You've Got Mail

I'm starting to think God uses email.

Now before you think I'm being sacrilegious, hear me out. Of course, I don't think He has email. But I can't tell you the many times I've been sent (or tweeted) a Bible verse or devotion that spoke right to me. Nor can I tell you how often He has guided someone to speak (ok, type!) a kind word to me, a word of encouragement, when one was desperately needed. I am gaining confidence in sharing my faith because of the people He is placing in my path that are unafraid to share theirs.

When I was a little girl, one of my Bible School teachers once told me that if you just randomly open your Bible, the first verse you see is the one you need. Now, I'm not too sure I believe that; I'm awfully skeptical about, well, just about all of those kind of things. Besides, I almost always end up in Psalms, being that it is in the middle of the book. And so much of Psalms isn't more than words of comfort and caring...no directions, no step-by-step instructions of a perfect life. So that can't possibly be right.

WAIT A MINUTE.

Usually what I'm needing at that point IS a promise of a caring, loving God. Someone who's there for me always, never forsaking me. In fact, it seems to me that no matter where I "get" the verse, it's like I'm "supposed" to read it. In church, passages seem to be ones I need to hear. The Daily Bible Verse that is delivered by email each day tweaks a nerve more often than not; the passages in Our Daily Bread and The Upper Room do the same. Incredibly enough, the website of a UFC fighter (Matt Hughes) held one of the most beautiful verses I never would have found on my own.

1 Timothy 1:15-16: This is a trustworthy saying, and everyone

should

accept it: “Christ Jesus came into the world to

save

sinners”—and I am the worst of them all. But God had

mercy

on me so that Christ Jesus could use me as a prime

example of his great patience with even the worst

sinners.

Then others will realize that they, too, can believe in him

and receive eternal life.

Now, I know it sounds like I'm picturing the world revolving around me, but isn't that a parable, too? Even one lost lamb this Shepard would come and look for, give His life for. So I know He is speaking to me, guiding me, placing people in my life who are helping me on my journey. They're turning up from the most amazing places! Even on the world wide web...