I was reading in Genesis 6 this morning (as many of you may have been), and ran across these verses:  

Did it occur to you that this is a very strange thing to read in Genesis 6?  If you are following a yearly Bible reading plan, you probably read just yesterday that God created the world and pronounced it all good.  A day later, you read that God (this omniscient Being who knows all things from before the foundation of the world) is so perturbed by human sin that He regrets creating the human race and decides to destroy it almost entirely.

This is very hard for a reader to understand.

I'd like to share with you a quote from a book my husband is writing.

In other words, God is watching events unfold.  He has the ability to be grieved or to rejoice over them.  In this passage we hear His cry of grief.  When you and I sin, in real time, God (who foreknew each sin of our lives) is grieved over that sin. 

I was struck with this truth today in a way I never had been before. 

This would be a sad, discouraging thing for all of us to ponder if the next verse in the passage didn't exist.

Noah obeyed God.  The passage says it over and over again.  Genesis 6:8-9.  Genesis 6:22.  Genesis 7:1.  Genesis 7:5.  Genesis 7:16.

Noah heard the Words of God and obeyed them.

And just as God sees our sin in real time and grieves, surely He also sees our obedience and our worship in real time and rejoices. 

It is a new year.  New choices face us.

You and I have a choice today.  We have a choice to hear the Words of God or not.  We have a choice to obey or not.  We have a choice to grieve God today.  Or bring Him great joy.

What will you choose?

Singers croon these words.  Novels portray them as if they were a proverb.  Whole movies are produced with this one piece of bad advice as their theme.  And yet, it is quite possibly the worst advice ever given about marriage:  "Follow your heart."

"Follow your heart."

Really? 
Follow my heart?  
That is all I need to do to end up in a marriage marked by commitment and fidelity?
My heart will constantly give me good advice about whatever decisions I need to make today?
My heart, which is wise beyond words, will always lead me in the right path?

This kind of thinking is radical nonsense.  
Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” 

Is that the kind of compass you want to use?  A deceitful compass that snickers as it points southeast instead of north?

Don't follow this advice.  It is dangerous advice for any realm of our lives but especially dangerous in the realm of marriage.  We are already predisposed to heed the deceitful compass of our hearts when it comes to the emotional area of relationships.  Following advice like this can send us right over the edge of a cliff like a herd of naïve lemmings.

In no other area of life do we tell people, “Just follow your heart, dearie, and everything will work out.”

• Businesses follow their business plans.  If you invest in a company, you want to know that they will not “follow their heart” when it comes to their production schedule or their use of their money.
  
• If you were interviewing a potential financial advisor and you asked him how he makes his investment decisions, you would pack up and run out if he told you that he just “followed his heart.”
  
• You definitely don’t want to hear from a surgeon that he decided to ignore the results of your tests and instead “follow his heart” as he performed surgery on you.

And yet, when it comes to marriage, we are inundated with books and movies and songs instructing us to ignore everything else in life and follow our heart.

• Your parents don’t like your boyfriend?  Just follow your heart.
  
• Your pastor has warned you about looming trouble?  Just follow your heart.
  
• You read the Bible and see problem areas in the spiritual life of your girlfriend that are hard to ignore?  Follow your heart.
  
• He punched his employer, drove over his neighbor’s cat, and argued with a policeman?  Okay, so he has an anger problem.  None of us are perfect.  Just follow your heart.
• She wears immodest attire and flirts widely?  She loves you; she will be faithful.  Just follow your heart.

Please don’t follow your heart.  Not if it contradicts the teaching of Scripture in any way.

The Word of God gives you wisdom to follow.  Follow that.  Ignore your deceitful heart.  It will only get you into trouble down the road.

I know the objection that plagues you when you read about this:  “If I don’t follow my heart, will I marry someone I don’t love and live in an emotionless marriage forever?”

Highly unlikely!  God is not a malicious Father who gives you stones instead of bread or a snake instead of a fish.  He is a loving Father who knows what you need and what will ultimately please you even more than you do.

Wouldn’t it be nice if God spoke from the sky directly to you and told you who to marry?  And then promised you a love-filled and fulfilling marriage of the sort that has you holding hands and kissing in corridors when you are seventy?

He doesn’t do that, specifically, but He does give signposts to follow.  They are found within the pages of His Word.

