Why do we do what we do? God! Why do we go where we go? God! The more we see God's work the more we are in awe of His workings through us. We are just vehicles of God's love. Jeff doesn't fully understand it yet. He thinks at times that Carol and I are providing for him. However, when Jeff says things like, "I can't believe what you guys are doing," he sees our great God at work. We try to explain to him it's God providing, not us. Slowly he is beginning to understand. If you follow this blog you know how God is miraculously guiding us. Well, as we headed towards Mississippi to warmer weather, we slept in a Walmart parking lot in southern Alabama where we met three homeless men: Jeff, Bobby and Cajun (a man who asked if I could give him a mohawk, and I gladly obliged). They were literally outside our bus at a bus stop shelter drinking early in the morning. As I buzzed Cajun's head, Bobby asked me why he feels so lost if God really exists. I explained to him that the trappings of this world and Satan's attacks are reason he is lost - not because God is not there. God has provided a way to help him out of this through His Son Jesus Christ. Bobby cried, and Jeff agreed with me. As I talked more with Jeff I found that he had accepted the Lord, but had fallen away. He was trapped in his circumstances and wished he had a way out. I offered to help as I know God put Four Disciples Mission at this place at this time. He asked if we could take him to Texas. I'm not sure as to why but I agreed to help him, if he thought it would help his circumstances. He couldn't commit, but pleaded for a ride nonetheless. I thought about simply purchasing him a ticket, but as Carol and I sought God's wisdom we agreed that simply buying a ticket was the easy way to show God's love. So we agreed to drive him. We knew that this was way out of our comfort zone since it would take us days to get to Texas, but trusted God to guide us. We gave him an hour to get his things together, and filled up the gas tank for the trek.
As we spent the next couple of days together, Jeff wondered why we would go through so much inconvenience for him. GOD, we said. Slowly Jeff realized that God put us (especially the kids) in his life to remind him that God loves him. He asked if we would help him - he desires to have the love of Christ in him that we do. We started with the alcohol. I told him Christ would help him if he would just trust Him. We prayed, and he asked for God to take this addiction from him. I told him if he would get sober we wouldn't abandon him. We didn't know what God had in store but Jeff agreed. He feared he would have seizures from alcohol withdrawal, which had happened to him in the past. We tried to find a detox center, but none would accept him. I prayed long and hard for wisdom, and I thought it best to check into a hotel to detox him. I found one close to a hospital in case it was more than I could handle. I have some experience in dealing with these situations, and now I knew why-God was preparing me for this situation. I prayed for God to relieve him of seizures, and after two days detoxing in a hotel room with some close calls we came out clean, sober and free from seizures. I knew God had pulled him through, and so did he. Next God needed to help us figure out where to go from here. I immediately thought of Faith Farm. A place in Florida where you can recover from your addiction, work, learn about the Lord and have a place to live. I know someone who spent over a year there and God has worked wonders in his life. I called, and they said they no longer accept anybody out of state. I called this guy I knew, and in one day we had a place for Jeff to put his life back together. Jeff has spent a week with us, and I can't put into words the miracle that has been orchestrated by God. We went to church tonight, and the pastor told the story of a woman who had gotten her car stuck in the mud turning around in a church parking lot she was visiting for the first time. When the people of the church saw this they immediately helped her. They asked for her keys and said they would take care of parking it while she went to church. She agreed. When she came out she found her car waiting right outside, freshly washed and vacummed. So the story goes, that lady got two sermons that day. One inside the church, and one outside. Which one do you think she'll remember? As he told this Jeff reached over and gave me a gentle pat on the back. Jeff goes to Faith Farm on Monday, and I know, as does he, that God has a new life for him. We both were sure of this when a slew of things happened to prevent us from getting to Florida, and we just kept saying, "Now we know God will use him for great things, because Satan is trying to stop us." The bible has the final word: We can do all things through Christ who strenghtens us (Philippians 4:13).
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3 comments:
Has God not prepared you for this or what??! I will continue to pray for Jeff, and praise God that he was able to use you in his life and for his renewed faith. Wow, God is so undescribable!
what a wonderful story! You guys are amazing! Have a very blessed Christmas!
I am reminded of the boundless efforts of God using You and Carol to get me sober. I am reminded of the boundless efforts of God through you to bring me to him. I'm reminded of judgement passed by myself when you started walking with Christ. Now I see vividly how Satan and the evils of this world envelope us and use our nature against us. It is so clear in Jeffs case as to how a believer can fall away if their relationship with Christ is not maintained and trust and faith get foggy. We often wonder why bad things happen , or diversions of sorts keep us from serving the Lord. Job faced this very obstacle to the extreme and kept his Faith and Trust in God.
Satan is traveling up and down back and forth looking for ways of diversion for those who serve the Lord.
C.S.Lewis puts it so elequently in his writings expressed in the Screwtape letters. This is Screwtape a direct worker for Satan expressing to his worker wormwood how to handle a mans coming to God. "I wonder you should ask me whether it is essential to keep the patient in ignorance of your own existence(Satan). That question, at least for the present phase of the struggle, has been answered for us by the High Command. Our policy, for the moment, is to conceal ourselves. Of course this has not always been so. We are really faced with a cruel dilemma. When the humans disbelieve in our existence we lose all he pleasing results of direct terrorism and we make no magicians. On the other hand, when they believe in us, we cannot make them materialists and sceptics. At least, not yet. I have great hopes that we shall learn in due time how to emotionalise and mythologise their science to such an extent that what is, in effect, belief in us, (though not under that name) will creep in while the human mind remains closed to belief in the Enemy (God). The "Life Force", the worship of sex, and some aspects of Psychoanalysis, may here prove useful. If once we can produce our perfect work—the Materialist Magician, the man, not using, but veritably worshipping, what he vaguely calls "Forces" while denying the existence of "spirits"—then the end of the war will be in sight. But in the meantime we must obey our orders. I do not think you will have much difficulty in keeping the patient in the dark. The fact that "devils" are predominantly comic figures in the modern imagination will help you. If any faint suspicion of your existence begins to arise in his mind, suggest to him a picture of something in red tights, and persuade him that since he cannot believe in that (it is an old textbook method of confusing them) he therefore cannot believe in you.
We can recognize Satans work and evil then we can be prepared.
"The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him, for he cannot bear scorn."—Luther
He has no power over us and is weak with our Faith and Trust in the Lord. We always look for reasons why things happen to us while we are growing in our relationship and seeking to serve Christ and the answer is simple. The more we serve the Lord and his kingdom, the harder Satan will work to distract us and deter us from serving Him.
Praise God for Jeff's renewal and God strength to conquer Satans diversions.
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