Some co-workers were having lunch together, two were Christians and the other was an atheist. The Christians were talking about Noah and the flood, when the atheist suddenly interrupted the conversation.
     “I don't know how you can believe that it rained for forty days and nights.”
     One of the Christians replied confidently, “Your own scientists will tell you that that during the ice age it snowed every day for one hundred years.”
     The disgruntled atheist returned to his sandwich in silence.

     An acquaintance made a comment to me about atheists. He said, “Why do they protest so vehemently about something they don't believe exists?”
     I replied, “They really are not sure of their own belief about God and they have to convince themselves by trying to prove that they are right.” Then I gave him this example. There was a campaign that started in England by an atheist that eventually spread to Europe and Canada. The advertising sign that he had put on the buses was “There probably is no God so stop worrying and enjoy your life.” Notice his choice of the word “probably.” Why didn't he say positively that there is no God instead of “probably”? The word "probably" means very likely - but it is not an absolute certainty.

     In John's Gospel, one of Jesus' disciples asks the Lord why He is revealing Himself to them (believers) and not to everyone in the world. Jesus tells him in essence, that He would reveal Himself to those who love Him (John 14: 22,23). The atheists have chosen to be outside that circle and will continue going in circles until they repent or expire. Meanwhile, those in God's inner circle, the ones who have come to Him with faith like little children (Matthew 18:3) receive the reward of that faith, because God is the rewarder of those who diligently seek Him (Hebrews 11:6) and He rewards us with the sweet, delightful presence of Himself.
     Christians share their testimonies of answered prayer, healings and other miracles as the Holy Spirit continues to work in their lives. We can say with confidence that God exists because we know Him, for He has revealed Himself to us in ways which are beyond the atheist's sphere of comprehension.

     Missionaries have watched limbs grow back on people in Northern Africa.

     There are numerous doctor verified testimonies of miraculous healings among God's people. I have before and after pictures of a large tumor in a young woman's lung that just disappeared after prayer.

     When I was water baptized, the pastor dropped me in the river. When he reached in to pull me out, he said that there was so much electricity in the water it burned his hands. Everyone on the shore said I came out straight, without floundering, which is a little hard to do when you’re off your feet in waist deep water. I felt like I was lifted out and it wasn't by the pastor, he verified that he did not touch me when I was in the water. I was pulled out supernaturally. Afterward he showed me the red marks on his hands. I then proceeded to have one of the hardest years of my life and I kept remembering my baptism, thinking, “God pulled me out of those waters, He'll get me through this.” I have heard of other similar testimonies where God gave an extraordinary token of His presence before a trial to help His children go through it.

     On several occasions when I was broke I had total strangers come up to me, give me money and say, “The Lord told me you needed this.” That's quite a faith builder. One time we were doing an art show in Califonia. I had given the promoter a bad check for sixty dollars and I told him not to cash it until after the show. After four days in a mall, we were counting on being able to cover the check as we had many times before. This time, it was different. After four days we hadn't sold a thing and it was getting near closing time. The check was going to bounce.
     Then just as we were getting ready to pack up a man can along and admired one of our prints we were selling for $14.98. "I want one of those," he said. "I'm going to my car to get my checkbook." When he came back he had the strangest look on his face. He said, "The Lord told me to give you one hundred dollars." I said, "Yes, He did." Then I told him what our situation was and tears welled up in his eyes. He was a Christian and he was so touched that he had been used by God to help us.

     On one of those occasions when I was handed money by a stranger, the stranger sat down with us and shared his story. He was Charlie Lundy, who was president of his own aircraft corporation. He was trying to talk his Christian girl friend out of her faith. They were climbing a mountain together and when they neared the top, he saw the sky open up, a light came down and every hair on his body stood up. He heard a Voice say, "Charlie, you are going to serve Me. And so that you'll know that it's Me, at the end of thirty days you're not going to have any money." At the time he had five million dollars and three of it was liquid. At the end of thirty days all his money was gone. His ex-wife had gotten together with his attorney and turned his Swiss bank account into the IRS. Charlie became a Christian and married his girlfriend. When we met him he was living in a camper helping street people in Fresno.

     The Lord works in a variety of ways to build faith in those who are willing to come to Him with faith as small as a mustard seed (Matthew 17:20).

     God says in His word that if you seek Him you will find Him. People who are too proud to humble themselves before a Being so much greater than themselves will never find Him.

     In the meantime the atheist persists in his campaign to convince himself and others that God does not exist – probably.

     "Atheists are basically on an exaggerated ego trip with themselves as the center of a universe of their own design, a design that will shattered at their deaths leaving them comfortless and abadnoned." - H.D. Shively

Copyright 2014 by H.D. Shively

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