Dear friends and neighbors…
Thank you for your response to our invitation to participate in this E-mail Forum presentation WHAT HAPPENS AFTER DEATH. It is our sincerest desire that you have been greatly comforted, especially now during these troubling times.
Our initial presentation which was launched on August 12th, as a practical matter so as not to be overwhelming, was spread out over 4 consecutive days and concluded our initial E-mail Forum presentation WHAT HAPPENS AFTER DEATH. We are now continuing in greater depth on a weekly basis every Wednesday thereafter, having begun with August 19th. Feel free at any time to E-mail any questions you may have, or to contribute any thoughts and input. We will always get back to you on a personal one-to-one basis, so as to maintain confidentiality and your privacy. None of your personal information will be shared with anyone else in the Forum; we will honor and respect confidentiality in all matters.
If you remember nothing else from this Forum, never forget this: GOD LOVES YOU.
God’s Love 4 U is…
- Unconditional
- Unfailing
- Unchanging
- Unending
ETERNAL PROVISION: GIFT OF MY HOLY SPIRIT:
DIVINE HEDGE OF THORNS IV
Friends, brothers and sisters…
Several Wednesday’s ago, on our August 19th Forum II posting, I began a series of testimonies documenting the incredible truth that over these many years of my life I should have been dead 15 times that I am fully aware of, and probably many other times that I am not aware of! God had Personally intervened in my life to stay the hand of death over and over again. Were it not for Him, my body would be in the grave and my soul would be in hell right now…but God was not willing that I should perish. The Free gift of eternal life is an unconditional right offered to every soul to freely choose to receive as their own…or to reject it or ignore it. In His Omniscience…His foreknowledge of all things all at once and at the same time from eternity past to eternity future…He knew that on October 17, 1981 I would freely, of my own free will, enter into a saving relationship with His Divine Son Jesus and make a solemn vow to become the bride of Christ, thereby being born-again. In His Foreknowledge He knew in eternity past that I belonged to Him, and knew the day and the hour of my salvation. Therefore it was His determined purpose to protect my body and my soul, and keep me safe until that momentous day and hour! There could be no one or any thing that could snatch me out of His hand! He is the Sovereign All-Ruler over all Creation…and nothing can touch my life unless He specifically, consciously, and deliberately allows it to do so, or Personally causes it to do so…and all for His Own good purpose. There is no such thing as a random occurrence, an accidental happening, or an incidental incidence. All that He does is necessarily the very best, very kindest, most loving thing that can possibly be. Oftentimes I say to Jesus, “Lord, I don’t understand, but I trust You. I know that You make all things work together for my good.”
I had posted an incredible testimony entitled Divine Shield on my website about being shot at in the ghetto of Brooklyn, and how the Lord intervened to protect me and keep me safe in an impossible situation. Here is a link to that testimony: I encourage you to read about this manifestation of the Lord’s great Name and mighty Power on my behalf: https://preservechristianfamily.org/2017/06/04/divine-shield/
The Lord’s amazing interventions in my life to be my Shield and Protector in continually staying the hand of death began when I was just 4 years old. Continuing my account of the 15 times I should have been dead were it not that God Personally intervened to stay the hand of death…1st: shot at in Brooklyn; 2nd: Taxicab @ 4 yrs old; 3rd: Point Lookout; 4th: Radio electrical cord; 5th: 7 horrors of PA; 6th: Hitchhikers mountain joy ride; 7th: Presence of evil; 8th: Van on Brooklyn side street; 9th: Dragging tailpipe & muffler; 10th:Brooklyn basement flood; 11th: Broken trailer axle; 12th:Ski trip-flying down expert slope…
After I had sold my house in Brooklyn, I was renting an apartment on Edward street in Hicksville…which was convenient for commuting to my employer’s home in Atlantic Beach, where He had set up an office for temporary use. I still had my red 15 passenger van at the time. One early Saturday morning, as I was driving down the main avenue, I noticed…about 2 blocks ahead of me…a car from the crossing side street blew through the red light that he had and went flying across the main avenue I was on, doing at least 40 MPH! I thought to myself…wow; its a good thing no one was in the intersection when he did that; they would have been broadsided!
I didn’t realize at the time…but that picture in my mind would save my life a few minutes later! As I continued down the avenue…there was practically no traffic at all at that time in the morning…I was approaching a traffic light… green for me…at about 35 MPH. For some reason…I knew later it was the prompting of the Lord…I glanced over at the side cross street coming in from the left, and saw a car flying toward the intersection doing at least 40 MPH!… and he had a red light!
