| Author | Message | ||
| Maryann |
Hi All, This thread is dedicated to Patti who has pointed out that more threads could point to Jesus. I want to tell a story that I was blessed to be part of. I may inadvertently miss a detail or two or even add a detail or two but the content will be as close to the incident as my memory can serve me. Last Friday I was going to take a friend to her first FAF meeting. Being in a town 20 or 30 miles away that I had never even heard of, I figured I'd leave a few minutes early in order to allow for getting lost. As IS my custom, I was running late. I forgot to turn the dryer on, so was waiting for my jeans to get dry. By the time I realized it was 1/2 hour past when I should have left, I took off with damp jeans. I looked at the gas gage and saw space between the E and the needle with the bad news being that it was BELOW the E! That took 15 minutes to go out of the way to get filled up, making me 45 minutes past my intended departure time! I called my friend to tell her that I was just leaving. She told me to be careful as it was pouring rain. I'm thinking that it was just sprinkling as just a few miles away, I was in t-shirt weather with the sun shining! Still thinking that the "pouring" was an overstatement, I zoomed down through this canyon and drove into a wall of water! It was raining so hard that my wipers were on high with very little results! Soooo, now I was a believer. I had instructions from two different people as how to get to her address and neither worked! Part of the problem could have been that some of the intersections were under a foot of water full of slow cars and the road signs were almost impossible to read! Finally!!!I got there with the help of a phone call to her. The problem now was that my friend, being new to this town, didn't know how to get to Redlands and I was so turned around I didn't know have a clue how to get out of town. On the way to my truck, my friend stopped at her 84 year old SDA lady friend's house to get directions out of town. The SDA lady gave us the "easy" of two ways out and off we went. Now, let me tell you a little about my new friend. She was in a Sabbath observing house during some of her childhood. She eventually got into a worldly lifestyle as an adult and stayed in that for 20 + years. Not to much of her life was pretty! At some point she found Jesus! She began to study the Bible like a starving person and some other books too. (Her apartment had a dozen different well used Bibles on the coffee table and the one I saw the inside of was VERY well marked up!) The center of my friends conversation was Jesus! Her greatest delight was in telling how wonderful He was to have saved her! In how she had been rescued from an eternality without Jesus and released from the bonds that the devil/evil had on her! For me this was an amazing experience as I could really relate to the rough and tuff life she had described. I just had never met a gal with the "knowledge of evil" I have tried to describe to others at times. We immediately had a common bond. As we headed back to Redlands, I made a wrong turn! I really couldn't blame myself to much as the rain was just pouring so hard the wipers couldn't keep up. As it turned out, this was a short cut and bottom line was I had not wanted to go this way!!! As we rounded a corner out of town, there was a lot of water over the road and a small car had just hydroplaned, lost control and was sideways and part way off the road. My friend didn't give me a chance to fully stop before she bailed out of my truck and plowed through the water to the car to see if the person was okay. The person in the car was a young Spanish gal. She was scared, crying and had no idea what to do. My friend hugged her throught he window and calmed her down. By this time I parked with my flashers on and waded over too. I watched this exchange with amazement as my friend just calmed this frantic gal down and talked to her. We told her to put her car in neutral so we could push her back in the road. We just couldn't budge her! She was still in PARK!!! Grrrrrr;-( Anyway, after the car was in neutral, we were able to, with considerable straining and rocking, get her back in the road! Naturally, the car wouldn't start and she started to cry again. My friend told her that Jesus really watched out for her tonight and had a plan for her life! The Spanish gal said that she just KNEW she was going to die tonight because she had just seen a "White Owl!" And that the only time people see a "White Owl" is just before they were going to die!! She said, "I just started to pray for God to save me and 'this' happened!" She was really crying again and my friend said that she was a Paiute Indian and really understood the "White Owl" superstition! You just really have to get a full picture of this scene. We are in a foot of water in the rain that was easing up with most cars un-concernedly driving by with one big P.U. in particular forgetting to slow down and just drowned us from the back with the splash and wave! My friend got down to eyelevel to the gal and pointing up, she said, "Jesus is bigger than any White Owl!" "Jesus loves you! Never forget this night that you saw the "White Owl" and Jesus was bigger than it." My friend proceeded to tell her that she really knew deep down that God was bigger than the Owl because she prayed to Him when she thought she was going to die! She again, pointing up to the heavens said, "Jesus loves you!" My friend then asked the gal if she was thankful to God. "Oh yes, yes," was the answer! My friend said, "well, let's thank Him, would you like to pray?" My friend took my hand in one hand and the gal's hand in the other and asked her to pray!!! I go, whoooooa, to myself! The gal said, "I don't know what to say!" My friend said, "just say anything that comes from your heart." Picture a bucket of molasses that was cold and put on the fire. The top is thick and cold and the bottom is thin and warm. This gal's heart and mouth was like that bucket of molasses. Nothing came out for awhile....then, whoooosh, out it came! She prayed the most heart felt thanks to God for protecting her even thought that White Owl flew past, keeping her from a bad wreck and bringing friends to help her! The last thing this gal saw as we left was my friend pointing up, pointing to Jesus with her hand, her words and her actions! The gal was able to get a hold of her husband with my cel-phone and we headed to Redlands and walked into the FAF meeting pretty late looking like drowned rats! I was then able to introduce my friend to her first FAF meeting! This whole episode really impressed on me how we are responsible to "point to Jesus" in what ever way we can in and what ever circumstances God puts us in. My friend could have lined out the whole gospel...plan of salvation etc and even baptized her (there was more then enough water!) Doing that was not the right thing at that particular time. Simply telling and re-telling the gal that Jesus loved her was sufficient at that time and place. As Paul said in 1 Cor. 3:6-7...."I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow." God put us in this Spanish gals path for a reason! Infact, the whole chain of events that day, right down to me forgetting to turn the dryer on, led to us into this young gals life! Now it is up to God to make sure that the seed gets watered in His time and in His way. My friend, though a Christian for a short time, demonstrated for me like no-one ever has to this day, Matthew 5:14-16..."You are the light of the world. A city on a hill can not be hidden. 15...Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on it's stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16...In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven." That, my friends, was a wonderful day! Pointing to Jesus........Maryann P.S. For my friend, feel free to come forward. I just didn't mention your name because I wanted you to have the choice to do so;-) Thank you for a most moving day. | ||
| Billthompson |
Maryann, What a beautiful story. Our God is an awesome God and He is in control! Thank you for sharing this story. My mind is racing right now with parallels like "the good Samaratin"...wondering how different religious types might have handled this situation, etc. Anyway, I hope this thread grows by leaps and bounds. | ||
| Maryann |
Hi Bill, How about you add to the desired leaps and bounds? I know you can come up with a great story that points to Jesus. There are so many mostly Bible "verse" post's that I feel the burning desire to post more in the story form. As long as I'm a hunt and peck "typer" and can't get a Bible online as I have a persnickity 'puter, I'll continue to post more in the story form. Besides, I truly believe that there are many, (like George of months ago) that can only relate to the more story based or personal verbal, simple, childlike theology;-)) Pointing to Jesus in as many ways as possible, Maryann | ||
| Shereen |
I love hearing the word in story form. It sinks in better and is so much more interesting, so much so that Jesus used parables all the time. I do that with my children all the time. They love stories and so do I. |
