Weekend Preview | A Dimly Lit Room: Part 3 – How He Does It
I hope you’ve been enjoying our series about the Holy Spirit “A Dimly Lit Room”. We’ve looked at WHO the Holy Spirit is and WHAT He does over the past 2 weeks. As we prepare to close it out this Sunday – we are going to discuss HOW He shows up in our lives everyday.
The best way to share this with you is through one of our #hopeLKN stories. We have several of them here on the blog site – most of them are from our Sunday when we gave away over $10,000 to the folks at Journey to invest in bringing HOPE to someone in LKN. Here is one of the latest stories of HOPE from Don Gentry.
“Several months ago Matt challenged us on a Sunday morning to take the money given to us and make a difference in our LakeNorman area. I felt kind of bad, but we hadn’t used our money until June 9th. My wife and I had decided we were already going to multiply what we received, but we really hadn’t found anything that we felt compelled to give towards. Then it happened. I was putting KidZone signs out one day and driving the church van to prepare it for Camp KidJam. It was a very busy day and I was in a “hurry.”
As I was setting up the signs, a man named “Bob” came up to me and asked if our church could help him. He and his wife had split up, actually she had kicked him out of the house. He had been sleeping in the car in 100 degree weather. I told him to come down to my office around 10:30 and I would see what I could do
When he returned to my office he shared more of his story with me and I felt compelled to help him. As a church, we have a network of referrals but we don’t help with hotels. Then it hit me, “HopeLKN money,” so I decided to put him up in a hotel for at least a night and I gave him several more phone numbers in our referral network that he could call for additional help.
He used the room and was exceedingly grateful. I really wasn’t expecting much from the chance encounter, but a couple of weeks later Bob came into my office to thank me for helping him that night. He then went on to share that he called some of the other numbers and found additional help. He got connected to Steel Creek church. Within those two weeks, he surrendered his life and addictions to the Lord!! He sat in my office a completely changed man!
He called me again on Tuesday June 30th to tell me that he got baptized! He and his wife are still not reconciled yet, but he knows that he hurt her over the years and he knows he has to change. He recognizes that he has to change for God not for himself or her, but for God. He has gotten himself into counseling and a few other support groups.
It has been an amazing story of change in the course of three weeks and it isn’t over yet. God is doing some remarkable things in his life and it has been great to get to know Bob and see how God is changing him from the inside out.
The next time a stranger comes up and asks for money – ask yourself, “will you take time to get to know their story?” I didn’t know it at the time, but helping Bob that day simply gave him the spark of hope that he needed to make it through another day and give God a chance. Remember, the BEST WAY to bring HOPE to LKN (#hopeLKN) is to humbly point everyone to absolute hope!”
The Person of the Holy Spirit is at work EVERY SINGLE DAY of our lives and sometimes we just need to be open to stepping into the story that is happening all around us.
Join us Sunday as we finish our series and discuss how we can be more aware of His presence and power every day of our lives!