Bible Study @ Rapha

Psalm 107:20
He sent His word and healed them, and delivered them out of their distresses.

If yesterday was Tuesday....
Then I must have been out at Rapah for another Bible study.
New time though...
Bible study started at 8 p.m.
Little later than I'm accustomed to, but hey! In the old days when I was on staff @ Rapha, we use to have a 9 p.m. Bible study on Tuesday's and Thursday's, but that was a few years back.

This was our first 8 p.m. study, and wasn't sure what to expect.
Turns out that 8 p.m. is the perfect time to have such a meeting. We had 12 show up for the study.

As we traveled through the verses, the guys had a lot of questions (most which had nothing to do with what we were studying).  The questions, or change of topic, really don't bother me. That was one of the first thing I learned in my early days at Rapah. If your teaching a class, be prepared to reel the topic back in because someone is going to ask a question that will totally derail the study. If the topic goes too far off, I usually ask the person who asked the question, "Now what does this have to do with your recovery and salvation?" 

Questions like:
1.) Where do you think Noah'a ark is?
or
2.) Who do you think the anti-Christ is?
And of course my all time favorite:
3.) Do you believe in once saved always saved, or do you believe you can lose your salvation?

Anyway, the study was a success. We prayed at the end and dismissed.
Guys were coming up to thank me for coming out to do the study. One who came up was finishing up his first day at Rapha. He had asked a number of questions,and had planted himself on the last row of chairs, as if to say "I don't want to get to close to anything that is going on...I'm just curious." Well, I thanked him for coming and looked forward to him making this a regular part of his schedule during his time @ Rapha.  We shook hands, he turned to walk away.

As he approached the back door, I asked him,"Are you having back problems? Problems to the point that you can't sleep at night?" He turned to look at me with a puzzled look on his face. Hesitantly he said, "Yes". I asked him if we could pray for him. He agreed and came back to the front of the room. He sat down in a chair, and I gathered up the 5 other guys who were still there to join me as I prayed. We placed our hands on his shoulders and waited to see what God wanted to do. 

I asked him, "These back problems are because of car wrecks isn't it?" Once again, hesitantly, he said, "yes." So we began to praise God as we prayed. We praised Him for His faithfulness in not allowing this man to have been killed. We praised Him for the plans that He must have for this man, as his life was spared. As the prayer continued, the man began to sink lower and lower into the chair. Tears began to flow....the Holy Spirit was at work. The prayer continued for some time, and the presence of God only grew stronger in the room. With our "AMEN", the man stood up knowing that he'd been touched by God. I think maybe he had a lot of questions to ask, but at the point in time, he didn't have language to talk about what had just happened to him. He left the room walking a little lighter than when he'd come in.

Walking to my car, I offered up a "Way to go GOD!!!!".
It had been a good night @ Rapha.
Wonder what He is going to do next week?

God on you...
mbb