Jeremiah 29:11: For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future."

Monday, December 14, 2009

Terrific Tuesday with Larry from Photogr Thinks

Today's Terrific Tuesday guest is Larry, or as he sometimes refers to himself due to his photography hobby, Photogr, who writes at Photogr Thinks. Larry is a husband, father, amateur photographer, nature lover, NASCAR fan, and whole-hearted follower of Christ. I've enjoyed reading Larry's blog because he simply shares from his heart and his daily life experiences with Christ; I've frequently found myself encouraged and inspired after reading what he has to say.

Here's one of my favorite posts from Photogr Thinks:

YOU ARE NOT RETIRED, YOU ARE REFIRED UP.


When one decides to retire and take life easy, one does not expect to do any more task or jobs. You know, the easy life. The one thing you planned all your life so you didn't have any time sheets or cards to punch. No more bosses, no more deadlines, no more pressure and no more stress. Yep, that is going to be great or so I thought. I was fortunate to take an early retirement as I had planned for decades. Well I have to tell you for me, it did not happen or didn't work As I was getting used to the "easy life", I always felt uneasy and wasted a lot of time doing nothing or had no real purpose for getting out of bed. I did take up managing a mobile home park part time a few years back to have a purpose but that wasn't it. Although I was a par time believer on again and off again and occasionally attended a church, I was not getting some strong messages or I wasn't listening to that still silent voice.

A little while later I was at a nature preserve doing photography work when all of a sudden I felt like I was struck by a lightning bolt out of the sky. It wasn't that stormy of a day but it sure felt like it. All of a sudden I vividly recalled certain passages from the scriptures , the feeling of elation and peace fell upon me. It was something I never experienced before. When I came to my senses, I was down on my knees and the Geese nearby looked at me dumb founded. I looked up at the sky and all that I could say was "My God what did you do? ". Then I began to hear the still silent voices that I ignored before through the years. No I wasn't struck by lightning but I think the Lord struck me up side my head with a base ball bat to get my attention.

It was then that I felt compelled to start daily prayers, reading the scriptures, devoured numerous books on theology and Christianity, and began to generate a better understanding of scriptures that I never had before. After nearly two years of study, the wife and I were ready to take the next step and joined a church in order to have fellowship and serve the Lord. I started up a blog site to reach out to others that may or may not have a home church in order to spread the "Good News" covering topics of the Scriptures, miracles, the Holy Spirit, and the Spiritual gifts. We joined several classes in learning about the church doctrine,did some volunteer work, and made new friends.

At a recent Encounter ( mini revival , my term), I was really feeling blessed by the Holy Spirit while singing the Revelation Song. I didn't realize I moved up to the front near the altar while singing and rejoicing in the Lord. All of a sudden with in the large group of people at the altar, the head of the Encounter gathering came over to me whom I had never officially met before and began praying and laying of hands on my shoulder. I was surprised but then realized where I was. A warm feeling came over me and I felt revitalized as she prayed and I broke down praising god and began praying feverishly. I don't really know what I said in my prayers but she turned to me and said "you are not retired, you are re fired up". All I said was "Yes I am. Thanks" ( I think) and then she was gone back into the crowd of others praying.

I had been pondering my retirement fearing I was too old at 65 now to become active in ministering or pursuing an evangelist vocation other that what I was doing on the Internet. Was she divinely sent to seek me out and pass on encouragement from the Lord that you are never too old to serve? Is this the message I was seeking from the Lord? Why did she say that to me? I never mentioned retirement to her or her associates.

Considering God works in strange ways, I can only feel that message was divine. Now I know. You too can experience the same divine guidance by only accepting Jesus as your saviour and confess your sins. God is a loving forgiving God that wants you to share His love for you. Just don't take decades to understand that like I did. I wasted so much of my life refusing to serve and believe. I was lucky. He got my attention before it was too late. I dedicated my life to serve him and He has been a beacon of light in a dark world leading and guiding me. Life in the flesh is too short to waste it and face eternal damnation. As you read the scriptures, God is always a loving God that wants you to be saved in His grace. Every day He calls out to you to become one of His children in faith. He is also patient and forgiving. He has many gifts to offer you through the Holy Spirit and to witness the miracles of His healing powers. He is always and will for eternity be your pillar of strength if only you believe and serve only Him.

