Danieltwotwenty wrote:I just have one question for you B.W., why when God had made his judgement did you get a second chance or was it a vision of what would happen if you didnt take the road less travelled?
Not trying to be offensive just curious as to what you make of it in terms of second chances.
Daniel
I do not mind your question at all. For an answer as to why, still ask myself that. There is a chapter in the book that editors recommended loping out. It is under the original copyright still. The chapter described how I when I was a little tike, BAC (Before Air Conditioning), my parents attended their home Southern Baptist Church during a revival meeting.
It was hot, people fanning themselves. I was noisily playing with toys on the hard wooden pews wearing a stuffy little toddler suit/tie outfit. The topic must have been baptism because that is what I remember. To a little kid, wearing a stuffy outfit on a hot evening in Virginia, the description of the baptismal was one of water – cool water. That meant a pool to me and swimming!
I do recall daydreaming of diving into the pool, head first, and began telling my mother I wanted to be baptized. Like most mothers, she divined my motives well and said, such was not for swimming but only after you accept Christ and really meant changing your life. I recall she said something like that as it always has stuck with me. I said, yes, as a tike thought ‘swimming’, ‘cool waters’, and ‘dive right in.’ So in my own kid way of reasoning, if accepting Christ meant being able to swim and get out of an itchy woolen suit, amen – was ready to change my life ma.
I still remember snippets of thinking this on that specific night. Both my mother and father said no, as that was a grown-up bath, maybe later and we went home. That event always remains in my memory and verified by my parents because I was so little (4 years old). It was one of my very first memories. My first was a snippet of a late 2 year old with my dad teaching me not to be afraid of the water. May dad loved to swim and he taught me from an early age to love the water as he did. Have a black and white photo of that but I recall the colors!
So, maybe, when I was that little 4 year old, in my dumb kid way, I accepted Jesus into my life albeit for the wrong reasons no less and that is why I was granted a second chance after falling away totally from the Lord as I later grew up starting around 10 years old on till I was 22 at the time of the NDE. I also had neighbors, parents, relatives, acquaintances, pastors, seminary students all praying for me as well. I was their pet project for conversion. So maybe it was the power of prayer.
Fact is, if you look at it, in a way, we all are granted a second chance. Humanity, born into sin has no chance but with Christ we all have that same second chance. Mine was a bit more dramatic than the norm and only the Lord really knows why. I wonder about this to this day but thank him for being secure in him now and forever.
Yes, I eventually did get water baptized 1981 in a Southern Baptist Church in Fort Collins, Colorado. The pastor gave me whole story of why one does. I didn’t care about any of the doctrine. I just wanted to change my life because I remembered what my mother said to me all those many years ago: meant for changing ones life. Out of the group that were baptized that day, I came out the water happy, felt cleanest I ever felt, chattering away. The others wondered what was wrong with me – guess they just got wet…
-
-
-