Bruce Collins, Evangelist

Meditation for the week of October 5, 2008

Acts 8:26
Now an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying, “Arise and go toward the south along the road which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is desert.

I am told that are three kinds of people. There are those who make things happen, those who watch things happen and those who wonder what happened. We are all supposed to be self-starters who make things happen. But I like it better when I am in the right place at the right time and get to watch things happen.

Philip was directed into a desert to meet a man who was already reading his Bible and had already gotten to Isaiah 53 in his reading. This man was hungry for the truth and Philip was able to explain to him the way of salvation. He preached unto Him Jesus. The man was saved while Philip was talking to him and proved it by being baptized. Often we who try to make things happen look and look for an opportunity like that. But when we are guided by the Lord to that kind of an opportunity, it causes us to rejoice and to just stand back and say “wow!”

I often go to a local coffee and bread shop to study in the afternoons. I have found that if I have a Bible out and my computer booted up, people often approach me and ask what I am doing. This gives me an opportunity to talk to them that I wouldn’t get by going door to door and handing out literature. I don’t make things happen, I am just there and available so that when the Lord wants things to happen I can be involved. Late last week, I needed to get some things done and the phone had been ringing off the hook at home. I thought I needed a quiet place to study. I knew that if I went to my usual coffee shop I might not get anything done. So I changed locations. I was working on some notes on prayer for a message that I would be giving over the weekend. While I was at this spot where almost nobody knows me, I had three people approach me and ask me what I was doing and whether the Internet was available. Two of them didn’t give me opportunity to share the Gospel with them but the third person was a hostess in the restaurant with a little down time. She not only asked me what I was doing but wanted to know what I was going to say when I spoke on prayer. I found out that she was going to a church that calls itself Christian, however, many would call it a cult. Before we were done talking she asked me if I would print my notes and give them to her. I couldn’t do that because I didn’t have a printer available but I was able to email them to her right then while we were talking.

After she left I said, “Wow!” I had been directed to a new fishing hole and the Lord had led someone to me who had an interest in Spiritual things. I wish I could say that she stayed with me until I could ask her if she believed that Jesus Christ was the Son of God, but that didn’t happen. But I still felt a little like Abraham’s servant who was sent to find a bride for Isaac. When he had prayed and had found Rebeka as an answer to prayer he said, “Blessed be the LORD God of my master Abraham, who has not forsaken His mercy and His truth toward my master. As for me, being on the way, the LORD led me to the house of my master’s brethren (Genesis 24:27).”

When we make things happen, sometimes we do things our way instead of the Lord’s way. I find it comforting to know that the Lord can still lead us to people who are hungering for the Truth if we will just let Him. Watching things happen can be so much more fulfilling that making things happen.

Bruce Collins