BIBLE ROULETTE?

“And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.” (Galatians 3:29)

“Bible Roulette”. Not “Russian Roulette”. “Bible Roulette.”

Most pastors cannot in good conscience recommend Bible Roulette. Bible Roulette is simply flipping the Bible open at random and believing God will supernaturally speak to you in this way; that He will guide you to a very important Divine message. Pastors don’t recommend Bible Roulette because usually it just involves finding random Bible passages which are exactly that...random Bible passages. And, the Bible is REALLY meant to be read IN CONTEXT. (That is, in most cases the verses that surround a particular verse give it’s intended meaning.) The big joke among Bible scholars is that one poor misguided soul went to his Bible playing Bible Roulette. He first randomly turned to Matthew 27:5, “And he (that is, Judas) cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself.”. The poor misguided soul then turned to Luke 10:37 “...Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise.” And that’s exactly what that poor misguided soul did!

Now, that said, I HAVE had two very genuine and moving experiences of God definitely speaking to me through “Bible Roulette”. The first was in 1972. I was 17-years-old and I’d been a born-again Christian for less than 2 years. I was “witnessing” (sharing my faith in Christ) to another kid at Canton High that I’ll call “Ted”. Ted was the best musician at Canton High at the time, and was possibly the most talented musician who ever attended Canton High. Ted and I were pretty good friends. I had witnessed to Ted a few weeks earlier, and he flat out rejected it. Now, in early January of 1972, a couple of kids that Ted thought were his friends had turned on him. I began to feel strongly that God was telling me this was an opportunity to REALLY reach out to Ted; to be a friend to him like the Good Samaritan, as it were. I wondered if God was really “talking” to me or if this was just some crazy scenario I was making up for myself. Like Gideon in the Book of Judges, I just had to be sure. I prayed. “God, if you are REALLY telling me this, when I open up my Bible at random, let me open it right to the story of the Good Samaritan.”

At that time, I knew the story of the Good Samaritan was somewhere in the Gospels but I didn’t know where it was. I really thought it was in Matthew. I opened the Bible at random and it opened to Luke chapter 10. I was disappointed. I “knew” this was not the Good Samaritan passage. “What a stupid jerk I am,” I thought. Then I looked at the heading on the page. It read, “The Great Commandment. The Good Samaritan.” There in black and white was the story of the Good Samaritan! I now know that Luke chapter 10 is the only place in the Bible that records the story of the Good Samaritan. I did witness to Ted. A week or two later, he received Jesus Christ as his Personal Lord and Savior. Today, Ted lives in California. He’s married and has several kids. Ted served as a Minister of Music in several large churches in California. At one time, he was John MacArthur’s organist. At present, Ted is a professor of music at a Christian college in suburban Los Angeles.

The second powerful experience of God speaking to me through Bible Roulette happened YESTERDAY. On Sunday mornings, I typically go to our church facility very early. I make a couple of pots of coffee, turn on the heat, etc. Yesterday, I was having a very tough time “getting going”. I had no energy. It was dark and cold and raining outside. It was one of those Sundays that I didn’t feel like preaching, or teaching, or leading. As a friend of mine says, “I didn’t feel like doin’ nothin’”. And I didn’t. As I was doing my Sunday early morning routine at the church, I prayed a brief prayer. “Lord, I don’t like being in this tired, unmotivated mood. Would you give me some Bible passage to pick me up and be ‘my passage’ for the day?”. I went into my office and took a King James Bible off the shelf. (It was a Dake’s Annotated Reference Bible for all you old time AG people out there!) I flipped the Bible opened and it opened to Galatians 3, 4, and 5. Well, it was all of chapter 4, the last part of chapter 3 and the first part of chapter 5. My eyes specifically fell on the verse I opened this posting with.

I didn’t feel any lightning bolts or see any angels or anything like that. But I did read that verse, and I thought, “Well, O.K. I guess God’s telling me I need to have faith like Abraham.” A few seconds later as I walked down the hall, I glanced and noticed my wife’s N.I.V. Burgundy covered Bible laying in a room. Suddenly, I had the STRONGEST urge to go in and pick it up and open it.

“NO!” I thought, “That’s stupid. what’s the matter with me? I asked God for a verse and I got one and that’s that. Besides, I don’t even like the New International Version!” I started to walk away, but it was like I was drawn by a magnet into that room. I picked up Mary Ann’s Bible and flipped it open at random. It opened to Galatians chapters 3, 4, and 5. It was all of Galatians 4, the last part of Galatians 3 and the first part of Galatians 5. I was stunned. It’s like I felt GOD there in a very special way. This just couldn’t be a coincidence. Two different Bibles. Two different versions. I pick them up, open them at random to the same passage?

I started thinking about the Book of Galatians and specifically about Galatians chapter 4 (even though the actual verse I’d concentrated on in the Dake’s Bible was 3:29). Galatians 4 is about the great faith Abraham had to have to believe God for the child of promise: Isaac. Abraham and Sarah were getting older and older. God had made this great promise to them, but NOTHING happened. Sarah was now much too old to get pregnant. Abraham did what he thought was the smart thing. He had sex with Hagar, the young servant girl. She got pregnant and had a son: Ishmael. Abraham was ecstatic! He had an heir! This was the son! Then God bluntly told him that was NOT the son He was talking about. Over a decade later, SARAH miraculously got pregnant and gave birth to the promised son Isaac.

As I thought about this, I had the strong sense that God was telling me to NOT try to handle things in my own strength and in my own “wisdom” at this point in my life. (No, I’m not planning on having any more kids, thank you, but THAT’S not the meaning for me!) God HAS promised many things to me and to First Assembly of God of Framingham. They have not happened. Have you ever watched that movie, “Field of Dreams”? It happens to be my favorite film. Lately, I’ve been feeling like Kevin Costner looking out at that baseball field filling up with snow. He can’t pay his mortgage. It doesn’t make sense. Everybody thinks he’s crazy. Nobody believes him. In a lot of ways, I’ve been right there with him.

I can’t begin to tell you what my early Sunday morning experience did for me!
I went to the church at 6:15 a lethargic, unmotivated man. I left a half hour later ecstatically happy and “pumped”! Our attendance was very low on Sunday...worse than it usually is. This was also our one Sunday of the month that we have a Sunday evening service. So, I taught a class, preached two sermons, ran two services, and led an early morning prayer meeting. I was “pumped” the whole time. I felt like I was preaching to hundreds of people!

What is the full meaning of what happened yesterday? I don’t know. I’m excited. And, I’m also scared. On one level, I still have a baseball field filling up with snow and I can’t pay my mortgage. But on a deeper level, I know God has his hand on me and on our church.

What will happen next?