Tuesday, December 9, 2008

From the Vaults

Phil 1:21 "For me to live is Christ and to die is gain."I have been on a quest for truth ever since I was in grammar school, trying to figure out the real from the fake, usually involving methods that worked for or against me in sports. Since my acceptance of the free ticket into eternity to be with our awesome God, the Holy Spirit has been molding me and changing me into a man who looks more like Christ everyday. Far from perfect but improving as the search for truth continues. I had mentioned the idea of listening to the Spirit that is within us, here is a story that recently happened. The other day my teamate and I were driving to the closest bank so he could deposit a check, his navigation was guiding us. We were fellowshipping as this friend has recently rededicated his life to Christ and has caught fire, just being around him warms my Spirit. After 5 minutes on the interstate we both said "wow this is a long way, what a terrible navigation system." He then mentioned that there will be a reason that we are heading this way. I laughed but agreed, two minutes later we see an advertisement for the play "Jesus Christ Superstar", we thought that was it and laughed it off. Moments later he parks the car on the side of the road in downtown Hartford and I stay in it so I can move it if the metermaid comes. Moments later a man (dressed in all white scrubs) walks by and instantly I feel an urge to talk to this guy and a feeling (Holy Spirit) that is telling me to tell him that God loves him. I am like, yo, I don't even know this man he looks super suspect and it would be crazy to share with him. I fight it for a couple of minutes and the feeling won't go away. Finally a couple things lined up (found the keys, figured out how to turn off the ride, and ran out of excuses) and I got out of the car and approached this man. I said "this may seem strange but I'm a Christian and I have been trying to be obedient to the Holy Spirit that lives in my and it urged me to tell you that God loves you and He wants to use you in a special way." This guy backs up a couple steps and gathers himself and then laughs with an amazed look on his face. He then explains to me that he has been going through some things and that was exactly what he needed to hear. I told him how I had no reason to be in Hartford (finding the bank) and how I'm from California (pretty amazing if you think about it). We both tripped off that for a minute. He concluded that when he walked past that tree (pointing to the one next to the car I was in) he felt God tell him that everything was going to be okay. I was overwhelmed at how great our God is. This blew my mind. My buddy came running up a minute later and I asked if we could pray together. So Zach and I put hands on this guy and prayed for him, it was great. I hope that this story came out the way it played out in my life, it was truly and act of God and an absolute mind blower. God bless all of you who read this.
Ben "to die to myself is to gain entrance into the kingdom and have my name penned in the book of life."

1 comment:

Tanner said...

Thats one of my top 3 favorite posts of all time. Thanks for bringing it out to share again.

-Terry