(You aren’t reading His Word?  That’s the problem right there.) 

Jeremiah 13:10 talks about people who refuse to hear God’s Words and who instead stubbornly follow their own heart.  Their heart that, a few chapters later we are told, is deceitful and desperately wicked.  A wacky compass.

"Follow your heart” is possibly the worst advice ever given about marriage, but here is the best:  follow the Words of God.  You can’t go wrong when you do that, because God’s Word is a lamp for your feet and a light for your path.  It will keep you from stumbling over obstacles and it will show you where the correct road lies.

Don’t follow your heart.  Guard your heart.  Follow God’s Word.

If you liked this post, you might also like:
Six Very Important Questions to Ask About a Potential Mate
and the Will of God series:
Part One--Sometimes We Ask For A Stone
Part Two--Why Did God Say No?
Part Three--Open Doors and God's Will

Do you read your Bible in the morning and then walk away from it unchanged?  Add these five things to your devotions to transform your time with the Lord.

1.  A pen.  If you aren't taking notes, how can you hope to remember what God is teaching you?  Write down special verses that the Lord ministered to your heart.  Take notes each day on what you learn.

2.  Paper.  I don't mean the back of a grocery receipt or random sticky notes.  Have a journal or some other official devotional notebook for keeping track of the things you learn.  Write out your prayers.  Write down your burdens.  Write down your blessings.  Read back through your devotional notes periodically to see how the Lord has led you on your journey of spiritual growth.

3.  A place.  Preferably a quiet place where you can be alone.  I like the kitchen table or my desk.  My husband prefers his desk.  My daughter reads in her room.  My son goes to the table in front of our house.  I have a guest who stays with us sometimes who carries a chair outside to the back of our house.  When we travel and our whole family is sleeping in one hotel room, my husband or I will often hole up in the bathroom to read.  Really, anything works, as long as you can focus on the one needful thing:  spending time with the Lord without distraction.

4.  A plan.  You can randomly open your Bible to read and still be blessed--that is the glory of the Word of God.  But you will find yourself learning much more if you have a plan for how to read your Bible and what to read each day.  This could be a one-year plan or a two-year plan or a one-year Bible.  It could be a check-off sheet or even a simple three-chapters-a-day method.  Pick a plan and stick to it for a year or two.  See what a difference it makes!

5.  A secret weapon.  My secret weapon is coffee.  Some people prefer juice or a morning jog to keep them awake while reading.  Maybe you don't need one of these. . . this one is optional.  But if you frequently find yourself dozing off, try using a secret weapon to keep yourself alert and learning.

Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly this year!

I was reading the Bible at the breakfast table to my children in my best effort to uphold the Tim Berrey tradition while he was away for the week teaching a CEP (Continuing Education for Pastors) class in Mindanao.  

We were in the book of Revelation, and at first I had everyone's attention.  (Dragons!  Beasts!  Trumpets!)  But then something happened.  

First David saw the toy zebras and wanted them.  He is at that age of toddlership where children repeat the same thing over and over until you acknowledge that you heard it.  "Zebra, Mommy?  Zebra?  Zebra?"

Then, just as I assured him that I had accurately interpreted his words (but that he needed to wait until we were done reading to play with the zebras) and began to read again, the toast popped up.  Our toaster is uncertain how to go about its job.  Sometimes the toast is white and sometimes it is black.  We love it anyway, but we know we have to babysit it.  So the kids were all telling each other to go check the toast.  Finally we got that settled (perfect toast), and I began reading again. 

And then. . . 

Just as I was reading about how the accuser of the brethren is conquered by the blood of the Lamb, one of my boys saw his own revelation:  a dead cockroach under the table.  Actually, it wasn't dead.  It was still in the lala land bugs go to when they end up on their backs.  His legs and feelers were still waving, but he wasn't going anywhere.  

The Word of God is far more important than that.

"We will take care of him later," I announced, mustering up my best Mommy voice.  And we finished reading.  Powerful passage.  They forgot about the cockroach until I kept my promise and "took care" of him later.  "Eeewww," my boys said, with evident enjoyment.

Zebras, toast, and cockroaches.  They pull our attention away from the one needful thing.  The most important part of the day.  The thing without which we cannot spiritually survive in this world.   

What takes your attention away from the Word of God?

