My Calling

© Copyright 2012 Merrill Phillips.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written prior permission of the author.

ISBN: 978-1-4669-3251-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4669-3250-0 (e)

Trafford rev. 06/27/2012

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CONTENTS

Touched By God’s Omnipotent Hand

All For The Glory Of God

A Cross On A Far Away Hill

A Guide To A More Abundant Life

A New Life

A Pathway From Heaven To Earth

A Special Place

A Synopsis Of Life

A Walk Through Life

According To His Plan

Allowing God To Shape Our Lives

Among The Flowers

Are You One Of Those?

Are You Ready For A New Life

Are You Ready To Die

Are You Ready?

At The End Of Life

Awaiting Jesus’ Return

Be As A Light Unto The World

Be Grateful

Before Thy Table

Behold The Glory Of Heaven

Beware Of Temptations

Beyond The Cross

Beyond Tomorrow

Boat Of Life

Can It Be Said Of You

Cast Thy Crowns Before The Throne Of God

Choices

Christian Follow Me

Confusing?

Death Is Inevitable

Do Not Be Deceived By Satan

Do Not Be Deceived

Fences

Footprints

Free At Last

Free Spirit

Freedom Through Jesus Christ

Freedom, A Gift From God

From Life To Eternal Life

Garden Of Sin

Generation To Generation

God Can Save

God Is All In All

God Is Calling

God Is Supreme

God Will Supply

God’s Glory

Going Home

Guide Me Lord In The Paths That You Want Me To Trod

He Is Calling

He Shall Return Triumphant

He Touched Me

Healing Powwer Of God

Heaven Or Hell

Help Me Along The Way

Helping Hand

His World

Hope

How Do You Live

How Have You Changed

I Believe

I Want To Go Home

In The Fullness Of Time

In The Shadow Of The Cross

Individualism

Is It Well With Thy Soul

It’s Time

Jesus Christ Is Lord And Savior

Jesus Is Calling

Jesus Is Knocking On Your Door

Jesus Our Savior

Jesus Set Me Free

Jesus’ Guiding Light

Jesus’ Love For You And Me

Jesus, The Door To Eternal Life

Just A Reflection

Just For You And Me

Just Some Thoughts

Last Chance

Let It Be Said

Let Them Come Forth

Life And Time

Life Changing Decisions

Like Him

Look To The Future

Lost Soul

Love Is God & God Is Love

Man Does Have A Choice

Marching Towards Eternity

May My Eyes See And My Ears Hear

May Your Will Be Done In Our Lives

Merrill Arthur Phillips

Miracle Of The Cross

Miracles, A Gift From God

Miracles

My Lord And Savior

My Pilot Be

My Soul Was At Peace The Day My Savior Came For Me

Mysteries

Now Is The Time

Obedience

One Day You Will Be As I Am Now

Only Two Choices

Our Final Goal

Our Way Or God’s Way

Power In The Blood Of The Lamb

Prayer

Problems Of Life

Renewal

Return To Paradise

Satan

Saved By Grace

Seek God While You Can

Seeking To Live A More Christ Like Life

Self Imposed Stumbling Blocks

Stand Guard

Strangers In A Strange Land

String Of Love

Surrender

The Book Of Life Holy Bible

The Cross Is Empty

The Fetus Has Life

The Great Gardener

The Man On The Hill

The Spoken Word

The Tree Of Calvary

Three Old Nails

Tick-Tock

Time, Friend Or Foe

Trials Of Being A Christian

Trust And Obey

We Control Our Own Destiny

When My Journey Is Over

Which Cross Have You Chosen

Whoses Laws Do You Live By

TOUCHED BY GOD’S OMNIPOTENT HAND

The following is an account of my personal experiences with God and how He has blessed me through His Son, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. I feel very blessed to have been guided and helped through this life by the love of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Perhaps someday my experiences will give someone the inspiration that they need in seeking the Lord’s help in their own life.

Some may say that my experiences were nothing but the figment of my imagination. They have the right to believe any way that they wish, but when such experiences happen, they are real. Jesus Christ is real and He heals and guides people just as He did when He lived among us.

God does groom those whom He chooses to serve Him. While going through adverse situations one cannot see anything but the problems that confront them, but when looking back on their lives they can see how God had worked in their life to prepare them for service to Him.

The following is an account of what God allowed me to go through to change my heart and prepare me to write what he wanted to convey to others. It has been the most humbling experience of my life. When going through those experiences I had no idea of what was going on, for God does not say, I want you to serve me, this is what I want you to do to get ready. Some of the experiences were very trying and taxing, both physically and spiritually. Only by looking back on them could I tell that they were for my spiritual growth.

I am not telling these experiences to brag about how God worked in my life, but to show that no one is prepared to work on God’s behalf without going through a period of preparation. Sometimes this period is relatively short and sometimes it takes years, which it was in my case. I was in my mid-twenties when I had my first experience and in my sixties when God told me, Take pen and paper and write. It matters not the length of time, what does matter is if one answers their calling or refuses to for whatever reason. At first, I made all kinds of excuses not to write, from not being qualified for such an endeavor to I was a bad speller, but eventually I chose to answer my calling and have never regretted that decision. We may not be qualified for our calling but God will supply whatever we need if we but allow Him.

