The Book of a People (“IF YOU Know?” Book Excerpt)
“If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”
2 Chronicles 7:14
I had my answer ready. I went through cancer. I left my mother. I was in a new city, at the beginning of a Pandemic.
I had a lot on my mind. But I knew the answer to his question.
“…In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established.”
2 Corinthians 13:1
A maintenance man came by to fix our overhead kitchen light.
I was busy writing on my laptop.
This maintenance man stopped his work. He started a conversation with me.
“Do you think The Bible is a bunch of scriptures, or do you think it is the book of a people?”
Raqel, over many conversations, had uttered this familiar phrase, “the book of a people.”
She had shared some of her findings with me, doing the deep research she had been about in her life.
Therefore, I knew the answer to his question.
I responded, “The book of a people.”
He seemed surprised and delighted.
We talked for about forty-five minutes. He shared a lot of the information and insights that Raqel had mentioned in our conversations. We pinged off from one another. The conversation became livelier.
How much of that was attributed to my “white woman” appearance?
I told him a bit about my confusing background experiences.
He shared how he was pursuing his calling from The Most High, via ministry, on this subject matter.
And then I brought up Proverbs 30:4:
“…What is Your Name, and what is Your Son’s Name, if you know?”
Proverbs 30:4
He lit up at that scripture’s mention. Maybe I was the first “white” person he encountered regarding this. I don’t know.
The Name.
I do know that this was not just about fixing a kitchen light.
“…In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established.”
2 Corinthians 13:1
Divine appointment? Confirmation?
It was an unusual encounter in my apartment. This was quite specific yet dressed up as “ordinary.”
Isn’t that often how The Most High goes about things?
Anyway, it got my attention.
I didn’t know what to do with this.
Again, this was during the intensity of the Pandemic. Everyone was sheltering in place and wearing masks.
I didn’t know anyone within this new city.
I had no “spiritual home,” no “faith community,” no church.
And, even if I did, how would they receive me beginning to launch into this? I’d be stuttering through this information, probably making gibberish out of the entire thing.
Doing more harm than good.
I still wonder about that as I type these words…
