The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Pastor Lorne Moorhead Northern Fellowship Chapel In the spring of 2005, a woman by the name of Ashley Smith went to make some purchases at a nearby convenience store. There is nothing remarkable about that and there was nothing remarkable about her. She was just an ordinary woman who was devoted to her Saviour, Jesus Christ. As it turned out it became a very remarkable day. On her way home, an escaped convict, who had shot and killed four people, took her hostage. He forced her to go with him to her apartment, tied her up and threatened to kill her unless she did what he said. It might seem that she was in the wrong place at the wrong time, but in fact she was exactly where God wanted her to be. Although it was scary, God gave her presence of mind and calmness enough to talk to her captor. Astonishingly, she began to read to him from a book. It just happened to be a best-selling book called The Purpose Driven Life, written by Rick Warren. Slowly but surely something happened in the heart of that man. For eight hours they talked and she read. At the end of it, the convict called her "God's angel, placed there by God Himself." A secular magazine called it "an encounter with God." Ashley was in the right place at the right time. God had directed her steps that morning so that she could become God's presence for someone who had reached the bottom of his life. It's just like what Proverbs chapter 16 and verse 9 says, "In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps." It would be good for Christian people to be mindful of this when we plan our busy lives. God is right there and He can redirect our plans so we become a source of blessing and bring the gospel of hope through our Lord Jesus Christ to someone who has lost hope.
