I was attending a class recently and before the class started we participated in a group devotional. Now, I do sometimes totally zone out during these, mostly because I am sitting there thinking about how much we could be actually learning if class would just start. But, I do try to listen. This particular time I actually made it on time and paid some attention to what was going on. The person leading the devotion started telling stories about different things in order to demonstrate the sovereignty and goodness of God.
He was driving in the car and felt as if God wanted them to sing a particular praise song. He couldn't remember all the lyrics, so after struggling to remember, he decided to listen to a sermon on a portable tape player that he had brought along from his church. As soon as the recording starts that praise song starts to play that he was just trying to remember. By the time the song ends, he pulls into a road-side restaurant to eat. He comes out, gets in the car, and presses play on the tape player...nothing happens. It won't play. So he goes on his way. The next day, he returns the tape player to his secretary and tells her that he doesn't know what happened but this tape player won't work anymore. She looks at the tape player, then looks at him and says, "This tape player has been broken for the past 2 years. We just haven't sent it off to be repaired."
Was that the hand of God?
He was in a foreign country and he didn't know how to speak that language and very few of the nationals there spoke English. After the service was over, he was out in the congregation praying with people. You don't need to speak their language in order to pray for someone. While doing that he felt compelled to speak to a particular couple. He approached them and asked if they spoke English. The man said no, and right at that time a little girl standing next to them said, "I speak English." So he was able to tell this couple what he felt God was wanting him to say because that little girl happened to be there.
Was that the hand of God?
He was walking around a certain city and someone approached him and handed him some papers about all the stuff Jesus did. He was a young preacher and always looking for new material so he was really excited thinking he had found a new source of inspiration. He talked to several of his colleagues about what he had been given, and none of them had heard about this stuff he had been handed. So he went to his favorite bookstore hoping to find out more about all these stories. He walks all around and can't find anything. As he goes to leave, he happens to look back over his shoulder into the bookstore and his eye is caught by a green book located on a turnstile. The book is facing away from him and just barely catches his eye. He walks back in and picks up the book. The title of the book is, Great Biblical Hoaxes. He opens the book and inside he finds where it talks about the very same thing he was handed and how it is totally fake.
Was that the hand of God?
God is the author of all that is good. And the Bible tells us that He will make things meant for evil end up good for His glory. So it is right and proper for us to give God the credit for good things. If you truly believe that God is all knowing, and all powerful then you have to give Him credit. So, if God makes it end all good, does that mean that He originated it?
That is what I am asking you today. Did God make all kinds of things happen just right so that there was a little girl standing in that particular place, at that particular time that spoke English? Did God zap the tape recorder so that it played for 15 minutes and never again? Did God stop him from walking, turned his head and directed his eye to that book? Tell me what you think.
Now, I do not want a post saying Yes. You need to explain yourself, remember you don't know what you really believe until you can put it in words.
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