One summer evening, we got into the car to visit some new friends that we had never met. The Southwestern Union had mailed 20,000 Bible study request cards to the homes in my pastoral district. That day my wife, Amy, accompanied me and a number of church members as we prayerfully pre- pared to visit those who had expressed interest in the study materials. It would have been much easier to follow up these contacts by mail, but we wanted to personally connect with our new friends in the community.
It was a random zip code mailing, a random response, a random evening picked for follow-up, and a random decision by my wife to accompany me. A door that Amy knocked on revealed a woman named Gail randomly and excitedly waiting for someone to study the Bible with her. What could be even more random than that? It turned out that her father had been a friend of my wife’s late grandfather in upstate New York—more than 50 years ago.
Random? I don’t think so. God had prearranged for us to meet Gail. If we had simply mailed her the Bible study guide, we may have never made this remarkable connection. This was a divine appointment—and our studies together have been glorious.
“Every soul is fully known to Jesus.” “He knows us all by name. He knows the very house in which we live, the name of each occupant. He has at times given directions to His servants to go to a certain street in a certain city, to such a house, to find one of His sheep.”*
We are convinced there are people just waiting to be contacted. “But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them? And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent?” (Rom. 10:14, 15, NLT). God will bless us with divine appointments as we obey the Great Commission.
