Dave Overholt

Communion

Posted on April 6, 2015     2 Comments

I love communion. I think it reminds us all what is at the center of our lives! At my church we have the communion tables at the back and when people are ready, they go to the tables during the last four songs of our service. This last Sunday, we talked about communion and a young 20-something came in with the saddest look on his face. I welcomed him, but he barely looked up. This was his second week back to church. One of my staff members, Andrew, usually sits with his wife in the service, but a bunch of young people were sitting around her, so he was pushed to the back. He ended up behind this sad young man. After the message, the worship music began and Andrew received a “God-tap,” (which is when an idea or thought pops into your mind that might be from God). Actually, Andrew describes this particular God-tap as a “God-Grab,” which is a stronger version of the same thing! The thought that came to his mind was, “This young man will not take communion because he doesn’t think he is worthy.” The thought would not go away, so Andrew bargained with God, “I will wait until the last song to see if he goes back for communion.” The young man didn’t go back, but he did get up and walk to the restroom. By now, the feeling was so strong that Andrew followed him in. An act of bravery indeed! The guy was just sitting on a bench. He was hiding out. Andrew approached him and told him what he thought God was telling him. The guy’s eyes grew two sizes larger and nodded his head, that it was true. There, sitting on the benches in the guy’s restroom, Andrew discovered that the young man was a believer and that he thought God would never accept him back. Time was ticking away so Andrew quickly described God’s wonderful grace, and how these thoughts of being unforgiveable or too far-gone were actually lies from the evil one. Andrew led him out to the communion tables while the worship continued around them. That’s when I saw the two of them. It was almost like this young man was being led by the hand. Andrew beautifully prayed for him and gently served him communion. Through tears, the young man discovered that Jesus’ sacrifice covers all our sins and can continue to do so throughout our entire lives! Father, the evil one lies to us all, but that’s about all he can do! His lies keep us from drawing near to you. Lord, help me to discern your truth louder than any lie. Remind me to never stop drawing near to you!

The Money Tap

Posted on February 17, 2015     2 Comments

I have been a student for far too many years of my life. One evening, as I was working on yet another paper for school, I had an idea.

Nathan needs money.

Now this was not a voice, just a weird idea out of nowhere. Nathan played lead guitar in our worship band and he had broken a chord the night before. I thought, “Yah, he probably does need some money. He works at a coffee shop and his parents are missionaries.”

That was it. I placed my fingers on the computer keyboard to type some more. Another thought came.

I should do something about Nathan needing the money. I should give him some.

I knew if I start typing again on the keyboard, I would forget I ever had that weird idea out of nowhere. After I struggled over stopping my work, I eventually got up, found a card and wrote, “Hey Nathan, I think this may be from God.” I wrote a cheque for $100 and put it in an envelope. The hardest parts were trying to find his address and eventually driving to a mailbox to mail the thing. I got back to writing my paper hoping that it wouldn’t be too weird for him. The whole process took about 30 minutes.

Three days later, I received a phone call from Nathan’s mom. She thanked me for helping her son. I had to think for a while about what I had done… I forget these kinds of things. She told me that Nathan had been in a crisis of faith and was doubting that there was a God. As a test to see if God was real, he signed his coffee shop paycheque for $24.98 over to another missionary family. In way he was saying, “God, if you are real, show yourself!”

Nathan’s mom told me that he got my cheque for 4 times as much as he gave with the note “from God.” He was now beside his bed, on his knees, crying out to God for ever doubting Him.

That whole thing freaked me out just as much as it did Nathan. That idea was definitely from God, but it wasn’t a voice, it was only a quite thought. I was freaked out that I had come so close to not following through on the idea. I then had this mental picture of people crying out to God all over the world and God working through his body on earth, tapping shoulders, whispering, giving us ideas to give or to help. And I imagined a world of Christians watching T.V. and never acting on the ideas.

Father, I want to be one of your people who acts on every idea for good, whether I can be sure it comes from you or not. I just don’t want to miss one of them!

God-Incident

Posted on November 5, 2014     2 Comments

I was on vacation and traveling up north with my trailer in tow. About half way up, I heard the brakes start to squeal on my vehicle. After unhooking at the campsite, I drove my truck into town to see how bad the brakes were. They were bad. So bad, they didn’t have all the parts there to fix them. I had to get my truck back to the shop at eight in the morning, and I couldn’t be late because their day was filled with other appointments.

