Thursday nite I went to hear Don Piper speak at the First Baptist Church in Lewisville on April 3, 2008. He spoke about his near death experience (NDE) and painful recovery from a fatal car wreck he had in a rural Texas area in 1989. Check his website for more detail.
It's an interesting story how I came across his. One weekend in 2007 I was watching my baby while my wife was at work. During this time it was just easier to stay home so I was switching through the channels on TV and I stopped on one because I thought the speaker looked like Grissom on CSI. And as I watched with the sound off, I could somehow tell it was a NDE story. Interested I turned up the volume. The weird thing was they kept showing this bridge that looked just like a bridge that I used to travel to get to my grandmother's house in rural Houston about 20 minutes east of Huntsville. When he said Highway 19 I knew exactly where he had had his fatal accident. I remember holding my breath more than once going over that bridge many years ago. After the show was over, I called my grandmother and asked her about it. She said she hadn't heard about it possibly because they had not moved to Trinity yet. I went out and bought his book and when done gave it to my grandmother who read it.
I would like to make the point you have to be very careful with stories about NDEs or out of body experiences because if they are not of God, they are of the enemy. Piper's story is very convincing and his brief experience in Heaven brings joy to the heart of any believer in Christ. Everyone who hears about these stories must ask himself or herself if it challenges you to the feet of your Savior or towards the world?
During his talk he gave examples of people that his book had helped. A strong theme running through most of his message urged people to get a "New Normal," that many people who have suffered tragedy needed to turn the page and ask God to help them get on with their lives. He can ask this as he is a walking example of a person who had had a lot of horrible things happen to him but God used his tragedy to spread the gospel and help people. Another point he made was he believed that if you aren't dead "the main reason we're here is to get people to Heaven." I was pleased to hear him make an appeal to share the gospel.
I found his speech to be solid Biblically. He stressed that not all roads lead to Heaven and stated that Christ was the only way to Heaven. He also asked people to pray more "We have not because we don't pray." He made the distinction that God can say No to our prayers and that this isn't "name or claim it." From his own experience he said that he had seen that prayer can still produce miracles.
We were in Trinity last weekend for a funeral and I took a picture of the bridge where Don had his accident. Driving through again made me remember how tense I used to get when going through. Good thing it's no longer the main bridge used.
