Encouraged by the Light: Forward(s)

Monday, March 7, 2011

Forward(s)

FOREWORD(s)

By John’s Brothers

When John first told me he had put together a book about his car wreck a flood of memories came back to me though it happened over forty years ago.

I remember people taking time out of their busy schedule to help me get from my college town (one hour away) to the hospital. I remember how bad my youngest brother looked in that hospital bed, yet how alert his mind was to the people around him, though his eyes were swollen shut from the car wreck. I remember how it was certainly a defining life or death time in his life that moved the whole family.

I am pleased that John has now told his story of the events that occurred related to this accident, so that many may also be ‘encouraged by the light’.

                                             Joe Edwards, Jr.
                                             Ft. Smith, Arkansas
                                             August, 2009

I parked the car in the hospital parking lot and noticed a couple, friends of my parents, talking near their car. As I approached them it was obvious they had been crying. I was afraid John’s condition had worsened or even that we had lost him.

“No”, they explained. “It is your parents, how they are so strong in the middle of such a tragedy. Where do they get such strength and faith? We asked them and they said, ‘It is all God’s grace. If we are strong, it is His strength that is making us look strong. He is supplying everything we need right now’.”

“It is all God’s grace”. That’s so true of everything about John’s story. We have a God Who is so eager to make sure we experience His love. He doesn’t want us to live in hopelessness and despair but to find our purpose in Him. This amazing story about our amazing God and His revelation to my younger brother, John Edwards, is all about God’s grace and the revelation of His love in some very unusual ways.

I pray that as you read this true account you will be inspired by God’s creative revelation and that you, too, will be “encouraged by the Light”.

                                          Thomas G. Edwards
                                          Ft. Thornton, Colorado
                                          August 6, 2009

No comments:

Kirkus Review

Debut author Edwards describes a near-death experience following a traffic accident, asserting that the Bible confirms what he saw on the other side.

Evangelical testimony of life after death told in a calm, thoughtful and rational voice.

In 1966, Edwards, then a teenager in Fort Smith, Arkansas, was pinned under a car wreck. While in the hospital in critical condition, he had what he now claims to be a near-death experience. He writes that recovering from a traumatic brain injury and sorting out his memories has been a long process, one with lingering neurological aftereffects, such as narcolepsy and a tendency to wander off topic (although the latter never impairs his prose). However, Edwards insists upon the authenticity of his out-of-body testimony. Despite the fact that his eyes were grotesquely swollen shut and that his hospital room afforded no view of the corridor, he claims that he still clearly “saw” events on the ward. Moreover, he says that his contraveled to a walled “City of Light,” a description not unlike those of the New Jerusalem in the books of Ezekiel and Revelation. He says that there, he watched his life play out on a curious array of monitors (stacked like Pez candy, he adds) as part of a divine evaluation or judgment. However, for a man who uses so many Scripture citations to buttress his case, he’s not a stereotypical Gospel witness. For example, he writes that he’s disappointed that some Christian conservatives refute NDEs on the grounds that non-Christians have reported them as well. Edwards’ gently reasoned response is that non-Christians may get to see heaven, but it doesn’t mean they’re able to stay there. The author avidly reads scientific journals and has widely studied the subject of NDEs; he even provides an answer for nonbelievers who say they saw nothing but blackness during clinical death. Overall, his arguments provide inspirational and intellectual manna for religious and secular readers, although the faithful will likely be more acclimated to the frequent Bible verses.

Encouraged by the Light

Monday, March 7, 2011

Forward(s)

No comments:

Post a Comment

Book Samples Please Click on March (below)