You know, now I am thoroughly convinced that God has a sense of humor. As you know, June 17, 1999 was the date of my wreck. I can vividly remember the conversations I had with those girls: ‘I Wanna Know’ echoing through my mind with Melissa’s beautiful voice, Tina’s sarcastic sense of humor and me holding her hand to my cheek saying, “Even though you try to piss me off, you still make me smile.”, telling her that we were going to the top. One of my most beautiful recollections of those two girls was driving in the car with Melissa as we passed a field of wild sunflowers. “Melissa told me that she liked sunflowers as we passed the field…
This past year was seven years since the wreck, the first time that sunflowers have ever been behind the cross to remember those two girls. It still hurts to have lost Tina and Melissa but as I crossed the road, I realized that Heaven is what you like and so much more. Better days are on their way. You must cross the road to find them They are with God and there were three bushes of sunflowers…what she liked. It makes me happy that they are so happy. “Heaven ain’t Hard to Find…all you gotta do is look” So, I picked some for Melissa since she liked them so much. The poetry of my life is so beautiful
If I was to make an overall theme of my life, I would describe it as good. I will never forget those faded pictures …one of my fondest memories of them is going to a ball game with those two girls, watching the Stars and finding the way with them to understanding; I wish I could express my true feelings to them today. Whenever I think of them, I have a smile on my face. Every time I close my eyes I thank the Lord that I got them…and they got me too
We used to laugh all the time; Tina’s last name was Herstein and I used to always call her Her-stine after the Young Frankenstein movie joke. She would always laugh just as you are right now; I loved that. I remember listening to, “Unconditional Love” repetitiously with them. Please notice the presupposition in this. Thank you for the memories. I will never forget the love I had for Melissa; she loved me and I loved her. I remember her singing the song “I Wanna Know” by Joe. The song came on the radio; I had never heard the song before so I turned the station. To this day I hear her voice echoing,” No, I like that song.” I quickly turn it back to hear her sing the words, “I wish that I could take a journey through your mind; and find emotions that you always try to hide.” I hear those words running through my mind all the time and I smile. I wait for that love again. I guess that was the Lord’s way of saying, ” You had good days before; you are in store for even greater.”
I have grown up as a very active member of my church. From teaching the children the Way, to interacting with the youth and giving understanding to the College & Career Class, my limits are God’s limits and God has no limits.
I thank God for my Christian Heritage; my great grandfather was a Baptist Minister until the day he died, my grandfather is a Baptist Minister and my family loves and serves the Lord. God is working within me as we speak.
Now to build a house, you must first have a foundation. That foundation is experience, experience from reasoning, logos; that foundation is God. Starting off, I must say God is good…and has no limit. What they have taken away from me, God has given back ten fold.
It has been [insert publishing date of book printing] since the wreck. Since there is no way to know every aspect and to put it into the words of a book of what I went through, I will just say I was in a car wreck. We were just going to see a movie; what it was, I am unsure. It could have been a series of things: Life, the Matrix, Wild, Wild West, who knows. But one thing must be said, I love those girls.
A woman, drunk and who was upset with her boyfriend was driving towards the intersection of Ruth Wall and 114; you know, right beside Grapevine Mills Mall. Tina and Melissa were going to the movies with me and driving in my car after I had a long day life guarding at the YMCA. Two friends of mine were following.
To make a long story short, we came up to the intersection of Ruth Wall and 114. My light turned green so I proceeded forward. It wasn’t half way through the intersection, the woman struck the driver’s side going 80+MPH and so the story begins.
You know, sometimes life isn’t really fair. In reflection of that night, I remember being confused of where my friends were going to go, being too trustworthy of people and thinking she was going to stop. I loved, love and will always love those girls. As I lay in Melissa’s lap, thinking this was a dream, I heard screams. “Josh, Josh, Josh!!!”, my best friend saw a girl tossed out of the rear windshield brutally breaking her back. I acknowledged him with a gargle; I was still conscious.
He told a mutual friend up at work, “Josh doesn’t have any legs; they were torn off in the wreck!” His eyes had seen too much; mortified and astonished, all they could do now is pray.
As you can see, I am fine now; like I said, God has no limit. The two girls driving in my car…they’re with Jesus now. I told them one day we were going to the top; they just got there a little quicker. The last time I saw them was in a dream of only mental cognizance, not of physical recollection about three months after the wreck when I was in a coma for three months.
BEFORE MY WRECK
AFTER MY WRECK; DO YOU SEE THE DIFFERENCE?!? THAT IS GOD
I did not know what happened to me, saw blue stars and two beautiful girls in white robes take me to a dark room. “Everything will be alright”, they said. I was confused; ‘What will be alright?!?’, I asked. All they could do was walk off into the distance with their beautiful blonde and brunette hair. I guess that was God’s way of saying, “I am still here even though all this is happening.’
That is odd, Tina and Melissa had blonde and brunette hair. I saw them in a dream within my mind, but they had passed. It is almost as if God is within our minds, a presupposition because He was supposed in minds way before you, an aforethought.
