"With God's Grace Our Worst Past
Becomes Our Best Future"
Becomes Our Best Future"
I wasn’t even thinking about retirement on the day that I was retired. There are a few days I consider to be the worst days of my life. That was one of them. I can still see and hear the Senior Pastor telling me the bad news. “It cannot be over,” I thought. But it was. I was an associate pastor in the church where I once had been a layman. I started the pastoral ministry rather late in my working life and now, at sixty-two years of age, I simply had nowhere to go. No one wanted a pastor in their sixties except small country churches with an “us four and no more” attitude. It would have driven me crazy. I got a part-time job and mowed lawns to get by and prayed to know God’s will for the rest of my productive life. I would have no trouble staying busy as everyone was advising me to do. Being useful in the Kingdom of God was what I wanted.
God heard my prayers and provided a way for me to be in ministry as long as I could walk and talk. One day, out of the clear blue sky, I received a phone call from some friends who wanted to help. They had heard that I had been laid off and they believed that God was leading them to provide some financial aid for me. They suggested that with the tithe of their gift I had enough to start a 501 (c3) nonprofit corporation and start a ministry of my own. I asked, “Do you have some suggestions for a ministry? Did God lead you in that?” “No, just pray and God will lead you.” I then went for some counseling to a pastor I trusted. She is a godly woman who has the ability to talk to someone for a while and discern what is going on with them. I asked her how I would find out what God wanted me to do. She said, “What is God doing in your life right now?” I answered that I still preached occasionally, taught a Bible class and loved reading Scripture publicly. She said, “George, do more of those things and God will bless you and lead you to more opportunities.” Great! What is a preacher without a congregation, a teacher without students, or a reader without listeners? However, her advice turned out to be some of the best I have ever received.
To tell how God blessed me in the last ten years would take a book. People and resources began coming my way. I took the first step in starting a nonprofit corporation, “Following the Book Ministries.” After a year, I had recorded the entire New Testament, Genesis, Exodus, Psalms, and Proverbs. Friends offered suggestions and expertise on building a website, running social media programs and other skills that I needed. The results astounded me. The next two years were spend developing over seven hundred short audio devotions that are sent out daily to over five thousand subscribers. The ministry Facebook page has over 500k followers. In 2018 Brimstone Publishing published my novel about the Apostle Paul ... In the Grip of God: Journey into Corinth. I am having the most productive time of my life in my seventies.
The point of this is to say how much is possible when a person just asks themselves a question: “What is happening that is good in my life?” No matter how small or seemingly insignificant it may seem, it has potential. We need to pursue and develop those things. It may bring a renaissance that will brighten life in our senior years and bring us a sense of significance and usefulness.
ABOUT GEORGE CARGILL
George Cargill is a fourth-generation pastor. His first novel, In the Grip of God: Journey into Corinth, chronicles the trials of the early Corinthian church through the eyes of the Apostle Paul. You can read more from Pastor George on his blog at georgecargill.com. Visit his ministry at https://followingthebook.org.
ABOUT IN THE GRIP OF GOD: JOURNEY INTO CORINTH
Alone, beaten down, out of money, and pursued by his enemies, Paul leaves wealth, power, and love to bring the gospel to the great pagan city of Corinth. Facing danger and death, he must
find a way to survive the laws of both the Jews and the Roman Empire itself. Soon, Paul finds himself no longer seeking God’s will but being inexorably carried along by Divine purpose.
Buy Link: https://www.amazon.com/Grip-God-Journey-into-Corinth-ebook/dp/B07DP6FXP5/r
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