God's Providence

So i guess just a recount of some happenings this past Saturday (19 Dec 09) for everyone's encouragement,

I was sitting on the train on Saturday night on my way into the city for a friends 21st birthday party and I was sitting there starting to read The Pursuit of God for the first time. Having already read the first chapter in a previous train ride I was getting through the 2nd chapter when a couple of stations along the journey some guys came on beer bottles in hand, they joked around with the transit officers who were just in the door of the train and then came down at which point one of them sat next to me on my two-seater because the train was starting to get a bit full.

The train ride continued for a bit and I continued to read and I prayed a very quick prayer that God would work within the heart of the guy sitting next to me, beer bottle still in hand. At this point I wasn't quite sure if i was ready to breach the topic of Christianity etc and start talking so i just kept on reading with next to no intention of starting that conversation.

Then out of the blue through God's providence, the guy next to me turned to me and asked me if he could ask a silly question. He wanted to know what one of the lines on the pages meant. He had looked over at the book and had thought "hey, why not i'll just ask what that means". Wow. so i said a quick prayer for God to help me know what to say etc and I jumped in!

So i explained to him the idea of the all-knowing, ever-present, all powerful nature of God that was encompassed in the phrase that he asked about, then i took the opportunity to ask if he had any Christian background at all. He told me that he went to church each week somewhere in Petersham and that his grandmother brought him along each week, but that he had never really in his life ever paid any attention, he would usually go along just to make the appearance, and then leave after because he had other stuff that he needed to take care of.

He mentioned that he liked the idea of Jesus better than the idea of God, his reasoning was that because Jesus was a man he could understand what was going on from our perspective. This was a bit encouraging because i was able to share the Trinity with him and showed him that God (Father) + Jesus (Son) + Holy Ghost are ALL God, and used that to show him that the fact that Jesus came down as a man was the very reason that God could show that He can relate and understand us as humans.

So as we sat there on the train (turns out we were both getting off at the same train station) I was able to walk him through the gospel (Genesis to Sin to Salvation etc and Repentance) and see him start to see it all in a completely new light! He had never really read or paid attention to the Bible before so i suggested he probably should (and pointed him towards KJV too!). As we were about to arrive at our stop with my Tozer book still in hand i thought to myself "what the heck" and decided to give(lend) him the book with my address/number/email inside with the suggestion that he either return it once he's finished or pass it on to someone else! and/or to email if there were any questions etc.

Praise God for the opportunity! And pray for Tyson that he'll diligently start searching out God's word and Salvation and especially also for his Grandmother who has been 'dragging' him along to Church all these years that she'll be able to be a good witness to him also!

This becomes even more special when I think back and look at the events earlier in the day.. I was originally intending to meet with a friend for lunch/coffee and then hang out with a bunch of friends because they were going out to Carols in the Domain. This didn't quite happen because when i got to my train station, the next train to head towards the city was going to arrive in 20 minutes late, exactly the time that I was planning to meet for lunch in the city. So i decided to cancel that lunch, and took it as a bit of a hint that i should walk down and check out the local Christian Bookstore. I stumbled accross the whole Tozer series while i was in there and actually thought to myself at the time that these would make excellent gifts to Christian (or at least nominally Christian) friends. After thinking about that i went and got myself a compact KJV in preparation for next year and then i went back home to help tidy up and generally recover some sleep and upload more camp photos thinking to myself "wow, good thing that the trains were bad and that I was able to head into the bookstore sooner rather than later!

The beauty of Gods providence comes even more clearly into view when I realise that without the crappy trains, I wouldn't have been able catch that much later train and talk to Tyson. I also know that if i wasn't aware of a place to easily get a replacement copy of the Pursuit of God (which i went and picked up from the same bookstore just 20 mins ago), then I know that i would have probably been less willing to give mine out. (and also if i had gotten autographs all through mine while at camp i know i would have been MUCH less willing)

So i guess a good rule of thumb is to always pray! even if the person doesn't look to be the most inviting person, God may just have put you and them at exactly the right place and time for something to happen, something which doesn't always require that YOU start it up yourself! xD

Praise God =D


(i think Corinne had a similar experience with "The Pursuit of God" book so it'd be great if she were to share that outcome!)