On Tue, 26 Dec 1995 08:55:49 -0500 Glenn wrote:
[...]
GM>I would say that some of the things that do happen to us are
coincidences,
>like finding out that a girl I had a crush on in Junior High in Ardmore,
>Okla. married a guy I was in English class with in Oklahoma City when I was
>in High School and now the guy is the Assistant Principal at the local High
>School where my children went here in Dallas. Or the kid I met in Study Hall
>in High School in Oklahoma City had been in the same kindergarden class with
>me in Cushing Oklahoma 11 years earlier. He had moved to New Mexico then
>back ot Oklahoma. All coincidences. So why is it difficult to believe that
>some of the help we receive is a coincidence? Some isn't, I grant, but some
>probably is.
I believe on the basis of Mt 10:29 and many other verses, that
*nothing* that happens to us is *just* a coincidence, but is all part
of God's plan (although we cannot always understand it).
I am sure we have all had amazing coincidences in our lives. Why don't
we all share them as a New Year lightener? Here is mine:
In 1961 I joined the State Public Service and was arbitrarily (?)
assigned to the Health Department of Western Australia. In 1967 I was
transferred to a Section where I met a young typist named Jenny who
seemed unusually happy and hard-working. I asked her why she was so
happy (I was contemplating suicide), and she said she believed in God.
I questioned her about it and she said she was a Baptist and told me
where my nearest Baptist Church was. I went and was converted to
Christ.
Twenty-seven years later in 1994 I moved back to Perth (a city of over
1 million people) from the country and bought a house at 3 Hawker
Avenue Warwick. I attended the nearest church (Warwick Church of
Christ) and at the end of the service woman came up to me all excited.
It was Jenny, who I hadn't seen for at least 25 years. She asked me
where I lived and when I told her, she became even more excited - she
lived at 9 Hawker Avenue!
Jenny's attendance at that Church and living so close, was a reason
we stayed at WCC. As Baptists we were inclined to try elsewhere. I
felt there must be a reason for this "coincidence". Nearly a year
later I was able to help Jenny's father-in-law John (who has degrees
in geology and philosophy) get over his problem with the days of
Genesis 1. Through my interest in the Creation v Evolution debate, I
just "happened" to have the very book for him: Hugh Ross' "Creation
and Time". John became a Christian a few weeks later.
Was all this "just a coincidence"? I don't think so, but of course a
non-theist can explain it all, purely statistically.
Has anyone else got any "coincidences" to share?
Happy New Year!
Stephen
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| Stephen Jones ,--_|\ sjones@iinet.net.au |
| 3 Hawker Ave / Oz \ http://www.iinet.net.au/~sjones/ |
| Warwick 6024 ->*_,--\_/ phone +61 9 448 7439. (These are |
| Perth, Australia v my opinions, not my employer's) |
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