god-incidence.com

My daughter Julia often brings L (age 13) and T (age 12) to church, and we have kind of “adopted” this family especially since their parents separated last year, looking after them in whatever way we can.

Sadly, their Dad committed suicide a week ago. As their Mum doesn’t drive or have a car, it was arranged for a relative to drive L to the funeral in a country town some three hours away (T didn’t want to go); and that we would bring her back home.

However I couldn’t believe my eyes when L’s family came out of the house to say hello, there was a face I recognised! The grandmother’s sister was K – a lady from our church who had visited our cell group only a couple of weeks before! Being a large church, we probably wouldn’t have met otherwise. I know we were both encouraged, even without saying a word, to realise that there is another Christian in this family’s life to love and care for them.

Now if that isn’t a God-incidence, I don’t know what is!

Of course it’s devastating that their dad took his own life -  but at least God has been busy placing His people all around the family to support them, and hopefully love them into His Kingdom. “For such a time as this …”

Since I published my latest book about God-Incidences it’s highlighted to others how simple every day actions could actually be a God-Incidence. So I’m going to start sharing with you some of the stories that have been sent in to me.  Here’s the first one.

Good luck with your book launch Kathie.  I received the first ‘God Incidence’ that I chose to recognize this week.

It was simple really.  The previous day I had been sorting a LOT of papers and I wrote a small list of some things I wanted to do soon.  Then I could not find the list.

The next day I decided I would go and look for it (in all the mess), but the phone rang.  It was a lovely call and it prompted me to look in my diary, and out fell the small list of things to do.

It may not seem like much, but it was such a simple thing (and I HATE losing things) and at the time, I was feeling quite alone (not just because I work from a home office), so I felt as if I really did have someone by my side.

After reading some of your blog today, I will probably start seeing a lot more of these in the future - how blind I have been!

Cheers, Sue

And it really is that simple - God helping us to find things.   Kathie.

The new book based on this blog, with many new stories, is now available at the site “It Happened By Design“.  And when I was seeking reviews for the book, one of the reviewers had a God-incident of her own.  Amazing!  But then you wouldn’t expect anything less of God, would you?

Have you ever experienced an amazing co-incidence in your life?  One so amazing that later you ask yourself if perhaps it was the hand of God at work?  Well, according to author Kathie Thomas, it just might be.  She says that instead of a co-incidence, you may have experienced a God–incidence.

Kathie first heard the term “God-incidence” from her pastor a few years ago While listening to a sermon on how God used Joseph and his betrayal by his brothers to ultimately save the Hebrew nation, and how everything – every “coincidence” that occurred in Joseph’s life -actually moved him closer to his destined path, she realized that she too had experienced many such moments in her own life.

Kathie began searching the internet and found that many others were also having these same experiences.  She asked others to share their stories.  Those stories became a book – “It Happened by Design”.

It’s a wonderful book.  Kathie has changed nothing in the retelling of the many stories sent to her.  They ring with faith and truth.   And as you read you realize that, just as Kathie says, the hand of God is moving in the lives of these individuals.

My favorite story is almost the last one in the book – Surprise!  God-incidence.  It tells the story of a woman who discovers God’s calling for her in a surprising way.  As I read it, I felt tears come – and then an amazing peace.  You see, I have been feeling a similar call as the one in the story – a call to reach out and bring God’s word to other women.  But then I turn away.  Surely God has another plan for a simple business woman from Arkansas?  Then suddenly Kathie asks for friends to review her newest book.  And I say I will – although I have never done such a thing before.  And I read a story of a woman who hears God’s call and I know that this is the path I am to take.  Co-incidence?  Of course not!  God-incidence!  As Kathie shows so beautifully in her book – it happened by design.

Melodieann Whiteley,  WealthTogether, Inc.

As you know by now the new book “It Happened By Design” will be publicly available very soon.  And in the meantime I’ve been getting people to review the book in its draft form. The third review that came in ended up being how reviewing the book provided an answer for the reader and was a God-incidence in itself.  You need to read that here.

If you’re one of the contributing authors for my new book, based on this blog, called “It Happened By Design” and you haven’t yet got your permission form back to me, please get in touch as soon as possible. I need to finalise the copy so it can go to the printer.

Thank you.