Every Detail Handled

I have a severe limp in my left leg. My doctor decided on an MRI of my lumbar region to see what could be determined as to a cause.

A day or two after seeing him, I got a call from the VA. As it was a work day, I let the call go to voicemail. When I finally had the time to play the message, I found it to be the rather typical and generic request for me to call back to schedule the appointment. So I called back, and the person I spoke with asked me several questions (“Do I have a pacemaker?”; “Do I have a stent?”; “Do I have any shrapnel in me?”; etc.) related to getting an MRI. The person then said someone would call me again in 7-10 days to finalize the appointment.

As the days went by, I developed several questions for the follow-up call, such as: Could it be an open MRI so I wouldn’t have to go into the tube?; Could it be done as an “outpatient” procedure so I wouldn’t have to secure a driver or have to pack for an overnight stay at the facility?; If no local VA facility has an open MRI unit, could this be done at a private facility?; And if so, would that facility accept VA coverage?

Eventually I got the follow-up call, which again I had to let go to voicemail. I listened to the message when I could, expecting the same typical and generic request for a callback. Instead, the person who left the message listed every detail of the appointment:

• It would be open MRI, at a private facility
• The VA will fully cover the procedure
• The facility is nearby, literally just the next town over
• The procedure is “outpatient”: I show up a little early for prep; I have the procedure; and I’m done
• It’s scheduled for a day I already have off on my work schedule, so I don’t have to shuffle days around
• It’s a late-morning appointment, so I don’t have to rush to get ready

For me, this is literally Abba Yehovah Himself personally answering each question (through the caller) before I had a chance to ask them. (I did call the person back to let him know I got his message.)

This demonstrates not only our God’s faithfulness, but also His great thoughtfulness and kindness, as well as His attention to detail.

If you haven’t yet made Jesus your personal Savior, today – right now – is the best time to do so. You can ask Him in your own words, or use some version of the Sinner’s Prayer. Remember, Jesus – Yeshua – turns no-one away.

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© 2023 Zero Faith Saint

Hearing from the Holy Spirit (Part 5 of 7)

You may note that this 5-part series is now a 7-part series. That’s because of two recent experiences I must share with you.

After all, five is great; yet seven is perfect.

(Yes, that’s a tease of a forth-coming lesson.)

The Title
I had purchased a truck, and needed to sell my sedan. Eventually a fellow student in the Vocational class I was taking agreed to buy it, and we settled on a time and location to make the transfer.

It was now the day before that transfer, and I still hadn’t set out the sedan’s title; so I went to the location where I (thought I) had put it – and it wasn’t there. So I checked another location. No good. Now a mild panic started to set in.

Almost immediately I heard the gently-whispered phrase, Check the drawer. Along with that phrase came the understanding of which drawer. I happen to be a nerd and geek, and like many nerds and geeks I collect memorabilia. My mother had bought for me a China cabinet so I could display some of my items. The bottom section was storage, and just inside the main door was a “hidden” drawer, about 15” square but only about an inch deep. It was meant, I presumed, for holding provenance of one’s collectibles. In other words, flat paper documents. Yet my internal response to Ruach’s prompt was, No, I wouldn’t have put it there, that would be foolish.

So I checked this file and that stack of papers and this cabinet and that other location, each time failing to find the title; each time getting more and more panicked; each time hearing that gentle prompt and each time rejecting it.

So I finally looked in that China drawer, and there was my sedan’s title, right on top of everything else. Had I listened to Ruach haKodesh immediately, I would’ve saved myself time and a great deal of emotional distress.

[FYI: It’s entirely possible I received such help from Ruach prior to this. This incident is the earliest I recall having explicitly heard a specific phrase.]

If you haven’t yet made Jesus your personal Savior, today – right now – is the best time to do so. You can ask Him in your own words, or use some version of the Sinner’s Prayer. Remember, Jesus – Yeshua – turns no-one away.