The zebras were toys.  There is nothing wrong with them.  But they are not something to focus on, either.  We adults have our own toys.  (Hint:  most of them are on our computer or cell phone.)  Are they drawing our attention away from the Word of God?  

The toast was breakfast.  Food.  A necessary thing.  But even the necessities of life have their place.  We cannot let them take precedence over our Word time.  Man cannot live by bread alone, but by every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

The cockroach?  Well, we all know what kinds of revolting, despicable things there are out there.  (Some of those things show up in movie theaters around Valentines Day.)  Don't play with them.  Don't dirty your hands and your lives with them.  Kill them.  Practice radical amputation when you find them infesting your life.  Cockroaches are scum-suckers.  Bottom-feeders.  Dead or alive, they are creepy-crawly disgustingness.  It is better to enter heaven with one hand or one eye than to be cast out forever because that part of your body kept you from the Lord.  Let's be as hasty to kill the moral scum in our lives as we are to kill the cockroaches under our tables.

Zebras, toast, and cockroaches. 

It is a new day, a new week.  A new start.  Give the Lord the first part--the best part--of your day.  When you read the Word, focus.  Don't be distracted.  My personal rule of thumb is that God gets my time and attention before I turn on my computer or open a book.  Unless there is an emergency or an urgent need, nothing comes before my time with Him.  It is a habit that has become a tremendous blessing to me.

And, if you have children, the best thing you can do for them today is to help them, also, to focus on the Word.

Zebras, toast, and cockroaches.  
The Word of God is far more important than these things.

I only see white and gold.  One internet source says that I am in the majority:  76% to 24%.   Which means that the majority of us are. . . 
Wrong.

Even though our perceptions scream that we are right. 
And even though many other people agree with us.

It is funny when it is only an optical illusion about a dress.

But what about when it is a spiritual illusion?

What about when the majority of the people around us are being fooled into thinking that marital infidelity is more fun than marital bliss?  The consequence of that is weighty:  a generation of children growing up in single family homes, emotionally maladjusted. 

What about the Australian woman I met on the island of Palawan last year, who was so evangelistically vegetarian that I heard about it before I had even known her 10 minutes?  She was appalled by the deaths of animals in slaughter houses, condemned to die in order that people might, well, eat.  But when I brought up the horrific reality of abortion, she brushed off the slaughter of innocent babies as an unfortunate necessity.

That woman is suffering from a terrible spiritual illusion.

What about those who honor the sins that God calls an abomination?  Masterminding movies that treat it as funny or hip.  Promoting those who do such things to roles as talk show hosts. 

God calls it an abomination.  Man calls it cool. 

Spiritual illusion.

But the biggest spiritual illusion of all is the one that is driving many people right down a wide path leading straight to destruction.   The vast majority of us here on earth are on that path.   It is the illusion that we can save ourselves.  Or worse, that we don't even need saving.  That there is no such thing as sin.  That there is no such thing as hell.  That, in fact, there is no such thing as God.  Or if there is, we certainly can't know Who or What He is.

I think that this latest web-based viral opinion poll proves that the vast majority of people can indeed be dead wrong.

The dress is clearly blue.  All we needed was proof.  
Someone snooped around and located the source of the dress.  
When we go there--to the creator of the dress--we see the dress in the light of reality.  We know the truth and the truth sets us free from the optical illusion.

So also, when we go back to the Creator of this world, we get truth.

Sanctify them through Thy Truth.  Thy Word is truth.  (John 17:17)
I am the way, the truth, and the life.  No man cometh unto the Father but by me.  (John 14:6)
And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.  (John 8:32)

Are you putting your faith in spiritual illusions?  You can be set free.  Get to know truth.  Don't just stick with majority opinion.  The majority can be wrong.  The internet proved it last week.

Do some snooping around.  Go to the Source.  Find truth.  And when you find truth, you will find Jesus Christ holding out His hands to you:  He is the way, the truth, and the life.

Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.  For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.  (Matthew 7:13-14)

One of the Berrey family jokes is that if I put it on Tim's plate, he is providentially destined to eat it.  
"Well," he says mournfully, looking down at his scrambled eggs, "I really wanted oatmeal this morning, but I guess providentially I was destined to have eggs."  

(I could have lots of fun with this.  My family eats ketchup on our eggs.  His family finds that revolting.)

