I was thinking this morning about the mysterious ways of God. So, a man who had just recently accepted the Lord as his Savior told a new friend of mine something rather strange. Although my friend had been in church most all his life, he told me this newly saved man already knows the Bible better than he does. He lives, eats, and breathes the word of God and loves the Lord more than most people he has known. God has really touched this new convert and he is credited with a healing ministry that is simply amazing. It turns out this man came to my friend and told him that God told him he was going to meet someone “very special”, and it would happen soon.
So later that day, my new friend came over to do some repair work for us and we ended up talking on my porch about the Lord. I shared some of my testimony with him and didn’t think any more about it. He wondered if I might be the person that God spoke to the new convert about. He went home and googled me, found my testimony, and confirmed that indeed I must be the person that God spoke to his friend about. Apparently, my new friend’s oldest son whom he loves with all his heart had met some unscrupulous friends who led him to drugs and addiction and he very nearly OD’d. My buddy and his wife saved his life, stayed with him, and helped him as he went through withdrawal. This did not happen all that long ago, and they are worried about relapse. My buddy invited this son to come over because he wanted him to watch a video. It was my testimony and he ended up in tears. I knew this young man because he had done work for me too, but I didn’t know of his involvement with drugs. He has vowed to his dad to come over to my house and seek counsel from me.
Do you think God put us together so I could help his son? I feel sure he did. God works in mysterious ways to accomplish His goals.
Below is a true Story – submitted by Pastor Rob Reid
The pastor and his wife, newly assigned to their first ministry, to reopen a church in suburban Brooklyn, arrived in early October excited about their opportunities. When they saw their church, it was very run down and needed much work. They set a goal to have everything done in time to have their first service on Christmas Eve.
They worked hard, repairing pews, plastering walls, painting, etc., and on Dec 18 were ahead of schedule and just about finished. On Dec 19, a driving rainstorm hit the area and lasted for two days. On the 21st, the pastor went over to the church. His heart sank when he saw that the roof had leaked, causing a large area of plaster about 20 feet by 8 feet to fall off the front wall of the sanctuary just behind the pulpit, beginning about head high. The pastor cleaned up the mess on the floor, and not knowing what else to do but postpone the Christmas Eve service, headed home.
On the way he noticed that a local business was having a flea market-type sale for charity, so he stopped in. One of the items was a beautiful, handmade, ivory-colored, crocheted tablecloth with exquisite work, fine colors, and a Cross embroidered right in the center. It was just the right size to cover up the hole in the front wall. He bought it and headed back to the church.
By this time, it had started to snow. An older woman running from the opposite direction was trying to catch the bus. She missed it. The pastor invited her to wait in the warm church for the next bus scheduled to run 45 minutes later. She sat in a pew and paid no attention to the pastor while he got a ladder, hangers, etc., to put up the tablecloth as a wall tapestry. The pastor could hardly believe how beautiful it looked and it covered up the entire problem area. Then he noticed the woman walking down the center aisle. Her face was white as a sheet. “Pastor,” she asked, “where did you get that tablecloth?” The pastor explained. The woman asked him to check the lower right corner to see if the initials, EBG were crocheted into it there. They were. These were the initials of the woman, and she had made this tablecloth 35 years before, in Austria.
The woman could hardly believe it as the pastor told how he had just gotten the Tablecloth. The woman explained that before the war she and her husband were well-to-do people in Austria. When the Nazis came, she was forced to leave. Her husband was going to follow her the next week. She was captured, sent to prison, and never saw her husband or her home again.
The pastor wanted to give her the tablecloth, but she made the pastor keep it for the church. The pastor insisted on driving her home, that was the least he could do. She lived on the other side of Staten Island and was only in Brooklyn for the day for a housecleaning job.
What a wonderful service they had on Christmas Eve. The church was almost full. The music and the spirit were great. At the end of the service, the pastor and his wife greeted everyone at the door, and many said that they would return.
One older man, whom the pastor recognized from the neighborhood, continued to sit in one of the pews and stare, and the pastor wondered why he wasn’t leaving. The man asked him where he got the tablecloth on the front wall because it was identical to one that his wife had made years ago when they lived in Austria before the war, and he wondered how could there be two tablecloths so much alike. He told the pastor how the Nazis came, how he forced his wife to flee for her safety, and he was supposed to follow her but was arrested and put in a prison. He never saw his wife or his home again all the 35 years in between.
The pastor asked him if he would allow him to take him for a little ride. They drove to Staten Island and to the same house where the pastor had taken the woman three days earlier. He helped the man climb the three flights of stairs to the woman’s apartment, knocked on the door and he saw the greatest Christmas reunion he could ever imagine.
Yes, my friends, God is watching out for us and works in mysterious ways.
Romans 8:28
And we know that all things work
together for good to those who love
God, to those who are called
according to His purpose.