God can even use the cockroaches (Sign No. 1)

I have a terrible fear of cockroaches and lizards.  So here's how things work in my home, as I once shared on Facebook:

*Nat, Dan and me coming home from grocery shopping*

Dan:  Aaargh!  Lizard!  Lizard!  Lizard!

Me: (fleeing to the kitchen) Nat! Deal with it!  Daddy's got food in his hands!

*BAM!*

Nat:  Got it Daddy!  Gonna wipe it off the slipper into the dustbin OK?

Well played, Daddy, well played :)

===============

So what does this have to do with God using the cockroaches?  Patience, I'm getting to it.

This year, it will be 20 years since I stepped into a Varsity Christian Fellowship talk, heard the word from Revelation 3:16 that God would rather that I be hot or cold, but because I am lukewarm, He is about to spit me out of His mouth!  That day changed my life.  I heard God speaking to me, I put my hand up and started walking, really walking with Him.

At this week's service, the pastor was asking us - when's the last time you saw a miracle?  If you are a Christian and you see no miracles, I think you have a problem.  I think that's true.  So I began recounting some of the awesome acts of God that I have encountered.  Let me see if I can get to 20 - at least one for each year?  Some simple, some more awesome, but all wonderful!

So here's Sign No. 1 just from Friday.  I lead my church cell group every Friday, so I have to prepare in advance, the so-called 4 "W"s - Welcome (essentially ice breakers), Worship, Word, and Works.

For ice-breakers, I decided I would ask everyone to choose to answer one of three possible questions "What thing are you surprisingly afraid of?", "What thing are you surprisingly good at?" or "If you could change one thing about yourself, what would you change?".  So of course for me, it was cockroaches and lizards :)

But almost everyone else also chose to share on the topic of "what are you afraid of?".  And for a number of us, it was "I'm afraid of the dark".  With the cell having taken this dark turn, as a responsible leader, I reminded everyone at the end that we need not fear, because as the Bible teaches us, perfect love casts out fear!

So far, so normal.

So we went on to worship.  And half way through the worship, I froze.  As I explained earlier, I prepare my worship in advance.  And there, on the worship sheets I had prepared, was a single verse from Revelation 21:23 that I had decided to type out.  It says:

"The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its light".

I don't even know why I chose to put that verse in the worship sheets.  It's not a "famous" verse.  It just came out of nowhere as I was preparing, so I typed it down. I thought at the time that it reflected God's glory.  And goosebumps just came up when I realised that God had prepared this very verse in advance through me to speak to the cell - we need have no fear.  And no fear of darkness.  We do not even need physical light.  For the Lamb is our light!

 The End :)

================

Wait.  What about my dreaded cockroach?

After worship, we got into the Word and Works, which is basically me sharing about some Bible passage and some specific way in which we will apply it in our lives.  Halfway through the Word...

There was a big fat cockroach.  Crawling on my wife's shirt.  You have to understand.  This is a new house.  It is spick and span.  But there was the cockroach.

Fear?  No way.

*BAM!*  With my bare hands.

Dead cockroach.  And we'll spray the darn thing a few times just to make sure :P

So yes, God can even use cockroaches to teach us a thing or two.  No fear!

Do you have fear?  Worry?  Want to see God move in your life?  Seek, ask, pray.  He will be found!  If you want to know more, drop me a line :)

Comments

Jack Graham said…
Lizards are a natural insecticide I love lizards (small ones). You can even train them with dried worms
6 November 2023 at 14:06
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