Before 6 years ago, I never really experienced a whole lot of coincidences in my life. I kind of went through life just making decisions on my own and never really noticed anything unusual. Six years ago, however, my life took a kind of weird twist. I wrote a letter to God to show me if he was real. I met this guy, Robert, shortly after that on an online dating website and we met for coffee. We hit it off and coincidentally he invited me to his church. He told me if I didn't like it, he would never ask me to go again. I was really not a "religious" person and had some serious dislike for hypocritical Christian people, but I agreed since I only had to go one time. This church had a sign outside that said, "No Perfect People Allowed", so I thought these Christians just might not be as snooty as some of the others I had met. When I went in, they were actually really nice and they were wearing jeans...which I never thought was allowed at church. The stuff that pastor was talking about was actually real world stuff that didn't make me feel like I was a horrible person. It made me feel loved by this God who wants a personal relationship with us and it made sense. It wasn't very long before I prayed this prayer for God's son, Jesus, to come into my heart and guide me because I am not perfect and need his direction in my life. I had been working with this lady who did energy healing at the time. Robert told me that he had a bad feeling about me going there and thought that it had Satanic roots.
Coincidentally, after I accepted Christ into my heart and asked him to guide me I felt really sick when I went to this ladies house. It felt like there were chains on my legs the closer I got to the room where she did her energy work. I also noticed that she was really sick when she claimed that you could heal yourself with energy work. She regularly did this energy work on herself, yet she was so sick that she often couldn't leave her house...there was really no reason for her sickness. At the time, I felt like I couldn't work there anymore because of how ill and heavy her house made me feel. This was all just a coincidence though, I'm sure.
Then Robert and I went to visit his mom in Oklahoma so I could meet her. While there, we told her of our plans to move in together before we were married. In a pretty harsh way, she told us it was not God's plan for us to live that way. I felt convicted of what she was saying and Robert and I decided to be abstinent until we were married. I'm sure it was all just a strange coincidence, but being abstinent seemed to really bring us closer together. Without sex in the picture, we were able to focus on really getting to know each other. Ir allowed us to appreciate each other for who we really were without sex getting in the way. I'm sure there is no real reason to be abstinent because according to the world sex is just sex and has no real value accept for procreating and having fun, but coincidentally it really made a huge impact on our relationship to go without it.
Then, coincidentally of course, I was looking for a job and asked God to show me where he wanted me to work. I was worried about not making enough money and not being able to pay our house payment. I had applied for a job with a company working with adults with disabilities, but it only paid half of what I needed to make. I was set on not taking it because of that. I was supposed to go to a function at my church, but coincidentally the friend I was supposed to go with got sick. I had been invited to a party at another friends house and decided to go to that instead. While there, I just happened to start talking with a woman who worked as a manager for a company that worked with adults with disabilities. After talking for an hour, we both realized that she just happened to be the manager of the company that I had been offered the job for earlier that I didn't think I should take. Coincidentally, I got promoted twice in three months and was making within $.25 of what I was making previously, which was enough to pay my bills.
Then, again coincidentally, Robert and I decided it was time for us to start giving our full tithe to God...meaning that we give God 10% of our money. The Sunday that we did that, we just happened upon the Boys Town job listing and were hired within two weeks at a job that completely covers the cost of all of our living expenses. I'm sure there is no correlation to these events though.
In the past six years, there have been a lot of these strange coincidences. I just happened to feel like I was told by God to look up certain scriptures that just happened to fit exactly what I needed to hear at the moment when I had never read that scripture before. I have had the same song come on the radio every time I got in the car when I was sad and then felt like God told me to look up a verse that said the same thing that the song said another time when I asked him to show me what to do.
Recently, I felt like God told me that I needed to let go of some anger that I had been holding onto for years. It seemed like he was telling me to go and apologize to someone I really didn't want to apologize to. I knew that I was supposed to obey him, so I did. The time came when I was in the right place and time to do this and coincidentally, everything worked out wonderfully. The apology went great and I knew at the time that God had prepared the way for this to happen. Robert and I had planned on submitting our paperwork for adoption right after this and coincidentally, we got pregnant with our son the next month after trying for five years. Obedience has nothing to do with it though. It just happened to coincide with my letting go of something I felt like I was asked to and giving it to God.
Some people have said that there is no God or if there is, he is not interested in our lives. I say that I have a God who, once I believe in him and have faith, works through amazing coincidences to show me that he is there and cares deeply. I know that I have a God who loves me just the way I am, but too much to let me stay that way. So he allows circumstances to happen in my life that will draw me closer to him and learn to be who he is molding me to be.
