Before we get to the rest of the story…let’s review what this blog is about. (My heart attacked was December 3, 2009. I began writing in June, 2010)
This is an account of a 56 year old man having a fatal heart attack.
It chronicles him living, working, then dying...talking to Jesus in heaven’s waiting room, then waking up in the CCU of a downtown Atlanta hospital. He realized he acted stupidly not taking his symptoms seriously. He was a believer in Christ. That should count for something. He loved his family and his God, but it happened anyway.
He is alive on earth today because people prayed, God heard, and apparently God determined that to not restore the departed (in this case, me) would cause some to doubt the power of prayer, the love of God and even to question the very existence of the Almighty. Also, by restoring the man to earth, it was determined he probably wouldn’t hurt anything back there too much and heaven could continue on normally for awhile longer without the saints getting upset about God’s grace being so tremendous it could even make room for a fellow like this.
Later, we will discuss heaven, hell and purgatory. We will also discuss Lazarus, Dorcas (also known as Tabitha), the widow’s son from Nain, and Jairus’ daughter. These are all New Testament cases recording death and coming back to life. We will also discuss the experiences of a few present day folk who, like me, died and somehow made it back to the land of the living. All in due time.
For now, let me make it clear I am not an expert on any of the above. I’m not even an expert on my own experience. It is just my experience.
If you want to know about life and death, heaven and hell, God and Jesus, I suggest you read the Bible. I am more convinced the Bible is faithful than I am my own experience. But I am convinced my experience is valid. It is faithful, it is legitimate, it is true. I believe it is Biblical, but I have to read some passages in a new way, looking through lenses I didn’t wear before. Let me say it this way: I believe the Bible, I believe my experience, and I believe the two are compatible. You can make your own determination. In fact, I hope some will point out any flaws, if they exist, so they can be corrected if possible. I know several folk who have the gift of flaw finding, so I’m sure we will have numerous revisions.
When in doubt, believe the Bible. John Wesley preached what he called the "quadrilateral". Four things. When seeking truth, he said, ask four things.
Is it scriptural? What does the Bible say? If the Bible clearly speaks to the subject, the matter is done.
If you are not sure, you can then inquire what tradition teaches. What did the church fathers believe on this subject? What is the tradition of the Church?
If still not certain, you can ask, “What is reasonable? God is logical, reasonable, and therefore so is truth. Does it appear reasonable that this would be so?
Last, you can ask, if still not sure, “What is my experience?” A person’s experience is very powerful, but as you notice, Wesley places it last in the sequence.
A wise thing, because we can sometimes become overly involved in ourselves and not see the bigger picture. Some of us are even prone to exaggeration, lack of vocabulary, or hastiness in describing our experience. We don’t mean to lie or mislead, but we somehow forget to say the truth in a way others can understand.
For further study, I suggest you obtain the Bible of a really good Christian, the kind that already has the good parts underlined and highlighted. Young people today like to buy used worn out blue jeans. They should also buy used Bibles. Perhaps find a concordance, either Cruden’s or Strong’s. A concordance is a book that has every word in the Bible listed alphabetically, so if you want to look up “Dorcas”, you just thumb to the D’s and there it is. It tells you she lives in Acts 9:32-43.
Even if you don’t find exactly what you are looking for, you will discover reading and studying the Bible won’t hurt you. For example, in looking up Lazarus (lay-Lebanon), I found there was another Lazarus in the New Testament besides the one Jesus brought back from the dead by saying, “Lazarus arise”. Why don’t you read his story? He knew something about death, too. One is in Luke 16 and the other in John 11, the third and fourth books of the New Testament respectively.
I also found there were several pages, hundreds of references maybe thousands, related to the word “law”.
I found this, looking for Lazarus. It goes on and on and on. Very interesting. Because when Jesus took time for me December 3, 2009, “law” was a word I never even thought about. The first word that came to mind was “grace”.
Because of grace, I won't be fearing death. And now, the rest of the story...