He is just joking, but this reminds me of a serious fallacy regarding open doors and God's will for us.
Many people think that if there is an open door in their lives, they are supposed to walk through it.  
This is prime foolishness.  

An open door does not always indicate God's will for you.  
Some open doors lead to empty elevator shafts.

Just because you received that job offer in Kathmandu doesn't mean you are supposed to uproot your family and apply for frequent flyer cards.  Just because that guy proposed to you doesn't mean you have to go wedding dress shopping.  And that offer of a free mucho-grando banana split-o while you are on a diet?  Not necessarily an indication of your fated fat-filled future. 

We hear this often here in the Philippines regarding job offers abroad:  "Well, if I receive a job offer, I will know it is God's will for me to leave my family and move to Saudi Arabia to work."  

Really?  

The truth is that there may be many open doors in our lives.  We have a responsibility to consider which ones God truly wants us to walk through.   This can be hard work.  It takes self-discipline and Scripture searching and prayer.  It takes research.  It takes submission.

I think we rely on the "open door" idea because it is so much easier than sweating our way through all of the options.  And if it matches our own selfish desires, we can point at it to justify our decisions.  

Here is how to properly handle open doors.

​Why did God say "No"?

Why, when He ordered you with Fatherly ferociousness to let your requests be made known unto Him, did He turn around and say no?

Why would a loving Father smash your hopes and dreams about the one thing you know would make you happy?

Dr. Tom is a man uniquely suited to missionary life in Cambodia. He has an obsession with sharing the Gospel and the medical skills necessary to garner a hearing in villages up and down the riverbanks and dirt roads of one of the world's poorest nations. Furthermore, in a country where you can step outside your kitchen door and find yourself face to face with a venomous viper poised to attack (as he has done), it is helpful if you have been a "snake handler" in a former life. Dr. Tom learned snakes early on. Before God sent him to Asia, he did school demonstrations about snakes.

So when one blistering morning in Cambodia opened with a shriek from the second story that heralded the presence of a snake (in the trashcan, of all places), Dr. Tom ran to his wife's rescue. It ended up being the snake's rescue. That snake had gotten a little too cozy with a baby diaper and the sticky fastener of the diaper had stuck to its scales. The poor thing was having a hard time wriggling across the floor with that heavy diaper attached.  

Missionary life is full of humorous moments.

We were their short-termers for the summer. Since neither my husband nor Dr. Tom's wife were willing to help out with the surgical procedure necessary to separate diaper from snake, I happily volunteered.

You see, I have this strange quality: I like snakes. I like the way they squirm. I like the way they feel in my hands. I like their scaley, smooth sides. I think the way their little tongues go in and out is cute.

My husband hates them. He is far wiser than I am.  

Truth be told, I only really like "safe snakes." I like snakes that I know are not poisonous, or snakes that I can handle without fear. I don't like a snake in the grass near my children's play area unless it is a teensy-tiny, science projecty, clearly non-poisonous one. Or a fake one made from clay.

And, no, I don't like snakes on my plate.

I wouldn't give my children a snake when they ask for fish for dinner. Would you?

Neither would God.

Jesus tells us that in Matthew 7:9-11: "Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?"

Children are foolish. In my last post I told a true tale about scissors and blood and small baby hands. Scissors are not a toy for babies. But they are a tremendous tool for those who have wisdom to use them wisely.  

Which brings me to my second reason of why God may have said "no" to your object of desire: maybe it is not yet time. Maybe there is some maturing that needs to take place first.  

Maybe you need to learn how to use the scissors.

Maybe God's answer wasn't "No." Maybe it was "Wait."

Trust your Father's wisdom. If He said "no," trust that when the red light finally becomes green, He has the sovereign ability to let you know.

Jim Elliot DID eventually get a green light to marry Elisabeth, although for a while there things seemed iffy.  And that wait produced maturity in both of them and a book titled Passion and Purity. It also gave them both some independent time on their various mission fields and all the fruit and growth that can come with that (which then gave us the book These Strange Ashes).  
 
Here is the goal: that we trust God to say "yes" or "no" or "wait." That we thank Him for red lights as well as green lights. Red lights prevent nasty crashes.

As I said in Part I, Sometimes We Ask For A Stone, God sees and knows all things. He knows what things are bread for us and what things are stones. He knows whether that is a fish we are asking for or a venomous viper.

