So it ended up that in order to get back to MO from CO after the break was up I had to take the Greyhound. This wasn’t the plan at all. While in the station I decided that in light of the new found philosophy I would pray for more divine appointments and opportunities to share Him. Some of my awesome friends just so happened to give me several copies of the Great Controversy to hand out. Little did they know I needed them for a specific purpose! My prayer before getting on the bus was for God to sit me by somebody that would actually want or need a Great Controversy. Just going off of how closed the general public is these days to religious material…this would be an answer to prayer in and of itself. I also had several “Share The Vision” discs I had gotten from a booth at the conference. They contained books, articles, and seminars giving the true story behind Ellen White and her ministry, which is nice since so many people post terrible lies or quote her out of context giving her a bad name when her entire purpose was to point people to Jesus and the Word while giving greater clarity to prophecies and Biblical teachings as they relate to people living in our times. So me and my bag sit on the bus and I end up by a random guy to my left ( I had aisle seat), a middle aged guy to my right, a guy in front of him, and a homeless guy behind me. The memories are fragmented now so I will just narrate what I remember. I was sitting down with my purse on my lap and my seat mate notes that I have the Bible in my purse. Somehow all the people I just mentioned and myself get into a small conversation about God and I got to show them one of the articles that  the friend that gave me the Great Controversy’s gave me that showed a lot of archaeological findings from the Bible. Noah’s Ark, the Red Sea crossing, Noah’s encampment, Sodom and Gomorrah ruins, and more. They were interested in spiritual things so I popped out the books. I handed one to the two guys next to me. Then the guy in front looked jealous. He heard my description of what it was about and you could tell he wanted one. When I pulled out another he said with joy “You have another one!” He was all smiles. Then the homeless guy behind me said something random that he thought he heard me say which was of course not what I said. I said no, I was actually discussing this book I had. I pulled it out and he happily accepted it. Come to find out one of the guys fiancees just died two weeks ago of stomach cancer. I tried to offer him some comfort and at one point was tearing up with him. I had to put my arm over his shoulder and I told him about mom and how I knew it was so hard. You could tell he was glad to have people around him to talk to. He said he was planning on killing himself but his friend who was sitting next to him saved him. He had some twisted views on the last days so I think the book can benefit him a lot. He was a very nice guy. While we were talking the homeless guy started rambling random stuff that I couldn’t quite make sense of. As I listened I noticed that a lot of what he was saying sounded like the New Age perspective that I previously posted about. He referred to Jesus as “the perfect master” (masters of wisdom) and spoke of mystical places and symbols and the fact that he had traveled for 10 years looking for true love with the one he would crown queen so they could reach Valhalla. The entire time my mind was racing…his thoughts were very esoteric and confused. I asked him what he believed of Jesus and he said he wasn’t sure about the role of Jesus as son of God or of the fact that He died for our sins. I told him that I was concerned that he was missing the entire point of who Jesus was, His ministry, and His plan for us. He asked what if it is all lies. He seemed very paranoid and full of random disjointed mystical information. I was praying in my head the whole time I didn’t know what to do. I imagined having to pray out loud for this man then and there because he was clearly dealing with some supernatural phenomena. A lot of what he was saying led me to believe he had been involved in Satanic occult groups, he associated himself with some kind of organization I don’t remember the name of, but with twisted versions of the truth like those within the New Age movement. Then on a crazy side note, the guy next to me started speaking to me as if delivering a message from the angels (he spoke of a long standing gift/duty he had to deliver important messages from God to people)…it was very cryptic and weird. I am not convinced that the spirit he was sent by was of God. His message to me was:

1. That I had some very hard times soon to come in my life based on the path I have chosen and that I needed to keep my chin up. These would be very frustrating things but I would get through.

2. That I would have to make some big decision soon and that I was looking for something. The decision had to do with my siblings and that I need to be careful how I go about it because pushing someone strongly toward the light can make them cling harder to darkness.

 3. That I have a special God given gift, that is, getting people that I don’t know to open up to me and feel comfortable with me, and to never use my gift for my own benefit. He also said, as if realizing what he speculated all along was true, that I was “one of His special ones”. One of God’s special children with a special purpose. He mentioned the broken light behind us casting a rainbow down on me which he showed me later. (The whole time he spoke to me I was totally confused and questioning where on earth he was getting this stuff, but since it was related enough to go with what was happening, I had to listen).