Psalms 14:1 NIV
The fool says in his heart, "There is no God." They are corrupt, their deeds are vile; there is no one who does good.
Matthew 9:29 NIV
Then he touched their eyes and said, "According to your faith will it be done to you";
Mark 4:40 NIV
He said to his disciples, "Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?"
Luke 17:1 NIV
Jesus said to his disciples: "Things that cause people to sin are bound to come, but woe to that person through whom they come.
Romans 3:1 So what difference does it make who's a Jew and who isn't, who has been trained in God's ways and who hasn't? 2 As it turns out, it makes a lot of difference - but not the difference so many have assumed. 3 So, what if, in the course of doing that, some of those Jews abandoned their post? God didn't abandon them. Do you think their faithlessness cancels out his faithfulness? 4 Not on your life! Depend on it: God keeps his word even when the whole world is lying through its teeth. Scripture says the same: Your words stand fast and true; Rejection doesn't faze you. 5 But if our wrongdoing only underlines and confirms God's rightdoing, shouldn't we be commended for helping out? Since our bad words don't even make a dent in his good words, isn't it wrong of God to back us to the wall and hold us to our word? These questions come up. 6 The answer to such questions is no, a most emphatic No! How else would things ever get straightened out if God didn't do the straightening? 7 It's simply perverse to say, "If my lies serve to show off God's truth all the more gloriously, why blame me? I'm doing God a favor." 8 Some people are actually trying to put such words in our mouths, claiming that we go around saying, "The more evil we do, the more good God does, so let's just do it!" That's pure slander, as I'm sure you'll agree. We're All in the Same Sinking Boat 9 So where does that put us? Do we Jews get a better break than the others? Not really. Basically, all of us, whether insiders or outsiders, start out in identical conditions, which is to say that we all start out as sinners. Scripture leaves no doubt about it: 10 There's nobody living right, not even one, 11 nobody who knows the score, nobody alert for God. 12 They've all taken the wrong turn; they've all wandered down blind alleys. No one's living right; I can't find a single one. 13 Their throats are gaping graves, their tongues slick as mud slides. Every word they speak is tinged with poison. 14 They open their mouths and pollute the air. 15 They race for the honor of sinner-of-the-year, 16 litter the land with heartbreak and ruin, 17 Don't know the first thing about living with others. 18 They never give God the time of day. 19 This makes it clear, doesn't it, that whatever is written in these Scriptures is not what God says about others but to us to whom these Scriptures were addressed in the first place! And it's clear enough, isn't it, that we're sinners, every one of us, in the same sinking boat with everybody else? 20 Our involvement with God's revelation doesn't put us right with God. What it does is force us to face our complicity in everyone else's sin. 21 But in our time something new has been added. What Moses and the prophets witnessed to all those years has happened. 22 The God-setting-things-right that we read about has become Jesus-setting-things-right for us. And not only for us, but for everyone who believes in him. For there is no difference between us and them in this. 23 Since we've compiled this long and sorry record as sinners (both us and them) and proved that we are utterly incapable of living the glorious lives God wills for us, 24 God did it for us. Out of sheer generosity he put us in right standing with himself. A pure gift. He got us out of the mess we're in and restored us to where he always wanted us to be. And he did it by means of Jesus Christ. 25 God sacrificed Jesus on the altar of the world to clear that world of sin. Having faith in him sets us in the clear. God decided on this course of action in full view of the public - to set the world in the clear with himself through the sacrifice of Jesus, finally taking care of the sins he had so patiently endured. 26 This is not only clear, but it's now - this is current history! God sets things right. He also makes it possible for us to live in his rightness. 27 So where does that leave our proud Jewish insider claims and counterclaims? Canceled? Yes, canceled. What we've learned is this: God does not respond to what we do; we respond to what God does. 28 We've finally figured it out. Our lives get in step with God and all others by letting him set the pace, not by proudly or anxiously trying to run the parade. 29 And where does that leave our proud Jewish claim of having a corner on God? Also canceled. God is the God of outsider non-Jews as well as insider Jews. 30 How could it be otherwise since there is only one God? God sets right all who welcome his action and enter into it, both those who follow our religious system and those who have never heard of our religion. 31 But by shifting our focus from what we do to what God does, don't we cancel out all our careful keeping of the rules and ways God commanded? Not at all. What happens, in fact, is that by putting that entire way of life in its proper place, we confirm it.
Matthew 24:5 For many will come in my name, claiming, 'I am the Christ, ' and will deceive many. 6 You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. 7 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of birth pains. 9 "Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. 10 At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, 11 and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. 12 Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, 13 but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. 14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. 15 "So when you see standing in the holy place 'the abomination that causes desolation,' spoken of through the prophet Daniel--let the reader understand--
