A Story of Snow, Sovereignty, and Sandals with Socks – Episode #579

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A Story of Snow, Sovereignty, and Sandals with Socks
Episode #579
1-7-2018

With Martha Kilpatrick and hosted by John Enslow

This is the continuation of a series of Podcasts started in Episode #577.
God’s sovereign protection and provision is at the heart of an adventure recently embarked upon by John and Martha, featuring snow and a pair of sandals.

(Martha) Okay, I want to read from 2 Thessalonians, chapter 2, starting at 2 (2 Thessalonians 2:1-2), verse 2. “We ask you, brothers and sisters, not to be quickly unsettled or alarmed either by a [so-called prophetic revelation of a] spirit or a message or a letter [alleged to be] from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has [already] come.” Meaning it has not, it has not come. “Let no one in any way deceive or entrap you, for that day will not come unless the apostasy comes first [that is, the great rebellion…]” In the King James, I think it says ‘great falling away.’ “…the abandonment of the faith by professed Christians], and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction [the Antichrist, the one who is destined to be destroyed], who opposes and exalts himself [so proudly and so insolently] above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he [actually enters and] takes his seat in the temple of God, publicly proclaiming that he himself is God.” And then he reminds them that he’s already told you these things.  “For the mystery of lawlessness [rebellion against divine authority and the coming reign of lawlessness]…” And the Amplified Classic calls it ‘rebellion against delegated authority.’ That’s what we’re seeing. They’re, the people in office are delegated authority. The police are delegated authorities. The mystery of lawlessness “is already at work; [but it is restrained] only until he who now restrains it is taken out of the way.” Then, I believe that speaks of the rapture. So I want to remind us all that the culmination of humanity, the end of human history is the marriage of the Lamb. The marriage of the Lamb is the purpose for this existence. This place we call home, this earth, this universe was created for Christ and was created for His Bride. And so that is the event. Most Christians don’t consider it much. And others don’t believe it or understand what it means that Christ has the Bride. But that’s what and where we’re headed and you’ll either be in or out of that event for eternity significance. So that’s what I want to go back to is to remind us how— The Scripture tells us how to be prepared and even tells us what to pray to be in the rapture. Some people have said to me, and valid people, that there’s no such thing as the rapture and I don’t know how they can erase 1 Thessalonians and 2 Thessalonians. Because it says we’ll meet Him in the air. How do you erase that?
(John) Maybe they’re not a part of it so they don’t see it.
(Martha) Oof. Yikes.
(John laughing)
(Martha) So it’s like all that’s— I’m not reading a tenth of what is in the New Testament to you. I challenge you to start at Matthew and go through to the end of Revelation and look at the warnings against false prophets. The warning against false doctrine. What we are to respond and what we are to do, it’s really terribly exciting. It’s fascinating. And because, because God has laid it down, really, for Christ in us to perform it, there really is no excuse. We have the Holy Spirit who will form these things in us and all we have to do is pray. But it has to do also with being together. We cannot survive this, this time, isolated and alone and living without any help from other believers. This is a time of church.
(John) It’s the Body.
(Martha) It’s the Body of Christ to pull together. And unless you are with a Body, you’re in a dangerous place. If you happen to not be with one, pray! I prayed for church and God gave it.
(John) There are seasons, there are seasons when God pulls you aside, pulls you off and you know, I’ve had those seasons where I didn’t really have a Body of believers. But, and I know there’s many people out there that, you know, consider us their Body because they don’t have a direct-connect Body. But God, that’s God’s to orchestrate.
(Martha) That’s true. And we are very close to people who we’re very far from. (Laughs) If that makes sense. It says brothers and, in 1 Thessalonians 5, “Brothers and sisters, we urge you to warn those who are lazy.” I think I read it in the Amplified. “Encourage those who are timid.” But I’m challenged and excited to go through the scriptures again and be reminded and energized and ah, exercised. How to begin to be ready to meet the Lord. It is, there’s nothing… Well, I’m going to say there’s nothing we need to do to guard against the world. We’re gonna tell you a story now that illustrates this. Do you have it?
(John) No, go for it. That’s good.
(Martha) Is it time? Okay, we were led of the Lord to go away for a work week and we were in North Carolina. We’re in the grocery store and someone said, “It’s gonna snow tomorrow but it’s only 3 or 4 inches.” And someone else said, “Well we never know.” So we went our way, bought a few things to eat but we were leaving to come home the next day. So we wake up. And I look out the window and I want to say, “John? Did you see this?!” (Laughs) It was huge snow had occurred overnight.
