Our pastor preached a challenging message from the 23rd Psalm yesterday. He said the first half of the psalm deals with learning to trust God. After all, the psalmist realizes that with God as his Shepherd, he will want for nothing! The young pastor likened lying down in green pastures beside still waters to kicking back and lolling at the beach. What relaxation! What soul-restoring comfort!
"But trials will inevitably come," he stressed, saying that is what the last half of the psalm is about, and that we will go through tough times, maybe through the valley of the shadow of death, but we will be able to because we have learned to put our trust in God!
"As Christians, we are not to stay in our comfort zone. We are to go out into the world (our enemies), engage them in conversation and be a witness to them," he admonished. Citing the verse,"Thou preparest a table for me in the presence of mine enemies," he encouraged the congregation to sit down and have coffee with unsaved friends and be the gospel to them.
Since we did not have church last night, Howard attended a Bible Study at the home of friends which we normally go to on Monday night. He came home bursting with excitement and bubbling over with his news. He told me he was telling about our trip to Texas and sharing our daughter-in-law's testimony of being healed in a tent revival we visited while there. When he mentioned the name of the town near Austin where our son lives, a couple who have been visiting the Bible study looked up in surprise.
"That's where our son lives!" they exclaimed. It turns out their son is a street preacher in Austin. They indicated their son was in need of encouragement, and Howard told them our son is a pastor there.
"I'll call Mark and tell him about your son. Maybe he can look him up!" he offered, getting the address of the preaching location.
"I know exactly where that is!" Mark said when Howard called him. "I'll go there and meet him," he said.
What a strange turn of events! It's amazing to see how God works! To think someone in Oklahoma would just happen to go to a Bible study because his church just happened to be in the transition of a new schedule, and meet a couple concerned for their son who just happens to live in the same Texas town as our son, and that they would just happen to both be ministers!
No, nothing "just happens," for verse three closes with the words, "He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake." And perhaps for helping someone who is going through his own valley.
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