With Thanksgiving right around the corner, I wanted to share a testimony that is priceless to me. I have shared this story with many people and I look forward to sharing it with several others when the opportunity arises.
It all began on Valentines Day, February 14, 2004. I was a Freshman in college attending at the time North Greenville College, which would become North Greenville University a few years later. I got a call from my father with very depressing news. My grandmother had passed away. I mean, who would want to lose a loved one on such a day as Valentines Day! I have never made Valentines Day a big deal because, well, I have never really had a serious relationship with a girl. But, losing my grandmother on such a day was very tragic and hard to deal with. I was very thankful to have my older brother and close friends that attended the college to surround me in such a time of hardship! This was only the beginning of what would proceed to be an incredible testimony of God's faithfulness and overwhelming grace!
Me and my brother left for Kentucky the very next day on Friday for the funeral. On the way in, we stopped by my parents house in Tennessee to pick up one of their cell phones to call and let them know that we were safely on our way. After stopping at our parent's house, 10 minutes later my brother called my father's cell phone and Brent, my father's brother answered. Jason asked Brent for my father and Brent then told him that everything was okay and that our father, mother, two brothers and grandfather were all in the hospital. Not exactly the type of news you want to hear on your way to attend your grandmother's funeral. It turned out that my grandparents house was filled with carbon monoxide, while my family was asleep in the house. My grandparents owned an old furnace, that apparently had a leak and filled the house with carbon monoxide! My Father, Mother, two twin brothers and grandfather all slept in a dangerous gas all night long! Carbon Monoxide has claimed thousands of lives! Now the very event that happened within the time my family found themselves asleep amidst this killing machine called carbon monoxide, God performed an incredible miracle! This is stuff that can only be of a mighty and Loving God!
This particular grandmother was my father's mother. While my family slept amidst this poison, my mom's mother had a vivid dream that same night! She dreamed that my mother walked into her house with a brown grocery bag. She asked my mother to be careful with the bag and gently lay it on the counter because there were eggs in the bag and if the eggs were rotten, then it would release an awful smell! Well... my mother missed the counter and dropped the bag on the ground and sure enough the eggs were rotten. Right after the dream my grandmother awoke with an incredible burden on her heart for my mother and the rest of the family! She proceeded to get up and frantically paced the floors of her house while praying vigorously for them!
Now.... taking you back to my family at the house consumed with poisonous gas, something my mother told me send jolts of chills through my body! During that night my mother woke up with a migraine. Now its not the migraine in itself that would give me chills but the very fact that she claimed that she smelled bad eggs when she woke up! I would also like to add that carbon monoxide does not have a distinct smell and thus the reason it has claimed so many lives! My mother proceeded to the rest room to douce her face into some cold water and find a way to decrease the pain of her migraine. Right after she entered the bathroom, one of my brothers walked in and claimed that he had an immense headache! My mother placed a cold wet rag on his head and sent him back to bed. As my mother left the bathroom, she then claimed that she felt like something grabbed her and put her against the wall just hard enough to wake my father. She claims it was an angel! And I believe her! My father then went into the hallway finding my mom's eyes rolling back and forth in her head. After my mom finally came to, my father contacted the neighbors and then were helped to the hospital.
The doctors were completely stunned that my family survived such a deadly substance. The carbon monoxide consumed 17 % and higher in each of their bodies! When my older brother and I arrived to the hospital, seeing my family all hooked up to gas masks and being treated for the poison that consumed their bodies, I couldn't help but weep because of the saving hand of my Savior! I also found out that my brother, Kyle, after the event, realized that he was not authentic in his surrender to Christ and went before the church proclaiming his repentance and faith in The Lord, Jesus Christ! Knowing that my brother would have spent eternity in Hell if he weren't to survive that tragedy brought me to even more tears, because God saved him from much more than a separation from his fleshly body but also an eternal separation from God! I cannot get over that!
I am so thankful to have my family alive and with me today! The whole experience was a reminder and eye-opening revelation of God's incredible Grace in our lives! Just as He guarded my family from assured death, God saves us from eternal death! I pray that if anyone makes their way to this blog and doesn't know the Lord; that they are deeply touched by this testimony! It's an incredible reminder and reality of our state without Christ! Without Christ, SIN, just like that carbon monoxide is killing us and we are on our way to certain destruction (death)! But its much worse than leaving our fleshly state! Its a spiritual death, that leads to an eternal state, separated from God! But there is Good News! God sent His son, Jesus, to die in our place, so that we might not spend eternity, separated from Him! If we confess with our mouth, that Jesus is Lord, believe in our hearts that Jesus died for our sins and rose from the grave, conquering death and repent of our sins. We will then be saved! I pray that it would be true in your life if you have not done so!
His Grace Still Amazes Me,
Twiga
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