but doesn't mention anything about God on it. However I was wearing a shirt with a Bible verse on it and clear messages about the Christian faith.) I won't get the word for word right, but it turned out where the guy wanted to talk to Jon and I for a brief 20 minutes if that was okay with us. We told him we could meet him in a few minutes.
Long story short, we ended up walking him out to our car and driving him to Subway. We found a table and he told us his life story. He told us about how bad his life has been. He's gone through a lot of stuff. After working for nine years he got let go. He lost his dad about 10 years ago, and his mom didn't want him around. So he became homeless. He's hitchhiked to a lot of places. He told us for awhile he found faith in God and read the Bible. He mentioned a few books that he has read (that I recognize), from very good Christian authors. He said being homeless made it tough to get connected with others and he started to question Christianity. 'How could a loving God allow this to happen to him?' he thought.
I wanted to ask the guy some questions, but he kept going. The questions would probably be human effort anyways.
He said he's tried to work in different places. He knows some Scripture and he knows the teachings of the Bible. However he said it was hard for him to find anyone who believed the Bible and acted on it.
He slowly told us that he threw away all his Christian literature and Bibles. He said that there's belief that Christianity could be just a "feel good" belief for people. However he does believe in some kind of higher power. He knows a lot of science and knows there has to be something to make it all possible.
Later on he mentioned that he knows someone who has found something that could help him out a bit. A decent place to live and a job. But he needs the money to get there and be able to pay for rent before he has a job. Jon mentioned how it's a cycle. You can't get out of homelessness when you can't get a job and so you have no way of paying for a place to live. Jon asked him if it was okay if we gave him some money to help him out (with my okay as well). The guy was hesitant. [Can I mention here that moments before Jon mentioned giving him money, I had something tugging on my heart that maybe we should give him money. I say that because Jon was worried I wouldn't be okay with it. Another great way to show how God really works in our hearts.]
Jon told him 'from the stories you've told us we can tell you won't buy anything that is not what the money is meant for' (drugs, beer, cigarettes). The guy was thankful that we trusted in what he was saying.
Before leaving we gave him more money because we found out the exact amount for what he needed to get by. With tears in Jon's eyes he told the gentleman thank you for opening up with us, and how sorry he felt that he found no Christian acting out their faith.
I've only seen my husband cry (ahem, tear up) twice. First, at our wedding. Second with a man in need of someone to show God's love.
Jon doesn't want me to share details of what we gave him, but I will tell you this.....
He got the exact amount that Jon made today at work (God is at work! It's his anyways!).
We left with a feeling of a greater love for God, our family, and humbled before the Lord about our finances.
Another God thing I want to mention, I have been getting paid with a check for the past few weeks and I just so happened to get paid with cash today. So I had cash available to hand right to the man.
Only God could plan that.
On the way home Jon and I talked about what we just experienced. We were in shock. However we know that...even though we didn't preach the gospel to him (he already knows about it), we were able to love him like Jesus. We were able to act on what we know is True.
We pray that he uses the money wisely for his benefit. We also pray that where ever he goes he gets led to someone able to connect with him and allow him to take the time to rethink through the Gospel. We pray he gets the desire to read the Bible again.
He gave us his contact info and so we plan on keeping in touch with him.
May GOD BE GLORIFIED!!!
Amen!
Alone in my room before bed, I prayed to God that I wanted to lay my life before Him and turn to Him. I wanted Him to know I wanted to change. I can't explain the incredible feeling I had. I can't describe it. I just remember this awesome feeling coming over me and writing it all in my journal.....before I was very good at describing my thoughts in writing. After writing I ran into my sister's room and let her read what I wrote. While she was reading I felt awkward, because I know I didn't write my feelings out very well. But she told me she was so excited for me and WELCOME TO THE FAMILY! :)
I wish I could tell you that life after that night was absolutely wonderful and that I focused my life on living out God's calling for His believer. But I didn't.
But that's not the post I was planning on writing about. So that's for another time.
Tonight I want to share about what happened today.
Today a LOT of wonderful, God's blessings, overflowing kind of days! I saw God in my life today more than I have in awhile.
While at work today, during nap time, I prayed about my day. Lord, I know today is my spiritual birthday and the actual day doesn't mean anything, but may You be glorified through my day. Please, I pray, have something happen today that is unbelievable and reminds me of You.
