Stewardship
XI. God's Amazing Love Supplies, Trust Him!
by Bill Hunt
After enduring the trial of the Broken Arrow Tornado the very day we arrived, Mary and I faced finding a home to rent and furniture with which to equip it. But God already knew our need even before we found time to consider our delemna.
“Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?” (Matt. 6:26, NIV.)
God provides our furniture.
Our student host, James, received a surprise phone call from Oral Roberts University. A wealthy lady donated her beautiful dining room and living room furniture for arriving students. She wanted to redecorate her own home with new store furniture. ORU offered us the maple dish hutch, a complete dining room set, brass floor lamps, two high wing back chairs, and a red flowery print love seat. We received these beautiful gifts most gratefully.
In turn, Mary gave James and Sharon the ornate dish hutch as a thank you gift for their wonderful hospitality. We used the maple dining room table and chairs in our home for many years, thereafter.
Don't miss God's Voice!
God taught me to listen to his voice speaking quietly in my heart. I can't say it any other way, sometimes we learn best how to listen right, when we actually listen wrong and fail to heed his voice. At least, I learned my lesson that way!
My wife and I searched neighborhoods, looking for a house to rent for our little family of four children. Upon entering the fenced backyard to view one suburban home on a sunny day, the seeming voices of angels in unison warned me not to touch the expanding leafy bush at the gate. I did NOT heed the voices, excusing what I heard in my spirit as not plausible.
Bad mistake! I ignored this spiritual message and walked right through this shiny leafy bush. For the next two very long weeks, I suffered from poison oak rash and swelling covering my whole face. This proved a major lesson to me to listen to the voice of God and to obey. Let me say, this is not a lesson I want to forget.
God provided even more for our family.
As a graduate divinity student at ORU, I worked part-time and pinched pennies with my wife to support our family. At times we ran short. I remember the week I ate a steady diet of lentils for a few days. Incredibly, at varous times bags of groceries showed up on our doorstep. Or led by God, friends would bring food openly to us.
Fondly, I remember the late afternoon a very tall young male student from my class at the athletic center knocked on our front door. He appeared so pale and bashful, I turned aside to tell Mary I guessed he came for counseling, but I was wrong. Instead, he told me his story.
“After you left the athletic center this morning, God said to me, 'Bill has a need and I want you to meet it'!” he said. "You could not imagine how I found you. I hunted for our athletic instructor to learn your last name. Then, I went to the university admission's office to learn your address, and I came looking for you. I'm not familiar with this part of town, and I don't have a map. I've been hunting for you all afternoon."
He paled white as he told his story. He thrust an amount of cash into my hand to purchase groceries for the family. He admitted he feared I would refuse his gift, and he quickly left. Rather, he blessed me by his story of obedience to God.
God makes a Miracle Christmas!
As the Christmas season approached that year, a friend delivered two huge turkeys, all the fixings, and four loads of wrapped Christmas gifts labeled by children’s ages and gender. Bob McDougall, a charismatic priest and prison psychologist, later served counseling at television's "100 Huntley Street," Canada's "Seven Hundred Club."
Mary and I felt progressively embarrassed as we considered all these colorful gifts he delivered. They numbered more than we wanted our four children to receive. For several days, my wife agonized over what to do. She worried to have too much to spoil our children with. She hunted for people in need and began giving away the excess.
However, God soon revealed another plan! Just days before Christmas, the ORU graduate office called us unexpectedly. They asked us to host an incoming student family from Florida who had no means to find a place to stay.
When they arrived, the student parents explained they firmly decided to downplay Christmas to their children. They knew no money would remain for gifts or food after they exhausted their travel funds.
Mary and I instantly smiled at each other's eyes!
We both recognized why God supplied a Christmas tree dressed in a rainbow of sparkling colored lights and large piles of beautifully wrapped gifts. My wife excitedly noted the gifts were exactly right to meet the different ages, two parents with a school aged boy and a girl, as well as our family's needs, two parents with four younger children.
What a God-made Christmas it proved to be! He supplied the glorious Christmas, the colorful tree, the plentiful gifts, and the turkey dinner for all ten of us, even before we learned the other family was coming our way! But God knew!
It is clear! As the scripture tells us, the Angel of the Lord goes before His servants all along the way.... Why do we worry?
(True Story #11 in the series: Life is a 100 Million Miracles.)
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