BETWEEN TWO CITIES

How God Answered Daniel’s prayers in the Lion’s den: Painting above “Daniel’s Answer to the King” (1890) painting by Briton Rivière (1840 – 1920) a British artist of Huguenot descent. He exhibited a variety of paintings at the Royal Academy, but devoted much of his life to animal paintings.

Using Prayer for Research before the Internet.

When I was living in Los Angeles in the early 1980’s, I was without a car and rode the bus for about 11 months. I was spending much of my time studying the Bible again because I had reached a low point in my life, “backslidden” as Christians refer to the situation. I needed to get right with God. I had forsaken alcohol addiction and was attending AA meetings as I reassembled my life. I was interested in talking with people about God and the Bible at the time. The bus provided many opportunities to share my faith, as I often carried a Bible on the bus. As it says in Ecclesiastes, “To everything, there is a season, and a time for every purpose under the heaven.” This was a season for me for learning about fellowship with other Christians, which I had avoided for years, about sanctification, about holiness, about prayer and significantly, about the presence and power of God. [I had spent 12 years since my conversion reading the Bible while studying philosophy at Yale in 1971, as a solo Lone Ranger Christian. But as I repented, God redeemed those years for me. “I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, . . . Joel 2:25 English Standard Version]

During this time, I read in the papers about a cult of Buddhism that was making a mark in Hollywood – Nicheren Shōshū Buddhism. Hollywood people were chanting in order to receive material reward: money, a new car, whatever they desired. It was like the prosperity “name it and claim it” gospel that televangelists touted – “Gaaawd-ah whants yew to be rich!” I was concerned that friends of mine might be tempted by the Buddhist chanting. I was told that one of my friends, a successful screenwriter, was investigating Buddhism. So, I said a little off-the-cuff prayer that God would teach me something about this cult so that I would be equipped to talk about it if the subject came up in conversations with others, and be able to witness the truth of the Gospel. A substitute for research at UCLA Library, perhaps. The prayer was perfunctory but sincere. I forgot about it.

A week or so later I was waiting at a bus stop in Downtown L.A. The stop was crowded with about 25 people waiting. I was standing behind the crowd. As I stood there, I noticed a red compact car come up to the curb to my right and park about twenty yards past the stop. A small Asian woman in business clothes got out of the car, walked through the crowd and right up to me. She looked up into my eyes, said, “I have something for you.” She reached into the pocket of her jacket and handed me a brochure for Nicheren Shōshū Buddhism. I thanked her and she turned and walked back to her car and drove away. I got goose bumps and chills. I still do. I closed my eyes and thanked God for answering my prayer in such a spectacular way. Why would God use such a supernatural means to provide me with a brochure, other than to give my faith strength? When something like that happens, it diminishes any natural tendency for me to doubt that God is real and alive.
— excerpted from “David Larkin’s Spiritual Memoir”

To learn about how I got to Los Angeles and had these experiences, to those who have not read it, and would like to read it, here is the link to David Larkin’s Spiritual Memoir. It is about 23 pages long:

https://betweentwocities.com/spiritual-memoir/

Here is a shorter version, Supernatural Answers to Prayers in my Life, which has a brief account of my conversion and the second half of my Spiritual Memoir with the record of the more remarkable supernatural answers to prayer and the providential events that were God’s revelation and confirmation to me of his existence and his Sovereign hand in my life.

https://betweentwocities.com/2015/08/29/supernatural-answers-to-prayers-in-my-life/