This is an account of a 56 year old man having a fatal heart attack.
It chronicles him living, working, then dying...talking to Jesus in heaven’s waiting room, then waking up in the CCU of a downtown Atlanta hospital. He realized he acted stupidly not taking his symptoms seriously. He was a believer in Christ. That should count for something. He loved his family and his God, but it happened anyway.
He is alive on earth today because people prayed, God heard, and apparently God determined that to not restore the departed (in this case, me) would cause some to doubt the power of prayer, the love of God and even to question the very existence of the Almighty. Also, by restoring the man to earth, it was determined he probably wouldn’t hurt anything back there too much and heaven could continue on normally for awhile longer without the saints getting upset about God’s grace being so tremendous it could even make room for a fellow like this.
Later, we will discuss heaven, hell and purgatory. We will also discuss Lazarus, Dorcas (also known as Tabitha), the widow’s son from Nain, and Jairus’ daughter. These are all New Testament cases recording death and coming back to life. We will also discuss the experiences of a few present day folk who, like me, died and somehow made it back to the land of the living. All in due time.
For now, let me make it clear I am not an expert on any of the above. I’m not even an expert on my own experience. It is just my experience.
If you want to know about life and death, heaven and hell, God and Jesus, I suggest you read the Bible. I am more convinced the Bible is faithful than I am my own experience. But I am convinced my experience is valid. It is faithful, it is legitimate, it is true. I believe it is Biblical, but I have to read some passages in a new way, looking through lenses I didn’t wear before. Let me say it this way: I believe the Bible, I believe my experience, and I believe the two are compatible. You can make your own determination. In fact, I hope some will point out any flaws, if they exist, so they can be corrected if possible. I know several folk who have the gift of flaw finding, so I’m sure we will have numerous revisions.
When in doubt, believe the Bible. John Wesley preached what he called the "quadrilateral". Four things. When seeking truth, he said, ask four things.
Is it scriptural? What does the Bible say? If the Bible clearly speaks to the subject, the matter is done.
If you are not sure, you can then inquire what tradition teaches. What did the church fathers believe on this subject? What is the tradition of the Church?
If still not certain, you can ask, “What is reasonable? God is logical, reasonable, and therefore so is truth. Does it appear reasonable that this would be so?
Last, you can ask, if still not sure, “What is my experience?” A person’s experience is very powerful, but as you notice, Wesley places it last in the sequence.
A wise thing, because we can sometimes become overly involved in ourselves and not see the bigger picture. Some of us are even prone to exaggeration, lack of vocabulary, or hastiness in describing our experience. We don’t mean to lie or mislead, but we somehow forget to say the truth in a way others can understand.
For further study, I suggest you obtain the Bible of a really good Christian, the kind that already has the good parts underlined and highlighted. Young people today like to buy used worn out blue jeans. They should also buy used Bibles. Perhaps find a concordance, either Cruden’s or Strong’s. A concordance is a book that has every word in the Bible listed alphabetically, so if you want to look up “Dorcas”, you just thumb to the D’s and there it is. It tells you she lives in Acts 9:32-43.
Even if you don’t find exactly what you are looking for, you will discover reading and studying the Bible won’t hurt you. For example, in looking up Lazarus (lay-Lebanon), I found there was another Lazarus in the New Testament besides the one Jesus brought back from the dead by saying, “Lazarus arise”. Why don’t you read his story? He knew something about death, too. One is in Luke 16 and the other in John 11, the third and fourth books of the New Testament respectively.
I also found there were several pages, hundreds of references maybe thousands, related to the word “law”.
I found this, looking for Lazarus. It goes on and on and on. Very interesting. Because when Jesus took time for me December 3, 2009, “law” was a word I never even thought about. The first word that came to mind was “grace”.
Because of grace, I won't be fearing death. And now, the rest of the story...
I eagerly await 'the rest of the story'! I'm glad you're still here to share your story with others for Jesus' sake!!
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