The next morning, I got up with loads of time and even enjoyed a leisurely cup of tea. Then I started to look for my keys. I couldn’t find them! I checked through my clothes. I checked through the truck. I rearranged the whole contents of the backseat to see if the keys were there. I was in panic mode now; I couldn’t miss this appointment! With five minutes to spare, I finally found my keys in my bathing suit. What in the world were they doing there!? I drove like mad down to the shop and made it just in time. Whew!!

Before handing off the truck to the mechanics at the shop, I looked in the back seat for my journal and a book I was planning to read while I waited. They weren’t there. I was sure I put them there! Then it dawned on me. I had put my journal and my book on the roof of my truck when I was looking for my keys. They were somewhere between the campsite and the auto shop. My heart was punctured. I loved my journal and didn’t want to lose it. With a sigh of resignation, I realized there was nothing I could do, so I went to the coffee shop to look through my emails.

After about fifteen minutes at the coffee shop, my computer notified me that I’d received an e-mail from an unfamiliar email address. It read, “This morning I was having one of the worst mornings of my life. I was leaving my home for my sister’s place and strangely enough there were two books on the end of my driveway. A book about God and your journal with your email address in it.” Someone had found my two books, not in a ditch, not on the road, not in the forest but on the end of her driveway during the worst day of her life!!

I emailed her back and she drove to the coffee shop to give the books back to me. We talked in the parking lot and I discovered that she was a believer and she had just “forgot to trust God.” I knelt down by her car window to talk to her. She was holding a little dog in her arms and began to tear up as she was reminded that God had seen her and that he cared. I held her hand and prayed with her as her little dog licked my face. She finally drove off and I eventually sent her a copy of the book I was reading, but the wonder of the hand of God still rings in my heart. God cared so much about one of his children—and so desired that she remember him again—that he had his absent-minded servant drive off with the very two books on the roof that were needed.

Thank you God for caring more than we can possibly fathom and is involved in our days more than we can possibly notice!

My First Open Door

Posted on September 23, 2014     1 Comment

I forget where I first heard the verse, but I certainly remember the first time I experienced it. Somewhere in my mid-teen years, I took Col. 4:2 literally. “Pray for me too that God may open a door for his message.” From this verse, I understood that I could ask God to open a “door of opportunity,” an opportunity to naturally share my faith. It was as if God was doing two things: drawing the world to himself and asking for volunteers to share his message. Those who ask God for open doors are bumped up beside those who are actively searching.

It was during a “spare period” in high school where I first asked God to open a door. We were playing cards to kill the time and I was overwhelmed with the idea that I had never really shared my faith. So I asked under my breath, waited, then when nothing happened so I continued to play cards.

About 20 minutes later a student came into the cafeteria and shouted my name. “Dave Overholt!”

I had no idea who he was, but I smiled and waved. He came running over told me his name was Tom and talked about us being best friends. After trying to fake it for awhile I finally admitted, “Where do I know you from?”

“We were best friends in kindergarten!” he smiled back.

Wow, this guy needed a friend! He went on to tell me he had moved to a city four hours away when he was young and His family had just moved back. This was his first day at his new school and I “happened” to be the first person he met. Weird coincident!

Just to be nice I asked him what he was into. He replied, “I am into history and religion. I am actually writing up my own religion. Are you into Religion Dave?”

Dang! This was it! I asked God to open a door to share my faith and he did! But I wasn’t ready! I didn’t know what to say!! My heart was racing, I started to sweat. In what seemed to me to be ten minutes of staring at him, I replied, “Ya I am into religion.” My first time of witnessing!!

“Great, Dave,” He continued, “Do you want to come over to my house and we can talk all about it?

We got together, I brought over a booklet called, “More Than a Carpenter,” and we talked into the night about his background, his weird mixing of religions and Jesus. Three months later Tom accepted Christ as his Saviour. From then on I was hooked. I understood that partnering with the Spirit of God to share my faith was a whole lot easier than anything I had ever imagined, and it actually helped people into the kingdom.

The spiritual life is so much easier in partnership with the Holy Spirit. I have been praying this simple prayer for decades now, “Father could you please open a door of opportunity for me to share my faith,” and the adventures continue.

