Archive for January, 2012

God’s Bicycle Testimony

All that can be said is that “God is Good, Good, Good..”  Amen. Here is something I titled God’s Bicycle Testimony. A testimony of God’s work.. I pray this encourages any readers to seek to hear His voice and most importantly, to be a doer of the word that we hear. In Jesus name, amen.

For many months I have been praying and waiting for whey protein powder to go on sale. Since it is a staple food item for me, it’s bought in bulk. It was realized last week that I’m getting down to my last couple of pounds (again), so I reminded the Lord. :)

A few days ago while riding my (His) bicycle to Church, the Lord guided me to a man standing on the opposite side of the road with a bicycle. “Go talk to that man.” I rode over and asked what he was up to. He said he was traveling north to find work (homeless). After a short discussion about his confusion of which direction to go, I invited him to come along for a ride to Church. He accepted. While we were on the way, I noticed that the man had a 1/2 flat rear tire. I decided to help him by using an air compressor at a gas station after Church.

Before and after Church, the man was talking a lot about his 2 ex-wives, the last being 14yrs ago. He was very bitter. He revealed that they both committed adultery. Outside of his travel plans, it was pretty much the only thing he discussed. His heart was obviously scarred.

After Church, we rode to the gas station. I asked, “What are your other needs besides air?” He said he was good on everything. (He had water, 2 bags of food, and received another bag of food at the Church). He said all he really needed was his bicycle tire fixed. We looked at it and the tube was blowing out. He said that it’s holding air for around a day of riding and that he would be ok with just getting some air. As I grabbed the quarters out of my pocket to place them in the air machine, the Lord pressed in, “Is that all you can do? The need won’t be met tomorrow.” I decided to run home and get a wrench to swap a tire off of my bike. All during this event, in the back of my mind was that still small voice, “Give him the bicycle.” I quenched Him with my own reasoning.. “Replacing the tire will meet his need.” bla bla bla *sigh*

Upon returning with the wrench, we realized a swap wouldn’t work because it was the back tire. Oops! Imagine that! My own understandings fail, once again. There was a difference in the sprocket/gears.. they were not interchangeable. Then again, “Give him the bicycle that I have blessed you with. Don’t worry, have I not been faithful in taking care of your needs?” Ugh.. I bow, “Yes Lord.” So I gave him God’s bicycle. The man was obviously thankful.

As I was taking personal items off of the bike, he continued to talk about his ex’s. The Lord laid the word ‘unforgiveness’ on my heart and ‘7×70’. When we were ready to depart, I asked, “Do you recall a verse that mentions 7×70 in the bible?” He did not. I explained that it’s about forgiveness. We discussed how unforgiveness ushers in bitterness, stress, depression, anger, and other things of this world and compared it to God’s way of forgiveness, which ushers in peace, contentment, love, kindness, etc. He had that look.. praise God, seed dropped. After we were finished discussing this, we prayed. During the discussion about 7 times 70, there was a song in my head..

At the moment I began to depart on his bicycle, I was singing: ~7 times 70 times, there’s healing in the air tonight~ Just as I pressed down on the pedal for the first crank, I look down:

My eyes immediately fixate on a 7 at the same time the word seven was rolling off my lips.. confirmation.

As always, God doesn’t stop there. Later in the day, I receive notice of a sale for protein powder. I’ve been ordering protein powder for around 5yrs, always keeping eyes out for sales. This was 20% lower than the lowest sale price that I have come across in 5yrs. Thank you Lord..

This evening, I learned of another branching out from this event (the homeless man’s bicycle that I had). God is Good! Good! Good! When this originally happened, the bicycle was offered to a neighbor. He was very thankful because he was needing new pedals for another bike. As I was talking to him tonight – “I hope you don’t mind.. but I gave that bicycle to my neighbor. For a long time, he has been talking about how he would love to have 2 bicycles so him and the wife could go for rides together. I gave him that bike and his wife is using mine. You should have seen them leave together for a ride the other day, they had smiles stretched from ear to ear.”

Lord, I’m sorry that I almost grudgingly and selfishly held onto that bicycle. Thanks for keeping on me.. and thanks for the lesson..

1 Peter 4:9-10 Use hospitality one to another without grudging. As every man has received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.