14.316 The cost of lawyers, my redirected time from the business, hired help, machining and parts has been quite expensive, driving the business close to bankruptcy on a few occasions. On one of those occasions I was sitting at my desk looking at a letter from our patent lawyers advising that the next bill from the European legal associates would be in the $28,000.00 range. The overdraft on the account could not stand such a bill at that point and the company was at a very low point financially. With almost no reasonable place to go, I prayed to Jesus stating that I knew He did not like divorces, but the cheque to the lawyers’ had to be written from the line of credit on our house and my wife, Susan, would not likely tolerate that. Susan was working on the books in the other room at the time and as soon as I committed to paying the bill, via our house line of credit, Susan called out “Why did you not enter this money into the account?” I went to see what she was talking about. I had gone to the bank on four different occasions in the previous months and deposited money without recording it in our books. The amount was about $28,000.00. At another point, one month after my wife, Susan, died from cancer, the business was in the worst financial condition it had seen in over thirty-six years of business. The overdraft was as deep as it could go and the accounts receivable were at an all time low. I went to the super mail box, hoping for some early paid cheque. On opening the box nothing was there. I was done. Turning to go back to my van I smiled and looked up saying “Well Jesus, you’re the accountant now.” I had not walked two steps when the cell phone rang. Fred, one of the men who works with us, called informing me that a client’s accounting department had given him a cheque to take to the office. It was for about $47,000.00. This completely relieved the financial pressure of the moment. Fred had been with us about twenty years at that point and that was the first time that any client, had given him a cheque to take to the office. Respecting a statement from Jesus, John 15:5 (King James Bible), "I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.”, I know clearly that my personal abilities could produce nothing of what has been achieved through my hands if God did not provide the required wisdom, protection and guidance. SOME OTHER FAITH BUILDERS IN MY LIFE -1- At about eleven years old I sat beside a beaver meadow with the barrel of a shotgun to the roof of my mouth. As my finger touched the trigger a man’s voice shouted “Do not shoot, there is a job you have to do.” I jumped up and circled the tree I was leaning against to see who was talking to me, but there was no person. -2- We took our middle daughter to have her baby picture taken at Sears. The photographer took the baby and put her on the table. He turned his back on her and started walking back to his camera. The baby fell off the table and was falling head first to the floor. From behind the camera position, I ran past the photographer to catch her. My mind moved into slow motion and in terror I realized I was not going to get to her. I cried out in my mind “Jesus, please get me to my baby girl.” Instantly I was diving with the clear understanding that my right hand had to grasp both of her legs together and my left hand had to go between her head and the floor to cushion her head and compress her body, so I would not break her neck with the sudden stop. She fell about forty inches. Jesus caused me to accelerate approximately three times the acceleration rate of the earth's gravitational pull with a zero reaction time. My tested reaction time is the human average of .25 seconds. She would have been almost at the floor before I normally would have reacted. JESUS saved our daughter.
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