Dimensions
Join J. Anthony and Tiffany Gilbert as they discuss current events and give biblical commentary to help educate, encourage, and elevate your faith.
Dimensions
From Heartbreak to Hope
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Tammy Summers shares her extraordinary journey of losing both her children and finding healing through faith, surrender, and service to others.
• Lost her son Matthew who was born with a rare form of dwarfism despite doctors predicting he wouldn't survive birth
• Experienced God's supernatural presence when Matthew passed away after two and a half years
• Received divine reassurance through a powerful dream that confirmed Matthew was with Jesus
• Lost her daughter Alex nine years later in a car accident during her senior year of high school
• Multiple non-believers reported sensing God's presence at Alex's accident scene
• Tammy's husband surrendered his life to Christ the night of their daughter's accident
• Found healing not through understanding "why" but through surrendering to God's will
• Started serving in youth ministry two months after Alex's death as part of her healing journey
• Discovered that helping others was instrumental in healing her own broken heart
• Wrote "Homecoming: A Story of Hope Out of Heartbreak" with proceeds funding water wells in Uganda
what's going on. Everybody, it's good to be back with you here on dimensions. We are so excited to be with y'all at this time. Listen, just so y'all know. We just got back from california I know I beat her to it Everybody did four day revival. And then we celebrated 13 years on the beach of Carmel. We watched the sunset.
Speaker 2:It wasn't as sunny and warm, in fact, everybody. It was actually warmer here than it was there, but boy was it beautiful. I mean the, the, the ocean. Matter of fact, I got my feet wet. I wasn't trying to go in the ocean but the waves they caught me so quick. So I I was trying to run away, but I couldn't.
Speaker 1:So my how many black people you know that surf? That's the first thing I'm gonna throw out there real quickly he's gonna go.
Speaker 3:How many black people do you know? So you don't know. We don't know about the waves, so she was out there trying quickly.
Speaker 1:How many black people do you know? So you don't know. We don't know about the waves so she was out there trying to be cute. She's out there also. I said tiff, I was like the waves are coming.
Speaker 2:I was coming back, though I was coming back I was making my way back, but I didn't realize the wave was that big that it was chasing me it was.
Speaker 1:I was, I was on the sidelines, I was on the side. I wasn't going near that stuff. I don't surf, I don't do any of that stuff. I just stick close to the bay there. But it was really good though. We had a beautiful room, it was fun, yeah, I mean we really did it up.
Speaker 2:I felt like we were on our cruise again.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so we were right overlooking the Pacific Ocean and we had a room that had a fireplace, an actual real fireplace, and you had a balcony so we could pull back the sliding glass door and leave the screen open and we could hear the waves through the night and stuff. So yeah, that's how we do it, y'all. Daddy hooked it up, didn't he? Yeah, no doubt, come on, somebody Throw some props in there. Type that in the chat. Daddy held it down.
Speaker 2:Daddy held it down.
Speaker 1:Well, my internal clock still feels off, though yeah like I still feel, like I'm well we got back at like 11 30, but it was actually 8 30 and then, a few days before that, we we lost three hours.
Speaker 2:Well, if you think about it, if you think about it, though, we went through, we went, we experienced three different time zones in one day. Yeah, and one day we went. We experienced three different time zones in one day. Yeah, in one day. We went from california, then we went to denver and then back to which is yeah, and then we went back to pittsburgh.
Speaker 1:So we're all kind of messed up here, but we went three, two, one three hours in california two hours in denver and one hour well not one hour, but regular regular for us.
Speaker 3:So yeah, so that was cool, so we are back.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we are back, but we jump right in the saddle, we're ready to go and we are real excited, um about this topic of discussion. Uh, it's kind of more serious, um, when it comes to the weightiness and the magnitude of, uh, the person that's going to be with us, but she has such a phenomenal story and, man, listen, I'll tell you what. You may have heard a lot of stories, with this one here.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I guarantee it's pretty much unmatched. I was talking to her before we came on and I said listen, you need to send it into Word Network and you send it to TVN Daystar, get Sid Ross Supernatural. I mean all of it. I mean cause her story is nothing short of miraculous of what God has done.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, and I'm so honored that she's here with us because there are so many people, babe, that really need um, they need what she has. You know, just the other day I was talking with somebody and um, before we actually went to California, I was talking with somebody and they had lost their daughter a little bit ago and still not really knowing how to fully grieve, not knowing, she said, well, I just really didn't fully grieve yet and that's, it's hard, but there is hope on the other side and that's what our guests today tonight is going to share with us.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so listen. If you haven't taken a moment yet to like, subscribe, follow, share, take a minute right now. We're on YouTube, we're on Facebook, every place where podcasts are platformed. We are on there iHeartRadio, apple Android store, spotify, all of them and listen. If you take a minute right now to like, subscribe, follow and share, you, too, can be the latest member of the Dimensions family. So we'd like to welcome you and thank you so much for helping us get this word out there and letting people know what we've got coming up. I guarantee you this. There's a lot of podcasts. You can listen to the content in a way that we deliver it. There aren't many people that do it the way that we do it. We do it a little bit different, so you're going to be blessed, you're going to laugh, you're going to be inspired, you're going to be motivated, you're going to be moved. All of that. You're going to gain some wisdom and knowledge. That's why we call it dimensions, because there are levels to. This helps you shift from one level of glory to the next.
Speaker 1:So, with that, in mind you want to bring on our guests, let's do it.
Speaker 2:So we have with us Tammy Summers. Tammy has. I met Tammy a few years back at a woman's event that we both spoke with and, boy you know, I was telling you, babe, that as soon as she opened up her mouth, I could, I could sense the anointing of God on her. She has such a sweet spirit. She is a mom, she's a wife, she's a minister, she's an author. We'll take some time at the end here to go over her book. I don't know. I'd love to figure out if she has more books because she has so much ministry inside. So, tammy, welcome to Dimensions. We are so glad to have you with us.
Speaker 3:Thank you. It is an honor to be with you, to be invited. I'm just really excited to share my story and my prayer is that everything we talk about tonight will give people hope and ultimately just point to Jesus.
Speaker 2:Amen, amen. That's what it's all about. Well, before we get serious, we have a fun segment called Would you Rather? Would you be willing to join in with us on this?
Speaker 3:It depends.
Speaker 2:It's fun. It's fun, it's fun. Yeah, All right, All right, Tammy. So the first question is would you rather have hands as feet or feet as hands? Have hands as feet or feet as hands? I know it takes a minute to think about. You got to be like okay, hands, feet, feet hands, I think feet as hands. Okay.
Speaker 1:Why is that you want to walk upside down?
Speaker 2:Feet as hands.
