A personal appearance by God

The Huntsville Times recently ran an interesting Q&A feature on the role that God has had in a person's life. The person that they profiled, James Waller, described personally experiencing God:

God personally appeared before me. In the fall of 1993, I remember being awakened at 3 a.m. When I looked up, I saw the Lord standing at the entrance to the apartment.

There was a dark silhouette with brilliant light all about his presence, and angels were dancing and playing, as if they were little children. When God spoke to me, my whole body shook at the sound of His voice.

Waller goes on to describe how the Lord called him to read the Book of Job. After that, Waller lost everything in service to the Lord.

Do we find happiness at church?

Jonathan Clements of The Wall Street Journal wrote this week about an interesting study on happiness and leisure time. The study of 4,000 Americans, by academics Daniel Kahneman, Alan Krueger, David Schkade, Norbert Schwarz and Arthur Stone, found that how we spend our time is a key factor in our happiness.

What Clements found the most intriguing was "the study's data on which activities we enjoy. The five professors grouped activities into six clusters, based on the emotions associated with each.

The standout cluster was what the authors label 'engaging leisure and spiritual activities,' things like visiting friends, exercising, attending church, listening to music, fishing, reading a book, sitting in a cafe or going to a party. When we spend time on our favorite of these activities, we're typically happy, engrossed and not especially stressed."

Come to think of it, I should head off to church now.

Donna the nurse

This week I was riding the light rail. Next to me sat a woman named Donna, who asked me many questions, including where I work (a financial services firm). I wasn't used to someone asking me so many questions. I later asked her questions and learned that she is a nurse at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center.

As Donna prepared to get off at her stop, she said that she believes every interaction with someone is the result of divine intervention. For Donna, sitting next to me and talking about her retirement savings and plans was helpful. I'm glad that I could be part of God's plan.

Son of evil street

No matter how many times we turn our backs on God, He is always there for us, welcoming us back home. Victor Torres is a prime example of Christ's grace. Torres started using heroin at age 14. He spent his teenage years as a drug pusher and got into a lot of trouble as a gang member. When Torres was 21, he became another Teen Challenge success story. He gave his life to Christ.

Since that time, Torres has been changing others' lives. He attended Bible school in California, founded a drug addiction rehabilitation home in Richmond, Va., and now is the pastor of New Life Outreach International Church.

Torres chronicled his life in a book called "Son of Evil Street". Thank goodness for Christ and His ability to transform lives.

Happy Easter!

Blessings to everyone as today we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus! I know of a couple Easter celebrations today that are different from the traditional ham, potatoes and dinner rolls Easter dinner.

My family's celebration today is one example. My dad is coming over. We're going to church. Then we're going to a Mexican restaurant. It probably will not be crowded. And all of my family loves Mexican food.

Another example: a friend of mine and his family are going to church. After that, they are going to have some friends over for a rousing game of "Killer Bunnies and the Quest for the Magic Carrot". (I wonder if there's an Easter Bunny card included in this game about homicidal rabbits!)

In an interesting example of the Internet imitating life, if you click on the Killer Bunnies image on the left-hand column of images and then use the back button on your browser, another image will appear! The images multiply rapidly just like rabbits if you do this over and over!

Delivery people for God

I'm reading "Naturally Supernatural: Joining God in His Work" by Gary Best for my small group at church. It's filled with exciting and amazing stories of how God uses people to heal others and develop relationships with them.

By amazing, I mean genuinely amazing. We're talking people being healed of broken knuckles; one leg being two inches shorter than the other; and an example from p. 108 of a person being healed of a serious wrist injury:

I [the author, a pastor] gathered a team of twenty-somethings to pray for his wrist. They gathered around him and repeated what I had done in the bar -- they began praying over him God's wonderful invitation, ending by praying for his wrist. When they were finished, he literally couldn't speak. With tears in his eyes, he tried to describe, through gestures, the Presence that was resting on him. He discovered over the next few weeks that his arm was completely healed.

I often wonder what my spiritual gift would be, how I could best deliver "packages from God" to people. I'm sure that God has and will use me somehow. I just need to remember that it's not about me; it's about Him and letting the Holy Spirit flow through me to make a difference in this world.

Minnesota Prayer Breakfast

I attended the Minnesota Prayer Breakfast this week in St. Paul. It was an excellent event, because many people of different political opinions were able to gather together to talk about one thing that they had in common: God and the power of prayer.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty talked about the need to pray for our troops. Brad Anderson, the CEO of Best Buy, gave the keynote speech and related a story about a close call on a recent airline flight that he took. There was a rough landing at LaGuardia Airport; he prayed before landing. Instead of praying for survival, Anderson found himself immediately praying for forgiveness.

We all need God's forgiveness. In addition, we all need to forgive each other.