{"id":5424,"date":"2012-05-25T01:40:36","date_gmt":"2012-05-25T01:40:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/?p=5424"},"modified":"2012-05-25T01:40:36","modified_gmt":"2012-05-25T01:40:36","slug":"answering-the-call","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/?p=5424","title":{"rendered":"Answering the call………"},"content":{"rendered":"

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There is nothing I consider more important than answering His call. \u00a0I have been suffering some today because of a call I didn’t answer. \u00a0You may remember a couple of weeks ago I asked you to be in prayer about my visiting with a friend that was dying of cancer. \u00a0That visit never happened. \u00a0I called his wife to let her know that I would love to have a few minutes with my friend, but she never returned my call. \u00a0Of course a lot was going on, and there are a million reasons why my request fell through the cracks, but I still felt responsible and have worried about my friend. \u00a0I found out today, that he had passed away this morning, and the anxiety about the missed visit \u00a0started anew.<\/p>\n

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My wife is attending a medical meeting on the West Coast of Florida and I came along and have been doing pro and newspaper calls during the days while she has been in meetings. \u00a0Late this afternoon when she got out of her meeting and I returned from a pro call, we slipped into out bathing suits and went down to the pool to relax. \u00a0I got into the hot tub and was staring at the image above, water cascading over a wall. \u00a0I was thinking how much that constantly moving water is like our lives, we rush through this life and are gone in a instant. \u00a0I was still so worried about my missed visit with my friend, I bowed my head and began to pray for him. \u00a0I told God I knew it was too late to pray for his salvation, but that I prayed he had made his peace with Him before the end. \u00a0I still worried about that situation. \u00a0I prayed for a while and when I raised my head I was looking right at a dove that had landed next to the hot tub, just a few feet a way from me. \u00a0It walked slowly down the edge of the tub and when it got very close to where I set motionless, he turned and look right into my eyes. \u00a0At that moment I knew God was sending me the peace I so needed, and the answer to my question.<\/p>\n

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Later tonight I talked with another very close friend from Harlan where I grew up, he shared with me that he saw our friend about a week and a half ago and that our friend assured him that he was right with the Lord, a flood of thankfulness washed over me! \u00a0God is so good to give us peace when only he can. \u00a0I’m so thankful that my friend made that trip and talked to our friend before he left us. \u00a0That assurance was the most important thing to me and vital to my friend. \u00a0Tonight he is reunited with family and friends and with the Lord!!!<\/p>\n

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All of our lives are passing by fast, please don’t fail to make the most important contract of all, giving Him your heart and your life.<\/p>\n

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

There is nothing I consider more important than answering His call. \u00a0I have been suffering some today because of a call I didn’t answer. \u00a0You may remember a couple of weeks ago I asked you to be in prayer about my visiting with a friend that was dying of cancer. \u00a0That visit never happened. \u00a0I […]<\/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-5424","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\/5424","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=5424"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5424\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5426,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5424\/revisions\/5426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}