Speaker 3:Oh, boy, because I'm thinking like your feet take you where you're going, but you need your hands to be able to. Oh, that's interesting. Yeah, yeah, I don't know, because I as I'm thinking that that's probably a dumb answer.
Speaker 2:No, but.
Speaker 1:But you know if you have to make a choice. I mean, that's why I like my feet, hands where they are because they are exactly where they need to be.
Speaker 1:Because they don't make no sense. I mean, I don't know which one, I don't know. I put my hands on my feet. I would do that. Yeah, because if I haven't had my feet up here, how am I going to walk? I mean, I'd have to walk upside down my whole life. I'd be running upside down like this. I'm like, nah, I'll leave it down, I'll get my hands nice and callous.
Speaker 3:They'll look like Caesar. What's it called?
Speaker 1:From.
Speaker 2:Planet of the.
Speaker 1:Apes. They'll be all calloused up, but I'll be able to walk and do everything, and then, when I sit down, I can feed myself with my hands that are by my feet.
Speaker 2:You just have to keep your other set of hands really clean. You know that.
Speaker 1:You get to switch them or you only get one.
Speaker 2:Well, no, your hands as your feet, so you can choose which one you want. So you'll keep your hands, so you'll keep one.
Speaker 1:Oh, you still keep all of it. Yeah, I'm definitely doing hands on the bottom end. Okay, I didn't realize that. Yeah, I'm still going with what I said though.
Speaker 2:Okay, you're going to go with that one.
Speaker 1:Any change with you, Tammy.
Speaker 2:Or are you going to stick with it? You're going to commit to it. Miss Tammy, I'll commit to it. You're going to commit.
Speaker 1:There you go.
Speaker 2:All right, good, all right. Now we're going to go biblical on you here. So would you like to live in the Old Testament, or would you like to live in the Old Testament?
Speaker 3:Oh, okay.
Speaker 2:Is there any particular reason for that?
Speaker 3:I don't know, just some of the prophets, just being able to be in the days of the old prophets. Yeah, that's good, and them standing on the streets and preaching the word, and just, oh man, just from that voice you know that voice of God just Wow that would be exciting.
Speaker 1:We are in the new Testament, so I guess that's one of the things we still are, but are you talking about like the new Testament?
Speaker 2:you're talking about, from Matthew to revelation. Yeah, yes, yes.
Speaker 1:Because basically, what we've already experienced, that. But to go back to the old, to your point, tammy, I think it'd be kind of neat because I think one of the things that would give you perspective, because I think we underestimate the power of salvation and what it's really like to have the spirit of God within us. In the Old Testament the presence of God came upon people so he would rest on them. But we have the Bible says what they had on Mount Sinai when the mountain shook and the thunder rolled and the lightning flashed and the earthquake that's now in our hearts. The Bible says yeah, so that same voice is there, it's living in us. So it'd be neat to be able to compare the two. So I'd probably go back because I've already experienced this.
Speaker 1:So, I'd go back to the old experience.
Speaker 2:That and then ask me again, okay.
Speaker 1:Well, that's good Okay.
Speaker 2:Last one Would you rather have the gift of prophecy, like Isaiah, or the gift of healing, like Peter?
Speaker 3:Well, I've prayed for the gift of healing, so I would say healing.
Speaker 2:So healing, yes, yeah, yeah. Healing is so needed, not only in the physical sense, but in the emotional sense as well. You know, I think about all the people that are heartbroken or just emotional trauma, tammy, that want and need to be healed by the power of the Holy Spirit. What about you?
Speaker 1:Boy, that's a tough one too, because you're comparing two different dispensations and eras. You know so. But since I've already experienced that healing gift and operate in that, uh, to have that experience, like isaiah had to be a major prophet to write down. He had a lot of the prophecies and saw a lot of things about christ, uh, we have the messianic. A lot of the messianic prophecies are found in the book of isaiah. So to be able to experience that, and also isaiah, chapter six, where he had the encounter where he was lifted up into the throne room the year that King Uzziah died, saw the Lord high and lifted up, said there were two with two angels, or the angels One or two. They covered their face and two they covered their feet and two they flew, and to have that whole encounter and all that, that'd be pretty neat. So I'd probably go with that, all right.
Speaker 2:Well, tammy, thank you so much.
Speaker 1:Wasn't that bad, was it Pretty painless, pretty painless, it's all right.
Speaker 2:It's always fun, you know. It gives us a different perspective on our guests, you know. So Well, let's transition here. You know, I think the last question and I didn't even think about this really about the healing piece. You know, you said you've prayed for healing many times, and there are people that are watching out there that have prayed for healing, for their loved ones to be healed and maybe themselves to be healed as well. But you have a story that I think there are people out there that not only can sympathize with, but that will also be able to empathize with. So can you start just a little bit of telling us about even just the two kids that God blessed you with, and maybe just, you know, starting with I know you I can't remember your youngest son's name, but it's Matthew, that's right, matthew and then maybe lead us into Matthew's journey after that.
Speaker 3:I think I need to preface that. You know, prior to my children, you know I was raised in the church.
Speaker 3:My husband was not. But I really had not surrendered my life to Jesus till I saw an old preacher on TV and he was talking about what it meant to be born again and I had never heard that growing up in the denomination that I was in. And and it was like that light bulb, the spirit of God just woke up my soul and I knew and I just committed my life and surrendered my life to Jesus. At that time my life completely changed. Like he gave me a love for Bible prophecy and you know, water wells.
Speaker 3:I was just obsessed with watching things shows with water wells and had no idea what was coming. So he was preparing us for a difficult road but, I, got saved probably, you know, five years before my son was born.
Speaker 2:So and Tammy, just really quick. Did you grow up in a Christian household?
Speaker 3:I did, and we went to church, we went to Sunday school, but we didn't read the Bible together, we didn't pray together, so you know we relied on what the pastor taught us.
Speaker 3:So really not until I was about 25 was I really starting to hunger more after God, wanting to know him. And then it took, you know, those seeds were being planted. But then I saw the pastor on TV and I mean it was probably from the 1970s, this recording. I was just flicking through the channel, saw it and it just changed my life. So, and then I, you know, obviously I asked, I was filled with the Holy Spirit and then just my life changed. He was, he was preparing me for what was coming. So my daughter, alex, she was born in 1994.
Speaker 3:And then my son, matthew, was born in 2000. But in 1999, was born in 2000. But in 1999, when I found out I was pregnant, at about 20 weeks pregnancy, we found out that he well, we didn't know it was a boy. But we had an ultrasound and they said to us your child has a skeletal um, a rare form of dwarfism.
