{"id":11138,"date":"2014-08-07T19:00:18","date_gmt":"2014-08-07T19:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/?p=11138"},"modified":"2014-08-07T19:12:47","modified_gmt":"2014-08-07T19:12:47","slug":"middle-of-the-fourth-quarter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/?p=11138","title":{"rendered":"Middle of the fourth quarter……"},"content":{"rendered":"

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When I was in my very early 40’s,\u00a0 some time ago, a dear friend gave me a wonderful book titled “The Second Half”.\u00a0 It was\u00a0 of course a football reference, suggesting that when a man gets to the mid point of life, he needs to re-access what his goals and commitments are to.\u00a0 It was a very valuable book for me and was part of the turning point when I started to focus in on what I believe my purpose to be.<\/p>\n

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Taking the football analogy to the next step, and based on normal life expectancy figures, I am somewhere in the middle of the fourth quarter.\u00a0 Being an avid football fan,\u00a0 I know that many games are decided in the last ten minutes or so of the game.\u00a0 You can flounder around and make a lot of mistakes throughout the first half, in the third quarter you need to keep it close and position yourself for closing the gap!\u00a0 When the clock is ticking down during the fourth quarter it becomes critical, it is no time for stupid mistakes and fumbles!\u00a0 In our spiritual life the same is true.\u00a0 Let’s take a short break, If you’ve given your heart to Jesus the final outcome, for you, is already determined, you won, game over.\u00a0 Your service however may be another thing, altogether.<\/p>\n

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When the clock is running down the most important battles must be won.\u00a0 When I played ball, the fourth quarter was when\u00a0 you hit the hardest, blocked the best, and wrapped up on every tackle!\u00a0 If your goal is to lead people to Christ, this is when you want to be on top of your game.\u00a0 That’s easy, trust in Him, and follow His lead.\u00a0 Sometimes we want so bad to win people for Him, but we can’t in our own power, we have to leave it to Him.\u00a0 Trust is hard until you see Him at work!\u00a0 When you experience His overpowering love, you understand why you want to share him with those you love and have a burden for.<\/p>\n

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Well, the TV time out is over, got to get back on the field, there is a game to be won, and my coach is\u00a0 calling the plays…..<\/p>\n

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Blessings,<\/p>\n

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the pilgrim<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  When I was in my very early 40’s,\u00a0 some time ago, a dear friend gave me a wonderful book titled “The Second Half”.\u00a0 It was\u00a0 of course a football reference, suggesting that when a man gets to the mid point of life, he needs to re-access what his goals and commitments are to.\u00a0 It […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chronicles"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11138"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11138\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11141,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11138\/revisions\/11141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}