The amazing way God works.
Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2006 7:12 pm
I often reflect on all different events in society and how their is a reason for it. One I thought of was the holocaust of the Jews. I think (and please correct me if I am wrong) that was meant to happen. In the context that it was the catalyst for something far greater. The birth of the state of Israel. What would the likelihood be of that happening without it.
Or look at it another way. How many people would have found God. When people were going to church to pray for the troops how many learnt about God for the first time. There would have been numerous people who at first went because everyone else did and it was the right thing to do. How many of them actually learnt about Christianity. Probably quite a few! And if you consider on a global scale over a long period the possibility is that there were millions.
What is so strange about it was how it (the holocaust) occurred. Hitler had been brought up with a mother who worked for a Jewish family. Not unusual. However what is strange is the fact that he had a nephew who fled to first Britain, then the US who tried to stop what he was going to do. He while working in collaboration with the US discovered details of his uncles plot and together they tried to stop him. Various times they had the opportunity to assassinate him however things went wrong. Look what the end result was.
Anyway as I was thinking about this I remembered something that occurred many years ago to a man. When I was growing up we used to have a prison for the criminally insane. Some of the crimes committed were horrific. Some were there because they were so insane they were at extreme risk to society despite not having committed any crime. I remember my church had a program that they had just recently begun at the time to try and minister to these people. It seemed almost a hopeless case. People so lost many had lost all sense of being human.
At the time a man had been transferred from the maximum security wing of Pentridge Prison Melbourne. He was too vioent even for them to handle. Too many years of being a metho drinker had caused him to become too dangerous to society. I wont say what crime he committed as that is not relevant. Anyway he was transferred over two hundred kilometres away to the other facility.
Two days after he was transferred the pastor from my church visited the institution. This man was sitting on the floor of his small cell with its concrete floor rocking back and forwards talking to someone who didn't exist. The pastor walked in (accompanied by a guard) and began to teach to word of God. Seemingly a hopeless task as the more he tried to teach the louder the man would talk to the unseem person.
Anyhow the pastor left but couldn't get this man out of his mind. The next week again he spoke to this man, but this time the man was quite and listened to every word. At the end of the pastors talk with him he asked Jesus into his heart. The amazing thing was that immediately after he did he began to change. The prison staff were amazed! Here was somebody who nobody thought could be helped. In a few weeks he was released altogether.
Sometime later after getting his life together the man related how the day the pastor came into his cell he could hear a voice telling him that he needed to accept Jesus into his life. He told how he tried to drown out the voice but it wouldn't go away. He said it drove him crazy!
What is even more amazing was the fact that God also healed him of the damage the metho had done.
The chance of this occurring without divine intervention is very low. At the time he was transferred there were a shortage of beds at the Melbourne facility. One bed had become available at the facility he was sent to. The pastor himself was not sure about the program to reach out to the insane the week before. It had only recently been started and wasn't very successful so far and he was thinking of stopping it. However something compelled him to just persist a little longer.
Sometimes God has to bring us to our knees in ways we often dont understand just so we can accept his love.
Or look at it another way. How many people would have found God. When people were going to church to pray for the troops how many learnt about God for the first time. There would have been numerous people who at first went because everyone else did and it was the right thing to do. How many of them actually learnt about Christianity. Probably quite a few! And if you consider on a global scale over a long period the possibility is that there were millions.
What is so strange about it was how it (the holocaust) occurred. Hitler had been brought up with a mother who worked for a Jewish family. Not unusual. However what is strange is the fact that he had a nephew who fled to first Britain, then the US who tried to stop what he was going to do. He while working in collaboration with the US discovered details of his uncles plot and together they tried to stop him. Various times they had the opportunity to assassinate him however things went wrong. Look what the end result was.
Anyway as I was thinking about this I remembered something that occurred many years ago to a man. When I was growing up we used to have a prison for the criminally insane. Some of the crimes committed were horrific. Some were there because they were so insane they were at extreme risk to society despite not having committed any crime. I remember my church had a program that they had just recently begun at the time to try and minister to these people. It seemed almost a hopeless case. People so lost many had lost all sense of being human.
At the time a man had been transferred from the maximum security wing of Pentridge Prison Melbourne. He was too vioent even for them to handle. Too many years of being a metho drinker had caused him to become too dangerous to society. I wont say what crime he committed as that is not relevant. Anyway he was transferred over two hundred kilometres away to the other facility.
Two days after he was transferred the pastor from my church visited the institution. This man was sitting on the floor of his small cell with its concrete floor rocking back and forwards talking to someone who didn't exist. The pastor walked in (accompanied by a guard) and began to teach to word of God. Seemingly a hopeless task as the more he tried to teach the louder the man would talk to the unseem person.
Anyhow the pastor left but couldn't get this man out of his mind. The next week again he spoke to this man, but this time the man was quite and listened to every word. At the end of the pastors talk with him he asked Jesus into his heart. The amazing thing was that immediately after he did he began to change. The prison staff were amazed! Here was somebody who nobody thought could be helped. In a few weeks he was released altogether.
Sometime later after getting his life together the man related how the day the pastor came into his cell he could hear a voice telling him that he needed to accept Jesus into his life. He told how he tried to drown out the voice but it wouldn't go away. He said it drove him crazy!
What is even more amazing was the fact that God also healed him of the damage the metho had done.
The chance of this occurring without divine intervention is very low. At the time he was transferred there were a shortage of beds at the Melbourne facility. One bed had become available at the facility he was sent to. The pastor himself was not sure about the program to reach out to the insane the week before. It had only recently been started and wasn't very successful so far and he was thinking of stopping it. However something compelled him to just persist a little longer.
Sometimes God has to bring us to our knees in ways we often dont understand just so we can accept his love.