He will not do you wrong.  

Trust the heart of your Father.

My husband and I try to set goals every year.  
We have been doing this for at least the last year.  

Actually, we have done this before, but this year we took it a twist further.  We actually (ssshhh. .  . this is a secret!) READ THOSE GOALS EACH MONTH.  

Yes, we do.  

One of our goals is to read our goals.  It is listed right there on our goals printout.  Can I promise you that we have actually accomplished that goal for the first 9 months of this year?  I can't remember, but I think we have come really close.  I know this:  some years I forget our goals by February. This year they are constantly on my mind.  The result?  We are not accomplishing all of them, no, but we have accomplished many. 

Part of anyone's success with goals relates to how realistic and attainable they are.  That is a subject for a different post.  But a good part of that also relates to keeping them constantly in front of us.  

Anyway, one of our goals for this year is to strengthen Christian marriages.  After all, strong marriages make for strong families.  Strong families will result in strong churches.  And strong churches can change the landscape of a country!  

So we decided this year to do something really big.  We are renting the Araneta Coliseum and will be holding the first annual Metro Manila Christian Marriage Conference (MMCMC).  Tim will be sharing some of his stunning insights on How To Be a Fabulous Husband, and I will follow him with a session on How To Love And Respect Your Fabulous Husband.  We are splitting this 50/50 in an effort to show that "Marriages Take Two To Prosper."  (That, by the way, is the title of our new book, which will be released in May, 2015.)

Here is a picture of our venue.  We are hoping for a sell-out!  Buy your tickets now at 1-800-MAR-IAGE. 

By the way. . . 

I really hope you didn't think I was serious.

There is no MMCMC.  There is also no book.  There isn't even a 1-800 number.

No.  The reality is that we are holding weekly small group "Couples' Nights Out" at our house.  We have 8 people plus us.  That makes ten.  Quite a difference from that stadium with the 10,000 seats.  And Tim and I aren't speaking.  We are using a set of DVDs that we have found very helpful. 

Not very BIG of a thing, right?  

Not something to plaster on the front of a newspaper.  

Not something, hardly, to write home about.  

But it is a big thing in God's eyes, and that is why we are doing it.  And it is a success!  (I know this because of the conversations we are having and the fact that we have to shoo people out our door just before midnight.  Last Thursday night we were tempted to tell our guests, "Sige, we are going to bed. Have fun together and lock the door on your way out!")  Everybody is enjoying these nights.

(If you are one of our guests and you are reading this, please know that we would be happy to have you stay until three o'clock, if you want to.  Seriously.  We love you guys and LOVE being with you!  Just put another pot of coffee on and enjoy.  Yaaawn.  Oops!  'Scuse me.)

How many times do we think we have to do something BIG in order to accomplish something for the Lord? I grew up singing one of my dad's favorite songs, "Little Is Much If God Is In It."  It is emblazoned on my brain that anything God asks me to do is big. . . to Him.  I just need to be faithful.

And we all know that little things become BIG things when they are left undone.  

For instance. . . 

• Kissing your husband is a little thing.  NOT kissing him for 22 years, 3 months, and 14 days is a BIG thing.

• Changing the oil in your car is a little thing.  NOT changing the oil in your car for three years?  BIG thing.  Ask your car's mechanic.  If you still have a car after trying that trick.

• (For all you moms out there.)   Changing a diaper is such a little thing.  NOT changing that diaper until it blows up and explodes with colorful shrapnel all over the living room just as company walks in the door?  BIG thing, right?

This is why smart mamas everywhere insist on doing the dishes immediately after the meal.  That oatmeal that swishes right out of the pot at twenty minutes after 8:00 in the morning somehow morphs itself into a hardened gloppy monster by twenty minutes past 8:00 in the evening.

Okay, back to marriages.  How many times have you watched a marriage fall apart and thought, if only I had. . . (done something).  

How many fewer children would cry themselves to sleep at night?  How many fewer divorces would litter the landscape of America?  How many more family reunions would take place with 37 cousins all under the age of 16 running barefoot through the cornfields at dusk in the biggest, bestest hide-n-seek game ever?  How many more watermelon-seed spitting contests?  How many more happy memories for the next generation?

You see?  Little things, if left undone, have big consequences.  

And you can apply this to every area of your life.