(John) It was at least, at that point, and it was, what, probably 8 in the morning? It was already 6 inches. And I said, “Oh we’re in, we’re in trouble!” (Laughing) “We’ve gotta get out of here!” So we quickly got together, got everything ready to go. I put everything in the car and put Mimi in the car and we trekked off. And we made it through one of the towns going back home and the next part of that travel would’ve been through some pretty mountainous, treacherous roads actually. They’re pretty treacherous. They’re really thin, they’re really close to the edge, and they’re mountain roads.
(Martha) There’s no way to turn around once you get on that road. And most of it has a gorge on the side.
(John) Yeah, you could fly off the side of it.
(Martha) Easy!
(John) (Laughing) But beyond that you really, you can’t, I mean it would take a major deal. And if it was completely iced over, it would have been a major deal to try and turn completely around. So we’re going and we’re driving and everything seems to be fine. I’m even taking pictures. You know, I was taking pictures of some little chickens in the snow, metal chickens in the snow kind of thing, and these neat little houses and stuff that were selling yard art. And was committed to continue, and we’re driving and all of a sudden, my car…I couldn’t control it anymore. It didn’t look like it was that big a deal. I mean, there had been snow plows that had gone through. It didn’t look like a big deal, but all of a sudden I had no control of my car. I turned left, turned right, hitting the brakes—I could not do anything! And I was sliding into the lane that was coming toward us. And I didn’t know what to do. I mean, there wasn’t a car coming, thank God! But I just, I didn’t know what to do. And it was like it was slow motion, wasn’t it? (Martha agrees) And I looked up, I saw there was a guy behind us, and he was watching the whole thing. And we just slid straight off the road and into a ditch. And it was weird. I told somebody later on about the accident and the ditch-falling, that I felt like I was laid into the ditch. It wasn’t like I slammed into the ditch. It wasn’t like I crashed into the ditch. It was like something just laid me into the ditch, nice and slowly and softly and didn’t damage the car at all. And I just, it was kinda just there. So the guy behind us pulls up next to us and I said, “Well, that was a trip.” And he smiled and he said, “Let me see if I have a rope to be able to pull you out.” So he pulled over and looked for a rope. He didn’t have a rope, so he called some friends of his and they spent the next, what, 20 minutes? Pulling us out. So we, they pulled us out and I was asking them, you know, I realized we couldn’t go any further. We had to stay. So I said, you know, “Where’s a hotel close?” And he said, “There’s about one 300 feet up.” And gave us the name. I called them, I had already arranged getting a room and ended up I’m glad I did, early, because there was a lot of people that had slid off the sides of the road and were in ditches. There were people that their car was literally up on end. I mean, that was a scary one, when we were going home the next day. And so we had the room ready to go, and so we turned and I said, “Could you just wait one second to make sure I get out of here?” So we turned around and I slid all over the road while I was doing that, turning around. But I was able to get over there and the lady at the hotel said, “Listen, there’s a parking spot, one left, right by the road. Why don’t you go ahead and take that?” So I pulled in. She said, “My car’s the next car in that spot, so just park right next to my car and you can walk up the hill.” So we did that.
(Martha) But by that time the snow was really deep.
(John) Oh yeah, absolutely.
(Martha) And it ended up being 18 inches where we were.
(John) (Laughing) 18 inches. Yeah it was supposed to be a dusting, to an inch. And they said that it would be maybe 3 to 4 inches. And then it became 18 inches.
(Martha) 18 inches. So we get, we get there and we find out there’s really no place to eat. No food anywhere.
(John) There was nothing.
(Martha) And so the proprietor of the motel told John to go to this place and get some food. But before that the way up to the room, to the little, it was a little old fashioned from the forties motel thing. Very familiar to me. Well done and re-done, but it was up a steep hill. And John went up to check it out, came back and got me up. And he wouldn’t let me go back down that way. So while I was in the car, I grabbed the things I needed most. But not a change of clothes (laughs). I took a cardboard box and I made myself a little office and put that, bare essentials in there. Didn’t think about grabbing any food from the car at that point. But I knew this was going to be spare. Because getting up and down that hill with luggage was not reasonable. So I got myself ready for the basic things. Toothbrush and Bible (laughs).
(John) Literally!
(Martha) Yeah, literally! And got up to this little room, and John went to find food. So you tell that.