4. Then he spoke as if he saw things differently, like insights into the spiritual realm when he saw people, and that 3 people to be exact on the bus had already lost their souls, and due to his particular gift/calling, he was to have no contact with these people and nothing to do with them. (This whole thing screams that he was of another spirit because no one but God knows who is lost and who is saved). Once he told me this part I asked what he thought of the homeless guy situation as I’m sure he heard our conversation. And he said he had nothing to say or do with that. I asked why, and he just said he didn’t. Then as I mentally said “as in he is one of the 3 you were referring to having lost their souls?” he looked me dead in the eyes (I hadn’t verbalized a thing) and he said that I catch on quickly. I asked what he was implying. That he was already lost and there was no point in trying to work this stuff out with him? He said that was really up to me, but he personally wasn’t  allowed to associate with him. I found this very odd. Then in McDonalds the homeless guy walked by us and I looked at the message guy very casually…he said “you were looking to see what facial expression I would make when he passed weren’t you?” That is exactly what I was doing…awkward.

Later on at the bus station during a layover the homeless guy began talking to me again and reiterated his qualm that what I said to be truth could potentially be a lie. Then he mentioned that the book I gave him had a lot of wisdom in it. (I noticed him intently reading it in the bus for a while, and the two other guys clutched them like treasures and got territorial with them when people asked whose they were when they saw them on the seats…they clearly didn’t take them as some random trash book they planned on throwing away). Oh yeah I also gave each of them one of the CD’s that I had on Ellen White’s ministry so they could know who it was they were reading. They were all happy to have them. I also wrote down in each of their books a sermon title by Philip Sizemore that goes over EGW’s place in actual Bible prophecy. VERY INTERESTING! So they could look it up. Here it is for those interested. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHTWc6BwDrY&playnext=1&list=PLA769063F56C2BDA1&feature=results_video. Anyways…he asked if I could help him out with some food and I gave him some cash. He was very grateful. Once I arrived in my town and got off the bus, not expecting to see any of them on my way into the office, he popped around the corner and with a huge smile called out to me and said thanks so much for everything. I didn’t know he saw me leave! To top it off, in the spirit of sharing I tried to give my last copy of the Great Controversy to two others sitting near me in the bus before both blatantly said that they didn’t want it, not knowing what it was or caring to find out. I had become so confident that EVERYONE must clearly want this treasure of a book since obviously all these guys took them with such receptiveness. No…it was a lesson. Pray about each soul as you go along. You can’t ever assume. I had prayed initially and the fruit poured forth. The moment I just thought it was a given they refused. But yet again God’s hand was even in the refusal. Armed with ONE more copy of the book and a CD I go into the tiny greyhound office waiting to find a ride home  (I initially wasn’t going to get off in my town I was going to continue to STL so the fact that I was even in this office at the time was a spur of the moment decision, literally within 45 seconds of the driver stopping for 5 minutes, I didn’t know I wanted to get off until just then, when I asked he said if he couldn’t find my bag quickly I couldn’t get off because he didn’t have time…well he found it right away and it turns out someone needed my seat as well). So when I get into the office this mixed guy comes up to me with ONE THING on his mind. He starts asking if I am a “mixed breed” and how old am I “must be one of the young ones”, do I live here…etc. Sniffing me out like he had a specific purpose. I asked if he lived there and he said he just got out of prison. When I got silent to his questions he realized he made me uncomfortable and he said he would leave me alone. On my way to the bathroom I sat that final copy in his lap and didn’t say a word. By the time I came out he was reading it intently not looking up to see me or anything else. THIS IS WHY GOD spared that copy. Need I say more? God and His divine appointments. I am just being shocked over and over with JUST HOW MUCH God is willing to use us in regular old daily situations that under normal circumstances we waste. NEVER despise an opportunity…I am learning this loud and clear. I am just in awe that what the guy at GYC said was true. “So many miracles God had planned to work for us…for His glory, we never witness because we don’t make ourselves available to the encounter. We don’t go in faith and help the person on the side of the road or share the gospel with someone we are nervous about talking with.” (Something to that effect). The point is we could be EXACTLY what that person needed desperately in their lives right then and could have in turn been hugely blessed and strengthened in the experience yet we walk on by going about our lame daily lives, giving no thought to those around us. This is a lesson I am still learning and trying to improve on…I pray God keeps opening doors and placing me specifically in line with His appointments because the feeling is AWESOME!!!! It feels like a supernatural warfare mission and I am allowed to work special ops just for Him. And with faith and the will to submit…nothing can stop us Christians from making a huge dent in this cold world that is turning their face from God. God can use someone being attracted to you as a witnessing opportunity, he can use suddenly changed travel plans, he can use misunderstandings, and when worse comes to worse he can make the rocks cry out if we are unwilling to get it done. But how much more awesome would it be if we had a front lines opportunity to form into better Christians, more on fire for God, ready to take the Word to all that will listen and ultimately be truly ready to go home to Heaven in the end ourselves by simply SEIZING THE OPPORTUNITIES all around us rather than making God call on inanimate objects to speak of Him. Wake up my friends. God has a special and powerful work for us.