June 2024 From the Desk of Dave McLean

Our God Is Real, Our God Is Interested, Our God Is Able

Our A Ray of Hope guests love to hear testimonies in our Bible study and I love to tell them!  They show our God to be real, invested, and powerful, even for ordinary people like ourselves.  I’ll share a couple that are favorites among the guests.

I was in Mexico years ago with a group of high school students from our church.  We were working on an orphanage remodel over spring break.  I had half a dozen students working with me in a large room about 50’ x 40’ in size.  The floor was filled with debris as they had been stripping drywall for the remodel. 

After a short time, I saw them gather together talking and I could tell there was some sort of problem.  After a minute, they proceeded toward me.  They told me that one of the students lost the micro screw holding the lens of his glasses in place.  They thought the screw was about in the middle of the room and the debris was sticky enough that it was sticking to the bottom of their shoes.

We were in the middle of nowhere in a rural area and I didn’t anticipate just driving to a Walmart to pick up a screw.  In addition, I was told that this student wouldn’t be able to work without the glasses.  As we were discussing the situation, the Holy Spirit spoke to me and said, “Ask Me.”  Now, to give you the context of that statement, I had asked the Lord to help me find missing things for years and He would faithfully direct me in a supernatural way, but my first thought was, I’m going to look like a nut if I tell these students to pray for guidance and the Lord doesn’t guide us.  How’s that for a lack of faith?  I’m just being open and honest here.  The Holy Spirit said again, “Ask Me”, and I said, “Yes Sir.”

So, I spoke with the students and told them that the Lord just told me to ask Him.  When you do this, you must believe, ask and then wait for the Lord to answer.  You don’t just turn around and start looking again, because that would be a natural fulfillment.  You wait for the Lord to speak the answer.  They agreed, I prayed, and we waited for the Lord to speak.  I battled back my fear and doubt in doing this in a group I was not familiar with.  Our family had done this dozens upon dozens of times with the Lord moving almost always.  I assume I wasn’t dialed into Him for some reason on the occasions when He didn’t move.

After a few minutes the Holy Spirit said to me; “Walk straight to the wall.”  My first thought was that they said they had lost it in the middle of the room, but I told the students what the Lord had shared, and I walked 15 feet straight to the wall that I was facing, knelt down and an inch from the wall, directly below my eyes, was the screw.  They marveled, I marveled, and I repented in my heart for fearing trusting the Lord in this way before a small audience.  I even confessed to them of my fear in doing this with them.  The Lord so wants to strengthen our faith, particularly amongst others.

In a similar story, I received a call last year from a friend that I hadn’t spoken to or seen in 16 years.  He found my number through an internet search and reached me through A Ray of Hope.  We chatted for a while and, at the end of the conversation, he told me he was still impacted by something I had done twenty years earlier.  I was surprised, so I asked him what it was and he reminded me of an event I had forgotten.

We were on our way to a father/sons retreat and we had stopped to camp in the mountains above Ouray, Colorado (I remembered that part).  We set up our tent and shortly thereafter a violent lightning storm was headed our way.  We could see the storm approaching from 20-30 minutes away, so we decided that the best thing to do was to put our gear into the back of the vehicle and let it pass over us.  This was a great idea, but it became complicated by the fact that his son had lost the car keys, and of course the door was locked.

We looked, scrambling and fretting for some time as the storm fast approached.  I know you probably don’t struggle with this, but I tend to turn to the Lord after I’ve tried everything else.  Out of desperation, I spoke up as I had done in Mexico.  We huddled and prayed and, a few minutes later, the Holy Spirit said to me; “They’re in the bush.”  Really???  I opened my eyes and to my right was a bush.  We parted it and there at the bottom were the keys!  In a matter of moments, we and our gear were comfortably and safely in the vehicle as the violent storm rolled over our heads.

We had fun talking about and trying to figure out how the keys ended up in the bush.  It’s not a normal place for storing car keys- I think.  The interesting thing is how this impacted my friend enough that it was still something that he wanted to talk about 20 years later!   The other interesting thing is that I had forgotten about it.  Hmmm.  It’s no wonder the Lord compares us to sheep.  We raise sheep and they, like us, are interesting.  The Lord has to wonder and chuckle… often!

I am convinced that we leave a lot on the table with God.  The Lord has taken me on a remarkable and miraculous journey over the past 35 years.  There are testimonies of His supernatural work that still cause me to marvel.  And there are some that I have forgotten, but shouldn’t have.  But, the common denominator over the years starts with realizing that I’m not going to get it done in my power; turning to the Lord, crying out to Him and asking Him to do what I cannot, is the answer.  He wants to show Himself strong in our lives and to those around us.  The question is, do we believe, will we ask, or will we try to fulfill it in our own power?  We serve an amazing God, so let’s turn to Him, trust in Him in our need, and let Him do what He does best, which is that which we cannot!  We believe you and love you Father, help our unbelief and help us to love you more, for our good and Your glory!  Amen?  Amen!