Angels are mentioned throughout the Bible described as being in white robes and it says in John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was God…” It is almost as if the Bible is speaking the truth; the Bible is God.
As I look back on the night of June 17th, 1999, I know summer time was their favorite time of year because this was when Melissa went to Galveston or Tina went to her Banquet and I would like to think this was their favorite time because this was the time they spent with me. At every season’s changing, the wind reeks of their hair; that is how vivid their memory is. “In the Arms of an Angel” was what was sung at their funeral and as you can see, that is exactly where I stood. The good Lord giveth and the good Lord taketh away; Come quickly Lord Jesus, even so, come quickly.
Now, what I have learned in the past few years is unbelievable. I did not know the extent of my injuries. My pelvis was broken in seven different places. What is the miracle in all of this?!? Number one, I am alive and cognizant enough to use words like ‘cognizant’ and write a book to share my experience. Number two, I do not have metal plates or anything foreign in my body from my pelvis being broken in seven different places which healed perfectly in only two weeks. Every organ was lacerated in my body except my heart and left lung; God is good.
The human body only holds five units of blood, but it took twenty-seven units to keep me alive that night; by the way did I mention my blood type is Type AB-, the rarest blood type?!? I thank God for each and everyone of you that gave blood the next day so that which I used could be replaced. Not a day passes that your donation is not appreciated. You allowed me to fulfill a purpose and mission
Also, I have learned my two frontal lobes were sheared in my skull. What does sheared mean?!? My two frontal lobes were torn from the rest of my brain and healed itself! No breaks, surgeries or permanent memory loss; God is great!!!
The next couple of years were a blur to me. I spent hundreds of hours in various hospitals, there were thousands of trips to doctors and the hospital bill was well over a million dollars and God took care of that too.
The person I am today is a little wiser, submissive and meek to name a few of my characteristics. I am a living testimony to God’s good grace. Throughout this world, I had people praying for me: in New Zealand, Africa, several Southern Pacific Isles and throughout the United States. All those precious prayers were answered; thank you.
Through that experience, God has blessed me in ways you will never be able to imagine. I was offered a job at Bell Helicopter, Textron in Forth Worth, Texas under the Chemical & Analysis Department only two years after my wreck. I was only able to lift 225 lbs. for five repetitions under four sets before my wreck. I am able to bench press well over that amount now and it only took me a year to recover the strength I had before the wreck on a constant basis. I am currently enrolled at Dallas Baptist University, world renowned and a very prestigious school, with a 3.0 GPA from my previous college and it rising with my understanding of God. You tell me God is not there, I will share at least three miracles he has bestowed upon me. As my Pastor says, “If God brings you to it, He will bring you through it.” As you can see, through my cognizance, strength and mobile ness, He has brought me every step of the way.
Now, what I have learned in my life, is that there is genius in simplicity yet it takes simplicity to define genius terms coherently. This is not a new concept; Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Nietzsche, Homer and Leibniz say this through either their hypocrisy or understanding. The Bible even says this through its own words. Jesus said, “Suffer the little children and forbid them not unto me; for such is the Kingdom of Heaven .” and “Except you become as one of these, you will not enter in.” What Jesus is saying here is ‘Blessed are the simple minded.’ If we take on faith, such as a child, we will inherit and enter into the Gates of Heaven. See, I just see things simpler now after my wreck than I did in my past. God is the Word and all the Word is telling us to do is live a simpler life. We see it as a question, but a question has two answers: right or wrong. This is our choice. The Bible is the right way; it is telling us how to live a simpler life. True life is lived full of insinuations through our mind, associations through connection, allegories through our perverseness, constancy through the One, an experience to understand, a statement not question, purposeful , has no limitations, an inner mind through understanding, mental not physical, a healing not a scar, a searching for a period but not the end of the paragraph, acknowledgement, a source, a reason, completeness, Divinely Inspired, obedience, good, outside the boundaries of time, reference, decisive not inquisitive, adaptation within the Bible of understanding, examples, parables of experience from education, implications, connection, a beginning but never an end, within our minds, reliant on the Source if lived well, how not why, choice but never a chance and never a wrong decision, understood, in prepositions from the Presupposition, anticipation, reflection, simplicity from One. Do not look at the quantity of words I use to describe life, but the quality of understanding I use throughout this book.
Since we look at the positive aspect of life, we should acknowledge the negative: what not to do in life.
What is missing in every story in the Bible? The main characters knowledge of good which is later realized, understood. We see how they fall with their knowledge of evil or succeed with their knowledge of good. It is our knowledge that is crucial. Knowledge is where God lies and believing in this knowledge is beneficial. The benefit is eternal life.
Wrong, evil, sin just is not living a simpler life. We think this is just going behind God’s back, but just as a parent instructs a child, such is the Bible. Life is just a word; what matters is the connection the word implies. We can either take it as a Gift or a Curse. This is the connection and its implications; life is what we make of it. As we live at the current moment, we make it hard on ourselves. We ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil but strive towards the bad with hate of different races, sexes, religions when all they seek is understanding, acceptance, etc. Why?!? We may have ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but to know is different than to do. There is no cost to be rewarded; the cost was taken on the cross. There is not a choice, only a commandment, one way to make a decision. This is just a parent instructing a child to live simpler, that is it! Knowledge is a less intimate understanding; strive for understanding.
