A Little Church on Wednesday Night

The Unseen Purpose
That Saved A Life

Have you ever watched a movie a second time?  Remember how you see things from a different point of view?  The first time you watched it you weren’t really sure who the good guys were.  But the second time you watched it you knew. 

Isn’t it interesting how you find yourself rooting for different people the second time?  You see the plot unfolding from a completely different perspective.  As you watch the movie’s plot unfold again, you find yourself with a new “wisdom” of sorts. Your allegiances change and the small things you didn’t see as important the first time, become incredibly important the second time.

The Fingerprint of the Holy Spirit is Everywhere

It’s hard to do sometimes, but when you fly up into the air and look down upon the earth with God’s love, agape love, it’s hard to imagine how He feels about his children … all of them.

But God sees all the people on the earth differently than we do. He loves, but He also hurts too. And God is going to win this battle even though he knows there will be many that don’t make it. And indeed He grieves.  But for those that overcome, there will be wonderful rewards.

Every church that exists today is important to God. He might not be pleased with all of them but He can “thump” people on the head and move them from church to church to bring them where he wants them to be. They still might not “make it” but God can use these places.  God can still use various people and circumstances to lead these lost and hurting souls to “Life”.

And He does.

A Dark Wednesday Night

One dark Wednesday evening, at a small Assembly of God church down the road from my house, a girl in her early 20’s came into the middle of the service dragging behind her a man of similar age.  This man was wretched and extremely disturbed.  He was dirty and he appeared angry and intoxicated.  In fact, this young man was badly demon possessed. I wasn’t there but my wife was. Evidently this young lady was in tears and trying to help her boyfriend. She drug him to the altar, interrupting the service, and that church swarmed on that man and dumped the love of Jesus down on him.  They cast out his devils. He became a new person on the spot.

My wife couldn’t believe what she saw.

That church was the only lit building on the road that night. It was the only place they had to go. And it led that man to freedom from those devils.  His life was saved that night.

That fellow later did some work around my house for me and told me stories of his possessed state and the miracle that occurred that night. Without that church being there, and without that night unfolding as it had, he admitted it was likely he would have committed suicide.

That church was the only lit building on the road that evening.

The Right Place, At the Right Time

Until our hearts learn to FEEL like God feels for his children, not out of fear of God, but from deep emotional empathy for the hurting hearts of God’s people and our brothers in Jesus, we will always struggle with understanding the purpose of all these things we see around us. We will always struggle with loving and understanding how critically important each of these experience and  “steps” can be for each new believer. 

Every hurting heart, every sick person, every angry drunk, every hungry person, every “stuck up” self loving mean person,  have their “unique” issues.  Deep down inside they hurt.  Deep down inside they hate themselves.  They desperately need some “place to go” or some “person” to “step up” and say the right words to them at the right time.

That boy needed help for that particular problem THAT night.

And God found it for him.

Gassing Up the Car

The other day I stopped at a gas station.  I briefly went inside to get some “stuff”.  On my way back out a lady was chatting and we exchanged some “niceties”.  I told her to “Be Blessed in Jesus Name” and she smiled and said …

“What Church do you go to?”

For a moment I felt sad.  I realized “she needed” a church.  I even felt guilt for not being able to tell her to “come to my church”.  I actually started to miss the people I used to see every Thursday and Sunday.   I started to tell her I was not affiliated with a “church” but was an apostle of Jesus … but then stopped myself in mid sentence.  That would have done her NO GOOD.

I quickly shifted gears and told her that right down the road make a left and look for a blue church with a white steeple.  I told her it was a fabulous church and she would LOVE IT.

That’s what SHE needed.

That’s what MANY people need

The POWER of ONE

Have you ever considered the POWER of one person?  Think about it.  You always hear of the “power of many”.  But who wants to have a “group” of people swarm on them with their notions of Godliness? 

NO ONE! 

People like to have others around them that believe like they do.  They feel comfortable when they have their own support group of “like believers” around them.  Imagine how you would feel if you saw a church group heading your way.  You would be thinking to yourself, “how do I get out of here?”  You would want to make a run for it.

That’s how other people feel too.

Remember, when you are by yourself, you have FAR MORE power of persuation, than you do when you are with a group of other “like believers”.  And you have FAR MORE POWER, by having no particular “religious” afiliation than you do by being a “Church of Such and Such” member.

Being creative, and striking up a friendly conversation with someone when you are all by yourself, is FAR more powerful than you might ever have considered.

In Summary, Remember This

If  that demon possessed man had walked into a church that was preaching against the evils of the New World Order, shaking their fists in the air, he would probably be dead today.  We live in times where it is all too easy to forget what we are on this earth for in the first place.  We spend so much time surfing the web, and listening to “doom and gloom” we forget people are crying,   people are hungry, and people are dying. 

In many cases “WE” are their only chance.

As you are challenged with your personal frustrations about “people not knowing what is going on”, try to remember in their small “slice of life”, these people might not care about the New World Order.  They might not care that Brzezinski is a reptilian shape shifter.

They might just need someone to walk with them for a little while and listen to their problems.

They might just need someone to take them to that little white church on a Wednesday night.