God is without a doubt the greatest teacher and friend anyone could ever have. I have and will continue to praise him for what he has done on my behalf and how He has changed me through trials and tribulations. I serve God with a humble heart and assign to Him all of the glory and honor that may or may not be bestowed upon me. Without His intervention in my life, today I would be a lost soul without hope of redemption or salvation. Glory be to God now and forevermore.

I write this in humility to let others know that when they are going through hard times that they are meant for their spiritual growth, thus bringing them closer to their creator, God.

Many fail in the process of changing their lives and live lives unfit for the kingdom of God as witnessed by daily news reports from around the world. The few who do answer their calling do it without fanfare and not for self-satisfaction, but do it for the advancement of God’s kingdom here on earth and hope for a better future for all.

No greater honor can be bestowed upon anyone than to serve God. This brings the stories as told in the Bible alive and as relevant today as when they were first recorded for our benefit in our time and place in the history of humankind.

Thank God for His loving and caring ways in which He holds all, regardless of their nationality or color of skin. God looks on the internal, not the external and calls all according to His purpose.

1 In 1948 the year before my first wife and I were married, we built a new house and it was not finished until after we were married. Our bedroom was on the second floor, we had studs for walls and the ceiling was the bear roof. One night while we slept I experienced my spirit leaving my body and ascending up through the roof. As I ascended up into the sky I remember looking down and seeing myself sleeping in bed beside my wife. The night was clear, the stars shone bright and I could see the most of the town in which we lived. I do not know just how high I went, but there was no sensation of being cold or that there might be something wrong. It was all very peaceful. For whatever reason I suddenly became aware that I was rising higher and higher, and then I became aware that I was descending, I went back down through the roof and my spirit reentered my body. Through the whole experience, I felt no sensation of fear or of pending harm. If this in fact was a dying experience, I know that dying is not something to be feared.

2 One Wednesday night while attending Bible study at our church we were all seating in a circle discussing the Bible and its relationship to man. There was a cricket in the room and it was making itself know by its loud chirping. Some of the women tried to find the cricket so that they could kill it, thus preventing it from making any kind of a mess. I went to the general area where it was, kneeling down I put my hand on the floor with my palm up. The women moved different objects in their search for the cricket and the cricket came out of its hiding place, hopped over to me, hopped up into my hand, and stopped. I closed my hand, took the cricket outside, and let it loose in the grass.

3 While attending the same church I served as an usher, before every service the ushers conducted a devotional and each week a different usher conducted the meeting. On a Saturday, I came down with symptoms of the flue and by Sunday morning, I did not feel like going to church, but I went anyway. During the usher’s devotional, while one of the ushers was praying I began to feel better, the fever left me and by the time, church services were over I was completely well and to this day in 2011, I have never had the flue since. I have been exposed to the flue many, many times over the years and have never come down with it or any symptoms. This healing took place in 1958.

4 The following year I had a very unpleasant encounter with Satan. One day while walking up the stairs to the second floor to tell my wife that I was going with my next-door neighbor (Henry) to see a ship that had grounded in a near-by town. As I climbed the stairs a voice spoke to me and told me to kill, it never said who or how, but to just kill. With the command to kill came an urge to do what Satan had just told me to do. It was almost overwhelming and could not be put aside. The urge to kill kept getting stronger and it took all of the strength that I could muster to keep from killing someone, anyone. It almost overwhelmed me, but I stood fast in the love of God and kept denying Satan. I knew deep within my heart that it was wrong and I kept repeating the truths of God that I knew at the time and in this way, I kept from doing what that voice had told me to do. I knew that it was from Satan and knew that God was more powerful than Satan was and if I could hold fast to the truths of God, then Satan could not have his way with me. This was without a doubt the greatest fight that I would ever be in, a fight for my very soul.

After some weeks, the urge to kill began to subside, it was a constant battle to control and it took over a year before it was to the point that it was not a daily urge. It did however raise its ugly head when least expected, by then I knew that I could control that urge through God and did not hesitate to call upon God for help whenever it tried to raise its ugly head. I did not intend to obey that evil voice, but it certainly was not an easy task to stand up and deny it. I never told my wife or anyone about that experience.

Even today, when I think about that encounter with Satan it gives me chills to think of what would have happened if I had given in to Satan. At the same time, I found out firsthand just how powerful the word of God really is and that He loved me enough to help me through such an experience and I will always be indebted to God for His help.

After going through such an experience, I have an understanding of why some people kill for no apparent reason, but I also know that there is a way out of such a dilemma, and that is through our loving God in heaven.

5 After my first wife divorced me in 1962 to seek her fortune elsewhere she sent our youngest daughter to a private school. Just before Christmas one year, my daughter called me and wanted me to meet her and her mother at the train station just outside of Boston so that she could do some Christmas shopping. I reluctantly agreed to meet them even though I had no desire to do so, just because her mother would be there, I had no desire to see her mother, and the less I had to do with her the better. She had had a son by her new husband and this in itself created a situation that I wanted nothing to do with. I went for the sole reason that my daughter had asked me.