Speaker 3:This child will not survive birth. Um, but the first thing they offered me was that um, but you have the option to abort this child. So that was and you know we're crying. My husband and I were looking at the ultrasound and you know we see this little baby in there. We wouldn't have known anything was wrong. I didn't have an ultrasound with my daughter, so I thought, well, this time around we will, otherwise we would have never known during the pregnancy.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 3:So you know, my daughter was five at the time. We went home, told her about the baby. We had to prepare her. They told us the baby wouldn't survive. And she, you know out of the mouths of babes. She said Mommy, I know what the doctors say, but you know what she said.
Speaker 2:Only God knows what his plans are for our baby.
Speaker 3:And you know God was speaking through this little child. But it was a long, I had 20 weeks to go. But it was a long, I had 20 weeks to go.
Speaker 3:And it was just like this weight, this heaviness, and waiting for the day of the birth, preparing for my child to die, because that's what we were told. And so we delivered at Butler Hospital. We weren't going to take any special measures in Pittsburgh, any special hospitals, and Matthew is delivered and he comes out crying and first of all, he had a rare form of dwarfism so he ended up having. He was one of four living children in the world with this type.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 3:So his chest was very narrow so that's why they said the lungs wouldn't develop. They said, oh, he'll just asphyxiate at birth. I mean it was very, you know, cold, you know, and how they explained it, and uh, but here we hear this baby crying when he comes out and um, and I held him with a blanket and I peeked underneath because maybe they were wrong with the diagnosis and I just prayed.
Speaker 3:I just prayed, lord, just would you just give me a few minutes with this child, like I didn't want my baby to be born not breathing and, and you know, god gave us two and a half years with him.
Speaker 2:So, and, tammy, can I just share this too, because I think what you're saying is so important, because the doctors I just shared this this weekend, the doctors you know, they have a. They diagnose you with whatever they feel based upon their research. But the Lord can shift the prognosis, the course of what the doctors see, and I think it's very important to know for everybody that's watching. Remember that, just as she said, you know, you know he was supposed to go to heaven at birth, but that wasn't what happened. And it's so important to believe the final word of God. Tammy, you know what I mean the final word of God. So yeah, but go ahead. I just wanted to share that.
Speaker 3:So you know, for 10 days he was in our local hospital here in Butler and they sent us home on a hospice consult. So again, we're waiting for our child.
Speaker 2:Right right.
Speaker 3:And after three weeks the nurse said you know, tammy, I really think that little Matthew's going to be here a lot longer than what the doctors ever told you.
Speaker 1:I said I agree.
Speaker 3:So we got him into regular care, pulled him out of hospice and he was doing actually really well for two years and the doctors kept saying you guys are taking really good care of him. He's never in the hospital which they expected him to be.
Speaker 3:He wasn't on a ventilator, he was actually thriving and he had an ear infection and a high fever. So because he was fragile, he had special needs and you know, he also had developmental delay, not just the rare. And so his pediatrician said, you know, I want you to go to children's. And so he was taken there and his fever, you know, went from 104. He they unfortunately were unable to get IV hydration in and the fever went from 104 to 106.5. Now that's what happens in third world countries.
Speaker 2:Wow, yeah.
Speaker 3:Right. So it was. Unfortunately, there was a lot of just miscommunication and he kind of got lost in the shuffle. It was really tough and by the time he got to ICU his organs were shutting down because of the brain damage. He just had global necrosis of the brain from the high fever. For so long and so, over a five-day period, his organs were shutting down, and so once we knew that there was no brain activity, we called the chaplain of the hospital, who was amazing, pastor.
Speaker 1:Freeman.
Speaker 3:And you know he's like six foot five. He just comes down in this commanding tone with authority and we're praying over Matthew around the bed. And you know it was that rainy Pittsburgh day, you know with the clouds and there's no sun.
Speaker 3:And all of a sudden we're praying. You know your eyes are closed while you're praying, but you can see a light come on in the room, even though it was dark, and it was like the sun just shone right in, or a light shone right on Matthew's body, his little swollen body. That's all you could see. And Brian and I, we peeked because I thought somebody turned the light on.
Speaker 3:And when the pastor said, you know, your will be done, the light went away and we just we had peace, we knew that we were going to take him off, the ventilator called our family down and my parents brought my daughter, alex, alex, and held him in my arms and when they removed the ventilator and within a few minutes he passed away and it was just just surreal you know, holding your child in your arms and saying goodbye, and I couldn't leave the room.
Speaker 3:I had to. When it was time for us to leave, I had to hand him to a nurse because I didn't want to leave him just laying. So, yeah, it was very, very difficult the loss of my youngest, my little, and he, you know, I couldn't understand because he was a miraculous person. Yes, right, right and.
Speaker 3:I couldn't understand for like two years. I said Lord, I don't understand this. You know he's a miracle, but why did you call him home so soon? What was Matthew's purpose? You know, it was just lots of questions. And not until two years later where I finally just surrendered and said Lord, you know what? I don't understand it, but I'm just going to trust you with it, and that is when that burden of grief was lifted and the healing process began.
Speaker 3:But I have to tell you at three months after he passed. The devil was just saying to me everything you ever believed is a lie. Your son is dead. You're never going to see him again. This was over and over.
Speaker 1:And.
Speaker 3:I just prayed, Lord, I know what your word says, but I need your insurance because I was just desperate. And that morning I've only had one spiritual dream in my entire life and I was in the presence of. It was right before I woke up and I was in the presence of Jesus and I was at his feet and I was kissing his feet and worshiping him and, and you know, he had the long white robe. I could not see his face, it was just like glorious light.
Speaker 3:And there was no talking at all. And when I woke up out of that dream, I sat up like suddenly and all I could hear him say in my spirit is I am who I say I am, and your son is with me. That's it, and it was complete reassurance. Um, I never had those thoughts again. Um, and I can remember it now. And that's been, matthew died. He would be 25 years old now so he died um 23 years ago and I can remember that dream as if it was just yesterday so wow that's amazing.
Speaker 1:We know, uh, tim. There's a couple of things, obviously, that I kind of pulled out of this. One of the things was when my mother passed. Now I am nowhere comparing what my mother went through to what you guys have gone through, but the sense of assurance that I got was outstanding. I remember they called us in and they said your mother's going to die. Come on in. She had gotten diagnosed with breast cancer in 2005. They gave her like a few months to live. She had stage four and so we went in and we're getting ready to say our goodbyes.
Speaker 1:And I remember how I was at a pastor's prayer meeting that morning when I got the phone call from my family. So I went to all the pastors that were there and they said listen, remember, god has the final say. So we went in and went in there and we all said our goodbyes. We are sitting around the bed waiting for her to die and all of a sudden the power of God came into the room and I'll never forget it. We knew God visited us. I don't know how, I can't even. It wasn't like anything bang hit, just like how you said all of a sudden there was this light. It's like you just knew you weren't alone. You just know that God was with you in that, and I think that's one of the most amazing things to have happened is to have that assurance of knowing that God is with you. So, long story short, my mother ended up sitting up into the bed, ended up eating that day. She came home, ended up going back to the YMCA working out. She didn't die till later on. She still ended up dying to cancer.
