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The
Way I See It - July 98
I believe in divine appointments. I place little
value on the idea of coincidence and chance. Since I believe
so strongly in the sovereignty of God, I believe He is able
to order even the most minute details of our lives, including
the people we "bump into." And none of us can know or anticipate
the possible effect of one divine appointment. Suppose for
a moment that as Stephen was being martyred and prayed for
God to forgive those who were stoning him, God looked over
the parapet of heaven and said, "I'll take him" (eg., Saul,
the ringleader of the persecutors). Perhaps Saul, who became
the apostle Paul, was God's answer to Stephen's prayer. Later,
when Paul tried to go into Asia, he was restrained by the
Holy Spirit, and then saw a vision of a Macedonian man saying
"Come over here!" Is it possible that the person Paul saw
in his vision was the Philippian jailer, whom he led to faith
in Christ? Pastor J.P. Murray came to my home thirty years
ago to invite me to church. Was he thinking, "This guy's going
to take the gospel to the nations." I strongly doubt that.
With the above in mind we must be sobered by the fact that
today, we might touch the life of someone who may be the first
to fall at the feet of Jesus in a long row of living dominoes.
In fact, you may have a divine appointment with someone today.
Anyway, that's the way I see it.
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