Can you make that choice today? Can you get down on your knees and pray with your heart for salvation in Jesus name? Time is running short. I can assure you if and when you pray to the Lord for salvation, You will be lifted out of darkness and forgiven of your sins. You will walk in the light of the Lord forever by only believing in this life and you will never taste the death of the flesh as your spirit will be lifted up into heaven to dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

It is your call.

12 comments:

Denise said...

Praise God, great post.

GCT said...

"Every day He calls out to you to become one of His children in faith."

Judging by the existence of people who don't hear god calling to them, he must be very bad at what he does.

RCUBEs said...

Beautiful post. May many come with open hearts and minds...

Blessings to you.

A Mother Always said...

What a glorious post. Thank you
Be Happy
BM

J Curtis said...

Judging by the existence of people who don't hear god calling to them, he must be very bad at what he does.

Perhaps those who do not search for God such as atheists and the irreligious are too busy consulting astrologers, numerologists and attempting to communicate with the dead. Link 1 and Link 2.

Deborah Ann said...

Excellent post, this really gives me a lot to think about!

BeadedTail said...

Very uplifting post!

photogr said...

For many years I ignored His calling refusing to even listen to the still quiet voice that He was speaking in. No He wasn't bad at what He does, I just refused to listen like many do. We do have that choice. It is up to us.

Thanks Tracy. I am honored.

Twin-Daddy said...

I agree with GCT, he's a TERRIBLE communicator. He can create a universe.. but he can't get a fairly simple message across? He can't even differentiate his message from the back ground noise of 10,000 different belief systems?
The first sign to run away from something is when the deity claims perfection, and then displays a need (the need for worship. Having a need and claiming perfection are contradictory..

Also JD, I know MANY atheist and agnostics, I don't know ANYONE amongst that group that gives their money away to astrologers, in fact.. that would be VERY contradictory in nature..

GCT said...

JD and photogr,
The simple fact of the matter is that there are many atheists that were once Xians in this country. I've heard from atheists that were devout and even fundamental in their belief that god existed. Are you really willing to say that those people didn't truly seek out god? That they were refusing to listen to god? Read some deconversion stories sometime and you'll see the anguish that some people went through in finally coming to grips with there not being a god - how they desperately wanted to find god, pleaded with him to show himself, etc. It's not the fault of the willing participants that pleaded with god that he didn't show himself to them and I find it rather insensitive for anyone to claim that it was. We're talking about an entity that supposedly has omnipotent power and omniscience and should know what those people needed to see/feel/hear in order to maintain the belief they so desperately wanted, and this god did not do any of those things.

Tracy said...

GCT - It always strikes me when we talk that you want to have us call the shots, that you want God to do things our way. But He is God and we are not. We come to Him on His terms, not ours.

GCT said...

Tracy,
"GCT - It always strikes me when we talk that you want to have us call the shots, that you want God to do things our way. But He is God and we are not. We come to Him on His terms, not ours."

That's not it at all. I want god to do things in a way that makes sense and actually produces the results that he claims he wants (i.e. is not inconsistent with the Xian story and is not logically incoherent and contradictory).

The quote I originally asked about is an example of that. The story is that if one calls out to god for him to answer, he will, or that he wants all of us to come to him, or (in this specific instance) he is continually calling out to us. I can only surmise that he's continually calling out because he wants us to hear him...yet for an omnipotent being he seems to have a rather large failure rate. This is logically inconsistent with the supposed attributes of god and is pretty well shown to be false through the empirical evidence of people losing their faith.

I'm not saying that I'm telling god what to do. I'm noting that what I'm being told god wants and what he does is not in accord with what we actually observe or with the attributes that god supposedly has. I'm pointing out inconsistency.

Blog Widget by LinkWithin