PROOF

Every Sunday evening, Dan and Doris Berg lead a Bible Study for a Hispanic family. It is an ongoing ministry of love. One evening, after logging 340 miles on the road with his job with Wickes, Dan borrowed Tom Neville’s pick-up truck to help the family move to another location in Hillsboro. One of the nephews, Jacob, about twenty-one years of age, accompanied Dan as they transported furniture. Jacob shared with him his desire to get away from a hazardous lifestyle that involved gangs and all that goes with spending time with bad company. While Dan listened, he spoke of his need for God—something he had not told anyone else.

About 11:00 p.m. the truck they were driving, broke down on the freeway. Already exhausted, and now stranded, this was a trial for which Dan did not volunteer. But, he put his head on the steering wheel and prayed, “Lord, you know our situation, please help us fix this truck so we can move this furniture.” Jacob also bowed his head. About five minutes later, a man in a rig towing a trailer stopped behind them. He asked what was wrong and if he could help. As it turned out, he was a mechanic. After looking inside the hood at the engine, he discovered that the fuel line for one of the gas tanks was shut off. He connected the line and the truck roared to life! After the man was done, the subject of heaven came up. Dan was able to share with the mechanic that God’s love was sufficient to save him if he would trust in Christ.

Dan said, “Jacob’s jaw dropped and his eyes were wide open.” He could only shake his head in amazement. Very rarely will anyone stop alongside a freeway late at night to help two men. It was plainly apparent that God directly answered Dan’s prayer. When the two men rejoined the rest of the family, Jacob told his wife, “We are definitely going to Dan’s church on Sunday.”

Meditation

1 Peter 1:7—These (trials) have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.

Sometimes we Christians get so caught up in defending our values and searching for the right way to communicate the gospel message that we forget that what people desperately need is to experience GOD! When we pray in faith to the Lord and expect Him to intervene, we nourish His life in us and give evidence of His reality. Jacob saw God ratify Dan’s prayer and it profoundly moved him. It is proof far more than platitudes that beckons hearts to trust in an open-handed Father. Our neighbors, co-workers and unsaved family members are attracted to Jesus by what they see Him doing in our every day living as opposed to our Sunday morning excursions to what most view as a quick God-fix. Do you need confirmation that God is real? Then put Him to the test. Don’t talk about what He did in your life twenty years ago; rely on Him to work through you right now! All right—let’s get going . . . on the road again!

Inspiration

The Bible does not prove the existence of God, nor does it prove that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. The Bible was written to confirm the faith of those who already believe in God.—Oswald Chambers in Shade of His Hand