Thursday, October 30, 2008
Why this blog title?
In a nutshell, in 1975, on the first birthday of our daughter, at the age of 26, almighty God dealt with me in such a way that I could not resist calling upon the Lord Jesus for forgiveness of sins and eternal salvation. At the time, I was a severe introvert. I didn't like crowds, and I found it extremely difficult to build relationships with strangers. As the Lord dealt with me during the invitation time, in a Sunday morning church service, I informed God that I would rather burn in a devil's hell than make a public confession of being a sinner in need of God's mercy and grace. The Lord quickly gave me a mental picture of the thing that I would most fear in the experience of hell. The picture was not of suffering in hell's fire, but one of total darkness with myself floating aimlessly in the midst of it all, terribly alone, and isolated from all things. God then reminded me of the time when as a young boy, I was questioning the existence of God. I assumed that He did exist and that He was a "good" God. I further assumed that when life got unbearable, He would hear my cries and come to my rescue. However, if I chose hell, rather than His mercy and grace, in the name of His Son, when I could not stand the darkness, and absolute isolation any longer, if I called on Him to rescue me from it all, He would never come to my aid. I would even be eternally separated from Him! That Sunday, is the day I experienced my "Escape, from the dark side of nowhere." I humbled myself in the presence of God and man, and by faith, recieved forgiveness of sins, and an eternal relationship with God through Jesus Christ, His Son.
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4 comments:
I love you, Daddy. I believe in miracles. I hope that your blog reaches the right souls. Every day is a gift. We are not promised our next breath.
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.”-
Ephesians 2:8-9
Brother John! You have blessed me since the very first time I met you. Your sweet spirit is a gift that everyone desires to have. I remember when I was about 18 years old and the Lord gave me a special word, through a bookmark of all things. It said "suffering is never meaningless, if you bear it with the words - Yes Father!" I hear those words coming from you Brother John, you are a true man of God and I am so very blessed to know you. I pray for miracles and testimonies to flow through you! God Bless,
-Sunshine :)
Hollis,
God has allowed me to watch you grow and become the person He wants you to be. I've not always been on track but you in your loving patience have showed me the way. Our Father is an AWSOME GOD and He still performs miracles today. He has a reason for everything that He does and you belong to Him. Not my will but His be done.
I love you,
Schelia
John, I am so glad that Shawn sent this blog my way! I think & pray for you guys daily. Unfortunately I don't have time, daily, to email Shawn to follow along with your journey! Mircles do happen every second of every day. I want to talk about God's will. I know when my dad had his accident, people who visited us during the 9 days in the hospital would ask, "What can we do?" We would tell them , "Pray for God's will!" They would be surprised! Some would even ask, "Don't you want us to pray for him to walk again, or even just to LIVE?" Not if it was not God's Will. That may sound horrible, but the night after his fall, God told me that my dad would not live. He did! So, I started collecting my thoughts and getting things together. I sat and wrote his obituary even. In my heart I knew that when they told me he was gone, I would not have it together enough to write it. I had a friend who sat in the hospital with me nightly who asked, "HOW I was handling this so well?" God was in control, not me. I had excepted it. NOW, I needed to be strong, for mom & for my boys.
I know that questioning God is absolutely out of the question, but you know it is awful hard, huh? I just hope your journey changes lives. I pray for your mircle and God's will. Your family is so strong and will be there to help you along your way. God Bless you, John!
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