January 6  God Works In Strange Ways

So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. Rom. 10:17, ESV.

Miller's turning way from the inadequacies of deism didn't mean that he was all that excited to become a Christian.

But he did begin to attend church. At least when he felt like it.

The next turning point in Miller's life came in May 1816 when he discovered himself "in the act of taking the name of God in vain." He had acquired the practice in the army but had come under conviction that it was wrong.

That action might seem insignificant to most people, but the topic of religion had agitated Miller's mind for some time. As a result, the event predipitated a crisis in his life. "In the month of May 1816," he later wrote, "I was brought under conviction; and O, what horror filled my soul! I forgot to eat. the heavens appeared like brass, and the earth like iron. Thus I continued till October, when God opened my eyes."

Two things happened in September 1816 that prepared Miller for his October crisis. The first was the celebration of the Battle of Plattsburg. While preparing for a time of "high glee," the veterans attended a sermon the evening before the big party. They returned in deep thought. Prayer and praise had replaced mirth and thoughts of the dance as they recalled the circumstances of the bitter battle and their "surprising" victory.

The second event took place the following Sunday. Miller's mother had discovered that he absented himself from church whenever the pastor was out of town. On such occasions one of the deacons would read poorly a sermons.

Miller made the mistake of intimating that if he could do the reading he would always be present. Thus the still deistic Miller regularly received invitations to present the sermons that the deacons selected. It was on September 15, 1816, that he read a sermon that so choked him up that he was forced to sit down in the midst of the message. He had reached a spiritual crisis.

A few weeks later, as he put it, "God opened my eyes; and O, my soul, what a Savior I discovered Jesus to be!" That discovery propelled the young convert into regular Bible study. Before long he noted that the Bible "became my delight, and in Jesus I found a friend."

God is a Diety of miracles. That He could take a skeptic such as Miller and lead him to conversation through his own public reading of a sermon is a wonder. We serve a God who utilizes multitude of means to accomplish His will.

Every wayside blossom owes its being to the same power that set the starry worlds on high. Through all created things thrills one pulse of life from the great heart of God. The flowers of the field are clothed by His hand in richer robes than have ever graced the forms of earthly kings. And "if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall He not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?"(TFMB 96).