I was just into the intersection…and I knew he was going to broadside me! At that point, everything was happening in split-seconds, and time seemed to be moving in slow motion! I stood on my brakes and was skidding to a stop…and he slammed into the left front of my van, spinning me around! He had never even slowed down…he said later he never even saw me!
Afterwards, I fully realized what had just taken place. The fact that I had been forewarned by the Lord only a few minutes before with having seen the exact same scene in front of me…the fact that I was prompted to glance at the side street and saw this vehicle having no intention to stop for that red light… the fact that I immediately slammed on my brakes…prevented me from being broadsided right into the drivers seat rather than the front of the vehicle, and killed!
I thanked the Lord once more for intervening in my life as my shield and protector, to stay the hand of death!
Do you really think these were just fortunate “count my lucky stars” coincidences? Continuing my account of the 15 times I should have been dead were it not that God Personally intervened to stay the hand of death… 1st: shot at in Brooklyn; 2nd: Taxicab @ 4 yrs old; 3rd: Point Lookout; 4th: Radio electrical cord; 5th: 7 horrors of PA; 6th: Hitchhikers mountain joy ride; 7th: Presence of evil; 8th: Van on Brooklyn side street; 9th: Dragging tailpipe & muffler; 10th:Brooklyn basement flood; 11th: Broken trailer axle; 12th:Ski trip-flying down expert slope; 13th: Warning: running red light…
It was kind of interesting how the Lord led me to a particular log home construction company to put up on site my log cabin shell. I had done a lot of research on log cabin manufacturers, and chose The Old West Virginia Hand Hewn Log Home Company… that was their actual name! I chose them because their price was the best, all the logs were hand hewn and not machined, and that their package included building the cabin on their West Virginia site, taking it down and transporting the whole thing by tractor-trailer to Upstate New York, and then putting it up on my site. Unbelievable!
A few years prior, I had met a family from Pennsylvania with two young boys, and we became close friends. There were a number of times they came up to the cabin with their kids to spend a mini 4 or 5 day vacation. One of those occasions was in the late summer 1998, and we decided to take the kids to a beautiful and popular local spot…we had been there before…where there was a small stream flowing toward a 50 foot water fall, and then a quiet pool of water below that local kids loved to swim in.
We were a little bit upstream from the waterfall, where the water was deep… their 10 & 11 year old’s were good swimmers…and looked quite calm and inviting on this warm summer day. Except for one thing…when the kids felt the water with their hands, it felt cold to them…being a mountain stream! Ben, Stephen, and I were going to take a running start together and jump into the water…but they kept “chickening out” because the water felt so cold. I knew later that it was the Lord Who was protecting them…making them reluctant to jump in. I kept on teasing them and teasing them…but couldn’t convince them to do it. So I finally said, OK; I will jump in first.
Well…when I hit the water, the current immediately began sweeping me toward the waterfall! No one could visually see beforehand that there was a strong current! I realized there would be no way to swim against it!…and I was a strong swimmer; I had been a lifeguard in my younger days! The Lord immediately put into my thoughts the only way out of sure death…to swim along with the current on an angle to the rocks along the side of the river bank…where I could hold on and climb out!
Later I realized that if the Lord hadn’t stopped those 2 kids from jumping in, they would have been swept over the falls and killed! I thanked the Lord once more for intervening in my life as my shield and protector, to stay the hand of death!…but this time, not only my life but the lives of two young boys!
Do you really think these were just fortunate “count my lucky stars” coincidences? Continuing my account of the 15 times I should have been dead were it not that God Personally intervened to stay the hand of death… 1st: shot at in Brooklyn; 2nd: Taxicab @ 4 yrs old; 3rd: Point Lookout; 4th: Radio electrical cord; 5th: 7 horrors of PA; 6th: Hitchhikers mountain joy ride; 7th: Presence of evil; 8th: Van on Brooklyn side street; 9th: Dragging tailpipe & muffler; 10th:Brooklyn basement flood; 11th: Broken trailer axle; 12th:Ski trip-flying down expert slope; 13th: Warning: running red light; 14th: Swept toward waterfall…
There were two occasions involving hot engines and gasoline where I should have been blown up…were it not for the Lord’s intervention to override the circumstances and stay the hand of death. One took place in the mid 1980s, when I was driving that old and large 1971 Chrysler station wagon…which I had written about once before in the dragging tailpipe/muffler incident. As I was driving along a highway, I suddenly noticed smoke coming out from the front of the car under the hood. I assumed it was a radiator issue…so instead of stopping to look under the hood, I continued slowly along to exit the highway and get to the nearest gas station mechanic. I knew if I stopped, I would probably be stranded right where I was. The mechanic opened the hood to take a look…and then immediately told me to shut off the car’s engine! He told me…with a rather serious expression, “You’re lucky you weren’t blown up. Your carburetor is leaking gas…and it is leaking directly on to a hot engine!”
