Life and Death...

Death is just a part of life. How many times have you heard someone say that? I have been living a life and death drama for the last couple of days and doing a lot of contemplating about both. Not just physical life and physical death, but spiritual life and spiritual death.

Sunday, my Dad nearly lost his physical life to a heart attack. But the greater tragedy would have been the loss of his eternal soul in spiritual death. After being given a very bad prognosis on Monday concerning blockages in his already very old heart grafts from a 14 year old by-pass, my Dad was told he had 3 options to save his physical life, none of which were good. What I had the blessing to share with him on Tuesday morning was that he had 1 option to save his spiritual life, and that it was greater than anything that could be imagined.

I had gone through the plan of salvation with my Dad 7 years ago. He had prayed to received Christ then, but there was very little fruit over the years. He would say he was saved, but always seemed scared when facing death (he has had some very serious health problems and surgeries over the last 7 years). It was always troubling to me that I could not be 100% sure that my Dad was saved! I would talk to him about it often, but I still had a sense he was just saying what he knew I wanted to hear. I wasn't sure that what he had in his head and fully transferred into his heart. That is a scary thing, when someone you love so dearly, who is in such precarious health, is possibly heading for an eternity in hell.

Knowing how many times I had spoken to my Dad, and being fearful that I was just not getting through to him, I asked that a Pastor friend of our church from Bay Minette come to visit Dad. I thought, maybe if a Pastor would talk to him, he would really get it. I had told my Dad he was coming and I said I thought it just might be a blessing to Dad to talk to him. Dad asked why we needed a Pastor to talk to him, he wanted ME to talk to him. I asked him if he wanted me to go through the plan of salvation with him...just to be sure. That if he had even the smallest doubt, this was no time to be messing around. He said, yes, he wanted me to. I tried to get it in Monday night, but people were coming and going and by 7:30 he had fallen asleep with just short periods awake, so I knew it would have to wait until the next morning, which made me nervous because of his heart.

But he was waiting for me the next morning. He had been told that they were proceeding with what they thought was the least risky of his 3 options, that was to stint the blocked arteries. His chances for complications was high and if complications arose, he would be very sick very fast is what we were told. We were waiting for the call for him to be moved to the other hospital for the procedure. My Mom, my sister and I were in the room with him. I told him I wanted to go over the scripture with him. He asked when did I want to do it. I told him I was ready whenever he was and he said OK let's do it. I was able to share the gospel with my Dad. I took him through the Roman's road. I hardly even remember what I said. I know he asked me some good questions and was concentrating very hard on what I was saying. I asked him if he wanted to pray to received Christ and he said he did. He was crying so hard for a few moments that he couldn't speak, but then he followed me in the sinner's prayer. What a moment for my family. My Mom and sister were weeping. We all hugged and cried. I reminded Dad that his greatest fear, not getting to see any of us again was now an empty fear, and that we would be together for eternity and that, if anything were to happen, we wouldn't be far behind him.

It opened up the door for us to talk about Spiritual things and about heaven. I reminded Dad that in heaven he would be whole again. My Dad was crippled in a horrible accident when he was only 30 years old. He said his greatest regret was no longer being able to run. He would describe how he liked nothing better than to stretch out and run as hard as he possibly could. That when he was in the Air Force, rather than ride back to the barracks a couple of miles away, he would run. I reminded him that he would be able to run across the fields of heaven.

Well, the stints were put in and my Dad came through beautifully, thanks to the mercy and grace of God. He woke up, looked around at us, and just kept saying, "Oh, thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord." My sister stayed the night with him and she said he repeated it all night long. And I was, too.

I think Pastor Amsbaugh said your Dad gave you physical life and you gave him spiritual life. What a tremendous gift and blessing! My Dad had 2 radical heart procedures in 1 day! He had 2 stints miraculously placed into his weak physical heart...but more importantly, he has a new spiritual heart...transplanted by the Master Physician!