Notice the one video in the mist of all the melted videos that was not harmed by the fire. It is a Willie George Ministries Gospel Bill video we bought for our children when they were very young. God still works miracles today!
On April 10th, 2008, I was awakened by a “pop” about 4a.m. It was not a loud sound, but it was enough that I sat straight up in bed. I saw a flickering light down the hall toward the kitchen. I got out of bed and peered down the hall. I could see smoke on the ceiling of the kitchen. I yelled at my wife to wake up because the house was on fire. I ran to the kitchen to see flames coming up from behind our propane stove. The flames went up to the ceiling and was half way across the room. There was no way to get to safety through the kitchen. I turned to run back to the bedroom when I was overtaken by the thick smoke. I could not breath nor could I see a thing. I got down close to the floor hoping to find some fresh air and hit my head on something that caused me to become completely disoriented. I managed to get back to the bedroom and tried to get out the back door, which still had several layers of plastic over the outside from winter to keep the cold out. It was very secure because I was unable to punch through it. I felt myself going faint, so I gave one last effort to get through the plastic by throwing my whole body at the plastic. I bounced back and landed on the bed. All of a sudden I was with the Lord and before I could say a word He said “You have to go back!” The next thing I knew I was back in my body and breathing moist, cool air. Somehow, my wife had made a slash in the plastic, raised me off the bed, and stuck my head out of the plastic. I dove through the plastic, reached through the plastic, and pulled my wife to safety. My wife made the slash in the plastic with a box knife that she uses at her job at Wal-Mart. She has no idea how she came to have the knife. It seemed to just appear in her hand. I ran to my mothers house and called the fire department. Just minutes later, our bedroom was engulfed in flames.
The firefighters arrived along with the E.M.T.’s. They had my wife, my son{ who had tried to put out the fire}, and myself get into the ambulance to check us out. We had to breath into a machine to see how much carbon monoxide we had breathed in. My wife and I set a new record for the amount in our lungs. The medics could not figure out why we were even standing, let alone still alive. They said we should not have survived the fire. People usually die when their machine reads 16 to 20. My wife had a reading of 33 and I had a reading of 32. What really baffled the medics was that no carbon monoxide was getting into our system. It was in our lungs, but not our bloodstream! There was no dizziness nor headache that usually accompanies carbon monoxide poisoning.
Now comes some more amazing things about the fire. The house was a total loss, including the contents. That is, except for a few items. In the living room, I had built a video cabinet from the floor to the ceiling. I took a picture of the cabinet after the fire to show what it looked like. All of the videos were black and melted together. Right in the middle of this burnt mess was a video that was not burnt nor did it have any smoke damage. It was a Gospel Bill tape we had bought our children when they were young. This Christian tape survived! Also, the bottom row was all Christian tapes and they survived!
Our computer was a glob of melted plastic and metal fused together from the heat. One of my sons saw that the hard drive looked in tact. We took it to a computer repair shop to find that all the information was retrievable. It had all of my Christian material, including my books, recorded on it! It also had our children and their families photos on it!
One of my sons was sifting through what was left of our bedroom, which was the floor and ashes, to find a picture album of my next to youngest son totally in tact. It was under the burnt ashes! All of our children’s picture albums survived!
The cause of the fire was a lightning strike that hit the propane line going into the stove. When it was ignited, it became a blow torch and there was no stopping it!
What did we learn from this experience? The first thing is that the Lord was in control of the situation all the time. He still has His Hand on the both of us and protected us through the fire. We should have died! I should not have awakened to a low “pop” in the first place. How did my wife find her knife in the midst of thick smoke? Did an angel place it in her hand? How could we have a deadly amount of carbon monoxide in our lungs and survive with no ill effects? How did one Christian tape among 400 tapes survive without even any smoke damage. How can the hard drive with Christian material survive when the rest of the computer was a pile of melted plastic and metal? How did the irreplaceable photo albums survive when everything else burnt up? The answer to all of these questions is that the Lord is not through with us yet! We have not fulfilled our purpose that the Lord has for us! I was sent back for some Holy purpose. I remember that I did not want to come back! I was only with the Lord for a few seconds before He sent me back. One day soon I will know the reason! I want to let you know that death is nothing to be feared. If you belong to the Lord, there is no pain and you are automatically with the Lord at the moment of death. This may sound strange, but I look forward to the day that my mission is fulfilled and that I can go to be with the Lord for eternity.
There is also a message to all that reads this story! You could go to sleep one night and never see the light of day on this earth again. You could be on your way to work one day and a drunk driver hit you head on and you could die in an instant! You never know when death will reach out to grab you. Knowing this, you need to live your life like this is the last day on earth. You need to repair breaches in your family. You need to show your family that you truly love them and appreciate them dearly. Put away anger and strife towards others. Put on love and compassion to all you come in contact with . Do you want to be remembered as a grumpy, angry person or as a kind, gentle, and loving person that was always there to help others? You never know when you may go through the fire!
Are you a child of God? If not, you can be today! Ask Jesus to come into your heart! Believe that He is the only begotton Son of God and that He went to the Cross for the sins of all mankind in which we can receive forgiveness through Him. He took upon Himself all of our sins so that we may have a chance to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. He shed His Blood and died so that we may live eternally with Him. He rose on the third day and is now at the Throne in Heaven. He will soon return to receive all who have believed on Him and they will be with Him forever.
Trust me! Where you are going is a much better place than where you are! We are not of this world; we are just passing through! Live in such a way that will bring honor to our Lord. I know that in this day and age that this is difficult to do.
May God Bless you and have a glorious day in the Lord!
Mike