Chapter 1: 1st Encounter: ENTERTAINING ANGELS UNAWARE

First of four Angelic Encounters

In the early 70's while I was living with two roommates in Smyrna, I had four angelic visitations that I would like to share with you. My grandmother, on my mother's side had always taught me to be careful to entertain strangers because you never knew when one would be an Angel in disguise to test your faith. Following is one encounterI believe to be angelic. The second: "Angelic Defenders of the Faith", third entitled, “Entertaining Angels Unaware"” along with the fourth "Stop That Plane!"will be posted separately due to their length. 

While I was living with two roommates who had moved here from North Carolina, I use to cook for us, having come from a family of eleven children, I was second born and had often cooked for my brothers and sisters. My two roommates did not cook much, so I became the chef of the household. It was after work one day while I was preparing dinner that a salesman came and knocked on my door. He was selling family Bibles and had one to show that he claimed was twelve reference books in one Bible.  Since I didn't own a family Bible and I planned to have a family someday, I thought it would be nice to check out his offer. He quickly went through the Bible, showing me the twelve reference books, stating it was the King James Version, included maps, photographs, a dictionary, along with many other features, and it came with a plastic cover. He then placed the Bible on our coffee table and asked me to check it over and see what I thought. He also informed me that his company had a payment plan option, if I wanted one of these Bibles, he could set it up on a payment plan that was more affordable. He was not too pushy of a salesman at all, so I decided that I was going to purchase one of his Bibles and began filling out the paperwork necessary for this payment plan.

After completing the paperwork he got up and started walking around our living room and spoke the following: “I am a Jew and I am not satisfied with my religion. I've been seeking something but I'm not sure what direction to go in as there are so many religions out there”.  I was intrigued by his statement that he was Jew so I asked, “are you a Jew from Israel like the ones in the Bible? I have never met a real Jew from Israel that I've known about. I find that fascinating, as I love the Jewish people. He stopped, paused to look at me and said, “Why, is there any other kind?”  I quickly began to share my own testimony with him:

I was raised in a Seventh-day Adventist household that believed in faith plus works through Christ which held certain bondage's to it. After moving in with my two roommates, I discovered one of them was a Baptist and worship on Sunday. I had been raised to worship on Saturday and told that all of the churches were of the beast, that the book of Revelation talks about. I began to share with him how my first visit to this church, after feeling like a failure at not being able to keep the law, how I seem to fall short every day and lived in fear of forgetting to confess a sin and totally being separated from God for eternity on judgment day.   When the invitation was given, I went to the altar for prayer. The pastor's wife shared a scripture from the bible that totally loosed these bondage's of: salvation through works, from me. She shared Ephesians 2:8-9:  For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast. (KJVB)  I wondered why no one had ever told me that verse was in the Bible and I realized that when I was 14 years old and accepted Christ as my Savior, that at that moment I was written in the Lamb's of life. I was set free as the Lord says: “he who the Son set free is free indeed” – that was me! 

After finishing the necessary paperwork, I remembered that I had dinner cooking in the kitchen, so I excusd myself for a moment and went into the kitchen to check on my dinner. I had planned on picking my roommates up at the bus stop, which was about a mile from our apartment and it was time for their bus to arrive shortly. So I went to check my chicken that I had frying. While I was in the kitchen, I recalled my grandmother telling me: "be careful to entertain strangers for some have entertained angels unaware and that the Lord may send them to test you." I had four chicken breasts frying and was thinking to myself: “I wonder if he's hungry and if I should invite him to eat dinner with us as we have an extra chicken breast”, and while I was still thinking this to myself, he walked into the kitchen and answered my thought immediately, as if I had spoken it out loud and said: “no thank you, I wouldn't care for any, I've already eaten and I need to get going.”

He left and I walked out to the parking lot to go pick up my roommates at Belmont Hills. (I might add, I had not mentioned that I had roommates or that I was going to the bus stop to pick them up. We had not discussed anything but the Bible he was selling, his questions regarding his religion and my testimony.)  As I was approaching my car, he walked up to me in the parking lot and asked: “Miss, would you mind giving me a lift? It's been a long day and I've done a lot of walking and I'm really tired. It won't be out of your way as I'm going to the same place you're going – I’ve got to catch the bus at Belmont Hills and it's about time for it to arrive, so would you mind giving me a lift?” I was completely speechless as I wondered how he knew where I was going, but quickly whispered a prayer for the Lord to protect me and that I was just going to trust the Lord not to let anything happen to me and gave him a lift.

When I arrived at Belmont Hills, at his request, I stopped in the middle of a parking lot that was between a grocery store and the bus stop. There was plenty of open space between the two (bus stop and grocery store – even a pizza place was between us and buses).  I was going to let him out close to the bus stop when he requested that I stop between the two, that he could walk the rest of the way.  He got out of the car and headed for bus stop, and at the same time I saw my two roommates getting off the bus and walking toward me. I got out of the car and began walking towards them, as I was excited about all that had happened and was anxious to tell them about him. I got ready to point him out to them and he was nowhere to be found! It was only minutes between him getting out of the car and my roommates walking toward my car – basically they should have crossed each other's paths, but he was gone, vanished, disappeared into thin air! I felt like my roommates were going to think that I fabricated the whole thing, so I was determined I was going to show them this man! I drove towards the bus stop and we looked at every person waiting for the bus because the new buses had not arrived yet and he was nowhere to be found.  There was no one walking across the parking lot – this man just vanished into thin air! The only proof that I have that this took place is I still have that Bible! I dated it the same day I purchased it: 1973.  It survived a house fire back in 1994. It was in the living room where everything was a total loss, except that Bible!

Was this an Angel on assignment? Only God knows – I choose to believe the Lord was testing my faith and giving me an opportunity to practice the Word of my testimony through the blood of the Lamb.