(John) So I went next door to a coffee shop and I got the food, got a couple sandwiches that they had had and some stuff. And I said, “Are you gonna be open for dinner? Are you gonna be here, you know, so I can at least get some food?” And they said, “Yeah.” They thought they would be but they didn’t know for sure. Well I got back there to grab something before they closed and they were, had already closed up. And the lady in there was like, “We’re sorry, we’re already closed.” But she said, “My boyfriend’s in the back and let me ask him something.” And she went and got him, talked to him and said, “Would you mind taking this guy? I told him that I was gonna have food. And can you take him up to the store?” So he had a four-wheel drive, he took me up to the store. I got a couple of other things, still very sparse, you know. Carrot sticks and celery sticks and ranch dressing. (Laughs) So we got that and… But the amazing part of it was, is that on the way home, when I saw how many cars were literally pitched over. And when I say end over, I mean, there was one that was headlong into a ditch.
(Martha) I don’t know how they got out.
(John) I don’t either because their rear end was straight up in the air. They were literally, looked like a pillar. And so you had that and there was multiple cars on the side of the road. I realized what the Lord had saved us from.
(Martha) Um hmm. And you know, while we were in that, I was texting everybody up here and my daughter and saying, “Pray for us, we are in the ditch.” And so they were praying through the whole process. But you, tell them what you felt about the car being laid in the ditch.
(John) As I said, I think I said that it felt like, you know, I was being laid there. Angels laid me in the ditch to prevent me from going the rest of the way. Because not only did I have to go that really, really awful, curvy-curve mountain road with gorges on the side, also I had to go completely over the mountain in North Carolina, all the way back down into Georgia, which was a major one. And the descent and the, it’s pretty, pretty treacherous. It’s, you know, they have—
(Martha) Far more than our mountains.
(John) Absolutely.
(Martha) It was nothing. It was way beyond our, our mountains are really easy and fairly safe. But this—
(John) And I wouldn’t have known if the snowplow had gone all the way through.
(Martha) Right. But in this little motel, there was a lobby, almost next door to us. And I could go in there and have a cup of coffee with a little fireplace and, in the middle of the night. And watch the snow come down.
(John) And they had the oranges and the apples and the coffee.
(Martha) Yeah.
(John) That’s what, that’s what they had to offer (laughing).
(Martha) That’s what they had! That wasn’t— And nothing more than that (laughing). But they were lovely people. I think it was a mom and pop deal. And the books on the shelf were all about…
(John) The return of the Lord.
(Martha) …the return of the Lord. The series by…
(John) Left Behind.
(Martha) …the Left Behind series was on the bookshelf. So we left them an Altogether Forgiven, but we realized that God had controlled the entire thing. That He had stopped us from going into danger. And there was no way that it couldn’t have been disastrous, if we had gone there. Because by the time we got into the motel, the woman said five people had come in who were off the road. But we realized that God had taken care of everything, including our little parcel of food we had. He’d taken, He’d put us in the inn which we didn’t know about. They were lovely to us, extended every hospitality. And it was comfortable and it was warm. The electricity went off a number of times but it came back on. We asked for prayer, please pray for that. And you could see the depth of the snow. They had a yard stick sitting in the snow and we could see that it was at least 12 inches. But the news kept saying 18 inches where we were. And that’s an enormous amount of snow. I wasn’t dressed for it. I wasn’t ready for it (laughing).
(John) No, I had sandals with socks!
(Martha) (Laughs) Yeah…
(John) I never expected snow! And they were like going, “Is that what you’re wearing?” I’m like going, “Yes!”
(Martha) So he had to go tromp in and out through the snow, and I slept in my clothes because I didn’t have anything else. And I, my little office, and I’m gonna keep it forever. It’s a little box, little tiny box (laughs) with a notebook, a Bible, and a bunch of little things you need, and it was absolutely perfect. And God’s provision and sovereignty astounded us when we really realized what He had done. He stopped us within a half a mile of a gas station and a mile of the inn, or something like that. Was just a short distance that we crashed (laughs) and we were— He just sovereignly took it over. And I want to say that that is what we will have in the End Time.
(John) The Shepherd will lay us down in green pastures.
(Martha) Yes! And He will provide everything!

A Story of Snow, Sovereignty, and Sandals with Socks – Episode #579 – Shulamite Podcast

God’s sovereign protection and provision is at the heart of an adventure recently embarked upon by John and Martha, featuring lots of snow and some unfortunate footwear. We never know where God will take us, but His will is the place of safety and sustenance!