Encountering God
When Charles Finney was a lawyer, he didn't like God too well. He went to church basically for show, to prove to the people in his town what a good, moral person he was. He simply wanted to live up to society's standards for a good lawyer.
Finney didn't know God at all, and he wasn't interested in knowing Him. He attended quite a formal church, and he didn't find their presentation of God that appealing. When some people in the church would deal with him about getting saved, he'd reply, "You folks pray like God is alive, but if He's real, why doesn't He ever answer your prayers? I don't want to get saved and give my life to God. I consider Him dead because He never does anything for you."
As hardened as Finney was, God had a way of getting hold of him. God delights in using those who are really hardened. God wants sold out people, ones who don't care what other people think. He wants people who dare to be different and enjoy it. Charles Finney was one of those men.
God used law to reach Finney. In some of his law books, Finney kept running across references to the Bible and to Old Testament laws. He finally bought a Bible to check out some of the references. When he began reading that Bible, the convicting power of God began to get hold of him.
But he was very secretive about all this. He didn't want anybody to know he was reading the Bible. If he heard someone coming, he'd throw his Bible down and pile law books on top of it so no one would see that he'd been reading the Bible. Then he got to the point where he'd shut the door and plug up the keyhole with an old rag so no one would see him reading the Bible!
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