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DESPERATE Pastor pleaded, "O God, I need a Word from You." God's reply didn't make sense.

 
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Post DESPERATE Pastor pleaded, "O God, I need a Word from You." God's reply didn't make sense. doyle
WHEN GOD DOES NOT MAKE SENSE
(TO OUR HUMAN UNDERSTANDING)

by Chaplain Doyle, writedoyle@gmail.com

FOR THE FIRST time ever, a testimony given years ago at the COG General Assembly in Dallas, TX., has been shared with me. For reasons unknown to me, there is a special “Unction” to share it with you. I did not hear the testimony, but the person who told me about it, says it is true.

As I began to write, this has quickly expanded into a sermon entitled, “When God Does Not Make Sense (To Our Human Understanding).”

YEARS AGO, Church of God, COG, (Cleveland) minister E. J. Reynolds was pastoring in the small South Georgia town of Baxley (Almost exactly 200 miles South of Atlanta). That year, the Baxley High School Senior Class was planning a trip to Spain.

The kids worked like crazy to raise the money for the trip. For that rural area, taking a trip to Spain would have been known as, “Walking in tall or high cotton.” (High cotton was a Southern phrase denoting success or plenty. Plus, you didn’t have to pull your back out bending down so far to pick it as was the case with regular cotton).

According to the testimony, Brother and Sister Reynold’s daughter Susan (Name changed so as not to embarrass her), was one of the young people on the trip to Spain. As are many, many Preacher’s daughters, Susan was a wonderful young woman. Pastor and Mrs. Reynolds loved her with all their heart.

The young people from Baxley had a great time in Spain. However, when it was time for the return flight to America, Susan did not show up at the Barcelona Airport. The other young people and the Chaperones searched frantically for her.

They desperately did not want to leave her in Spain. They notified the police, but ultimately, finally flew home without Susan. As any of us would be, the Reynolds were horrified. Had Susan been kidnapped? Was she still alive? All of this was before cell phones and internet. They had no way of contacting her.

PASTOR REYNOLDS AND IS WIFE were plunged into despair. Finally, he said, “I have got to go to the church and pray. Both of them had already been “Praying their heart out,” but he needed to be in the Sanctuary where he had preached and prayed so many times before.

Once there all alone, he lay face-down on the carpet and wept. His beloved daughter was missing. Through hot tears, he cried out, “O God, I need a Word from You. Help us find Susan!”

Strangely, he began to hear in his mind over and over and over, “Kentucky Fried Chicken.”

What? It just did not make sense. KFC is an American company. Did they even have a KFC in Spain? Was this God or just his tormented mind imagining it? Even so, he returned to the parsonage and told his wife. She listened and then said (Wait for it), “That doesn’t make sense, but it is all we’ve got.”

HOW MANY TOWNS AND CITIES IN SPAIN? 8,124.
They called the Long Distance Operator for Spain who put them through to the Barcelona Operator. Though there are 8,124 towns and cities in Spain, there was ONLY ONE KFC in the entire country. It was in Barcelona.

“Please put us through,” they told the Operator. Amazingly, someone at KFC in Barcelona picked up. The person who answered only spoke a few words in English, but went looking for someone more fluent.

After several minutes of the Reynolds listening to the pounding of their own hearts, someone said, “Hello, may I help you?” The desperate parents poured out their story of trying to locate their missing daughter.

THEY PLEADED, “Would you please step into the Dining Area and call out her name?” The person was hesitant. It did not make sense since most people there spoke Spanish not English. Finally, they did it anyway. Six different times, they loudly announced, “Susan Reynolds. You have a call. Please come to the phone.”

NO RESPONSE. Nobody even noticed. Everybody just kept on talking with their friends and eating. However, according to the testimony, evidently as customers were coming in and out of the KFC door, the person’s announcements, filtered outside.

AT THAT VERY MOMENT, Susan and her new Spanish boyfriend, walked past the door. Hearing her name, she stepped inside and answered the phone. She was glad to hear from her parents and of course, they were overjoyed to hear that she was OK.

Susan had not been kidnapped. She had become infatuated with a young man. He did not have any nefarious motives. In their youth, neither of them had grasped what all the fuss of her missing was about. It did not make sense to them.

IT DID NOT MAKE SENSE when God told the Prophet to lay on his side for 390 days (Ezekiel 4:4). Nobody else in history had been told to do that.

IT DID NOT MAKE SENSE when the Prophet was told to speak to the “Valley of Dry Bones” (Ezekiel 37:1-14). Humanly speaking, it just did not make sense. Do what? Nobody else ever had been told to do that.

AN ANGEL APPEARED to a young woman who was about the age of a Sophomore in High School. He told her she was going to have a baby by the Holy Ghost. Ah, what’s a Holy Ghost? I believe in God but I have not had any contact with a ghost. Not sure I want to have any.

IT JUST DIDN’T MAKE SENSE, but instead of running screaming in terror to her School Counselor, Mary listened. Her shocked reply indicates how much it DID NOT make sense to her.

“Mary said to the Angel, “How can this be since I am still a Virgin?” (Luke 1:34).

WHAT IS HAPPENING to you right now that does not seem to make sense? Maybe God has a special Word just for you. Do not discount it just because it may not make sense at first. Good advice could be to do what Mary did until she gained a better understanding of what God was saying.

"Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart." (Luke 2:19).

Chaplain Doyle
writedoyle@gmail.com
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2/12/22 7:13 pm


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