Scriptural Basis, longer version, part 3

  Seeing Jesus in circumstances

And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.   Romans 8:28

We have an abundance of insight into God’s will as revealed in His word.  We also know that while we can walk in the light in fellowship with Jesus, and have been transferred out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God’s Son, we daily deal with the evil in our culture and our hearts, the forces of the world which seek to turn us away from God and a host of unseen powers that oppose God’s kingdom, making us blind to it, deaf to His voice and confused concerning His will.  

While Scripture has clear statements of how Jesus is at work, there are more subtle ways that we can also identify His activity.  One of these ways is seeing circumstances come together in ways which accord with His will, that seem extremely unlikely without His involvement, and that result in His glory.  These can be on a personal level, a family or group level, and a larger scale.

On a personal level, evangelists and missionaries frequently speak of “divine appointments,” in which God brings to them or leads them to someone that during their conversation they recognize God’s purpose and plan and timeliness. Of course based on Romans 8:28 any believer can recognize how God arranges circumstances and events and brings people to them for their good, whether at certain moments when something happens that makes God’s work suddenly clear, or at times when they look back and reflect on their lives over many years and then recognize how God was orchestrating their decisions and circumstances to bring them to where they are now. Biographies of Christian leaders can be examples of God working all things together for good. 

Christian historians help us see God’s involvement on large scales.  One source of examples is the book Seven Miracles the Saved America by Chris and Ted Stewart.  These include:

  • Christopher’s Columbus’s discovery of the New World and the undeniable hand of God that led him here. 
  • The miracle of Jamestown and the English colonist’s survival of the “starving time,” which assured that America would be settled by a religiously oriented and religiously tolerant people.
  • The Battle of New York during the Revolutionary War, in which an unexplainable fog shrouded the East River on an August morning, allowing General George Washington and his army to escape annihilation at the hands of the British Troops.
  • The miraculous creation of the United States Constitution, forever setting the United States up as the ‘shining city on the hill.”
  • The miracle of Abraham Lincoln and Gettysburg, in which God answered the president’s desperate prayer – an event that literally changed the future of the world.
  • The incredibly unlikely scenario that played out in the Battle of Midway during World War II, paving the way for the Allies to win the war.
  • The miracle that saved the life of President Ronald Reagan, allowing him to go on to play a major role in defeating communism…

Each of these “miracles” requires considerable explanation (the book is 356 pages) to show the prayers, intents, circumstances and outcomes that together reveal God working all things together for good.

Whether on a personal or larger level, capturing how God brought people and events together to reveal His glory and kingdom may be hard to distill into brief statements. But if you can, please send them to us, to include in our 140-year blog of statement of how Jesus has been at work in Idaho Falls. But we want the longer versions too, to add to our book Jesus in Idaho Falls. The more we see Jesus and how He has been at work around us, I believe the more we will be aligned with His will for us and for our city.


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