Topics:<\/b> Blessings; Death; Disease; Heaven; Home; Illness; Longing; Mortality; Needs; Perseverance; Suffering; Thankfulness; Valleys<\/p>\n
References:<\/b> 1 Kings 17:17\u201324; Job 29:18; Psalm 23:4; 56:5; Mark 5:35\u201343; Philippians 4:19<\/p>\n
Fred Smith, an influential businessman who has mentored Christian leaders for several decades, was seriously ill in the summer of 2004. He was hospitalized, semiconscious, and not expected to live. Periodically he would mutter, \u201cI want to go home, I want to go home.\u201d After an emotional family conference, the family concluded they should respect Fred\u2019s wishes and allow him to die. They agreed to remove him from dialysis, knowing that his death would come in a few days.<\/p>\n
For the next thirty-six hours, Fred\u2019s family sang, read Scripture, prayed, and said their good-byes. Fred seemed to get worse; he went into pulmonary failure and choking aspiration. His daughter Brenda sat with him at midnight, begging God for answers. The coughing, however, broke through Fred\u2019s deep sleep, and he awoke. Brenda quietly told her dad of the family\u2019s decision to follow his desire to \u201cgo home.\u201d She explained that he would slip into unconsciousness and then step \u201cfrom here to there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Suddenly Fred\u2019s eyes were wide open: \u201cHome? I didn\u2019t mean heaven; I meant Parkchester [his house on Parkchester Drive].\u201d Laughing through tears, Brenda quickly called the doctors to reschedule his dialysis, and Fred returned to what he called \u201cthe washing machine.\u201d A year later, while still prepared to go to his heavenly home, Fred was happy to be at his current home in Dallas.<\/p>\n
\u2014Introduction to \u201cAsk Fred,\u201d Leadership<\/i> (Summer 2005)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Topics: Blessings; Death; Disease; Heaven; Home; Illness; Longing; Mortality; Needs; Perseverance; Suffering; Thankfulness; Valleys References: 1 Kings 17:17\u201324; Job 29:18; Psalm 23:4; 56:5; Mark 5:35\u201343; Philippians 4:19 Fred Smith, an influential businessman who has mentored Christian leaders for several decades, was seriously ill in the summer of 2004. He was hospitalized, semiconscious, and not expected … Continue reading “TAKING
\n ME HOME”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5955"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5955\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}