Speaker 1:But God and I asked the Lord and this is what I wanted to ask you because I said, lord, you know why. Why did you bring her back? Why did you do that? He said I wasn't going to keep her forever here. He said, but I wanted to honor your faith. And the Lord spoke to me and said that from this point forward, you'll have authority over cancer, and I've seen people with cancer, autism. I've seen so many things healed, but I'll never forget. The Lord said I just honored your faith. I brought her back, so then your faith would have been honored and God brought her out of that situation. So, when you're mentioning about the purpose behind Matthew, did God ever speak to you about what the purpose of his time here was, and how did you? How did God bring consolation to you and to your husband through that process?
Speaker 3:Well, I think the purpose was to bring Brian to salvation, like he had head knowledge.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And I think it drew him closer, but then he sunk into depression over the years and our marriage, just you know, went the opposite direction. So I think that's part of Matthew's purpose. It could also be that he was preparing us for even a greater loss down the road. You know, I don't have, I've never had the exact answer, because've asked him and then he really just I felt like he was telling me, uh, to just trust him, like I wanted the answer, but after two years of praying, um, I never really had the answer and I said okay, just your ways are higher.
Speaker 3:I don't understand it, but I'm going to trust you so your husband ended up coming to the Lord.
Speaker 1:Uh, brian uh came to come to the Lord, based upon after Matthew passed between that and no, no, not yet.
Speaker 3:Okay, not till after my daughter.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so is that? Okay, it was after that, then that's when he came. So this was kind of the segue of him slowly coming to the Lord. So you know, even if it was the fact, I guess well, I don't want to jump ahead of the story, but but I mean just the fact of him giving his life to the Lord and using that, if that was the reason why I have a question down the line on about that.
Speaker 2:but I want to hit too, because I think what she said was so good, what you said was so good, tammy, because when we hit these moments of major trials in life, you know you can drive yourself crazy trying to figure out why. Why did this happen? Why didn't it happen to somebody? What you know, what did I do? Even I remember when so we lost a number of children in the womb and one particular. I remember the first one that we lost.
Speaker 2:I remember we looked at the ultrasounds and a baby that should have been moving was not moving, and I know that that was one of the hardest times for me, because I really grappled and wrestled a little bit with the Lord in the why arena. You know why did this happen. You know I'm going to raise my children arena. You know why did this happen. You know I'm going to raise my children up. You know for you, you know that I'm going to serve you, no matter what. Why did you do this? And I think what you said was so good? You have to trust him. You have to trust him.
Speaker 1:Well, you know, I think also with that the why. You know, we always want to know the why. But what I've learned is asking God what what is not why, but what's your will?
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's right In this you know, I mean not the why may not always come to us, but the what. I believe God makes that available for his people. And so, even with the loss of our children that we've had, you know which, I said, in no way is a comparison to Tammy what the Lord spoke to me, Tammy, when we miscarried a couple, was that my mother that had passed always wanted grandchildren.
Speaker 2:Yes, she did.
Speaker 1:And the Lord spoke to me and said I trusted you with this process that now your mother has grandbabies in heaven, and we believe that if you lose a child, whether you abort a child, whether you miscarry a child, the child dies until they hit the age of accountability. They are with the Lord. And so one of the things we did too Tammy for us is when we buried the child that we lost. We buried the child next to my mother and there's an actual graveside. We did a service and everything for that, and so that was the way that God kind of gave us the what.
Speaker 2:So if you're?
Speaker 1:listening right now. Maybe you're saying why God? Why? Why? You may not know why, but ask him what is his will? His will will always suffice, whatever that is, no matter what you, whether you've lost a job, whether you've lost a loved one, whether you've lost a parent, whether you've lost a marriage, it doesn't matter what it is. God has a plan behind it all, and you may not have every single answer, but he will give you enough of whatever it is that you need in order to get through it.
Speaker 2:That's right. And Tammy, you said, if I remember correctly, you said when you said Lord, I trust you, you said you felt a weight come off. Is that correct? Yeah, and it's like. It's like there's no way around that. You know, you want to figure out the why and you want to figure out the what you want to figure out everything, but it's like you have to relinquish total, total control to him.
Speaker 2:As hard as it is sometimes, you know as hard as it is, you know it's so important to do and I do believe that there is a release that happens when you do that. So you know, tammy. So your son? So you lost your son. Your son went to heaven with Jesus when you so, as you journeyed through life, what was your relationship with your daughter like after that?
Speaker 3:Well, it really made an impact, a huge impact in her faith, and she went to a Christian school. You know, when she was five, oh mommy, I asked Jesus in my heart. But when she was nine because she was close to eight when Matthew died, she was nine she said how can I know for sure that I'm going to heaven and I'm going to see Jesus and be with Matthew again? And so we had a very serious discussion about salvation and her asking Jesus to forgive. I wanted her.
Speaker 3:To actually profess this? Because at five, yes, a lot of kids say I invited Jesus into my heart.
Speaker 2:Right right.
Speaker 3:This was a moment, and sitting on our bed, talking, and I was able to lead her in prayer and she received Jesus as her Lord and Savior, and I just prayed that. When she went to the Christian school through sixth grade, we prayed that she would be a light in the public school system, and that's exactly. God honored that and um. So she was a joy, though, to be around. Honestly, the lord used her to help us through, like even if I wasn't crying, she said mommy, you're, I know you're not crying, but your eyes look sad. So even when you think you're putting on this, you, you know for your kids, they see it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:Read me and um, but we had so many opportunities. You know she had a special needs brother. It really impacted how she saw life and um but she was just a joy. Um, she was one of those kids that the light of Jesus just shone through her. Everybody wanted to be around her, just a really loving little girl. But yeah, nine years old is when she gave her life to Jesus. So he was preparing her and a couple years later she was going into the public school system.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:But during that interim period my husband and I with grief, it was period, you know, my husband and I with grief, it was just. You know, I felt the tangible loss because I held him, I took care of him, I was working full time, we had a nurse, but when I would come home from work I was doing everything. I said to my husband just get the groceries, you do this stuff outside the house, I'll take care of him. But my husband felt a sense of relief when Matthew died, actually because he had special needs, he had oxygen, he had a GJ2. And he was just terrified of that and I think he felt a relief initially. But six months later I saw my husband crying his head against the fireplace. And you know, and my husband's is strong, you know I was telling pastor jay prior um you know, he was 82nd year born.