Play a little game with your son.
Have a little chat with your daughter.  
Give your husband a little kiss.
Clean that little bathroom.
Bake a little cake for a sick neighbor.
Pay a little credit card bill.
Be a little friendlier at the grocery store.
Have a little compassion for the beggar on the street.
Do a little witnessing for Christ at your workplace.
Use a little self-restraint at the dessert table.

I've mentioned before that the entire Bible is pertinent to our lives, even Zechariah.  Zechariah 4:10 has something to say about this very idea of despising the "day of small things," and speaks of  the eventual rejoicing that will result from these seemingly little things.  Read it and see for yourself.  This is especially pertinent when you are a mom of many small children, like me, and entire days can be made up of diapers, dishes, and dirty laundry.

Take the time to do something little today.  
It is big to the Lord.

Most beautiful sight yesterday?

College students walking down the middle of the road in a clothes-drenching thunderstorm, huddled beneath rainbow-hued umbrellas, reading. . . 
About Jesus Christ.

That beats Pinterest, folks, anytime!

I have to admit:  it wasn't the most outwardly optimistic afternoon for an evangelistic outreach.  When we drove onto the campus of the University of the Philippines, the sky was already hanging low and dark.  It had been blistering hot and sunny all day.  Not one of the nine of us had brought an umbrella.

By the time we pulled into the parking lot, thunder was rumbling.  By the time we were officially parked, lightning was flashing above us.  

The rain started then, first just a tiny splash or two on the windshield, but it quickly became a downpour. We stared out the windows at the watery world around us.

I was the most timid among the crew.  "I think we should go home," I suggested.  

But my husband had a crazy idea:  "I'll pull up next to that covered sidewalk and someone can jump out and give tracts to all the people there!"

"Yes!" our Bible college students said.
"Yay!" our boys shouted.  (Preteen boys don't see rain; they see a Divinely-installed sprinkler system.)

The thunder crinkled and crackled like fireworks popping.  

I looked at the lightning streaking the sky.  I looked at the metal over the sidewalk.  I looked at the sheets of rain between here and there.  And I felt a terrible disappointment.

I had awakened at sunrise and prayed for this moment.  We had prayed before we left the house.  We had prayed in the car, too. . . three times!  So why all this rain?

But I have a husband who doesn't see storm clouds.  He sees souls.  

So we came up with an even better plan.  One of our team members recommended going down a side road to a covered place with food stalls and there try to catch people who were stranded by the rain.  We would have a captive audience.

It worked like a dream.  My husband dropped us off where we could scurry from car to cover.   Our three companions (one graduate and two students) almost immediately engaged people in gospel-driven conversations.  My boys and I stood in the middle of a wind- and rain-swept sidewalk and passed out tracts.  Eventually the rain diminished for awhile to a mere sprinkly annoyance and we moved to a nearby building.  

There I saw an older man sitting on the stairs.  I pointed him out to Tim.  "I'll wait in the car so you can talk to him," I offered.  So we swapped roles, and I became the de facto driver of our illegally parked car.  

I watched him go over and sit down on the concrete steps beside the man.  I watched Ian two steps above him: a college student sharing the gift of life with another college student.  I watched my daughter and our two ladies, Donna and Shen, pass tracts to the college students as they walked past. And I watched secular university students walk down the middle of the road in the rain, reading about Jesus Christ. 

And while I sat there and watched it all, I pondered a significant verse.

Ecclesiastes 11:4.  He that observeth the wind shall not sow; and he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap. 

Because my husband and our evangelistic team refused to look at the clouds, we sowed.  I have faith that we will reap also. Four people heard the gospel yesterday that wouldn't have if we had allowed foul weather to stop us. George and Chester, the two men on the stairs, were especially interested in the conversations and had many questions.  

Later that night, I sat in church and listened to Ian give a testimony.  He put the last piece in place for me when he pointed out God's sovereignty in the form of rain.  

Chester, the art student he spoke with, was only there BECAUSE OF THE RAIN.   He had gone there without an umbrella and thus had to wait for the Divinely-installed sprinkler system to stop before he could leave.

So I say to you:  Don't look at the clouds! 

Our circumstances may never look perfect, but God is working in the midst of them.  Those un-optimistic looking circumstances may be the very tool God will use.

So go today and share the gift of eternal life with someone.  
Sow.  And reap.