I thought that I would post an excerpt (unfinished an unedited, but hopefully annointed) to give you a taste of the book coming forth. Many of you know that I was electrocuted in 1979, but here's the story. Enjoy, and buy the book when it comes out soon.

It was a hot July day and my job was to prune palm trees on Sea Island, Georgia. This was quite a change for me since I grew up in southern Ohio. In Ohio I was used to looking at maple trees, apple trees, and double wide trailers. I often would ask myself how I ended up in Georgia working at this beautiful resort. Strangely, this same northern boy, years later, would call Georgia his home. Sea Island was a long way away from home, but I decided to spend the summer in this beautiful resort island in southern Georgia on the Atlantic coast working and doing missions with a campus ministry called World Wide Discipleship. Our landscaping job was to prune the palm trees around the beautiful homes on the island. We had a ladder crew of two people. Usually, one person would hold the ladder while the other would climb up the tree and prune away. We were very safety cautious. One day we started to prune some smaller trees and decided to just do them by ourselves. I began to prune a tree that was about 7 feet high. I noticed that there were an unusual amount of dry branches on the tree. I never noticed any power lines running through the tree, but I came to find out later that the main power line for the island was running right through my tree. It had rained earlier that day, but by afternoon it was fairly dry. I was using a small wooden handled saw and was leaning on an aluminum ladder. Upon making a cut into a palm frond the electricity from the power line starting moving through my body. My body was acting as a human channel for the flow of approximately 7,000 volts of electricity, with two full amps. That’s about 2000 times the amperage that is in your house wall outlets. This was a strange experience for me. You don’t really get electrocuted every day. I started feeling a large amount of pain. My eyes were seeing purple, and green lights, flashing around me, and I couldn’t pull away from the electrical charge. I could feel the burning in my hand and it wasn’t a pretty sight. I knew it was fatal and I might die. I prayed a quick prayer, “Help Me Jesus!” and then I was out. It all happened so fast.
Fortunately, my partner Doug knew CPR. He gave me the pericardial thump but nothing was happening. I was laying there mostly dead and not breathing. How many know that someone laying there not breathing is not a good thing? I was so glad that Doug was also a man of God. God gave Doug insight as to what to do next. He thumped me again and then administered mouth to mouth breathing. Thankfully, after about 20 minutes I started to breathe again. I was not really aware of all that happened to me because all I remember was waking up in an ambulance, glad to be alive. I asked: ”Did I get electrocuted?” It was all very surreal. I didn’t see any lights or visions of Jesus or anything. I guess I wasn’t dead long enough. I was just glad that I was alive.
I was treated for burns and was kept in the hospital. It was determined that I was going to have to get skin grafts to treat my third degree burns. It was an unpleasant ordeal, but God would work in me to accomplish His will out of my adversity. Something very significant happened to me at the end of my hospital stay that would set me on a journey that has changed my life forever. I had been meditating on Romans 5: 1-6. Up to that point, I could tell you very plainly that God loved me. I was a Bible college student studying for ministry. I thought I knew about hope, but it was really only an intellectual concept. I had come to know Christ at an early age and recommitted my life during my teen years. I was serving God and had come to Georgia on a mission trip, but the Lord wanted to reveal more to me. This was a prime opportunity. I don’t believe that God causes sickness, but I believe that God used this incident to let me in on an encounter that would shape the course of my life. My journey to God’s heart did indeed start the day that I asked Christ to be the Lord and savior of my life, but on this day I moved much closer to the heart of God than ever before. After all God’s heart was working when mine wasn’t.
I was laying in my hospital room feeling very much in pain. I had already been in the hospital a total of 20 days. My nerves were exposed from skin grafts, my burns were still in the healing process, my hospital roommate had bowel problems, and the room didn’t smell very good. I think you are getting the picture without going into greater details. Many of my experiences with God up to this point were at retreats, church, or conferences. This is all well and good, but God wanted to show up in a different way to meet my need in this desperate situation. There is a passage in Romans 5 that talks about peace with God. I wanted that. It also talked about the love of God being shed abroad in your hearts through the Holy Spirit. It also says that, trials would produce perseverance, perseverance, proven character, and character would produce hope. I meditated on those truths and then like a refreshing wind the Holy Spirit began to minister to me His love. It is hard to describe, but I couldn’t help it and I started to sing. It didn’t matter to me that I wasn’t out witnessing, or going to a building, or teaching a Bible study, I was just loved. I was overwhelmed with the truth that God was loving me lots. I wept and smiled. I laughed and I just enjoyed the experience of being loved as I am and not as I should be.
God used this situation of being electrocuted in many ways, to humble me, to provide for me financially, but most importantly, He showed up in my time of distress to let me know that I am loved.
This experience more than any other up to this point, set me on a course to continue to seek the Fathers Love. I have come to realize very intensely that everything of eternal significance comes from the flow of the Fathers heart. Jesus only did what he saw the father doing. He only spoke what he saw the father speaking. He truly could say as you have seen me you have seen the father. And when he went away to the father he gave us access to speak directly to the father. “You can ask whatever you wish in my name and the father will hear you”, he said.
Two years later, I would hear the Lord ask me, “If you could have anything in this life what would you want?” I was deciding if I really wanted to lead God’s people. Reflecting on how God had saved my life and just searching my heart I said, “Lord I want to learn how to love.” I guess I have been on the journey ever since
What an exciting time to be alive. The Father is no longer calling us slaves but He is inviting us to be friends.
Let us go together on a journey to find the fullness of life and personal freedom. Let’s journey to the Father’s Heart!