Speaker 3:He's hardcore military oh, wow, okay, you know the kind of guy you ever see cry and I rarely. I don't even know if I ever saw my husband cry until that time, um, but we were at different uh of grief, you know, while one was strong, one was weak. That's just the process that we had to go through.
Speaker 1:Wow, well, you know you, you you experienced a loss there with your son. Then your daughter gives her life to the Lord and you're probably thinking everything is going to go smooth sailing, even though there's, you know, you guys are still grieving Cause I don't know if you 100%, you'd be able to speak to this a lot better than I would ever. Uh, is you ever 100% get over bearing your child, your child? But after you kind of get through some of this, then life takes another turn. Talk to us about what happened with your daughter.
Speaker 3:So nine years pass. Um, alex was a senior in high school, just excited for her. She was a competitive gymnast, she was a cheerleader, oh wow. And I just enjoyed spending time with his family because he had three little brothers and she really, for nine years she was an only child and she did not like that. She really didn't tell people she had little brothers. She said I don't want to make them upset or cry. And so her senior year, she was just so excited and we were having talks. You know, this is so. Everything happened November 1st, but September, the end of September, it was homecoming. We're talking about the homecoming court and we just had that discussion about the crown. You know, the crown that you receive in heaven is so much greater than anything, any trophy, any reward you would. And she'll say, she said, mom, you always say things like that, that kind of thing. I feel like God was preparing her heart to go home to heaven because we were just having.
Speaker 3:We were talking about the Lord's return. When the trumpet sounds, and even though she was looking forward to that, she said I bet I'd really like to get married. And I said well, when God, when the father sends his son back, it's you know, we don't, we don't have a choice in that, so you just have to be ready.
Speaker 3:And so we had a lot of discussions about that and heaven. She was just asking a lot of questions about Matthew what's he doing in heaven? And so I guess I'll just get right to it. The night she had asked me, on Tuesday, we were very strict parents, even at 17 years old. We just did not, you know, want her out anywhere during the week, especially a couple hours. And so we both agreed and I gave her a kiss my husband was in the basement at the time gave her a kiss and she took off, spent the evening with him and his family, helped with homework and then. But her curfew was at 10. And she did not come home at 10. So it's 10 after 10.
Speaker 2:And I'm pacing and and is she usually on time? Tammy, like it's usually like okay.
Speaker 3:I mean, she knows the rules and she definitely didn't want to hear it from her dad.
Speaker 3:So she would have been home at 10. And I thought, okay, and Andrew, they only lived a couple miles from us. So I was pacing back and forth and actually the strange thing is I was kind of dozing off and I kind of startled out of a sleep and I looked around. I was really confused. I'm like what is going on? So I got up and I noticed it was 10 after 10. And I started pacing, looking out the window.
Speaker 3:Her car wasn't in the garage and by 10.15, I messaged Andrew's mother and she said well, she left at 5 to 10. And this is like 20 minutes later and I just felt this awful feeling in my spirit that something was terribly wrong. And so I said to my husband we have to go now. We have to go, something has happened. And so we get in the car and we follow the path where she would have went and we came upon the scene where there was first responders and flares, but we couldn't see what was going on and my husband yelled. He said we didn't even know. We just knew in our spirit, but we hadn't seen anything. He said we didn't even know.
Speaker 2:We just knew in our spirit.
Speaker 3:We hadn't seen anything. He said that's our daughter, we have to go down, we have to pray for her and we won't get in the way. Just let us go down and pray for her. And as we're driving down this little country road, we see this sheet covering her car and we didn't know it was her car and it was facing the opposite direction of what she would have traveled. And we just parked and got out and just were walking towards her car and obviously they stop us and the fire chief said he said I'm sorry, you can't go, you can't go over there. And it was like being in a. Uh. I personally felt like we were. I was lifted up above the scene, like I was looking down.
Speaker 3:It was just like God's. I just called it God shock. It's like His holy presence, it's just. It comes over upon you and there was no screaming, there was no yelling, it was like this calm scene. It was surreal. And all I remember is saying to the fire chief she's gone, isn't she? And he said yes, and I said I can't do this again. I said I've already lost one child.
Speaker 2:This is our other child.
Speaker 3:I immediately was going to. I just I can't even believe we are going to face this again. So being on the scene was very surreal and obviously her boyfriend comes through the woods on a quad, you know, because he he's. It was just, it was really awful and we just put him in the car with us until his dad came to get him and uh, but going home that night I know I'm jumping around, there's a lot of details.
Speaker 2:No, you're trying.
Speaker 3:The Holy Spirit was there because, speaking to people after getting their account, the neighbors said that the crick that ran through that property was completely still. They said the hair on the back of their neck was. They just felt something was going on. The forensic police officer that removed her from the car came to our house three weeks later. He said I've never done this before Gone to someone's house. He said, but I was in the presence of God when I was with your daughter and he just started crying and hugging my husband and he ends up coming to our church. He gets saved.
Speaker 1:And so, Tammy, I'm sorry, but he never Wait a minute. This guy comes to your house three weeks later.
Speaker 3:He wasn't a Christian.
Speaker 1:He was not a Christian, but he knew it was God's presence. Wow, wow.
Speaker 3:Yes, and he almost, when he was saying it, he like kind of dropped his his knees and my husband held him up and just hugged him and like God kept sending people to us. Like you know, I felt the presence and these were people that weren't believers. There was another neighbor that he said he was the one that actually was on the scene first and he said I, he said my sixth, sixth sense.
Speaker 3:So he was not a believer he kept talking about sixth sense told me there was a little boy in the back seat of the car. Uh, a young child, about two years. He's coming along with him. This is oh my, wow yeah and um, he said, your daughter just looked like she was sleeping. He, she had long eyelashes, just looked so peaceful and sleeping. But he couldn't sleep. He called us a week later. He said this is what he told us your daughter's tormenting us, tormenting me.
Speaker 3:He said I can't sleep day and night because he's battling like you know God, and then whatever else he believed and he felt that he didn't say God, he didn't know God, but whatever was tormenting, obviously God was touching him and showing him himself. I think he experienced that, but there was a fight there because he didn't believe in God.
Speaker 3:So we have an agnostic, we have other people that maybe believe here, but they have never received Jesus. So these are all unbelievers that are coming to us and saying something happened on the scene the presence of God and the crick stood still. It was like everything stood still. I even said that it was like looking down on the scene. Yeah, yeah, it was obviously. His supernatural presence had filled the scene.
Speaker 1:And.
Speaker 3:I always think about that. You know, when we die, you know he sends ministering spirits for those who inherit salvation. Were they in the presence of angels? They couldn't see that. I don't know the veil's thin. You know Jesus standing right there as we. Um, I don't know the veil's thin. You know jesus standing right there as we well I don't know, pastor jay, what your thoughts are on that.
