SAMUEL G. TOOMA, AUTHOR
Sam's Blog |
Today, I continue to post the events in my life which I include whenever I am witnessing my Christian walk with others; believers and non-believers. As I said in my introduction to my previous post, these stories often are received with disbelief, both by believing Christians and non-believers. But they did happen to me, and I present them without shame. I hope you enjoy the 2 stories I present today.
HOLY SPIRIT FOR THE SECOND TIME (2002). In August 2002, I was very enthusiastic about the renewal of my faith. It was a time that I was beginning to really get interested in the Bible. However, one thing that I did not want to do was to burn myself out in this area and begin to lose interest. I had 3 options of Bible study to choose from which were all going to begin in early September; Community Bible Study (CBS) which was going to begin study of Galatians and then Hebrews; a Bible study of Romans offered by St. Luke’s; and a very small, small group which was going to study the Essentials of Discipleship. I only intended to select one of these options, and I was pretty sure that I would select Essentials of Discipleship with 2 other men, George Irwin and Jim Way. However, with decisions like this, we Christians are always asked to pray on it in order to see what the Lord says. So, dutifully one morning, I prayed to ask the Lord’s advice on which study I should take. With my mind already made up, I was not expecting an answer. I was shocked when the same voice as in the story I related earlier this week, the Holy Spirit, said clearly into my head, “Take two”. That’s it. Only 2 words; take two. But those words were more of a command and not a request. I said aye, aye, Sir, and I signed up for Essentials of Discipleship and CBS. Two of my dearest friends, Karl Meyer and Tom Gaffney, were extremely happy that I elected to enroll in the CBS class. Karl had been badgering me for almost a year to join the CBS studies, and Tom was the Teaching Director for the Hilton Head evening chapter of CBS. It is interesting to note that I only wanted to take one study so I would not burn myself out with Bible studies. Well, I not only did the Essentials of Discipleship study and the CBS study of Galatians and Hebrews, but 3 weeks later, I joined my wife in her study of Romans at St. Luke’s church. The Holy Spirit certainly knows what He is doing. HOLY SPIRIT FOR THE THIRD TIME. In October 2003, we had a tragic event occur in our lives. Chris, a boyfriend of my youngest daughter, Stephanie, died from a drug overdose. We did not know that he used drugs, and we never found out if his death was accidental or self-inflicted. Stephanie and Chris were not in an active relationship at the time, but they were still good, close friends. We knew little about Chris’s family, other than his mother lived in Florida. After his death, there was no one to make any kind of arrangements. So, Sylvia, Stephanie, and I took on that responsibility. Through one of his friends in Florida, we were able to contact his mother and break the sad news to her. She was very poor, and in very poor health. Chris had been in the navy, so we arranged a military burial ceremony for him and located a Potter’s Field in Florida for his burial place. This whole event was very sad for us because Chris was fun-loving, so full of life, and had been part of our family for many years. One Sunday, a few days after the death but before the burial had occurred, Sylvia and I were sitting in church, and I was thinking about what we had to do with the arrangements for taking care of Chris’s body in Florida. Then, loud and clear, I heard the same voice that I talked about in both the testimonial stories I've posted. There was no mistaking that it was, once again, the Holy Spirit. It was a simple message, “It’s a blessing”. I could not understand how this tragic event could possibly be a blessing. A young man in the prime of his life had tragically died. I pondered this message from the Holy Spirit for many months. Needless to say, this happening was devastating to Stephanie. She blamed herself for Chris’s death and was suffering greatly. Several months later, she and I were sitting and talking in my car outside of the nursing home where my mother was living. She opened up to me and told me of how crushed she was about Chris’s death. She told me that she had tried to contact several self-help groups that were made up of people who had experienced similar tragedies in their lives. Not one of these groups got back to her. Stephanie then told me that she finally turned to Jesus Christ for help. Where human beings did not help her, Jesus did. Stephanie told me that without His help, she wasn’t sure that she could have gotten over what happened to Chris. How is this a blessing? All I know is that Stephanie became a believing Christian soon thereafter. She eventually married Jordan Sturm, brought him to the Lord, and is raising her 3 children with strong Christian values. This is certainly a great blessing to me and Sylvia.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorMy life's experiences. Archives
May 2021
Categories |