This blog should have been written last Monday or Tuesday, but, oh well. Now, here is a story.
Months ago, Marvin Lowman, from the Kentucky-Tennessee Conference, the sponsoring conference for the NET 11 meetings, asked me to speak at their camp meeting for this weekend. At the time, I already had a commitment elsewhere, and offered to come the previous weekend (last weekend). That was not possible because they already had a speaker lined up for some time (three years, as it turned out), for that weekend. It seemed important that I had exposure at this camp meeting since it is less than an hour away from Nashville, and it is so critical to have good support in the Nashville area for good NET meetings. But it was out of our hands.
A few days later, Marvin offered I do a seminar on evangelism Sunday afternoon. It was not the prime time spots of Friday night and Sabbath, but at least it was something. As the weeks went on, a couple of extra appointments were added, such as speaking to the pastors Monday morning, the retiree workers Sunday at lunch time, and an 8-minute evangelism feature for Saturday night.
God, however, continues to work in mysterious ways. Last Friday, already packed and ready to go to the airport to fly to Nashville, Marvin calls with an emergency. The speaker planned for so long for the weekend is stranded in Brazil, his airplane struck by lightning (nothing happened to anyone). Could I come and speak in his place? I had to smile at the turn of events. Evidently God still wanted that exposure to the largest possible number of people for that camp meeting during prime time speaking slots. I also teased the Lord a bit, saying that it would have been a bit easier to prepare four sermons with a few weeks of advance notice rather than the time it takes to fly to Nashville. The truth is, God probably figured I wouldn't take too much more time than the one I did in this emergency.
So, I arrived 20 minutes after Friday night's program started, yet in time to speak. I spoke four times on Why, Who, and How of Revival. It gave me the opportunity to study and arrange new material for at least two of those sermons. And the Lord, as usual, blessed beyond our limited expectations. Everyone seemed to sense God was in this change of plans.
Even though there have been a number of challenging things regarding the planning and preparation of this entire NET 11 package, this past weekend developments remind me of a number of interventions by the Almighty.
Last January, I don't think I shared this yet, my wife and I were traveling to the airport for appointments in California and Alabama. The flight was early in the morning, it was dark, had snowed, and was a bit windy. As soon as I turned in to the freeway access ramp, I lost control of the GMC, even though it was on 4-wheel drive, and we went careening down the embankment, landing with a significant thud 50 feet below the on-ramp. After checking we were unharmed, Lisa said, "I guess we're not going to the airport today." I thought to myself of the trouble that would mean, missing the chance to speak to significant communities, including pastors, about NET 11. We thanked God we were OK, and asked His intervention. The thought of spending the morning trying to get help to pull my car out of the ditch was enough to discourage me. I couldn't afford wasting time like that.
After the quick prayer, it occurred to me to put it on reverse (it was obvious we could not move forward), even though behind us was a significantly steep hill. As I did, the vehicle simple shifted SIDEWAYS about 45 degrees, so the hill behind us was no longer there. Slowly, we backed out of there, then put it on drive, making a wide circle on the snow, and steadily climbed up the ramp as if that was the most natural thing in the world. I went outside to appraise the damage, and hardly saw any, so we decided to go on the airport. I made all my appointments. The whole incident had taken but five minutes.
No one saw us that dark, snowy morning, but my wife and I sense our angels did something special at God's command to help us out of there. Another confirmation that God is in this NET 11 project. Every time we go by that embankment, we look down it and raise our thankful hearts to our great Protector and Deliverer.
And I could share many more interventions, such as getting Russell Burrill to join our team and become coordinator when it was his inclination to say No. Or getting Tim Standish to join me for the Creation-Evolution series when his schedule seemed prohibitive. Or getting the NAD to approve a budget larger than ever before in NET history.
There are still challenges ahead--the writing of the prophecy book (more on this next time), fund-raising, communication with the field, guidelines for archaeology and creation DVDs, etc.--but God blesses us each step of the way. All we must do is trust Him with all our hearts, and He will bring it to pass.
