"Thus Sayeth the Lord"

Going back to India for a post. This story actually involved Katie more than me since it was about her cell phone, but it's too funny and almost eerie not to share, especially since it's Sunday. She'll probably blog about it too if you read her blog.

Before we left Yichang, Oswon (one of our Indian friends) gave us his SIM card that he uses in India since he was staying in China. When we got to India we just switched out the Chinese SIM card in Katie's cell phone and put in the Indian one. Instant cell service (American cell companies REALLY need to be more like the service we get overseas . . . all prepaid, no contracts, no two-year agreements). We didn't use the cell phone very much but then we had it when we needed and it and there were several times when it really saved us.

On our second day in India, Katie got a text message that was a Bible verse. Apparently Oswon subscribes to some Verse-a-day text messaging service. We were all rather stunned though coming from China, where a service like that would never be available. We all read the verse which was one of the verses about not being afraid because God is with you (so appropriate after our Sri Lanka mess) and made comments about God speaking to us more directly in India than in China.

The next day we were all in the car together and Beth asked Katie if God had spoken to us yet today. Katie took the phone out of her purse, looked at it, started to say not yet, and then . . . ding, ding. Text message from the Lord. Right that second, right after Beth asked, that's when our verse came.

The day we were driving all over and we'd crossed a couple state lines, the verse we got was "I have learned whatsoever state I'm in to be content."

In Bangalore when we were in the car on our way to the orphanage, Katie's phone beeped and when she checked it and, that's right, it was James 1:27. " . . . to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." No kidding. That's the verse we got.

Then a day or two later, we were all discussing leaving some money with the Chelli family in Bangalore since they had fed us so many meals while we were there. We thought they could use the money to cover some of the food cost or just put it toward the ministry at Berean Bible College. As Katie was sitting in our guestroom counting out how much money she had so that she knew how much she wanted to leave, the Lord spoke to her through the text message which said: "But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing" --Matthew 6:6

Then in Mumbai we were taking a walking tour and we had just walked into St. Thomas' Cathedral and were slowly and reverently taking time to admire the beautiful church. Now, previously, the text messages had always been in the morning but that day the message was delayed and didn't come until the afternoon when we were in the church. Katie's phone beeped and we were all told to "Give ear to my word, O Lord, consider my meditation."

The last verse we got in India was a verse from Psalm about telling about "God's wondrous works that we had seen."

We're not making any of this up at all! It was crazy how many times the verse-of-the-day fit our situation exactly. It really felt as if God was speaking to us directly. Maybe I should go back to India, borrow Oswon's SIM card again, and wait for direct divine revelation about what the next step in my life should be. Or, I guess I can just read my Bible . . .

Edit: To make this even more bizarre, Katie and I unknowingly posted about this on the same day with the same title.