Speaker 1:Well, I always I'm totally with matter of fact, what the lord showed me when my mother passed, um I I don't want to waste the time sharing my stuff, I could do that later but I remember um I actually she was, she'd gotten, so we had to put her in a nursing home. Unfortunately, my dad did an outstanding job but she needed I mean total, round the clock care she had. It was beyond our ability and I remember I had to minister at the nursing home. She was in. She's only in there a couple of weeks or so. It wasn't very long before she passed and I remember I was there on a Sunday morning. Now let me backtrack just a second.
Speaker 1:It was Wednesday before we were pastoring a church there and we're in the middle of worship and the presence of God broke out. My brother, pastor Keller, was there and he started weeping in the middle of worship, not because of grief or anything, just the power of God felt. When the power of God felt, the Lord spoke to me and said I'm coming for your mother and I thought she was going to be healed. So I'm sitting there saying, all right, she's going to be healed in the name of Jesus and that's it. So I was excited, rejoicing. That was Wednesday. Now she wasn't on her way out, she just needed total around the clock care. We were. It was in November for us as well, tammy and so we were planning all right, how are we going to do Thanksgiving? How are we going to do Christmas? That Sunday she dies.
Speaker 1:Now the reason why I say that I go into the nursing home, I minister there to the nursing home, that I go and visit her that night she passes what the Lord showed me, to your point, I saw him coming and standing at the feet of her bed and grabbing her spirit, her reaching out, coming out of her body, grabbing him, and the first thought I had my dad came to our house at 12 o'clock was that I know somebody that met Jesus personally, and that is where my mind went.
Speaker 1:So, to your point, I believe in all of that. I believe that veil is thin. I believe that when God comes for you, the Bible says to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. So there's got to be a way that that transition happens. And the Bible says that it's beautiful in the eyes of the Lord, the death of his saints. So I totally believe in that. Now, listen, I don't want to. I don't want to move forward, but I need to go. I want to move forward. I want to go back to something, because the gentleman that you said came to your house and said he felt the presence of God your husband wasn't saved.
Speaker 3:at the time, right yes, at the date of my daughter's accident, he said. He went down to the basement, he got down on his knees just lift up his hands. And he asked Jesus to forgive him. He said take control of my life, Just use me.
Speaker 3:And, like I said, it was almost like warm water was being sprinkled on his head and like literally there was a transformation because my husband had an addiction to marijuana and he just never could sleep well and so he thought it was helping. But it started. That habit started when he was young and and he was completely delivered from that. He threw it out and I mean my daughter. He never did that around us, but it was like he did this to sleep. You know people make excuses for those kind of things and but he was completely delivered, so he was saved the night of her accident.
Speaker 1:So the night of her accident she went downstairs. Nobody leads him to the Lord, he just was. Well, you know what?
Speaker 3:I'll be honest with you Even in my mind he was going to church.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 3:He was going to church with us. But again, many people attend church but they don't know the Lord, and so those seeds have been planted, but it took the death of our daughter to?
Speaker 1:What did he say brought him? What brought him to that? Like, what was it that said, in the middle of that grief and heartache, to say I'm going to go downstairs and give my life to Jesus? What was going on in his thinking that made him Because most time you'd be so caught up in grief you'd probably be angry. He had a point of surrender that night. So what was happening in him?
Speaker 3:I think he was so broken because he tends to want to control things, and he was so broken, at the point of grief, that he loved our daughter so much that it was just I don't know, I don't know, but he just the Holy Spirit obviously just woke him up, that he needed to turn his life around.
Speaker 2:Well, you know, it's amazing, he needed the Lord to do that. He just nobody let him, that's right, yeah, yeah, well, I just see, amen, I'm sorry. I just see the transformative power of the Holy Spirit working in so many different dimensions.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's outstanding.
Speaker 2:In that night. In that night, you know and I I mean even just the, the gentleman that came to your house afterwards and said that he knew, I mean that's that's really blowing my mind right now. I mean he knew that he was in the presence of God and he was not saved. That to me that says, you know what, when God shows up, you'll know. You will know that God showed up. You know, tammy, after the the death of your daughter, if your daughter went home to be with Jesus, did you ever you know you mentioned about the anger that can come out, you know, with people that, with God, with people who experienced loss, did you ever wrestle with God, especially after your daughter passed?
Speaker 3:Actually. No, I know that sounds strange, but neither one of us ever went through that anger process. And I know that that is part of that, can be part of the grief. I think that we were just. We just said it was their appointed time. There was nothing that we could have done to change that, and it was just the perspective of his word that you know we're appointed a time and we accepted it. We accepted both of them. My husband went through some anger after Matthew because there was a lot of disinvitation in the hospital, you know, and without getting into that.
Speaker 3:But no, with Alex it was like it was her time to go home. But you know, sometimes you'll say I don't understand this Lord. You know, this is our only child left and she dies in a car accident. And um, you know there's a lot of details to that night. Um, but it's hard to get into it. I do. I do, uh, talk about that in the details of my book. There's a lot of details, it's just not enough time to get into everything.
Speaker 1:Tammy, I do want to say that. Mention, mention the book. Brad, bring that up. If you would. Please talk about the book, because I know people are going to want to get their hands on that's a great segue. Please don't forget what you're saying, but tell us about the book, what's in the book and how they can get their hands on that as well.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I had been speaking at women's conferences over the years and it was kind of a compilation of my testimony. And then we brought my husband's testimony in and what God has been doing through everything. And so we were in Uganda in November of 2019, and my friend Amy was with us with their family.
Speaker 3:And on the way home on the plane, she said it's time to write the book. And people said why didn't you write it years ago? And I said because we were in it. We were in the storm of our life and I hadn't had the perspective yet.
Speaker 3:And so it's called Homecoming a story of hope out of heartbreak. And you can find that on Amazon. You can search it with the book title or even just enter Tammy Summers. It should come up for you. And I want to say that the book all proceeds go to water wells in Uganda. So through all of this, our book ministry. So far we've tapped seven wells. We partner with Seed in Pittsburgh an organization that works in Uganda.
Speaker 3:They have a missionary there that oversees the Ugandan team who does these water wells, and we have friends Lord willing I get to go again this summer to Uganda but we have friends Millie and Robert there that we're part of the ministry there.
Speaker 2:And we met. Millie right Did, did we meet?
Speaker 3:Millie yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we did.
Speaker 1:She's amazing, Is that a? Uh, my issue.
Speaker 2:It's yeah.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, we actually and her husband.
Speaker 3:I'm sorry what?
