{"id":7078,"date":"2012-12-12T18:51:39","date_gmt":"2012-12-12T18:51:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/?p=7078"},"modified":"2012-12-12T18:58:35","modified_gmt":"2012-12-12T18:58:35","slug":"the-train-is-leaving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/?p=7078","title":{"rendered":"The train is leaving………"},"content":{"rendered":"

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I made this photograph of a conductor in Arkansas at a train museum, I’v always loved the image, it appears he is looking at his pocket watch and anticipating the train pulling out, looking for that last passenger, to make it before the train starts to pull away! \u00a0In many ways I think that is what I’m doing, watching for the last ones to make it on the train.<\/p>\n

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Someday the train will leave for all of us, the question is will you be onhoard? \u00a0I’ve been reading Scott’s new book, It’s a Jesus Thing<\/span><\/strong>, and I have to say, I’m really enjoying it! \u00a0I think it strikes just the right cord for reaching out to those that are still sitting on the fence trying to decide whether to join us on this side! \u00a0 For some it may seem like a soft sell, but I would disagree with them, and remind them that when we were trying to decide ourselves, we may have needed the same gentle touch to slowely move us toward Christ.<\/p>\n

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I heard a story recently about some men that were traveling together and on the trip and one of the men lead the other two to a relationship with Jesus. \u00a0About an hour later they were forced from the road by a eighteen wheeler, and they struck a tree tree at a high rate of speed. \u00a0One of the two men that had just accepted Christ was killed, the other two were injured, but survived. \u00a0Just imagine what a difference that made in that man’s eternal life. \u00a0I was reading in Scott’s new book about how it does not often work to lure people to wanting to become a Christian by scaring them with the fear of being condemned eternally. \u00a0I agree, not many people respond to fire and brimstone conversion techniques. However, the other side of that same coin is that Jesus is the only way to the Father and we cannot hope to escape that dreadful eternity unless we ask Him into our hearts. I like to think of Jesus as that conductor, standing, waiting, checking His watch knowing that some of His children are still not on board the train, hoping to see them rush up and jump on before the train pulls away from the station. He knows that once the train starts to move, it will be too late to get on board.<\/p>\n

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The problem with life is the train, (your passage out of this life), does not run on a schedule. \u00a0Sadly we do not always get a warning. \u00a0I had a dear friend some years ago that was not a believer, and I loved him dearly. \u00a0I shared with him about Jesus on several occasions, he was always kind, but he never accepted Christ. \u00a0One day I got a call that he had suffered a heart attack and died, he was only 53 years old. \u00a0I thought I had a lot more time to love on him, and try to get him to see how important it was to give his life to Christ. \u00a0The train pulled out before I got the chance. \u00a0I promised myself after his death that I would never let another friend go without a fight for them! \u00a0I’m sure that I’ve made a few people a little uncomfortable trying to encourage them to know how much God loves them, but I can assure you it’s nothing like as uncomfortable as an eternity seperated from God!<\/p>\n

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I have a dear friend who has a great line; “If you meet me, and forget me, you’ve lost nothing, if you meet God, and forget Him, you’ve lost everything!”<\/p>\n

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Here’s hoping you make the train,<\/p>\n

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the pilgrim<\/p>\n

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I made this photograph of a conductor in Arkansas at a train museum, I’v always loved the image, it appears he is looking at his pocket watch and anticipating the train pulling out, looking for that last passenger, to make it before the train starts to pull away! \u00a0In many ways I think that is […]<\/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-7078","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\/7078","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=7078"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7078\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7082,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7078\/revisions\/7082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}