Do you really think this was just a fortunate “count my lucky stars” coincidence? The other occasion took place at my cabin in the winter of 2001. It was late afternoon and very cold…just above zero. I was working on something inside with my power tools, and so I had the generator running in my small outdoor shed. I knew it was low on gas, and I didn’t want it to run out and stop. In that cold weather, sometimes it is hard to start again. So I did one of the most stupid things I probably have ever done…I decided to fill the generator’s gas tank while it was still running! I had my 5 gallon gas can and a funnel I inserted into the fuel tank…and began to slowly and carefully pour gasoline into the funnel to refuel the tank! It was only later that it dawned on me…that hot generator engine could easily have ignited just one little drop of spilled gas, and the whole thing would have blown up in my face! Even if I would have survived that…no one would ever have known I was there…I was the only cabin in the woods in that sub-division!
This concludes my account of the 15 times I should have been dead were it not that God Personally intervened to stay the hand of death. Do you really think all these 15 incidences were just fortunate “count my lucky stars” coincidences? I don’t know whether in the depths of your heart you really believe there is a God in Heaven or not, but this I do know…my Father and my God, I owe my body and my soul to You! If it were not for You, my body would be in the grave, and my soul would be in Hell…15 times over that I am fully aware of and can testify to, and surely many more times that I am not aware of! Though I had sinned against You for so many years, so very often, and so very deeply…even so, You Personally intervened in my life to stay the hand of death! If it were not for You, Father, I would be in Hell right now [except for those 3 occasions when I was still a child, and those occasions after I had been born-again]…and I full well deserved to be there; but You would not have it. You were not willing that I should perish. How many times Satan had come for me to claim my life and to claim my soul, but You would not permit it. No…You were my Shield and my Protector; You protected my soul, and You kept me safe…even from the very pit of Hell!
Jesus the Christ tells us plainly, clearly, beyond the shadow of any doubt in Scripture: Everyone whom in eternity past the Father had known would accept His free gift of eternal life, and thereby declared as belonging to Me, will indeed come to Me. My sheep listen to My voice; I know them, and they follow Me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. No one can snatch them out of My hand. My Father, Who has given them to Me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of My Father’s hand. For I have come down from Heaven not to do My will but to do the will of My Father Who sent Me. And this is the will of Him Who sent Me…that I shall lose none of all whom My Father has given Me, but raise them up at the Last Day. Whoever, therefore, comes to Me I will never turn away. My Father’s will is that everyone who looks with faith to the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the Last Day. [John 10:27-29, 6:37-40]
I proclaim to you Christ Jesus…the One Who existed from the beginning, from Eternity Past, Whom I have heard with the ears of my own inner being, and have seen with my own spiritual eyes. I have gazed upon Him and have spiritually touched Him with my own hands. He is the Word of Life. His Life is continually being revealed to me; I have seen it and testify to it, and I proclaim to you that He is the One Who is Eternal Life. He always existed with the Father, and is now continually being manifested afresh and anew to me. I proclaim to you what I have personally seen and heard in the depths of my soul, so that you also may enjoy this same fellowship together with us. The fellowship I continually enjoy is with the Father and with His Son, Christ Jesus. I am writing these things so that you also may fully share together with me in this fullness of joy. [1 John 1:1-4]. It is our birth-right as a child of the Most High God!
Friends, brothers and sisters…
There is one absolutely necessary preparation for every living soul on the face of this Earth, for the soon coming and imminent return of Jesus Christ…the one preparation that will irrevocably determine in which neighborhood you will spend all eternity, whether in Heaven or in Hell. You must be a born-again child of God. I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot be in God’s Kingdom. I tell you the truth, no one can ever enter the Kingdom of God unless you are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at My saying you must be born again. [Jesus…John 3:3-7]
If you have never been born again,
or you are not sure whether you have been born again,
or you have been living your life as a lukewarm Christian and would now like to recommit your life and enter into a deep and intimate relationship with Christ Jesus in preparation for the soon coming marriage supper of the Lamb…
then I counsel you to get alone with God, read the solemn marriage vows you must make to become the bride of Christ and thereby be born-again, [https://preservechristianfamily.org/2019/01/21/bride-of-christ/], and with sincerity of heart from within the depths of your being, acknowledge before God, “I DO.”
Holy [A video/song well worth watching and listening to]:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcx2O9WXvn8&feature=youtu.be
Preserve Christian Family 