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Today's thought comes from the message I preached at the nursing home yesterday. It never ceases to amaze me how God organizes spiritual events around a particular need or concern I have--and yesterday was one of those days, so He made sure I got to preach the message to both sides of the nursing home, meaning He preached it through me and to me twice. I called it "God's Unusual Ways Of Providing."
Solomon was once the wisest man to ever live, but he became very unwise when he married so many women and then allowed them to turn him to their idolatry. God finally came to him and told him the consequences of his sin would be a divided nation. After he died, the people were divided--10 nations to the north and 2 to the south.
The north kingdom did not have ONE SINGLE GODLY KING. They started with Jeroboam, who set up two golden calves for idols, and it went down from there until finally one very wicked man came on the scene named Ahab--with his even more wicked wife Jezebel.
In all this depravity, God still sent faithful men to preach and warn His people. Two of the most dynamic men of the Old Testament were among them--Elijah and Elisha.
Elijah walked into the king's throne room one day and announced that there would be no more rain of any kind until he said so. Then God told him to go hide at the brook Cherith--not because God couldn't protect him, I don't think, but because, I believe, God wanted to mature His man even more. For God also told him that ravens would bring him his food twice a day. We know what kind of birds ravens are and what kind of food they normally call cuisine! But in this case, God did a mighty miracle and changed the minds of these ravens so they brought Elijah good, fresh meat!
This went on until the brook dried, then God did another unusual thing: He told Elijah to go to Zaraphath--a GENTILE nation. Jews and Gentiles did not mingle! But Elijah obeyed because God told him there would be someone there to take care of him.
Sure enough, he met this woman, out gathering sticks, who told him she was about to make the last meal for herself and son.
"Make me a cake first," he said. Now that by itself would be very arrogant and selfish, but then he continued with a promise, "As the LORD lives, your meal and oil will not deplete." By faith the woman obeyed. Can you see him as he sits down to pray over his meal! Can you see her now as she tiptoes back to the kitchen and her eyes light up as there before her is a full barrel of meal and cruse of oil! Can you see her as day after day they live from that unusual way God worked!
Then her son died, and it brought another sorrow to her. But the man of God was used again to bring this son back to life.
The whole point of this brief thought is this: God sometimes uses very unusual and unconventional ways to meet our needs. This means we must be extra alert so we don't miss them! This means also that we need to be grateful for WHATEVER way God chooses to help us in times of distress and trouble--even if that help is a little "waiting period."
(Oh, if you want to know what MY need was that day, my furnace went on the blink and I could not get anything done about it right then. I had already planned this message and a song I sang in our Gems & Jewels class that went right along with what I needed for this day. On top of that, my daily Bible reading and meditation also fit in with the need for this day. And, so did this message I had prepared just a day before!)
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