The Husband was not raised in a family that went to church together. His mother was Catholic and faithfully attended mass but it was in Latin and not inviting to a young boy. His dad was a member in the Lutheran church but The Husband did not attend church with him.
There was a large family Bible on display in their home and from a young age, The Husband remembers wanting to read that Bible. The Bible was written in King James and hard to understand so this desire to understand the Bible didn't get met. The hunger to know about God is a strong memory from his childhood.
As a funeral director, The Husband attended many funerals in different churches. Pastors and priests rode in the car with him as they drove to cemeteries. This was often the time the clergy would share their faith with The Husband. The gospel of Jesus laying down His life for the freedom of our sins was explained to The Husband for the first time in a funeral car. But it didn't make sense at the time.
Thirty-one years ago on Good Friday The Husband had a surgery that would change his life. Prior to the surgery, a central line IV line was placed in his chest for the multiple bags of IV fluids that would be needed pre- and post-surgery. The surgery went fine. The Friday after Easter, The Husband started coughing and was having trouble breathing. He rapidly went downhill and a code 45 was called with someone bagging him for air into his lungs. Quickly he was brought into ICU and placed on a ventilator. That was Friday.
Tests were run to determine what was going on in The Husband's body with nothing conclusive showing up. By Sunday morning The Husband was in kidney failure. X-rays of his chest showed his right lung to be the size of a thumb tip. His body was shutting down. He was alert but unable to communicate. He heard the doctors tell his parents that he was probably going to die and they should call in a priest.
Bargaining with God is not uncommon in the face of death. And that is what The Husband did. Lying in ICU knowing his body was dying he asked God to rescue him and in return, he would give his life back to God and live for Him the rest of his life.
Within minutes of that plea, a doctor came into the ICU and literally jammed a chest tube in between The Husband's ribs (without any anesthesia). Liters and liters of fluid started spraying from the hole in his side. Once all that fluid was emptied from his chest, his lung filled up and he was able to breath on his own. It turns out that the IV line poked through the wall of vein and every bag of IV fluid hung was drowning The Husband. He completely recovered from this near death experience.
Friday started his death watch. Sunday was his resurrection. God rescued him and The Husband kept his word also...he has turned his life over to God for thirty-one years.
And do you realize that God offers the same thing for you? His Son, Jesus, offered up Himself out of love on Good Friday. Not just for a death watch but for death and being sent to hell. Hell is eternal separation from God. On Sunday, three days after death, Jesus conquered Satan and ascended out of hell into heaven. He paid the price that each and every one of us should be paying. He bought a Salvation Ticket for each person.
Once The Husband accepted the free gift of salvation, that hunger for God he'd had as a young boy was filled. And as he reads his Bible now, he understands it.
The Husband had his Good Friday experience the week after the traditional one. I would like ask you on this Good Friday, to consider taking the rescue, the Salvation Ticket that God has to offer you.
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