JIM

Just read John's blog entry on how God spoke to him through a ketchup bottle and it reminded me of a similar incident a few years ago.  I was on my knees, praying, between two beds in a hotel room while on a layover (I'm a commercial airline pilot.)  I had been wrestling with the Holy Spirit for a while that morning concerning fasting.  I'd been struggling with the issue for several days, feeling that I was being called to a 10 day fast.  Now, for a guy like me who HATES fasting, I would have preferred to have been tossed out the emergency exit at 37,000 feet because the agony is over much more quickly.  And, I reasoned, my passengers had a right to expect a "full-up" pilot, not one hampered by the tortures of fasting.  I finally decided that I could do a 10 day fast if I could drink fruit juice during that time.  That seemed reasonable; no protein, nothing solid, just fruit juice.  And LOTS of it, I figured.  So, I was about to declare the issue settled when I heard that internal whisper, "What's that by your foot?"  I realized that my foot had been moving an object around under the adjacent bed and it hadn't struck me, until then, that it probably didn't belong there.  So, I turned around and fished it out.  It was a plastic bottle of Lipton Brisk Natural Lemon Flavor Iced Tea.  Sort of a strange thing to find under a hotel room bed.  The Spirit whispered again, "Turn it around."  I gave it about a half turn and my eyes fell on the words printed at the top of the label by the bar code..."Contains No Fruit Juice."  I had nothing but water for the next 10 days.  And an undeniable assurance that I was doing what my Lord wanted.  What an amazing God we serve that He knows what's written on every bottle ever manufactured... and everything else as well!

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