After arriving at the train station, I met my x-wife and we were polite to one another and made small talk without talking about the past. She had brought her young son (about four months old) with her. During our conversation, I went over and looked at the baby as he lay in his carrier. He was a handsome child and as I was looking at him, he just smiled at me and through his smile, he expressed nothing but love. At that very moment, all of the hate, bitterness and animosity that I had held since our breakup just melted away. I could feel a great weight being lifted from my shoulders. At last, I was free from all of the hostility and the feeling of wanting revenge and of hurting her for what she had done to me. We did go Christmas shopping and I enjoyed it. I had received the greatest Christmas gift of all. God had freed me from a situation that could have made me bitter for the rest of my life.

Today my first wife and my present wife and I are best of friends. She is often a guest in our home. We socialize and in general enjoy one another’s company. I tell this to show that through God all things are possible and that when we let go and allow God to work His wonders there is no need for hate, revenge or the worst of circumstances to ruin our lives. God meters out justice in His time and in His way. Out of chaos comes victory if we allow God to work in our lives.

6 A couple of years later I re-married and before the marriage the Lord spoke to me and told me, There will be no children by this marriage. During this eight-year marriage, there were no children. This marriage too ended up in divorce, mostly because I was not fully over my feelings for my first wife. Though I seldom saw her, I still had feelings for her that were never satisfied.

7 before my second divorce I started a relationship with another woman and became very fond of her and would have married her, but she had recently been divorced and was not sure of what she wanted to do. Then one day as we were on our way to lunch, the Lord spoke to me and said, This relationship will not work. Within two weeks, we broke up and went our separate ways.

8 One weekend I visited my parents, I was single at the time and was drinking more than I should have been. I had had quite a bit to drink and my older brother came over and told me that if I wanted to go out drinking that he would go with me. He knew all of my matrimonial problems and was trying to console me. For whatever reason I did not feel like going out, so we just sat around and talked for a while and during that conversation, I expressed the desire to live a more Christ-like life, but did not know how. I realized years later that that moment was my turning point in my relationship with Jesus Christ.

9 I was in the plumbing and heating business at the time and one of the supply houses where I bought most of my plumbing and heating supplies from offered an air conditioning course and it was to be held in Nashville Tenn. I decided to take the course and while in Nashville, I called my x-sister in-law who lived in Jackson Ms. and she invited me down for the following weekend. I declined her invitation, but later in the week I changed my mind, called her back, and told her I would be down to see her and her husband that weekend. Her husband met me at the airport and informed me that his wife had set me up with a blind date for the weekend. My sister in-law informed me that she and her husband had a previous engagement for that Saturday night, but my date would pick me up and later on they would join us for dinner. The next afternoon about six o’clock this car drove in the driveway and a woman knocked at the door. When I opened the door, she introduced herself as Nell Brown and that she was my blind date for the evening. By the time my sister in-law and her husband joined us for dinner Nell and I had discussed our backgrounds and I came to the conclusion that Nell was going to be my next wife. When my sister in-law asked me what I thought of Nell, I replied, If you come to visit me do not be surprised if Nell answered the door. We found out that we both had the same birthday date, though not the same year. Six months later, we were married on our birthday and at this writing, we have been married for thirty-five years. We celebrate our birthdays and anniversary on the same date.

Before Nell and I met, we both had declared that we were through with marriage, mostly because we both had gone through two marriages that did not work and had consoled ourselves to a life without a spouse. I firmly believe that when we gave up on marriage God stepped into the picture and brought us together. At this writing we have been married for thirty-five years and have enjoyed and have no regrets making the decision to try marriage again.

10 I had an alcohol problem for quite a few years and at the time Nell and I lived in New Hampshire where I ran my Plumbing and Heating business. I really did not like the taste of alcohol, but after the first drink, the taste did not make much difference. Every night before going to sleep, I repeated the Lord’s Prayer and asked God to remove alcohol from my life. The alcohol and blood pressure medication that I was taking did not go well together and it was affecting my kidneys to the point where they were hurting most of the time except when I was drinking. The alcohol numbed the pain and this gave me an excuse to keep on drinking. Even so the more I drank the worse the situation was getting and I knew within myself that if I did not give up alcohol it would not be too long before my kidneys failed.

We had the tradition of having a New Year’s party with a big bonfire and as many as sixty or so people would attend. There was no shortage of alcohol. In 1980, we had our last party. Of course, I had too much to drink and went to bed around one to two o’clock in the morning. As usual, I repeated the Lord’s Prayer when I went to bed and sometime during the night, I had a spiritual experience that changed my life and from that moment on, I have never taken a drink of alcohol.

During that night, I had a vision in which I witnessed a bright Light about the size of a basketball way off in the distance. There was nothing but complete darkness and slowly this Light moved ever closer and as it did it grew in size and brilliance