Numbers

We have numbers for everything. We are issued a social security card number. To drive legally you are issued a driver’s license number. We have telephone numbers, numbers for our addresses, as well as credit card numbers. We deal with numbers to balance our bank accounts. We even keep numerical statistics for our athletic competitions. Life is a big numbers game.

Recently a few numbers came to have a great deal of significance for me. 409. 499. 94. 2. 5,000. These may not have much significance for you but each one of those numbers represents a specific and tangible answer to prayer. Before this is done I hope they will take on added meaning for you as well.

By now everyone reading this knows the Lord uprooted my family from our beloved Paradise flock to come to Seminole where I now serve as the pastor of First Baptist Church. When we first began meeting with the people to discuss being called here we were told the average attendance was around 140. We also were told that Sunday night crowds had dwindled down to seven people and Wednesday nights had around five.

Brenda and I were amazed and in awe when 297 people showed up for Sunday School the Sunday they voted on us. There was a buzz in the air and a great deal of excitement not at just getting a new pastor but that so many people had been in attendance. Since that day we have continued to see huge crowds and a jam packed sanctuary.

Each class set a high attendance goal for Oct 18^th. When the goals were tallied, the challenge was to reach out to, pray for God to send, and to welcome 400 plus people in Sunday School. For weeks we have prayed, invited, and prayed some more. We have planned and by faith trusted God to help us. Yesterday when all the rolls were counted we had a staggering 409 in Sunday School! Only God could have done that. People who have been members of FBC Seminole for decades cannot remember seeing attendance that high in the past fifteen to twenty years. To God be the glory! We prayed and asked the Lord for 400 plus people and the Lord blessed us.

We also had 499 in worship. We had a choir mainly to add more seating in the sanctuary and we had close to a hundred people sitting in our fellowship hall watching the service on a live television feed. That is staggering. God assembled worshippers in His house. What a joy to be a part of something that God is blessing.

The number 94 represents all the guests we had in Sunday School yesterday. I was introduced to a family from a neighboring town who came in response to an invitation from one of our members. There were so many faces I did not know. To have 94 new guests come to worship and learn with us was an answer to prayer. It is never easy to come and try out a new church. Everything is new. You do not know where to go or what to expect. You walk nervously into a crowded room looking for a familiar face before you find a seat and hope to blend into anonymity. What a joy to get to meet these new people and welcome them into a church family who have made my family feel so welcome over the past two months.

The number 2 also represents a specific answer to prayer. This past Wednesday night one of the prayer requests lifted up was not only for God to save people but for God to save an adult. We had an adult woman pray to receive Christ along with a teenage girl. What a joy to see the Lord do His saving work. Others lifted their hands to respond that they were saved yesterday as well but were not ready to make that public. The angels are celebrating the new birth of two more to God’s Kingdom. Hallelujah!

Finally, the number 5,000. Again this number represents an answered prayer. We have been praying for two months about a house and the Lord writing His signature all over the house so we can give Him glory for it. After weeks of searching we finally found the house we are confident the Lord appointed for us. Saturday afternoon while reading the paper and watching a football game on television I heard a knock on the door. When I opened it there was a couple from the church. I welcomed them in and after exchanging a few pleasantries they gave us a card. At this point I need to back up to an incident which happened earlier in the week.

Earlier in the week while Brenda and I were enjoying lunch, the wife who came to visit that Saturday afternoon, came into the restaurant alone. We invited her to pull up a chair at our table and enjoyed some fabulous conversations. Something was mentioned about my book Behold the Faithfulness of God and she came by the church office afterward to get it. The Lord ministered to her through reading it.

As we all sat in my living room that following Saturday, her and her husband asked me to open the card and said the Lord had been dealing with them for sometime even before they got the book. Inside the card was a miracle check for $5,000 to help with the purchase of our home. My jaw went slack and my mouth gaped opened. Brenda was on the other side of the room and could not see the check but she knew it was another significant miracle of provision by the Lord as she wiped tears from her eyes. They are not rich people. They had been blessed and wanted to bless us in return. Praise the Lord!

While writing this I am on a personal prayer and writing retreat in a farm house surrounded by cotton fields isolated from town. While in this place I have bee seeking the Lord and trying to process all I have experienced over the past forty eight hours. To you each of those may just seem like numbers. To me they represent encounters with God. They are milestones I will file away to remember the Lord’s power, His grace to hear and answer prayer, and to boast about His enduring faithfulness.

Somebody reading this is also facing a number. Maybe it is a past due bill. Maybe it is a seemingly insurmountable tax figure. Your God is just as able to help you with your numbers as I have seen Him do for us in the past forty eight hours. It doesn’t matter how big the number and how large the need, God is sufficient and more than able to come to your rescue. Two more numbers before I leave. [Eph 3:20] [I Thess 5:24]