The Preacher

This is a true story:

I heard that one of our preachers was going to a city to preach a
message.  He was traveling at night on near deserted highway and praying
to God to help him with the message for the next day.  He was driving to
the city that night to spend the night and would be speaking the next
day. 

He was driving along the highway when the voice of God shook him as God
spoke to him:  "Stop this car and preach."  He slowed down and said, "God
there is no one anywhere near here.  I've only met 2 cars in the hour
I've been on this highway."  God shouted at him, "Stop the car NOW, and
get out and preach your message here, now."

The preacher pulled over and stopped the car.  He got his Bible and his
flashlight and went to the front of his car.  He laid his Bible on the
hood of the car and began reading his text all the while wondering what
God thought He was doing.  He preached about the "Depth and height of the
Love of God."  He talked about how far God would reach just to save one
soul.  He gave the illustration of the one lost sheep, and how the
Shepherd left the 99 to go to rescue the one lost sheep.

A couple of minutes into his message and the anointing came.  He preached
as if he was preaching to a thousand people.  he was preaching along, and
a car came by slowly, slowed down ahead almost came to a stop, then went
slowly on.  A second car came by before he finished his message, slowed
down, rolled the car window down as if to ask if he needed help, then
drove on again.

The minister finished his message, crawled back into his car and drove
on.  "Lord, I do not know what you were trying to prove, but if it was
practice I needed, I thank you."

Approximately three months later this minister was preaching in a small
church in that same area.  He had almost forgotten the ordeal.  But God
quickened him to again preach this same message this night.  He preached
with anointing and with power, and at the end asked if anyone wanted to
come home to the sheepfold, as he gave the altar call.

A young man sitting on the second row immediately got up from his seat
and came forward.  But instead of kneeling down he came on up on the
platform and threw his arms around the minister, crying loudly.  The
minister prayed for him.

After a few moments the young man said, "So you are the minister who
stopped on the side of the road and preached that message about three
months ago!"  The minister nodded his head, and asked, "Were you in one
of the cars that came by and almost stopped?"

The young man shook his head and said, "No, I was in the culvert
underneath your car.  I was hooked on Cocaine, my parents had washed
their hands of me, I was in trouble with the law for stealing to support
my habit.  I had tried to commit suicide that day, but I was still
alive.
I had no home, no clothes, no money and was hungry.  I prayed as I found
the culvert and made myself a bed for the night, "If there is a God, see
if you can find me here!"

"I got out of the culvert and sat on the grass out of your sight.  I
listened to you tell the story about the lost sheep and the love of a
shepherd who would not sleep until He found him.  Something got a hold of
me that night.  The next morning, I started walking to try to find a
church to see if I could find this God who had answered my carelessly
flung prayer that night.

I had not walked far, when a man picked me up and took me to his church.
His minister is up there sitting in that chair (pointed at the pastor of
the church).  He talked to me, took me to his home, fed me, cleaned me up
and bought me some new clothes.  Then he told me about Jesus.  I
repented, was baptized in His name that night.  The next night I received
the baptism of the Holy Ghost.  Man, am I glad you practiced your sermon
on the side of the highway that night!  See all those people on that
second row?  I've brought all of them to this church and my family too."

What is the length and the depth of the love of God?  It is never ending, for He will go out of His way to find a lost soul who has flung a helpless and careless prayer His way.

If we with ink the ocean fill, and were the sky with parchment make. And every stalk on earth a quill, and every man a scribe by trade. To write the love of God above would drain the ocean dry. Nor could the scroll contain the whole thought stretched from sky to sky.