ccm Cross 0134 Joshua’s Place, Jackson, Georgia

ccm Cross 0134
April 25, 2017

Joshua’s Place Church
Jackson, Georgia
ccm Cross 0134

GPS/DMS 33° 16′ 41.56” N 83° 58′ 42.05” W

Additional photos after Testimony

4370 cdd The Wire Snapped
Cyber Daily Devotion
Volume 18 Number 146

Today’s Author: Pastor Bill

Scripture: Psalm 118:13-14
“You pushed me violently, that I might fall, But the Lord helped me. The Lord is my strength and song, And He has become my salvation” NKJV

Hello, my name is Pastor Rick Moncrief of Joshua’s Place Church in Jackson, Georgia. I grew up about 30 miles from here in Atlanta. My dad was a United States Marine. The best of the best, serving throughout the Pacific in World War 2. Fighting on Iwo Jima, Guadalcanal and various other islands. He remained in the Marines after the war and served throughout the entire Korean War having fought in the Frozen Chosin Reservoir Battle against the Chinese.

When I was very young dad and mom took me to church. It was a dead end for me and at age eleven I stopped going.

When I was 18 years old my best friend’s mom gave me a cassette tape with a sermon on it. I listened to every word. It was my life story. That preacher was talking just too me. All alone at 2:30 AM I knelt by my bed and gave my life to Christ.

I started back to church. After the Sunday service, I introduced myself to the Pastor by the door, on the way out. He said he would call me during the week. That was in 1979. He never called. I’m still waiting for his call!

When my best friend’s mom heard I had received Christ she help direct me to a church that was leading a nearby revival. I attended with my dad. It was a bit out of the church box for him but it fit me perfectly. I was baptized in water and with the Holy Spirit.

My life was changed forever but I had no idea what the Lord had in store for me. Soon after I met my wife Donna. We married. She was 19, I was 21. I became a lineman for Georgia Power. Plus, I started a tree trimming business. We were very active in church and the Lord blessed us with three girls. Over time I became a youth leader and lead hundreds of youth to the Lord through Jesus inspired events.

Then the unthinkable happened. The year was 1996, Atlanta was hosting the Olympics. All Georgia Power Linemen worked on site for all the events. We didn’t want a power outage call — we wanted to be the first to know if a power outage was occurring! We worked long, hard and exhausting hours. Just as the Olympics was winding down a hurricane struck North and South Carolina.

The call came to Georgia Power, as well as other states, for help. I was fatigued but wanted to help. I was dispatched to North Carolina. When our team arrived, we were assigned a large tree that was leaning on two homes. The tree had taken power lines down when it fell. I was given responsibility to climb into the fallen tree and secure a position to remove the wires. All my years of training did not prepare me for what happened next.

I was seventeen feet above the ground and secured a position hooking on to one of the power wires. I pulled the wire to release it from the tree and it snapped. I fell backwards losing my hard hat and landed on the pavement below — on my head.

I was rushed to a medical center where they tended my wounds and called Donna asking her and any concerned friends and relatives to come quickly. I had massive head trauma and was not expected to live. Donna fainted when she received the call. When Donna recovered, she called for serious prayer. Two mighty intercessors traveled with her, my dad and three girls to North Carolina. The intercessors stormed the gates of heaven for me. When they arrived, they learned I had three aneurisms in my head, three of the seven sections in my brain were bleeding out and I was only alive because of machines. The doctors notified them to say their final goodbyes.

Five days I was in a coma. It was like I was under water and could hear voices talking around me but did not understand what they were saying. Then I was taken to the throne room of Jesus. It was the whitest white I had ever seen — so white it was hard to look on it. The whiteness drove me to look down and there were the feet of Jesus.

The whiteness was too bright to look on so I stared at His feet. Then Jesus spoke, “What do you want to do?” My answer was immediate, “I want to live and I want to declare the works of the Lord.”

Jesus answered in a booming voice, “That’s enough,” as He clapped his hands. When he did the sound of His clapping hands was thunderous — like 10,000 rumbles of thunder — all at once.

It was time to remove me from the ventilator. If I could breathe on my own Donna was told I would be a vegetable. The process was slow and painful. When they were done I was still breathing.

I was asked a series of simple questions to determine what I knew. ‘”Who is the president of the United States?” I answered, “Abe Lincoln.” I was not right! But alive!

I was transferred back to Georgia and began rehabilitation. My neurologist was not a Christian and had a difficult time with my answers from the start. When asked a question I would always answer in a biblical way. My answers physically upset her as they went against all her secular training.

This neurologist insisted that if I could regain 40 percent of my brain functions within 60 months or five years, I would be the luckiest man alive. She discounted my encounter with Jesus Christ and she was determined to place me in a box that was built around her schooled knowledge. She continually told me to learn to deal with my losses, regulate my anger and control my disappointments. My answer every day was, “Doctor, I’m going to physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually and financially be better off than I was before.” She thought I was nuts!

One day she wanted to help me understand my situation. She knew I had broken my ribs in many places and was determined to teach me a lesson. She said my ribs would prevent me from normal activities like walking and lifting and climbing. She almost fell off her chair when I told her that the day before I had rope climb to the roof of the gymnasium and walked away.

Proverbs 18:21a: “Death and life are in the power of the tongue” NKJV

30 days later I was evaluated. My neurologist had relocated to California and her boss was evaluating me. My evaluation came back at 95 percent of normal. He looked at all the notes that were on my chart — like, “will never do this”, “will never do that” and “must learn to live with all this.” He was astonished that my test would show 95% of normal.

He just asked me one question, “Why have you achieved all this?” My answer shook him to the core, “Because I’ve been at the feet of Jesus.” He became a believer!

One year later I returned to work. My neurologist agreed, “You really did have had a miracle and you really did see Jesus.”

Returning to work opened doors I never knew existed. My answer to Jesus was when He asked was, “I want to live and I want to declare the works of the Lord.” Georgia Power assigned me to speak to 9,000 out of 9,500 employees and share my testimony of what Jesus had done. Alabama Power also asked me to share as did Mississippi Power. My new life in Jesus Christ was just beginning.

In 2008, I left Georgia power for full time ministry as we began Joshua’s Place. It is difficult to do a regular job when you have been at the feet of Jesus. Joshua’s Place is a church where broken people can be restored in the things of Christ. Out of this experience the Holy Spirit has given me a special gift that I exercise most every day. It is the ability to look beyond the person to see them the way Jesus sees them. And that can be summed up in one word, “LOVE.”

This gift has driven me six miles away from Joshua’s Place. There you will find the largest prison complex in Georgia. And at least one day per week from 9:00 AM to 4:30 PM you will find me ministering the LOVE of Jesus to the death row inmates, transitional inmates and high meg inmates. These men are a mission field for forgiveness. And my gift takes me beyond who they are or what they have done to how Jesus sees them.

Recently there was an execution at the prison. The prisoner was asked if he had any last words? His answer, “Tell Pastor Rick I love him.”

My favorite Bible verse is: Joshua 1:9 “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” NKJV

This Cross planted today means everything as in Galatians 6:14, “But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” NKJV

The Cross is the example of how much God loves you and me. Unquestionable love and commitment.

This Cross planted is the best thing this church has ever done. It tells everyone who passes by that Jesus really loves them and HE proved it.

Prayer: Father thank you for miracles in the lives or your saints which show us Your goodness and love. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen!