Justin Matthew Reid

Moved to Business Class - August 1st, 2006

In July of 2006 I was blessed by the Lord with an opportunity to teach overseas for the first time. That was the first time I was overseas, for anything, period! I was in Kampala, Uganda for about 2 weeks, co-teaching the subject of Faith in a Bible school there. It was a blessed time and God showed Himself faithful as I taught. He always provided the right words for the students. If we'll just obey God, He'll do the rest.

Even before I left for Uganda, I recognized that I might be presented with opportunities on the trip. Sure, the main purpose was to teach in the Bible school, but God surely has more things He wishes to accomplish! I remember praying to the Lord and being open for other opportunities to be presented.

On July 31st I flew from Entebbe, Uganda to London, England. I stayed overnight in London, as my flight to Detroit was scheduled for 1pm the next day.

I suppose I arrived at Heathrow airport about 2 hours before my departure time. I made my way to the correct gate after going through security. Finally, a boarding announcement was made and I got in line.

As I neared the British Airways employees that were taking boarding passes, I noticed that they were doing more than just tearing off the boarding pass stubs. They were running the boarding passes through a computer reader. After the computer accepted the boarding pass, it would spit out the stub. The employee would then hand the passenger the stub, and the passenger would be free to board.

When I handed the employee my boarding pass, she ran it through the reader, just the same as everyone else. When she did this, the computer rejected my boarding pass. She didn't say anything, but checked a few things on her computer. Finally, she crossed out seat 29D from my boarding pass and wrote in 13A! She didn't make any mention as to why the boarding pass was rejected. At the time, I reasoned that someone else must have already been assigned seat 29D and that they had to assign me a different seat as a result.

After I boarded, I realized that seat 13A is located in what British Airways calls, "World Traveler Plus". Most airlines would call it business class. It's a section located between swanky first class and lowly coach :) An immediate upgrade I noticed was an increased amount of leg room! Being 6'3", I appreciated that very much. I started inwardly praising the Lord for blessing me so!

My seat was a window seat. After perhaps 15 minutes, a British man in his 50's came and sat down in the seat to my immediate right. The flight wasn't able to leave for about 40 minutes, due to a line of planes waiting for the use of a runway.

Finally we took off and were on our way. It was scheduled to be about an 8 hour flight to Detroit, which it ended up being. Perhaps an hour or two into the the flight, the British man to my right started up a conversation with me. It was a pretty generic conversation up until he asked me something like, "so where are you coming back from?". I said that I was coming back from Uganda. He asked me what I was doing there. I told him that I was co-teaching in a Bible school.

From there the Lord opened up a wonderful 1-1.5 hour conversation with Peter (the British gentleman's name). It turns out that Peter lives near Detroit with his wife and children. He was born in England but was living in Michigan due to his job with an auto maker. He mentioned that he had previously lived in South Africa and Sweden. He was coming back from London, where he had attended a wedding.

Peter said that he was baptized into the Church of England (Episcopalian). At the present time he was attending a Presbyterian church. As we were talking, Peter admitted that he had a long stretch where he was not serving God. In the past few years he's been awakened that there is "something more" out there in serving God. He said that he doesn't read his Bible very much, but that he got a commentary on the King James Bible with several "popular" beliefs represented.

I asked Peter if it would be alright if I open my Bible and show him a few things. He was agreeable. I showed him Ecclesiastes 12:13, which says our whole duty is to fear God and keep His commandments. I shared John 14:15 in which Jesus Christ says, "if you love me, keep my commandments". Peter saw the truth of that statement by Christ. Peter said that if he loves his wife, he'd have to show it by doing things for her.

I kept stressing various basic doctrines of true Christianity, such as: serving God is a freewill choice, only the atonement of Jesus Christ is sufficient, God's definition of sin (James 4:17), sin is a choice, nobody is born a sinner and God is no respecter of persons. I may have overwhelmed him slightly with all I was presenting in a short time. He had a question concerning men and women in the church and their respective roles. I quoted the verse from Galatians that there is neither "male nor female" in Jesus Christ. Peter had another question about Jesus Christ dying for past sins, and how that would apply to any future sins one might commit. I'm sure I explained that Jesus Christ died once for all sins. Of course, we must confess our sins and turn from them, if we are to be forgiven by God.

Towards the end of the conversation, I got to draw the House of Faith for Peter. That was the subject I had just spend 2 weeks teaching in Uganda, so it was very fresh in my mind! For those who may not know, the House of Faith is a simple diagram that shows how faith works. It starts with the foundation of Jesus Christ. Upon that foundation, we have 4 pillars of thinking, believing, confessing and acting. God's kind of faith is unwavering and is not double-minded. Our thinking, believing, confessing and acting must line up with the Word of God and what it says. When we do that, we are able to put a roof on our house, which are all the blessings, benefits and protection that come from serving God His way.

Peter appreciated the House of Faith and at the end of the conversation I gave him the drawing, along with my email address. He mentioned that he had used a building diagram to illustrate a different concept, back when he was attending Central Michigan University.

After this, we didn't talk at all until the last half hour before landing. Peter spent most of that time watching and listening to some movies or shows on the TV screen built into the back of the seat in front of him. I remember I spent a lot of time praying for Peter's salvation. Once we started talking again, he mentioned that he enjoyed our earlier conversation. After we landed, we talked about entirely non-spiritual things. He was very helpful in telling me what to expect for going through customs. At the end, I got through customs and found my 2 bags on the luggage return carousel. I saw Peter briefly, said goodbye and I was on my way.

It was awesome to be used of the Lord to speak the Truth into Peter's life! God receives all the glory for it! Do we understand how much God loves each person in the world? Jesus Christ died for *all* of them. God is not willing that any of them die in their sins. He is willing to do all He can for them, apart from forcing them to serve and love Him. During the conversation I had with Peter on the plane, he asked me if I had been assigned to that seat in business class. I said no, that I had been moved from coach. He then said that he also had been moved from coach to his seat in business class! No doubt, the computer had rejected his boarding pass as well. It wasn't until Peter said it that I was aware of what the Lord had done. Peter acknowledged and saw it, too.

The Lord saw Peter's heart in need of hearing the Word of God. The Lord saw my heart, willing to give away what the Lord had taught me. God was able to bring us together so that His purposes would be accomplished. Praise the Lord! God is dynamic and alive. He can work in an infinite amount of ways, all of them for good!