He told me the work would involve getting up very early in the morning and doing such things as taking care of cows, cleaning out gutters full of manure, mending fences, herding cattle, and that it would be a long, hard day that would end after sunset.

I am not a morning person. So, the very mention of getting up before the roosters was not very appealing (I'm a night owl- so going to bed late didn't meet with so much resistance), but ohhh--- how I loved to wake up slow.

At any rate, I took the job. My boss was not a Christian, but his mother, who also lived on the farm, was. So, in a sense, this job was a challenge, spiritually, but God had given me a helper- a sister in Christ- to encourage me as I witnessed to Him through my life, through my words-sharing the Gospel of life with my boss.

One day, we were in a field driving fence posts into the ground. He was driving a vehicle that had some kind of a front-end toothed loader- like you'd use to level the ground with. It could be raised high, and when you wanted to empty it, you had a lever or something that you used to make the bucket swing down and empty the load. You see...I held the fence post with two hands, and he would use the bottom of that bucket to pound the post in with. It was a little scary beneath that great big "hammer",  -but it was my job!

After pounding several posts in, it didn't seem so bad. Then it happened! As I held that post, the bucket came unhinged..I felt myself being pushed backwards...before my eyes, I saw the teeth of the bucket swing through the air where my neck and head had just been seconds before!

From my back, flat on the ground now, I watched in disbelief as my boss jumped down to see if I was alright!  It took a moment before I realized the implications of what had just taken place!  I would have been decapitated---if I had not fallen backwards seconds before the bucket swung loose.

As I lay in bed that night, I wondered what had pushed me backwards that day. Or who? Had God sent an angel to push me? I know from the Bible how an angel woke Peter up when he was in prison by thunking him on his side. Or how they could grab Lot and his wife and daughters by the hands and literally drag them out of the soon to be fire-bombed city on the plain.

Or---did God personally use His power to get me out of the way?

To me, it does not matter HOW The Lord did it...but that GOD did it.

You see, God is sovereign. He is ultimately in control of our lives. If you are alive right now...it is because it is God's will. No created thing can resist God's ultimate will. God always has the final say. If a person tries to take their own life...even then...God has veto power over that poor creatures foolish decision. Likewise, it doesn't matter HOW careful someone is, how much money they have, or influence or desire to live... if God has appointed you to die, you are not going to stop it from happening! He literally is the one who keeps your body and soul together. That's why, it does not matter HOW God kept me alive, because I know that He reveals in His Word, that He is the one who allowed me to escape the jaws of death that day.

It has been many years since that day, and I will never forget it! Much later my  boss died in a horrible haying accident. I hope that he trusted Christ as his Saviour before he left this life. I hope someday I see him in Heaven. Oh, I truly hope so.

This is a true story. I'm not making this up.

I often praise Jesus for my life. I wonder how many other times He has intervened in my life to save me from physical death, and I have not even been aware of it. How many times has the Lord reached into your life and spared you?

Centuries ago, Christ did something on a cross to intervene into my life and spare me from His eternal punishment for my sin. I did not know it for many years, but Christ had died on a cross  to satisfy God's righteous judgement against all my sin. He had died as my substitute, so that in the process of time, when He caused me to acknowledge that I was a sinner deserving God's eternal wrath for offending His Holiness, and  when He caused me to hear what He had done and enabled me to trust Him and cry out to Him for mercy...I was declared  NOT GUILTY!

Do I deserve to be forgiven? No. I have never deserved it, I do not nor will I ever DESERVE His forgiveness. Am I better than a non-Christian?

Absolutely not!  God's mercy is not able to be earned or deserved--or else it would cease to be mercy. I am a sinner saved by grace- God's undeserved forgiveness- all because of what Christ has done.

What about you? Has Christ been speaking to you through my testimony? Do you hear Him drawing you towards Him today? Do not resist His pull. Confess your sin to Him and kneel to Him as Lord.

Have any questions? If I can be of service, please write me now.

~And that's how God spared a farmer boy.     

To you, from a fellow human and poet,  Zach B. McClure

To Christ be all glory in Heaven and on Earth forever.