<<< Part 4 of this series

Part 6 of this series >>>

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© 2022 Zero Faith Saint

The Specificity of God’s Faithfulness

If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself.
—2 Timothy 2:13

So much of Christianity is and has been focused on our faith – effectively making faith a work, a labor to be accomplished, rather than simply being confident in God – that we hardly ever hear of God’s own faithfulness.

Something fascinating happened to me, or for me, quite recently. In fact it was the night of Tuesday, 05 April 2022. I was about to go to bed when I just happened to notice that the time on my clock-radio was off, behind by about fifteen minutes. I checked the clock on my stove, then the time on my smartphone. My stove was correct; so it obviously wasn’t a brief power outage.

I can only guess that in checking the alarm for the next morning, I somehow bobbled one or more of the other buttons, inadvertently messing up the time. But because I was tired, and because fixing the clock-radio meant fiddling with small buttons and smaller labels, I let it go and set the alarm on my phone. Which, thank God, woke me up at the correct time.

At this point you might be thinking that, yes, this is a great demonstration of God’s faithfulness: not only making me aware of the incorrect time on my clock-radio, but also providing an alternative – my smartphone – which successfully woke me up at the correct time the next morning so I wouldn’t be late for work.

And you’d be right … up to the part about going to work.

See, that next day, Wednesday, April 06, was a day off for me.

In case you’re wondering why I’d get up via alarm on a day off, there are two reasons:

• Six days out of seven I get up at the same time because it helps me maintain a good sleep cycle.
• There’s a comedy show that comes on a half hour after I get up. On my days off I live-tweet the show during breakfast with about a dozen other regular fans.

So now you might be thinking this is ridiculous: that I’m giving God credit for my not missing a comedic live-tweet session (not to mention building a lesson around that). Um, yes, that is exactly what I’m doing.

There are several aspects to this: Had that next day been a work day, I might’ve become panicky about the lagging time on my clock-radio. Even if I reset it, worry about this still-unexplained error, and the possibility of it happening again during the night, may have plagued my mind and affected the quality of my sleep. Even relying on my smartphone – then an unproven solution – might have bothered me subconsciously and impacted my sleep.

Instead, because it happened the night before a free day, the worst that could’ve happened was missing the show (and maybe buying a new clock-radio). It was also an opportunity to test my smartphone’s alarm function (and monitor the clock-radio throughout the day). And of course, I was able to enjoy the social interaction of the live-tweeting session.

There is plenty of evidence of God’s specificity in the Bible. Exodus 12:17&18 gives us the specific period for the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Exodus also gives us the very specific instructions for building the Tabernacle in the Wilderness. God does not tend only to the “big things” in our lives. He has numbered the hairs of your head; He is a deeply caring father who also looks after the intimate details of our lives.

Just in case you still doubt the value or validity of this lesson, here’s another example from around that same time. But first, some context:

For the last several years I’ve been working part-time. At my previous job I had a modest wage, and few hours. Things were quite tight for me. When the renewal packet arrived for last year’s home insurance, I e-mailed the company, explaining my situation and asking for a quarterly break-out of payments instead of a lump sum. Thank God, they complied.

My new job is also part-time. A slightly better wage, and more hours; nonetheless, still part-time. So when this year’s renewal packet arrived, I thought it wise to make the same request again. I checked the packet’s invoice sheet to verify the e-mail address … and found the bill was already broken out into quarterly payments! God had answered my request before I even made it! Now that’s the specificity of God’s faithfulness.

(By the way, in case you’re wondering what happened to my lesson on hearing from the Holy Spirit, fret not! I’ve begun work on the second installment.)

If you haven’t yet made Jesus your personal Savior, today – right now – is the best time to do so. You can ask Him in your own words, or use some version of the Sinner’s Prayer. Remember, Jesus – Yeshua – turns no-one away.

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Please subscribe to this blog so you can receive new lessons via e-mail. Also, please follow me on Twitter. And please share this blog with your relatives and friends.

© 2022 Zero Faith Saint