DEATH

 Praise the LORD!!!

    Unlike many, I don't fear death, or even have questions about it. For I've been there. This was in the late fifties, when I was just over four years old. I don't remember any of the most popular themes of that which people describe as 'near death experiences.' You are most likely familiar with them, they seem to gain popularity every couple of years. The 'bright light,'  the 'tunnel,' even being in 'heaven' itself' or in the very presence of GOD HIMself. None of these are my witness of it.

   Let me start at the beginning of this event, to give you all the details, those that I remember in very vivid detail, almost as if it had happen just yesterday :))) My sister and I had gone up to a friends house, about a block away. While we were playing, we saw this wild kitten run out from behind a pile of stored items in their backyard and ran into the woods behind the house. Now you know children and their love for animals, so you can guess what happened next. We took off for the woods after the kitten, my sister in the lead, followed by a bunch of three to five year old boys. Being the era that it was, there were piles of trash that had been pushed out of sight, when the development was built. We made our way thru these after the kitten. Being it was summertime, all I had on was a pair of shorts and some flip-flops.

   As we ran after this kitten, we had to weave our way around all kinds of things, one of them an old tire. With my being in bad health(details in my book) I decide to step on this instead of jumping over it as everyone else had done. When I did, the inner ring of it collapsed under my weight, letting my left foot slide down onto the spear point of a broken bottle. It went into the arch of my foot, slicing almost all the way thru to the other side. When I pulled up on it, the bottle came out and my screaming began. My sister turned around, ran back to me, grabbed me up and began to run back to our friends house. Needless to say, blood was spewing everywhere, this had basically almost sliced my foot in half. Severing all the arteries, veins and muscles. Our neighbor did her best to stop the bleeding, while my sister ran to our house and got our mom and the car. In the short time that it took for this to happen, the bath towel that was first used to wrap my foot was soaked thru and thru, so they wrapped another one around it and sped off towards the hospital. This, was around ten miles away and though a fairly direct route, took a good bit of time, even at the speeds a panicking mother was driving. Truthfully, I think I'd already bleed out, because the last that I consciously remember, is being put into the backseat with my sister.

   Though my body was life-less, I was there, I guess you could say 'in spirit.' I remember being snatched up by my mother and her beginning to run to the entrance, when she was intercepted by hospital staff. They placed me on a gurney and wheeled me into the ER. By this time all the bleeding had stopped, we've only so much to lose, but they listened to my mom's frantic cries to save me at all cost. They strapped me to the table, connected IV's and began cleaning the wound. As soon as they could clamp off all the arteries they began pumping fresh blood into me. Thru this whole event, I will have gone thru enough blood for three and a half adults. This into a child that may of been fifty pounds, soak and wet, remember I'd been sick since birth and wasn't the typical four year old boy in size.

   As all this was happening, I was(without a body) above the door to the ER. I remember there was no fear of what was happening, to tell the truth, I was at peace, almost joyous, just watching with interest what was happening. I can recall all the people, as far as body type, but no faces. I recall at one point, when there seemed to be a 'separation,' as if I was there watching the events on the table and at another place at the same time(spirit and soul???) Today, I can see this as the 'triune' body, body, soul and spirit, the exact forms of GOD, created in the human form !!!(Genesis 1:26) I don't remember what took place at this time for the part that wasn't there, but do remember that which was happening on the table. The doctors were beginning to finish knitting my foot together and were preparing to close things up. As one of them was giving me another shot of Novocaine to numb the area, I came up off the table. That which was outside the body, was now joined together with it, yet not completely, for the part that had gone to another place, was now the one watching these events. All four of the leather straps that had been holding my body on the table, were broken and I backhanded one of the nurses. Sending her back into a medicine cabinet, busting it's glass front panels. It was at this moment that my whole being came together, all within my body. I wasn't fighting them or even moving, but allowed them to finish their work. Now you may think they'd of kept me for a period of observation, to make sure everything had gone properly, but within an hour or so, we were headed home. The floorboards of the backseat, full of blood soaked bath towels and me with but a sown up and bandaged foot.(far from what you'd expect these days:))) )

   Like a number of my writings, this has gone another way from intended, but as with all, go the way GOD has intended !!!

   At the end of September '07,' I was in contact with my sister in Florida, while living in Ocean Springs, MS. My mom's health was in very bad condition, they'd been taking care of her since '02' after my dad's death. She was suffering from Alzheimer's, and it had gotten progressively worst, so bad so, that she hadn't drank or eaten anything for several days. My brother in law, was headed north to gather me up. I was at this point already making plans on moving there, but these current events, sped things up, so I gather my belongings together and was ready to relocate when he got there. We didn't even take a break to grab a bite to eat, just loaded the truck with my belongings and it was right to the highway, to get there as quickly as possible. This was around 4 PM on the 29th and we were in Okeechobee FL. around 5 PM on the 30th. We grabbed a bite to eat and while Jerry went to get some sleep, I sat across from my mom on the other couch in the living room. If it weren't for her breathing, you'd of thought she was dead. Barely any color to her skin(a once dark skinned native American), a frail, almost lifeless body, that of which had at one time been a very vibrant woman. I sat there praying and talking with my sister over at the dinning room table. I began to talk to my mom and she opened her eyes for the first time in three days. I went over and knelt by the side of the couch/bed, having a one sided conversation with her. Letting her know who I was, how much I wanted to talk with her and about the events that had taken place within my life over the last several years(for CHRIST.) Her prayers for me had been answered and I was serving the LORD, as she'd promised HIM(details, once again, in my book.) She smiled at me, but I could see the anguish in her eyes, so I leaned over kissing her on the forehead, then whispered in her ear, "mom, I know you're hurting, my life is now fully the LORD's, you can go home to be with HIM, I loved her and all is well." She closed her eyes, though now with a look of peace upon her face. I returned to my couch and we(my sister, a niece and I) continued in conversation for several hours. Around midnight, I couldn't stay awake any longer, so I stretched out and dosed off. About an hour later my sister awoke me, telling me that mom had passed away. To which I told her, "I knew and she'd gone home in peace, to be with the LORD and her family awaiting her there. Her life was over and we must now go on with our." I then went back to sleep, as she awaited the EMT's and other officials, to verify her death.

   Does this sound a bit calloused to you??? It's not!!! For I fully realize the human condition and that which happens at death. I've no fear of it, actually, I await my time(looking forward to it:))) ) Our lives are but a vapor, a wisp of smoke. That which is here for but a few seconds and then fades away into nothingness. All in the matter of seconds. If one is a Christian(a true one), they need fear nothing, for soon they'll be in the very presence of our LORD!!! If not, they will return to the ground from winch they came, at least the bodily part, while the soul and spirit sleep, awaiting the day when they shall be awakened, to stand before the judgment seat of the LORD, to face the eternity they're bound for, that eternity which will be the results of their life on earth. This will not be a time of joy for those that haven't accepted JESUS as LORD and SAVIOR, but a time of impending doom. For they will know that which is in their long futures, for they will of been warned about the choices they have to make and will of made theirs. Which will it be for you???



 Prayer request can be sent to: prayers@vineofchrist.org 

GOD bless and good day,
Rev. Marshall Barth
Vine of CHRIST Ministries