Prevenient: Preceding something: coming or occurring in advance of another thing.

Grace: In theology, grace is undeserved favor and sovereignly bestowed by God.

In an old movie, a classic, Brer Rabbit pleads with his captor, Brer Fox, not to throw him into a briar patch which, of course, the evil-intentioned fox did right away. This was a good thing for the rabbit because the briars couldn’t hurt him and he was able to escape.

This scenario comes to mind when I relate the following true episode in my life with spiritual implications – it can open up a thicket of thorny disagreement from theologians greater than myself who may vehemently disagree with my take on the situation.

I’m a small town lay preacher with a ministry I call Cowboy Chapel; we meet twice a week on Wednesday and Sunday evenings in a borrowed church with a congregation of three at this writing: my wife and a couple of friends. All I want to do is give my personal opinion about the episode the way I see it and leave the wrangling about it up to the Calvinists whose understanding of grace is “special” or “saving” grace, which extends only to those whom God has chosen to redeem and Armenians who believe the benefits of God’s grace are experienced by the whole human race without distinction between one person and another.

It happened before I was saved in a bar outside Fort Dix, N.J. It was a busy Friday night, the place was packed with loud people. I was seated at the corner of the “L” shaped bar playing chess with a friend for beers. A soldier in boots and fatigues, over 6-foot, probably around 220 pounds, decided he didn’t like me for whatever reason – I had never seen him before in my life – walked the length of the bar and smashed me in the face.

He hit me so hard the sound of his fist hitting my face caused a hush to fall over the place and everybody stopped doing what they were doing. I went flying off the bar stool and landed on my feet – unharmed. The soldier’s eyes got about as big as those old silver dollars and he stood there shocked that I was conscious and not bleeding anywhere.

When he hit me, I was leaning forward on the bar on my elbows and never saw the punch coming; I did not duck or defend myself in any way. If his punch had landed full force, he probably would have broken my neck and I wouldn’t be here today preaching, teaching the Bible and telling people about Jesus in my little Cowboy Chapel. I was a drunk, a drug abuser, an atheist and a child of the devil at the time, but God extended His grace and saved my life anyway because He knew, in His omniscience, that 30 years later I would accept His son, Jesus Christ, into my heart and into my life; He would adopt me into His family and I would become His child forever.

Prevenient grace – and here’s where serious theologians can get up in arms and debate to the death, but I don’t care about all of that; all I know is a miracle happened; I believe in angels, some say we have two guardians and even know their names, saying surely Goodness and Mercy shall follow them all the days of their life; I wonder about that; I’m just a simple country preacher. But maybe an angel did stick his wing in between the soldier’s fist and this unregenerate’s nose; I don’t know, but I think when I get to Heaven I’m going to meet an angel with a bruise on his wing and a story for me.

Prevenient grace – that aspect about God in which He knows who will accept His son, Jesus Christ, as his or her personal Savior and He looks after them until they are able to get saved to praise and worship Him for His goodness and mercy and serve Him. Moses is a classic example. A wily old Pharaoh threw him in to a ‘briar patch’ and through the watch care of our loving God He miraculously preserved Moses’ life until he could lead His people out of bondage.

Richie Colbeth of Prairie City is the preacher for Cowboy Chapel in John Day.