Close Flying

Posted on August 30, 2014     Leave a Comment

I was on a small plane from St. John’s to Gander in Newfoundland. The flight was only about an hour and there was only one row on either side of the plane. I always tell people to be 10% more friendly which, when you’re an introvert, is only easy when you are literally rubbing shoulders with a stranger. Ten minutes into the fight, I decided I would start. The man next to me was on the other side of middle age, with torn plaid dirty jeans and a worn hat.
“So, why are you heading up to Gander?” I ventured.
“I live in Gander, but work in the Alberta oil fields. I only get home once a month.”
His reflections were bitter sweet as he told me that he had to provide for his family and that he hated to be away from them. So I plugged him with questions about the oil fields, his family and travel. Before long, the woman behind his seat joined in the conversation.
She was a similar age, but wearing a white pantsuit, styled hair and a purchased tan. I asked her the same question. She was a wife of an “important” physician. Her job was to travel the world and review five start hotels̶—these were two very different people.
I tried to be an equal opportunity conversationalist and asked questions about the hotels, and how she got this “tough job.” Almost 30 minutes later during another lull in the conversation, the woman reciprocated.
“So why are you flying to Gander?” She asked.
Ok, this is what I had been praying for—an opportunity to share the hope of Jesus that is in me!
“I am speaking to some Salvation Army teenagers.”
She zeroed in very business-like and asked, “So give me the core of your message in one sentence.”
That caught me off guard. I knew this was an opportunity to share my faith, but didn’t expect it to be that blatant! I train others to give a response in one sentence. Wow, what was my sentence again?
“People can’t make it in life without hope; hope is found in Jesus.”
I know that was technically two sentences, but it got the idea across. For the next fifteen minutes the three of us talked about faith, sick spouses and old Sunday school experiences. The flight ended in a prayer for the oil worker’s wife who has inoperable brain cancer.
I never thought I would have to articulate my faith in one sentence, having one minute to think about it. There is so much to this love relationship with Jesus. It is difficult to put into words, let alone one sentence, maybe because he is not a slogan. He is a person, who is just plain wonderful to know. Father, thank you for using “10% more friendly” moments; give me more opportunities to explain the inexplicable.

High Risk at the Library

Posted on May 23, 2014     3 Comments

High Risk in a Library
I was teaching a course at my city’s very-secular university, “McMaster,” and I had stayed late to talk to some students from my class. I still had to check some books out of the library’s fifth floor so I made the trek across the road to the library. I found my books quickly and started to head back. As I walked past the stacks of books, I saw a young female student searching the shelves. I don’t know why she caught my attention, but as I walked past all I could think about was that I should talk with her. I am not that bold, especially with a stranger, especially with a stranger of the opposite sex. I kept on walking, now down the stairs, but continued to feel bothered.
I am living this experiment of listening to that still-small-voice and responding to it as if it were God. After all, if the idea is for good, it is worth the risk! God, was this idea yours or mine? I walked back up the stairs, then started to pace. How was I going to start a conversation and make it not weird?
“Hey, it looks like you are looking for a book.” NO!
“I walked by and you caught my eye.” Really NO!
“I think God wants me to talk to you.” Sigh!
When I got back to the stack of books, she was still looking, even more desperately. So, heart pounding, I approached her…
“Hey, it looks like you are looking for a book” (inward grimace)! She turned, looking surprised, and replied,
“Yes, I am looking for a Bible.”
“Is this for a class, or for you?” I ventured.
“I just arrived from Korea and most of my things are still coming here, including my Bible. They are teaching me things I don’t agree with and I just need to find a Bible!”
“Well, I am a pastor and I think God just tapped me on the shoulder to talk with you.”
She crumpled to the ground in tears of joy then told me about the ideas she didn’t agree with. I reached around the corner and found a Bible. We opened the Scriptures on the floor of a very secular university and read the refreshment from the pages. What a rush!!
A couple things I notice about God’s leading… The adventures he sends us on are often not easy, and they always involve faith. Speaking to a stranger in that situation was difficult; it was not my normal! I guess this is a way to recognize God’s still-small-voice. It’s not something I would normally think to do.
Obedience to God’s taps on the shoulder usually takes faith, sometimes scary, risky faith. Is faith really faith without some unknown, without some risk? Hebrews chapter 11 is a chapter of risk-takers: people leaving homes, building boats, hiding spies. Can I experience the adventure without taking the risk?
God, give me your strength to boldly follow those risky promptings of Your Spirit!