Speaker 1:Oh no, I was gonna say we actually partnered with them and, um, we've sent a bunch of no. I was gonna say we actually partnered with them and we've sent a bunch of sewing machines to help women develop a cost of living, kind of like a develop a job.
Speaker 3:Supports the girls in the secondary school who they have a room and board Christian education. These are girls that are at risk of being trapped between that and the water wells. I'm really excited to be able to see where, because, pastor Robert, that's his home, where he was raised in Kigali, uganda, and so he knows exactly strategically where these water wells need to be placed. So it's been great to be able to partner with them there.
Speaker 2:So well. You know, tammy, thank you so much for writing that book that is. It's so good, I know. You know, my mother even commented on it and she said, oh, because she was there when you came to speak at our women's event and she got the book and she said, like you said, tammy, there are women and men that are watching and that will be watching, that maybe not have had the same exact circumstance but are right now and have been grieving the loss of their child or children. What are some steps that you would tell them and you would encourage them to take to start the healing process? Like I said in the beginning, there was one person that said I didn't even start. It's been years but they didn't even start the grieving process yet. They feel like they haven't started. What are some steps?
Speaker 3:that you would tell them to take to start moving that along. Well, I started serving in youth ministry two months after my daughter died. I was asked invited to do that and I have found, and I would you know, minister, to these kids who had trauma, and then I'd cry my eyes out the whole way home.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and then I'd put another step forward and then I would do it again and as I was pouring my life out, when I was completely broken, where I don't want to leave the house, but I knew I didn't want the enemy to get a foothold, it was like I am going to do this, I'm going to serve in Jesus' name. I'm a worship leader. I'm going to do this.
Speaker 1:I'm going to serve in Jesus' name.
Speaker 3:I'm a worship leader. I'm going to sing about his goodness and his faithfulness. And so, even if you feel like you're forcing yourself to do it, you do it and you serve because you get into the word. And worship, we know, is not just about us singing with our voices, it's worshiping with our lives.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:Our lives into other people and we're doing the Father's will, the things after God's heart. It's like we're in the presence of Jesus. When we're in the presence of Jesus, there's perfect peace there is joy despite our circumstances. There is just like I was just so hungry to get into the mission field, whether it was here or in another country. My heart was so full and the more I would serve. I could see over the years how the Lord was just healing that huge hole in my heart, telling your testimony, tell your story, tell all about your children, your family.
Speaker 3:See them. What was it like before? What is your life not like now? Um, every time I wrote at a woman's conference, every time I was writing, I thought I was healed. You mentioned this earlier. I thought I was healed. You mentioned this earlier, I thought I was healed. It was like that onion, you just keep peeling back the layers. I would just cry. But then it was like okay, here we go again. So it's putting one foot in front of the other.
Speaker 3:Get in let the word wash over you, like, hold on to this, like the word of God is truth, and you know we can just say it and we can read it. But like, do we really believe it?
Speaker 2:Come on, that's true.
Speaker 3:We're all in a you know, different phases of this. You could be in the storm of your life right now, and then you're starting to smile a little bit and some of you are coming out like you're starting to see the light of Jesus, the hope, and so we're. You know, it's like these up and down roller coasters, but it's like what I would say is just serve, get out there, pour your life into other people who are broken and tell your story, because the Lord will turn, he will use that and to to actually heal, and I I didn't realize till later you were using this to heal my broken heart wow so um, it's been a journey and a perspective.
Speaker 3:Pray for the mind of christ lord, help me to see this through your eyes. Show me how you will receive glory. Like Matthew, I was saying I don't understand this Lord. For two years I'm questioning, but with Alex I couldn't pray anything. But how are you going to receive glory from this Lord?
Speaker 3:Help me to see this circumstance through your eyes and you, pastor Jay. You said I love the righteous in the sight of the Lord. I could actually visualize my children coming home to Jesus and welcome home and I have that in my mind all the time. And people say, well, if you could bring back, would you? I said absolutely not. I said they're home with Jesus Like we. My husband and I said if our kids were here now, would we be doing what we're doing? No, we really wouldn't be. So I miss them terribly. I can't wait to hold them again and we have so much to look forward to. But we've learned to live again. We've learned to live and to keep pressing on by the power of the Holy Spirit. You know when it's our time. We'll be with them for eternity, amen.
Speaker 1:Well, you know, Tammy, we so thank you for your testimony. There's so much.
Speaker 1:I wish we had more time to go into, because there's so many things that I see the handiwork of God in you, your family, and it doesn't surprise me that you weren't angry with God. It really doesn't, because I understand in a lesser degree what happened with my mother and how God can give you peace and how he can give you consolation even in the midst of such tragic loss, and you know his grace. The Bible says where sin abounds, grace that that much more abounds. So sin is not just we committed a sin. I believe the effects of sin, which is death, even grace always supersedes.
Speaker 1:He said in this world. You're going to tribulation, but be of good cheer. I've overcome the world and we've seen the overcoming power of God with you, your husband and your testimony, and we just pray that God continues to give you greater platforms to share about his goodness and what he's doing, and I believe that there's many people that are going to be healed and, honestly, I don't believe that you have hit the tip of the iceberg yet of what God wants to do in and through your ministry. I think the best is yet to come for you. I think you still have much more to share.
Speaker 1:And I think this is going to be a season for you that God is going to give you a greater platform, that all he's been doing in the past couple of years is putting the finishing touches on what he's about to do, because people need to hear your story. So thank you so much for stopping by here on Dimensions, and we would love to have you back another time to do a part two. That's right.
Speaker 3:Thank you. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1:Amen.
Speaker 2:God bless you. Wow, wow, I mean definitely a part two.
Speaker 2:There was just so much in there. You know I always, whenever we have guests, I like to take some notes, and one of the interesting things that she said amongst the many was she said the more that she served, the more that she was healed. The more that she served, the more that she was, the more that she gave to others in ministry. God healed her heart and I love the fact that she said, cause there's so many people out there that you might be really you're in the midst of the grieving process, or maybe you started, or maybe you're, maybe you're at the end. But if you heard her, she said she is now able to live again.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, that's what she did to overcome, I know, with my life, and once again it losses their degrees and what she's experienced as far as supersedes mine.
Speaker 1:No-transcript. Ladies and gentlemen, we we get stuck in our hurt. We're angry. You can't go back. There's nothing you can do, no matter what you've lost, no matter what we've had to leave behind. You have to leave it behind. You have to move forward. You have to turn the page and start a new chapter, and that's what Tammy and Brian have done, and you can just see the fruit of that and the fact that she said she wasn't angry. I could totally understand it. I have never been where she's been, but I can understand how God, even how she said she goes. You know, her husband goes on and gives his life to the Lord, I mean that is not a time that you're usually thinking that unless God's in it, that's right.