Months ago, Marvin Lowman, from the Kentucky-Tennessee Conference, the sponsoring conference for the NET 11 meetings, asked me to speak at their camp meeting for this weekend. At the time, I already had a commitment elsewhere, and offered to come the previous weekend (last weekend). That was not possible because they already had a speaker lined up for some time (three years, as it turned out), for that weekend. It seemed important that I had exposure at this camp meeting since it is less than an hour away from Nashville, and it is so critical to have good support in the Nashville area for good NET meetings. But it was out of our hands.
A few days later, Marvin offered I do a seminar on evangelism Sunday afternoon. It was not the prime time spots of Friday night and Sabbath, but at least it was something. As the weeks went on, a couple of extra appointments were added, such as speaking to the pastors Monday morning, the retiree workers Sunday at lunch time, and an 8-minute evangelism feature for Saturday night.
God, however, continues to work in mysterious ways. Last Friday, already packed and ready to go to the airport to fly to Nashville, Marvin calls with an emergency. The speaker planned for so long for the weekend is stranded in Brazil, his airplane struck by lightning (nothing happened to anyone). Could I come and speak in his place? I had to smile at the turn of events. Evidently God still wanted that exposure to the largest possible number of people for that camp meeting during prime time speaking slots. I also teased the Lord a bit, saying that it would have been a bit easier to prepare four sermons with a few weeks of advance notice rather than the time it takes to fly to Nashville. The truth is, God probably figured I wouldn't take too much more time than the one I did in this emergency.
So, I arrived 20 minutes after Friday night's program started, yet in time to speak. I spoke four times on Why, Who, and How of Revival. It gave me the opportunity to study and arrange new material for at least two of those sermons. And the Lord, as usual, blessed beyond our limited expectations. Everyone seemed to sense God was in this change of plans.
Even though there have been a number of challenging things regarding the planning and preparation of this entire NET 11 package, this past weekend developments remind me of a number of interventions by the Almighty.
Last January, I don't think I shared this yet, my wife and I were traveling to the airport for appointments in California and Alabama. The flight was early in the morning, it was dark, had snowed, and was a bit windy. As soon as I turned in to the freeway access ramp, I lost control of the GMC, even though it was on 4-wheel drive, and we went careening down the embankment, landing with a significant thud 50 feet below the on-ramp. After checking we were unharmed, Lisa said, "I guess we're not going to the airport today." I thought to myself of the trouble that would mean, missing the chance to speak to significant communities, including pastors, about NET 11. We thanked God we were OK, and asked His intervention. The thought of spending the morning trying to get help to pull my car out of the ditch was enough to discourage me. I couldn't afford wasting time like that.
After the quick prayer, it occurred to me to put it on reverse (it was obvious we could not move forward), even though behind us was a significantly steep hill. As I did, the vehicle simple shifted SIDEWAYS about 45 degrees, so the hill behind us was no longer there. Slowly, we backed out of there, then put it on drive, making a wide circle on the snow, and steadily climbed up the ramp as if that was the most natural thing in the world. I went outside to appraise the damage, and hardly saw any, so we decided to go on the airport. I made all my appointments. The whole incident had taken but five minutes.
No one saw us that dark, snowy morning, but my wife and I sense our angels did something special at God's command to help us out of there. Another confirmation that God is in this NET 11 project. Every time we go by that embankment, we look down it and raise our thankful hearts to our great Protector and Deliverer.
And I could share many more interventions, such as getting Russell Burrill to join our team and become coordinator when it was his inclination to say No. Or getting Tim Standish to join me for the Creation-Evolution series when his schedule seemed prohibitive. Or getting the NAD to approve a budget larger than ever before in NET history.
There are still challenges ahead--the writing of the prophecy book (more on this next time), fund-raising, communication with the field, guidelines for archaeology and creation DVDs, etc.--but God blesses us each step of the way. All we must do is trust Him with all our hearts, and He will bring it to pass.
"Trust in the Lord and do good;...
Delight yourself in the Lord;
And He will give you the desires of your heart.
Commit your way to the Lord,
Trust also in Him, and He will do it."
Psalm 37:3-5
No comments:
Post a Comment