

{"id":11455,"date":"2014-10-01T19:38:10","date_gmt":"2014-10-01T19:38:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/?p=11455"},"modified":"2014-10-01T20:12:51","modified_gmt":"2014-10-01T20:12:51","slug":"i-can-only-imagine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/?p=11455","title":{"rendered":"I Can Only Imagine&#8230;.."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/This-much.jpg\" rel=\"lightbox[11455]\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-Blog Post Image wp-image-11456\" title=\"This much\" src=\"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/This-much-580x378.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"580\" height=\"378\" srcset=\"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/This-much-580x378.jpg 580w, https:\/\/billfortney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/This-much-150x97.jpg 150w, https:\/\/billfortney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/This-much-270x176.jpg 270w, https:\/\/billfortney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/This-much-960x626.jpg 960w, https:\/\/billfortney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/This-much-600x391.jpg 600w, https:\/\/billfortney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/This-much-880x574.jpg 880w, https:\/\/billfortney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/This-much-350x228.jpg 350w, https:\/\/billfortney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/This-much-400x261.jpg 400w, https:\/\/billfortney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/This-much-370x241.jpg 370w, https:\/\/billfortney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/This-much-500x326.jpg 500w, https:\/\/billfortney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/This-much-750x489.jpg 750w, https:\/\/billfortney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/This-much.jpg 1600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 580px) 100vw, 580px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>I was sitting on the couch last night thinking about the loss of Scott Hughes, feeling sad for us, and happy for him.\u00a0 Sad for us because he was great friend to fly with, and happy for him because all the pain is over, and he is soaring all the time now!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>I was playing some contemporary Christian music I like on the iPad, lost in thought.\u00a0 Then a song came on that hit me like a ton of bricks, one I love, but brought all my feelings together at once.\u00a0 Wynonna Judd belted out &#8220;I Can Only Imagine&#8221;!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><strong>I can only imagine,\u00a0 it&#8217;ll be like, when I walk, by your side <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><strong>I can only imagine, what my eyes will see, when Your face is before me.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><strong>I can only imagine&#8230;&#8230;..<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><strong>Surrounded by Your glory what will my heart feel<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><strong>Will I dance for you Jesus or in awe of you be still<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><strong>Will stand in your presence or to my knees will I fall<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><strong>Will I sing Halleluiah will I be able to speak at all&#8230;.\u00a0 I can only imagine<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><strong>I can only imagine&#8230;&#8230;.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>As I wept uncontrollably all I could see was a picture of my son Wesley when he was just a little boy with his arms outstretched as far as he could reach.\u00a0 I went to my computer, still weeping, and found that image, and stared at it for the longest time. I used to ask him how much do you love me?, and his answer was to stare at me and thrust his arms further than I thought he could reach.\u00a0 In that moment looking at him on the computer screen I felt just how much God loves us! His Son stretched his arms out and allowed Himself to be nailed to a cross for me, and you.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Wesley knew how to show his father just how much he loved him, as far as he could stretch his little arms. \u00a0 If our own family can love us so much, I can only imagine, how much He loves us!\u00a0 As I write this blog entry, if it was the last thing I ever wrote, the last time I could ever leave a message for anyone, I would beg and plead that you accept that unimaginable love.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>If you haven&#8217;t, you can only imagine what it&#8217;s like to be love that way!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Blessings,<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>the pilgrim<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Teh-new-Card.jpg\" rel=\"lightbox[11455]\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-Blog Post Image wp-image-11460\" title=\"Teh new Card\" src=\"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Teh-new-Card-580x620.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"580\" height=\"620\" srcset=\"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Teh-new-Card-580x620.jpg 580w, https:\/\/billfortney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Teh-new-Card-140x150.jpg 140w, https:\/\/billfortney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Teh-new-Card-270x288.jpg 270w, https:\/\/billfortney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Teh-new-Card-960x1027.jpg 960w, https:\/\/billfortney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Teh-new-Card-600x642.jpg 600w, https:\/\/billfortney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Teh-new-Card-957x1024.jpg 957w, https:\/\/billfortney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Teh-new-Card-880x941.jpg 880w, https:\/\/billfortney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Teh-new-Card-280x300.jpg 280w, https:\/\/billfortney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Teh-new-Card-373x400.jpg 373w, https:\/\/billfortney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Teh-new-Card-308x330.jpg 308w, https:\/\/billfortney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Teh-new-Card-467x500.jpg 467w, https:\/\/billfortney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Teh-new-Card.jpg 1600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 580px) 100vw, 580px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; I was sitting on the couch last night thinking about the loss of Scott Hughes, feeling sad for us, and happy for him.\u00a0 Sad for us because he was great friend to fly with, and happy for him because all the pain is over, and he is soaring all the time now! &nbsp; I [&hellip;]<\/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-11455","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\/11455","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=11455"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11455\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11463,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11455\/revisions\/11463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}