Showing posts with label Ron Post. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ron Post. Show all posts

Saturday, December 29, 2007

My Heritage as a Preacher






I have been doing some research, started by my father's research into family history.
On the Post side we have a family tree completely intact back to the 16th century Holland.
Along that way one of my great grandfathers was Lazarus Lawson. He was a country preacher in Tennessee who would move to an area, start working somewhere and at the same time would start a church. Then when enough people were in that church and he felt God's calling he would move and start over again.
One of the person's converted at Lawson's meetings was a Dr. Ashley S. Johnson who later founded Johnson College a Christian School in Tenn. Here is that story:



Ashley Sidney Johnson was a student in the Law College of the University of Tennessee. A minister by the name of Lawson was holding a meeting in the school house at Gap Creek not far from where the College is now located. One night during this meeting it was raining and the roads were muddy as only the roads in Tennessee could be in those days. There were only 3 men at the service. Dr. Johnson's father who was a Christian and Ashley Sidney and another man, neither of whom were Christians. Brother Lawson preached and gave the invitation and both the men who were not Christians, accepted Christ. The date was October 13, 1877 and the invitation hymn was "Am I a Soldier of the Cross?" Dr. Johnson forgot law school and gave himself unconditionally and without reserve to the cause of Christ. On the following day, October 14, 1877, he was baptized by John Adcock in the French Broad River. The following Saturday he was asked by Dr. Lawson to preach. On this occasion he proclaimed the truth for the first time. He had never publicly prayed but his efforts were well received. There in that little country church at Thorn Grove, Tennessee, Ashley S. Johnson launched out upon his campaign of winning persons and renewing minds for Christ.



This story was told by a man in the area and I copied it from a book we have. So, in doing this background we found that Lazarus Lawson was part of God's plan to save Dr. Johnson and bring about one of the great revivals of the 19th century. Lawson preached all over Tennessee in thos days and many were saved.



The picture above is of his family. I have one portrait of him but don't have a scanner so will have to include that another time.




My family has a rich Christian heritage, yet down through the years, the Posts pretty much walked away from that heritage. The picture above is of William T. Post my great grandfather and his wife Cora.




This is my grandpa William B. Post at his graduation in 1927. Grandpa was one of my heros in life. He passed away in 1998. He did have a problem though. For most of his life his treasure was money. He taught that to his sons and they taught that to their sons. Money was the most important thing a man could have.






This is my favorite picture of Grandpa. He is driving a horse drawn grader. He worked very very hard for his money. He made it through the Depression, and more. The good news is, at the end of his life he accepted Christ and he is in Heaven now.



Out of his 5 sons, only 1 lives for Christ now and that is my Dad. The others have had times when they have looked to God for help, but none really accepted Him fully. At least as far as I know.



There is William R. Post and William R.K. Post. Both of these William Post's are living for Christ and I believe this is in part due to the rich Christian heritage we have. Yet, I want to point out that my grandpa thought he was a Christian, just because of that heritage. This is how easily we can be deceived. Heritage is great, but we are ALL responsible to God on our own! I am sort of rambling and not really trying to make a point but next time you see this ol' boy Bill trying to preach, just know that it is in my blood!


I miss my Grandpa and Grandma, but will see them soon, praise be to God!!



Sunday, November 25, 2007

November 25, 1960....a day that will live in infamy!










It was 47 years ago today, Billy Post he did learn to play!



Ok, so I stole from the Beatles. Here is one interesting note: John John, John F. Kennedy Jr. was also born on Nov. 25, 1960 and 3 years later when we both turned 3, his father was buried in the biggest funeral on earth. I vaguely remember everyone being very sad on MY birthday.
I remember seeing the famous image of little John John saluting his father's casket as it rolled by and many years later felt a bond with him for some reason. Anyway......



Yep, today is my 47th birthday. I remember when I turned 30 I got calls from old "friends" who checked to see if I had really lived that long. There was a time when 30 seemed pretty unreachable. 40 would have been nuts and now I am looking 50 straight in the face more healthy, happy and excited to be alive then any of those other dates.



I have three people to thank:


1. My Mom. She was a young, naive, lonely little teenager with her first baby, living in the middle of the desert with no one around to help her much as her new husband was off to work long hours in the Air Force everyday. Somehow she did it and she did just great!






2. My Dad. He was also a very young person when I came along, and he worked very hard to raise me and my sisters, but he always had sound advice and left me with many character traits that, as I have gotten older, they have served me well.






3. My Wife. Colleen saved me from the dredges of life with her beautiful blue eyes and her rarely shown :) smile! She puts up with SOOOO much! I love her dearly.






Mostly I thank God for being so patient as to wait for me to come to Him when I did. He has made a great change in my life and I will no longer be the same.






Thank you also to my son Kai for aging me daily. No really, he is a special kid who will someday be much greater, smarter and better than I could ever be.






I also want to thank Dr. Butler for the many, many hours, days, years of counseling I have received from him. He and his wife, son and daughter have been a great help to me in many ways.