Divine Appointments

I had the privilege of preaching at my Mom’s church this morning (Atwater Community Bible Church), where Dwight Thompson is the pastor.  He and the church family have been such a blessing to my Mom these past months, and as result a blessing to me.  I preached from John 4 on the Samaritan woman with whom, I maintain, Jesus had a divine appointment which was why he “needed” to go through Samaria.  I encouraged the folks to emulate Jesus in their approach to talking with people about spiritual things.  I also admonished them to be alert to those divine appointments that we all have every day as we come into contact with people.

This evening as I left my Mom, I was hungry for dinner.  After the debacle last night with the Chinese food delivery, I cast about in my mind for a good choice.  I suddenly thought, “I must needs go to the Hometown Buffet!”

As the woman took my money she noted my Veggie Tales tie which I still wore from this morning.  “Are you coming from church?”, she asked.  “I was the preacher,” I replied.  She immediately brightened and excitedly asked, “Can I come talk to you on my break?  I’ve been reading the Bible with an app on my phone and I have some questions!”  Of course I told her I was too busy and too tired to talk to anyone about the Bible, especially young women who were strangers.  Besides, I just wanted to eat in peace.

Not really! 🙂

Sure enough, she came shortly thereafter just as I was beginning to enjoy the slice of ham and the cornbread muffin with carrots.  Turns out that she is a new Christian, less than a year old.  It was refreshing to see her exuberance and excitement about the Bible.  She’s trying to read through it with the app on her phone.  But she had run across some passages that she didn’t understand.  She had been attending the local Baptist church but then her work schedule changed and she is kept from attending church on Sundays for the time being.  I admonished her about that and her need to be in church, but commended her for her passion to read the Bible and understand it.  We chatted as I answered her questions.  Then as she stood to go back to work, I took her hand and prayed for her.  With tears in her eyes she thanked me for my time and walked back to her station, smiling all the way.  I smiled to myself as I ate my food, now cold, and thought about the fact that I had just had a “divine appointment”.

Watch for the Divine Appointments in your life.  they are sure to come! Serving the Lord is a great way to pass one’s life!