Daily Digest: January 26, 2012

Verse of the Day

1Thess 4:16,17 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

Commentary

So many people have been praying about my dad, that I want to collectively thank all of you and update what happened. What the Lord did was a miracle, and how He did it was very special to me. I want to share this with you, and a little bit of my life and family history.

  My dad, Francis Joseph McTernan, is almost 95 years old. He was born in Ireland and came to America in the 1930s. I asked him why he came to America. His response was that "he was starving in Ireland"! He is the last of the McTernans from Ireland. My entire family left Ireland and came to America. There are now more McTernan surnames in America than there are in Ireland. The family first settled in California and then later they came to New York.

   I am his only child, and soon after I was born my parents divorced. My mother remarried, and I have a brother and sister from the second marriage. Later in life dad remarried. He never walked away from me when I was child, and we became very close. All through the years we stayed close. He lives a great distance from me, but I always visited him and would regularly take my children to see their grandpa.

  My dad's medical history is almost beyond belief. He was injured in WW 2, and what happened he never talked about. It was something with his stomach. He is under the care of the Veterans Administration. All his life he survived one life threatening issue after another. He had two major cancer operations, one when he was 87, and survived both without chemo! Two major stomach operations, along with almost not surviving having his gall bladder removed. It was so infected the poison spread through his body. He nearly died from food poisoning and blood poisoning. I am giving you just a brief overview of his medical history.

  When I was six, this was 1954, my mother was preparing me for his death. He had a major stomach operation and the doctors could not stop the hemorrhaging. I remember this as if it was yesterday. It was Christmas day and everyone was telling me about my dad. The door bell rang and my mother answered. She called me to the door and there stood Uncle Tom. My dad's brother-in-law. He was holding a big red sled. My mother asked him in but he refused. He said he had spoken to my dad. Dad was so sorry he could not see me.

Me with Dad's Christmas sled

Early in the year, I had told dad that I wanted a sled for Christmas. Uncle Tom said my dad told him to get this sled for me. He then handed me the sled and said this is from your dad. The sled was as big as me! 

   I took it and then watched him get into his car and drive off. I then turned to my mother and said, "see he is alive, he is not going to die!" Against all odds, my dad survived and lived to be 95! 

   In 1974, I turned to Lord Jesus as my Savior. Naturally, I wanted to share the Lord with my dad. He was hard towards the Lord and eventually, I had to stop sharing the Lord with him. He would let me pray with him, but he did not want to commit his life to the Lord Jesus.

   I watched him go through many life threatening issue after issue with a heavy heart that he was not going to make it and go off into eternity without the Lord as his Savior. 

   Starting about three years ago, I noticed he began to soften towards the Lord. The tension was lessening. He had developed COPD in his lungs and started to regularly develop pneumonia. Many times he was near death but came back. Each time I would thank the Lord, and tell dad that Jesus was keeping him alive.

   Two weeks ago he was rushed to the hospital with pneumonia. His breathing had stopped and the EMTs had brought him back! He was in the hospital two days and demanded to leave. A few days later, his breathing once again stopped. This time he had pneumonia in both lungs. The lungs were full of fluid, and he could not breath on his own. 

   I was told this was very serious, so rushed to get to him. When I got there, the doctor was just finishing a breathing test, and said he could not breath on his own. He was hooked to a  respirator which was breathing for him. When I looked at him, I knew this time was different. His eyes were sunken and both his arms were hideously swollen. The legs were swollen, but  not nearly as bad as the arms. The swelling was a result of his heart being to weak to handle the IV fluids. I did not think he could live another day. The doctor decided to keep him on the respirator for four more days, so I went home.

   I posted on the blog the condition of dad, and received an overwhelming response! Again, I want to thank all of you who responded, and the response was from all over the world! With so much prayer and the fact that the LORD had kept him alive for so long through so many times he could have died, I did have faith. I admit not much, but I did have hope and faith.

   Sunday, my mother called and said his condition was terrible, and the doctor was going to remove the breathing tube. Immediately, I headed back which is a five hour drive. So many people called and said they were praying!

   I did not know what to expect when I walked into his room. Two days before,  he was as close to death as possible. I was shocked as he was sitting up and looked 10 years younger! He looked at me and yelled, yes yelled, "Johnny, Johnny, Johnny, I am so happy to see you. Johnny I love you"! I was speechless as he was not the same man I had seen two days before. He said, Jesus healed me, it is a miracle. I was even more speechless. Then he said, I know that Jesus hears your prayers. I told him it was a miracle and that great numbers of people from all over the world are praying for him.

   I asked him if Jesus was his Savior. He said yes, that he loved Jesus and Jesus loved him! He said that Jesus died on the cross for his sin. He also had assurance of being in heaven with Jesus. He also was shouting I am a new man inside, he could feel it!

   Even as I write this, I am still amazed what God just did for my dad. As far as I am concerned, the LORD raised him from the dead in answer to all your prayers. There is no natural way he could come out of his condition at 95 and then sit up shouting in joy. This was a miracle.

   His doctor spoke with me. She told me an amazing story about his medical condition. She was as shocked as I was about the way he responded. She then said that soon after the tube was removed, my dad went into a catatonic state for about over an hour. He laid on the bed  with his eyes fixed on the ceiling. He was totally unresponsive to stimulus, including pain stimulus, yet all his vital signs remained normal. She had no explanation for this other than a stroke. I knew that he did not have a stroke, but had no idea what happened. 

   Looking back, I believe that my dad had an encounter with the LORD during this state. This would explain the joy he had and love he was manifesting for the Lord Jesus. I did not really lead him to Lord Jesus for salvation, as he was already confessing him! I was puzzled over this, but I believe God had used all the witnessing I had done, during this time he was in the catatonic state. The Holy Spirit used that time to give him a new spiritual heart!

    This was a huge faith builder for me. God brought my dad from the dead and saved him! I realized now that no matter how bad it looks, to stand in faith and let God do the rest. I also understand that in a time like this how important it is for others to intercede. I had faith, but not to  the level that he would sit up in his bed praising the Lord Jesus, saying "I am a new man inside".

   I took time to share all this with you. I thought that background leading into the miracle was important. I hope this testimony helps and encourages you to increase your faith. If God's Holy Spirit could raise Francis Joseph McTernan from the grip of death and then save him, there is always hope. 

   My dad's lung condition remains critical. I believe that he is now living on borrowed time, kept alive by the Holy Spirit. The doctors are just amazed at how alert he is. One doctor said, with the amount of CO2 in his blood, he should be unconscious. In fact, he said it was the highest CO2 level he has ever seen in someone. God is keeping him alive. Dad may not live long, but God sure did pack in spiritual quality in a very few days. I am very thankful to my Father in heaven for what blessing he bestowed on my father.

Dad with Johnny Mac as he called me.

One last thing. When I walked into the room and my dad was sitting up and yelled  "Johnny, Johnny, Johnny," it did something to my soul. I received those words, as if I was 8 year old Johnny and my dad was taking me to a NY Yankee baseball game. (For all you Yankee haters, please do not hold this against us!) I felt just like I was little Johnny with my dad. The way he called my name, with all the excitement in his voice, took me back to my childhood. I think it was the Holy Spirit, who was now using his voice, that ministered to me. "Johnny I love you son."

   Just before I left him, I put up my fists and said, "I'm not afraid of you"! He put up his fists and laughed. This is a way we played through the years. I then asked if Jesus was his Savior. He said that Jesus was his Savior and continued to say it as I walked out of the room. I guess that it was the very best thing I could hear: "Jesus is my Savior," and "Johnny I love you".

1Thess 4:18 Wherefore comfort one another with these words.