Speaker 1:That's that right there, you know, I thought about the purposes of her children. How many people are coming to Jesus for through? That it kind of reminds me of the scripture says God so loved. She said how this is our only child and God's like yeah, so that was my only child too. But whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Speaker 1:And now I think about Matthew and Alex. It reminds me of the scripture about with Cain and Abel that even though Abel died, it says even though Abel died, his blood still speaks and there was a testimony of those that have gone before her testimony. She's preaching louder today. The first sermon that Alex ever preached was her own father.
Speaker 3:Her life preached a sermon to her father, to where he gave his life to the Lord Before there was.
Speaker 1:You know, a lot of times people talk about how they're at funerals. Like as a pastor I've seen, funerals are the best time to do an altar call.
Speaker 2:Her death precipitated her father's altar she was in heaven already at that point, so her life was already speaking to him in a way that caused him to come to jesus.
Speaker 1:And then another guy, yeah, decides, okay, I show up at somebody's doorpost talking about I don't even know jesus.
Speaker 1:But I thought, but I know that I was in his presence unbelievable I mean that shows me, and this is one thing I want to say too, and and this might be an encouragement to Tammy and to her family and everyone else. I do funerals all the time, and when I go to funerals, you know how people lived. The spirit of how they live in the room is always in the room of the funeral, and her spirit of how she lived not only was on the accident scene, on the death scene, it was also afterwards. People were being ministered to, after she's gone, and never and she never preached a word. Her life in the presence of God spoke for.
Speaker 2:Well, even now, look what's happening now, look what we're doing now. Look at how many people are still speaking. Now her life is still speaking. You know, tammy and her husband, what they've gone through. It's ministry. Ministry is coming out of that. Other people are going to get touched, other people are going to get saved, other people are going to get set free.
Speaker 2:That's right just simply because they were obedient, even in this process, and they said, lord, I love what she said. God, you're in control, I'm going to give it to you, I trust you, god, and when you do that, I mean he does wonders.
Speaker 1:Only he can redeem something like that. Only he can do that I mean to lose two children at that young and never, ever. You know she's talked about how she'll never be able to. There's a lot of I'll never be a grandparent. I'll never be a grandparent.
Speaker 2:I'll never have this. I'll never have that.
Speaker 1:And you have to go through that stage and you don't just give it to God once, you give it to God every day or as you get older, say, well now, this would have been the year she would have did this, and so you got to give it to God again. You know, but what? I just feel this from the Lord right now that we, those of you that have given something to the Lord, that every time some grief comes up, god's going to redeem it. God's going to redeem it. He's going God. Never we're sin abound. Grace, that's that much more bound. I have seen that and yeah, and a lot of people say I don't know how in the world she could ever do it. You would never know, unless you need to be in that, unless God called you to be in that situation.
Speaker 2:You talk about it with your mom.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Grace, the strength and the grace that all of you were filled with, even you preaching your mom's funeral.
Speaker 1:Cause everybody told me. They said you're not going to be able to do it, You're not gonna be able to preach it, Just go home, you know, let somebody else do it. And my brother's saying I preached at it. We had someone else actually do the eulogy, but I officiated the service. I did all that and I mean I got in there and started praising God. You don't realize how powerful Think about it If the grace of God, the life of God that's in Christ Jesus, that got him up out of the grave.
Speaker 3:You got to remember a lot of people don't do this.
Speaker 1:I know we got to go, but you know you don't think about how. When Jesus was on the cross, he was whipped 39 times on his back, so his flesh hang like ribbons. He was struck a hundred times on his face. He had nails in his hands. He was pierced in his side. He had nails in his feet. He had a crown of thorns on his head and he carried the cross a long way and he's still preaching. And by the time he got to the point where he died, the Bible says he let out a shout. I mean, you don't do that. I mean somebody gets beaten, left for dead, they lay on the ground and they can barely even talk. He's still talking. My point is saying that you don't realize how much God's power is available in your life. Of course none of us want to go through that. None of us want to face loss. None of us want to go through those things. But if we have to, you are not helpless or hopeless. Jesus Christ will be there for you and bring you through it.
Speaker 2:Well, you know you were mentioning John 3, 16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. And immediately when you said that, I thought about the love of God, how the love of God covers, how the love of God causes transformation, even in people's lives that don't know him. How the love of God will cause you and help you journey through some of life's most difficult challenges. It's the love of God. I think about it. We can't really even fathom the extent of how much he loves us with our limited capability of thinking as human beings because we're limited.
Speaker 2:We really don't understand how vast his love is for us. You know, I can even feel it right now as we're as we're talking about just the love of God. The love of God saying listen, give it to me, I will take care of you. The love of God, that saying don't worry about that, trust me, I'll handle that. I'll help you navigate through that. The love of god, babe amen, amen.
Speaker 1:So listen, I know we don't do altar calls all the time on a podcast, but I just feel right now is an opportunity, just if you need jesus christ into your heart, to take a moment and just accept him into your heart. You know you don't a lot of people come to an altar because a preacher called them. But if you go back back to what Brian when his daughter died that night, he went down into the basement, got down on his knees, says Lord, I'm tired of wrestling, I give my life to you. I mean wow, I mean that's all that it takes, it's just a surrendered, willing heart. The sinner's prayer is not even a biblical thing, it's just a model that kind of says this is what the posture of your heart should look like when you give your life to Jesus.
Speaker 1:But if you're in that place, all you have to do, just like Brian did, is get down on your knees and say Lord, I'm tired of wrestling, tired of fighting, I'm ready to receive you into my heart. And if you do that, I would say it like this God will do for you what a phone booth did for Clark Kent Turn you into another man or into another woman, and God will transform your life. And after that, go, find yourself a church, get plugged in, or they will disciple you, develop you and grow you so you can be the best version that God has called you to be. And of course, we'd welcome you at Another Level Ministries. Go to webpage wwwanotherlevelchurch. We'd love to have you. And before we go, you'd be remiss to tell you.
Speaker 1:Please make sure you like, subscribe, follow, share, share this with somebody, type it in the uh, the comment bar, or type it in uh, wherever it is that you're sharing it on Facebook, and let people know. You have to hear this story. I promise you people will be blessed and will be impacted. So we'll be looking forward to next week. We'll be right back here on Thursday eight o'clock. If you're listening to this, go on iHeartRadio Android Apple Store, wherever it is, and get the latest edition of Dimensions Every week, at least one time a week. We're going to be coming to you live and you'll be able to catch it and, if you like, subscribe, follow, share all that good stuff, you'll be the latest member of the Dimensions family and let us be the first to welcome you. God bless you and we'll look forward to seeing you next time right here on Dimensions.