I got my prayer answered a couple hours later. Plus I got my prayer answered a SECOND time later in the evening.
First of all, I had a wonderful discussion with my boss and we discussed some things about the upcoming school year. They are going to have another baby and we had to discuss how things should be. She was really open to my opinion and was actually asking for MY input. She said she needs help and WANTS to hear what I think. She's interested in learning what it is like to have more than one child. She doesn't know any different then her almost 3-year old daughter. We talked and had great conversation for about an hour and a half.
Second of all, after work I came home with an uplifting feeling and a lot of energy to go DO something rather than stay stuck in the apartment all night. Jon was willing to "go out" and so we landed at B-Bops. Eating outside in shade, which was actually really nice. We headed over to Best Buy but stopped at Boarders next door because they were having a going out of business sale.
Walking inside we expected not to purchase anything.
It REALLY became clear that we were not going to end up with anything because Jon got stopped by an older gentleman asking him about the shirt he was wearing. (A shirt he got from Crown College...a Christian shirt but doesn't mention anything about God on it. However I was wearing a shirt with a Bible verse on it and clear messages about the Christian faith.) I won't get the word for word right, but it turned out where the guy wanted to talk to Jon and I for a brief 20 minutes if that was okay with us. We told him we could meet him in a few minutes.
Long story short, we ended up walking him out to our car and driving him to Subway. We found a table and he told us his life story. He told us about how bad his life has been. He's gone through a lot of stuff. After working for nine years he got let go. He lost his dad about 10 years ago, and his mom didn't want him around. So he became homeless. He's hitchhiked to a lot of places. He told us for awhile he found faith in God and read the Bible. He mentioned a few books that he has read (that I recognize), from very good Christian authors. He said being homeless made it tough to get connected with others and he started to question Christianity. 'How could a loving God allow this to happen to him?' he thought.
I wanted to ask the guy some questions, but he kept going. The questions would probably be human effort anyways.
He said he's tried to work in different places. He knows some Scripture and he knows the teachings of the Bible. However he said it was hard for him to find anyone who believed the Bible and acted on it.
He slowly told us that he threw away all his Christian literature and Bibles. He said that there's belief that Christianity could be just a "feel good" belief for people. However he does believe in some kind of higher power. He knows a lot of science and knows there has to be something to make it all possible.
Later on he mentioned that he knows someone who has found something that could help him out a bit. A decent place to live and a job. But he needs the money to get there and be able to pay for rent before he has a job. Jon mentioned how it's a cycle. You can't get out of homelessness when you can't get a job and so you have no way of paying for a place to live. Jon asked him if it was okay if we gave him some money to help him out (with my okay as well). The guy was hesitant. [Can I mention here that moments before Jon mentioned giving him money, I had something tugging on my heart that maybe we should give him money. I say that because Jon was worried I wouldn't be okay with it. Another great way to show how God really works in our hearts.]
Jon told him 'from the stories you've told us we can tell you won't buy anything that is not what the money is meant for' (drugs, beer, cigarettes). The guy was thankful that we trusted in what he was saying.
Before leaving we gave him more money because we found out the exact amount for what he needed to get by. With tears in Jon's eyes he told the gentleman thank you for opening up with us, and how sorry he felt that he found no Christian acting out their faith.
I've only seen my husband cry (ahem, tear up) twice. First, at our wedding. Second with a man in need of someone to show God's love.
Jon doesn't want me to share details of what we gave him, but I will tell you this.....
He got the exact amount that Jon made today at work (God is at work! It's his anyways!).
We left with a feeling of a greater love for God, our family, and humbled before the Lord about our finances.
Another God thing I want to mention, I have been getting paid with a check for the past few weeks and I just so happened to get paid with cash today. So I had cash available to hand right to the man.
Only God could plan that.
On the way home Jon and I talked about what we just experienced. We were in shock. However we know that...even though we didn't preach the gospel to him (he already knows about it), we were able to love him like Jesus. We were able to act on what we know is True.
We pray that he uses the money wisely for his benefit. We also pray that where ever he goes he gets led to someone able to connect with him and allow him to take the time to rethink through the Gospel. We pray he gets the desire to read the Bible again.
He gave us his contact info and so we plan on keeping in touch with him.
May GOD BE GLORIFIED!!!
Amen!
LOVE this girl! Thank you for sharing this with me:) GOd is at WORK! love Katie
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