Hi, this is Joni Eareckson Tada and welcome to Joni and Friends. You know how you plan on one thing, and something completely different always happens? It occurs all the time, doesn’t it? And it happens because God is usually – no, I take that back – He is always the one who designs that “something else” to take place!
Take what happened when I was in Boston, Massachusetts not long ago. I had been asked to be a part of the speaker series at the historic Park Street Church in honor of its 200th anniversary. Because the church is still evangelical, the pastor asked me to be very evangelistic in my message – they had put the word out to their congregation to bring all their unsaved friends so that they could hear the Gospel. Well, when I got up to share my testimony that Sunday morning, I really centered on Jesus -- who He is, all that He means to me. The church was packed and I knew – you know how just sometimes you know that the Spirit of Christ is really moving? Well I knew it, I could tell. I could tell God was touching hearts.
But little did I know that in the congregation that morning sat a Chinese scholar. He had come from the People’s Republic of China that summer to study in Boston. He was also serving as an adjunct professor (so you know this man’s grasp of English was pretty good). Anyway, as I spoke, tears – something that this Chinese intellectual never permitted – actual tears began to fill his eyes. He understood what I was talking about when I shared about suffering and depression, doubts and fears. More importantly, he kept listening when I spoke about the hope and help I had found in Jesus Christ. I made the Gospel clear; I described how sin kills and hell is real, but God is merciful and His kingdom can change you and Jesus Christ is the way, the only way.
After the service was over, this Chinese scholar turned to his friend who had brought him and asked, “What must I do to be saved? I want to be saved.” And that morning his friend led him in a personal prayer to embrace Christ as Savior. When I heard that this intellectual from China had become a Christian, I smiled to think that never, ever when he applied for his visa… never did he dream when he signed up for his classes at Boston University… never did he think that God was about to assign a much higher priority to his trip to Boston; for God was up to something much bigger and more important: the eternal state of this man's soul.
And it goes to underscore -- and this should speak to you today -- that when it comes to all our plans, be sure God is always working on a bigger picture. He's taking those plans of yours and He’s extrapolating them out, assigning divine purposes to everything. Listen to the way Acts 17 describes God's higher agenda, for it says there that, “From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.” Well, that Chinese scholar didn't realize it, but God had determined the exact place – Boston, Massachusetts -- and the exact time -- a Sunday morning when I was speaking -- so that this Chinese man would seek Him and reach out and find God. Amazing. And just to think, God does it all the time. Even with you. God has determined the exact place you should live and work and travel to... and not only the place, but He’s determined your days (who you should meet, what you will hear)... also that you will see Him today and reach out to Him and find Him in some new, fresh way. Remember that, should you happen to bump into a scholar from China...
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