TomBragg said something to the effect, “I do believe that there is something up
there although I haven’t really put a name on… Reading your new book has made
me rethink a few things in my life.”
This
happened a couple of months later (as reported by Tom’s friend Peg):
Tom Bragg drove down to Georgia to join his Navy buddies
from the USS Mullinax for a 5-day reunion in Columbus, Georgia. He departed for
Chattanooga around 2:00. I received a call from Tom around 4:00. He said that
he was in the ER at the Gordon County hospital which is about an hour from
Jasper. He had been in an awful car accident, but he seemed to be okay other
than a bump on his head, nose bleed and lots of bruises and sore muscles. Tom
told me that apparently he had totaled his car, a blue Suburu Forrester, and
that I needed to come pick him up.
Before going to the hospital I decided to go to the
salvage yard where his car had been towed so that I could retrieve what I could
from his car. When I drove into the yard and the man there pointed to Tom's
car, I shrieked. How could anyone possibly have survived in that knurled rubble?
The salvage yard owner stood there shaking his head and remarking that the
wreck was as bad as he had EVER SEEN and that it had to have been a MIRACLE for
the driver to get out of that car alive and even unscathed! The car had rolled
over several times and had landed upside down.
Tom said that he does not know why he drove off the road
in the first place. It was still raining, as it had been all day, and there
were lots of puddles on the right-hand side of the road where he had been
driving. Perhaps he had hit a puddle?
Anyway, the car was mashed all the way around... both
sides, the front and the rear and the top. There was not a square inch on that
car that was not damaged. The only door
that would open was the driver's door. Tom had unbuckled his seat belt as he
hung up-side down and was then able to somehow open the door a bit. The EMS
fellows pulled him out and got him into a stretcher right away. The hospital
was only 5 miles away.
What I discovered right away was that the inside of the
car had pieces of broken glass and twisted metal piled up to the ceiling in both
the front and back seats. They had picked up every piece of glass etc at the
accident scene and had piled them ALL into the car. I found a pair of work
gloves in the car and then began tossing one jagged piece of glass and twisted
metal, etc. out of the car, piece by piece. Every piece was covered in mud and
so was the exterior of the car.
I finally got into the driver’s seat and brushed out as
much glass that I could from the seat and the floor so I could find things to
salvage. I managed to pull a green suitcase from the back of the car too, but
it was empty. I could not find his clothes or the other two pieces of luggage
that he had nor his computer, camera, etc. But I did get a lot of little things
that filled up my trunk, including an unharmed bottle of wine that he had
bought in an auction at his reunion and his GPS device that was intact lying in
the glass on the front floor.
After an hour I was satisfied that I had cleaned out the
car and left to the hospital. There, Tom was waiting for me... with all of his
clothes in garbage bags, his computer, camera, etc. Much of the clothing in the
bags was muddy, but his computer and camera were unscathed and still in their
carrying cases. The police had collected it all at the scene.
Tom had hardly lost anything! We drove to the accident
site to see if we could figure out what had happened. It took place on the
grounds of a CHURCH and even occurred on a Sunday! Tom's car had rolled off the
shoulder of the highway and before he could straighten the car and get it back
up on the road, it hit a concrete culvert and launched into the air. It
apparently rolled over at least two times and landed upside down right beneath
the church sign.
You can see a bunch of large imprints in the grass (now,
mud) beneath the sign where his car had rolled and finally landed. There were words
moving across the screen in red lights that stated, over and over again,
"God's Love for You." And there Tom had laid in his totally mangled
car, basically unscathed, A MIRACLE had occurred, as those words kept crossing
the screen above him... "God's Love for you."
Tom spent the night here in Jasper and is now in the air
flying home where his daughter, Bonnie, will take him home to New Jersey. He is
VERY shaken but thinks he will be okay. He had a very bad back anyway from a
previous accident and we hope this will not make matters worse. But the
hospital found no new damage and Tom did not hurt that badly this morning.
Be
sure and let God know what kind of sign you are looking for.
A
special thanks to Tom Bragg and Peg for letting us use their pictures and story.
Many people think of boot camp as a place you train for combat. Any veteran will tell you that basic training is about three things:
More articles on:
Believers' Boot Camp series
Many people think of boot camp as a place you train for combat. Any veteran will tell you that basic training is about three things:
- Knowing what weapons are available
- Learning how to use those weapons
- Receiving orders and following them
Believer’s Boot Camp series is a collection of books which teach us how to hear more clearly from God with the goal to ready ourselves for a face-to-face meeting with our Lord, Jesus. The series reveals the “weapons and tools” God has given us and how to use them, so we can bring God’s kingdom to Earth. Each book in the series focuses on a single topic to clearly define one tool or weapon from our Heavenly Father.
The series uses the Word of God to reveal all that He has given us through Jesus. The Bible is our instruction manual and the Holy Spirit is our guide to understanding it.
Volume 1: Why Doesn't God Speak to Me?
Eager hearts cry out, hoping for a single word to confirm that He hears us. Yet, many times the only sound is silence. Over the years I have heard several reasons why God speaks to some and not to others. One night, as I tossed and turned, I brought each of these reasons before the Lord, stating why each of them did not line up with who I thought He was.
Words rose from my soul, pleading for Him to reveal why He has remained silent when a single word from Him would mean so much to so many. For the next few hours, God used things I learned about years ago and things I had just discovered to show why He talks to some and why He doesn’t, and in demonstrative ways.
In His grace, He also showed me how people could hear more from Him. Basic instructions on how to hear more from God and how to be led by Him are included in this book. Thank you for taking time to consider the answers I received and share with you now.
Eager hearts cry out, hoping for a single word to confirm that He hears us. Yet, many times the only sound is silence. Over the years I have heard several reasons why God speaks to some and not to others. One night, as I tossed and turned, I brought each of these reasons before the Lord, stating why each of them did not line up with who I thought He was.
Words rose from my soul, pleading for Him to reveal why He has remained silent when a single word from Him would mean so much to so many. For the next few hours, God used things I learned about years ago and things I had just discovered to show why He talks to some and why He doesn’t, and in demonstrative ways.
In His grace, He also showed me how people could hear more from Him. Basic instructions on how to hear more from God and how to be led by Him are included in this book. Thank you for taking time to consider the answers I received and share with you now.
Keys to Authority for Every Believer
There is untapped power that is easy for every Christian to access in the form of authority. The keys to this authority will unlock weapons we can use to free ourselves from the attacks of the enemy. We must be intimately aware of the bounds and limitations of our weapon if they are to be used effectively.
Find out about your authority:
- Why you need it.
- Where it comes from.
- What you can do with it.
- How to get more.
There is untapped power that is easy for every Christian to access in the form of authority. The keys to this authority will unlock weapons we can use to free ourselves from the attacks of the enemy. We must be intimately aware of the bounds and limitations of our weapon if they are to be used effectively.
Find out about your authority:
- Why you need it.
- Where it comes from.
- What you can do with it.
- How to get more.
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