Acts Chapter 8 is an amazing chapter. It begins with persecution which drove the church out of Jerusalem and scattered them throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria. Philip (the Evangelist) was one of the men on the move. After preaching in Samaria, Philip got a message from an angel to “Go south!” There he met up with someone from Ethiopia who was on his way home.

“As for Philip, an angel of the Lord said to him, ‘Go south down the desert road that runs from Jerusalem to Gaza.’ So he started out, and he met the treasurer of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under the Kandake, the queen of Ethiopia. The eunuch had gone to Jerusalem to worship, and he was now returning. Seated in his carriage, he was reading aloud from the book of the prophet Isaiah. The Holy Spirit said to Philip, ‘Go over and walk along beside the carriage.’”  [Acts 8:26-29 NLT]

Divine appointment. I had a divine appointment Wednesday night in the hospital. It was a rough night, and my CNA was a young man from Georgia. He was a traveling nurse and said that Idaho was as far west as he had ever traveled.

At some point this young man found out that I was once a hospice chaplain. At my 2 AM checkup, he asked if he could talk to me. He asked if I was “religious or spiritual.” I told him I was “relational.”

Then I explained that to me religious meant rules and regulations. Spiritual could mean anything from Christianity to Buddhism to following Bubba Free John and the Way of Divine Ignorance (as my cousin did). Relational meant I had a relationship with God through Christ Jesus my LORD. I was a child of God! We talked for 30 minutes at 2 AM. At my 6 AM checkup he asked if he could hug me.

Divine Appointment, me in the hospital for a spine fusion and a traveling nurse from Georgia. God is still in the business of Divine Appointments!