Dramatic Encounters with God - Women of Faith Book Club

Introduction

It was just a voice on a hot dusty road, asking a straightforward question, “Saul, why are you persecuting me?” . . . and a dramatic encounter with God changed the course of the world. From Adam in the Garden of Eden to Moses on Mt. Sinai to Saul on the road to Damascus, God has a history of interrupting our so-called everyday lives with His presence (and on rare occasions, with His voice). When He does, it’s a dramatic encounter like no other. Something happens that stops us in our tracks—it at once exposes us and embraces us. Something happens that reveals God in a new way and brings Him near. Something happens that changes our direction or our perspective or our soul and then, the rest of our lives. It can happen anywhere. On a busy street, on a business trip overseas, or right in the middle of your morning coffee—whenever God grasps our human hearts and allows us to hear His voice, it is a dramatic encounter.

What would it have been like to be there in the first century when Christ was interacting with people directly? In the days when the holy met the human face to face, when God walked among the people, captivating them with His message of love? It is hard to imagine all the encounters that took place in almost every footprint He made. Yet it is worth trying because of what we learn in the process. People matter so much more to God than we think and thus believe. It is easy and understandable to read first century encounters with Jesus as just stories about other people—blind people, lame children, or religious leaders—who lived in another place and time. But when we take a closer look, we find that they are about us, here and now, and they are about love.

The Power of Love

Love is far and away the strongest power known to mankind. The power of love could eradicate the need for weapons of mass destruction. The power of love could change all that our prison system was designed to correct. So why doesn’t it? Sadly, love is an undervalued, often untapped resource. People underestimate its strength. But love reveals its power when we realize it can do something that nothing else on the face of the earth can do: love can change the human heart.

You don’t need money,
Don’t take fame
Don’t need no credit card to ride this train
It’s strong and it’s sudden and it’s cruel sometimes
But it might just save your life . . .
That’s the power of love

Huey Lewis might not have set out to write a gospel song, but he did just that. His lyrics captured an old truth in a new way when “The Power of Love” was recorded in 1985. That same year, the producers of a film called Back to the Future chose Lewis’ lyrics to underscore the film’s message: love has the power to change things even across time and space, which is why sometimes you have to revisit the past in order to change your future.

That’s what this book is all about. We revisit the past—the Jerusalem of the ancient world where Christ walked as a Man—so that His love can change our 21st-century futures. We meet Him on that dusty road, or on the steps of the temple, or in the house of His friends to listen in on His divine conversation. And as we watch His interactions and experience His love, our daily lives of carpools and timeclocks and dishes and budgets are changed forever.

By going back, we can discover for ourselves that divine love is strong enough to break destructive patterns. As He speaks to us from His word, our hearts are transformed, our eyes are opened, our feet learn to walk in new paths, and our religion becomes a relationship.

If you’ve ever doubted your faith, if you’ve ever done something wrong and desperately needed grace, If you’ve been betrayed by someone you loved, or struggled with issues of control, come walk by the Sea of Galilee, stand with Christ in the garden of Gethsemane, gather in the stony circle around the adulterous woman, and see what happens in your own heart.

On our own, we do not have the ability to love like God does. But when we tap into His love, it makes our small amount of love more abundant and free. It transforms our little love into the kind of big love that can forgive betrayal—or lay down our blades of cutting—or smooth the wrinkles of our doubt—the kind of love that can change our lives. Really experiencing this book will require a good deal of honesty and courage.

Can you look for yourself in every story—and admit when you find you? Rarely do we take the time to answer the kinds of questions that are included at the end of each chapter in this book. They provide an opportunity for a private self-inventory—one that can lead toward growth and change. We can make internal decisions about who we want to be . . . but never as strongly as when we are honest with ourselves about who we are. Only then can we know in what direction we have to go to reflect the loving father who created us. So take a deep breath, ask God to interrupt your life today with His divine presence and hold your heart still as you dive into your own dramatic encounter with Him.