O
John
(20:24) But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came.*
(20:25) The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.*
(20:26) And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you.*
(20:27) Then saith he to Thomas, reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing.*
(20:28) And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God.*
(20:29) Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.*
(20:30) And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book:*
(20:31) But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.*
I am struck by the thought of a question. How often during the day are we shown the evidence of Gods interaction in our lives. Yet in our hurry we do not realize or think about what has just happened. Even little things that are commonly chalked up to coincidence or chance. When in reality having received the working of the Holy Spirit, through our salvation through Christ, we have completely removed those two types of events from our lives. Through Christ, nothing is left to chance. It really comes down to choice. We choose to believe that every event in our lives is placed before us by God, or we step away from faith and call it coincidence.*
I have decided to try and write down as many of these coincidences as I can for awhile. This could be tough, there are sometimes many throughout my days. Simple little cases of being places at just the right moment. Or things just working out almost to easily. These are actually visual evidence of Gods continual presence with us at all times. God will actually allow us to watch him interact in our lives, all we have to do is watch even small events take place right before our eyes. Events that in reality there is only one way that they would be possible. Enter one of my personal quotes.*
"Devine intervention, you have got to love it!"
"The "missing?" phone"
Simply due to the nature of my job, my cell phone has become an almost essential part of my daily life. It is the only contact I have with my employer for days at a time. He is simply not around, so he uses the phone to stay in contact and keep up with the management of our work.*
Enter a somewhat aggravating part of my job, my hands are usually occupied when the phone rings. An often untimely interruption, at least from that current personal point of view. Thank God for call waiting and voice mail and lets not forget the blessing of caller ID! Needless to say it is a rare thing that I can answer on the first ring while I am working.*
In that frame of mind it is an often occurrence that at the end of a call in a moment of mental multitasking the placement of the phone is the farthest thing from my conscious state! I put it down and continue my work. By the time I realize I do not have my phone within convenient reach, I often do not remember where I put it down at!*
Often times it ends up buried in the debree of my job. Often unheard for hours at a time. The ringer, even turned all the way up, not loud enough to be heard. **
Such was the case yesterday. Even having someone repeatedly call it I was unable to locate it. Then the inevitable moment that someone truly needed to get ahold of me. And just at that moment I was precisely where I needed to be to hear the phone ring. In this case I was getting a marker from my tool bag, somehow the phone ended up under the bag. Just as I was moving the bag the phone rang! At any other time I would have never heard it. Even upon hearing it it had quit ringing by the time I had actually worked it out of its hiding place.*
The call, there were three little girls that were needed to be picked up from the bus stop. At the same time grandma had to be picked up from respite care. I was the closest option. If I could be reached. The last resort so to speak. Had I not been in position to hear the phone at that moment one of two things would have resulted.*
The first, three little girls standing at the end of a driveway in the cold and wet until someone showed up. Or, and the one most likely, the bus driver would have kept them on the bus which meant a trip to the bus garage to pick them up. A 45 min task versus a 10 min task. Not to mention the anxiety of not being absolutely sure of the whereabouts of three little girls.*
So was it chance? Was it merely coincidence? How about simply pure luck? You can believe what you will. As for me things like that happen way to often to be wrote off as any of those reasonings.*
"Devine intervention, you have got to love it!" for me further explanation of that statement is this. No matter how "bad" your messing something up. No matter how distracted you may become. God is right there working things out. And just EXACTLY when you need what is needed it will show itself right in front of you. Those seemingly impossible things just happen like every day common occurrences.*
I think most people are like Thomas, they want simple visible proof. I am amazed at the extraordinary proof around us at every moment. We are just *so focused on the obvious details surrounding us all the time. We don't see the extraordinary taking place at the same time.*
Here is the challenge. You want to see the evidence of God working? Just open your eyes! It's taking place around you every moment of your life!
(20:24) But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came.*
(20:25) The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.*
(20:26) And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you.*
(20:27) Then saith he to Thomas, reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing.*
(20:28) And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God.*
(20:29) Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.*
(20:30) And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book:*
(20:31) But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.*
I am struck by the thought of a question. How often during the day are we shown the evidence of Gods interaction in our lives. Yet in our hurry we do not realize or think about what has just happened. Even little things that are commonly chalked up to coincidence or chance. When in reality having received the working of the Holy Spirit, through our salvation through Christ, we have completely removed those two types of events from our lives. Through Christ, nothing is left to chance. It really comes down to choice. We choose to believe that every event in our lives is placed before us by God, or we step away from faith and call it coincidence.*
I have decided to try and write down as many of these coincidences as I can for awhile. This could be tough, there are sometimes many throughout my days. Simple little cases of being places at just the right moment. Or things just working out almost to easily. These are actually visual evidence of Gods continual presence with us at all times. God will actually allow us to watch him interact in our lives, all we have to do is watch even small events take place right before our eyes. Events that in reality there is only one way that they would be possible. Enter one of my personal quotes.*
"Devine intervention, you have got to love it!"
"The "missing?" phone"
Simply due to the nature of my job, my cell phone has become an almost essential part of my daily life. It is the only contact I have with my employer for days at a time. He is simply not around, so he uses the phone to stay in contact and keep up with the management of our work.*
Enter a somewhat aggravating part of my job, my hands are usually occupied when the phone rings. An often untimely interruption, at least from that current personal point of view. Thank God for call waiting and voice mail and lets not forget the blessing of caller ID! Needless to say it is a rare thing that I can answer on the first ring while I am working.*
In that frame of mind it is an often occurrence that at the end of a call in a moment of mental multitasking the placement of the phone is the farthest thing from my conscious state! I put it down and continue my work. By the time I realize I do not have my phone within convenient reach, I often do not remember where I put it down at!*
Often times it ends up buried in the debree of my job. Often unheard for hours at a time. The ringer, even turned all the way up, not loud enough to be heard. **
Such was the case yesterday. Even having someone repeatedly call it I was unable to locate it. Then the inevitable moment that someone truly needed to get ahold of me. And just at that moment I was precisely where I needed to be to hear the phone ring. In this case I was getting a marker from my tool bag, somehow the phone ended up under the bag. Just as I was moving the bag the phone rang! At any other time I would have never heard it. Even upon hearing it it had quit ringing by the time I had actually worked it out of its hiding place.*
The call, there were three little girls that were needed to be picked up from the bus stop. At the same time grandma had to be picked up from respite care. I was the closest option. If I could be reached. The last resort so to speak. Had I not been in position to hear the phone at that moment one of two things would have resulted.*
The first, three little girls standing at the end of a driveway in the cold and wet until someone showed up. Or, and the one most likely, the bus driver would have kept them on the bus which meant a trip to the bus garage to pick them up. A 45 min task versus a 10 min task. Not to mention the anxiety of not being absolutely sure of the whereabouts of three little girls.*
So was it chance? Was it merely coincidence? How about simply pure luck? You can believe what you will. As for me things like that happen way to often to be wrote off as any of those reasonings.*
"Devine intervention, you have got to love it!" for me further explanation of that statement is this. No matter how "bad" your messing something up. No matter how distracted you may become. God is right there working things out. And just EXACTLY when you need what is needed it will show itself right in front of you. Those seemingly impossible things just happen like every day common occurrences.*
I think most people are like Thomas, they want simple visible proof. I am amazed at the extraordinary proof around us at every moment. We are just *so focused on the obvious details surrounding us all the time. We don't see the extraordinary taking place at the same time.*
Here is the challenge. You want to see the evidence of God working? Just open your eyes! It's taking place around you every moment of your life!