Also, I have learned there is no need to fight things; what will be, will be. “Blessed are the meek; for they shall inherit the earth.” I will ask you to keep in mind that inheritance insinuates ‘coming’. Sure, you can fight it, but what will it achieve?!? Fighting it in anyway is just showing you do not have faith (God’s mercy to allow His sheep to understanding) in God’s Plan. The strong will lead this world, but those who turn the other cheek will inherit the world. It is better to inherit because what will last longer, this world or the inheritance?!? We must accept the reception or inheritance because it will be given to us if we follow the words in the Bible, the simpler life of meekness and not stirring up anger, and the reason for prime numbers. The Bible is a prime number. The Greek philosophers who studied these numbers understood the idea of primality and were interested in perfect and amicable numbers.
And finally, do not look at Bible Scriptures as things you have to do, unreasonable laws; look at them as advice from your Creator of how to live a simpler, but fuller life. I mean that is who created life. Why not follow the Inventor’s Directions, the Bible. Even the Commandments are just moral law, moral law- the distinction between right and wrong since we ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They are commandments because He knows the easy way out. Sure, there are still going to be people that disobey them, but what are they saying, “I do not want to live simpler!” What the Bible is truly saying is if you want to be a Christian or live simpler since that is all Christians truly are, simple livers, you must follow these commandments. Think about this; we messed up in Eden and God loved us so much He gave us His Word, Himself to live simpler lives if John 1:1 is true. God is not going to banish sinners from this earth because He loves us so much and hopes we will make the right choice, the simpler choice to follow Him.
But the one thing you must do in this life is “Ride it till the wheels fall off.” Before my wreck, I thought life was a dream; I soon found out it really isn’t and it really doesn’t hold anything back from you after an incident like mine. But, I learned the understanding in the pages of the Bible make it a simper, easier life if you follow its’ words. Fulfill your life to the fullest; do your purpose in life and try to overdo. It has been [ INSERT DATE OF PUBLISHING FROM WRECK DATE] since the wreck. I miss those girls; I will see them one day. For right now they are just two teardrops, faded pictures and a memory and have taught me so much, but the most important of these lessons is, “Heaven ain’t Hard to Find, all you got to do is look.” within your mind. I cannot wait to see them on the other side because there, they will not be a memory, but a reality
Since we have dissected the fine prophecies and shown through wording that Jesus is the Messiah, we will now look at the prophecies that directly point to no man other than Jesus.
Isaiah 49:6; 6 He says, “You will do more than restore the people of Israel to me.
I will make you a light to the Gentiles,
and you will bring my salvation to the ends of the earth.”
Gentiles are saved also, but the Jews (of the nation) think they are the “chosen people”. This is in the Old Testament, but the Jews still don’t believe?!? The Gentiles, us, used to eat raw meat from weird animals, worship pagan gods of statues, NOT LIVE SIMPLER!
This man helped them understand with the Jews. Jesus helped them realize that all have the knowledge of evil, but in this situation we are about to read about, Isaiah prophesied what was about to happen (the Pharisees were to honor them w/their lips, face value, but not understand it is simpler to honor your parents), but , yet they still did not understand. Read Matthew 15:6-9 6 Even the waters of Nimrim are dried up!
The grassy banks are scorched.
The tender plants are gone;
nothing green remains.
7 The people grab their possessions
and carry them across the Ravine of Willows.
8 A cry of distress echoes through the land of Moab
from one end to the other–
from Eglaim to Beer-elim.
9 The stream near Dibon[a] runs red with blood,
but I am still not finished with Dibon!
Lions will hunt down the survivors–
both those who try to escape
and those who remain behind.
…then 15:16-20. 16 “Don’t you understand yet?” Jesus asked. 17 “Anything you eat passes through the stomach and then goes into the sewer. 18 But the words you speak come from the heart–that’s what defiles you. 19 For from the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, all sexual immorality, theft, lying, and slander. 20 These are what defile you. Eating with unwashed hands will never defile you.”
Jesus gave several arguments, discussions that all God is must be understanding. Read Matthew 15:10. 10 Then Jesus called to the crowd to come and hear. “Listen,” he said, “and try to understand.
I believe Jesus was very emphatic w/His references to God as understanding and how to live simpler from our knowledge of evil. Highlight the exclamation point on
15:20. 20 These are what defile you. Eating with unwashed hands will never defile you.”
Read Matthew 15:24-28; 24 Then Jesus said to the woman, “I was sent only to help God’s lost sheep–the people of Israel.”
25 But she came and worshiped him, pleading again, “Lord, help me!”
26 Jesus responded, “It isn’t right to take food from the children and throw it to the dogs.”
27 She replied, “That’s true, Lord, but even dogs are allowed to eat the scraps that fall beneath their masters’ table.”
28 “Dear woman,” Jesus said to her, “your faith is great. Your request is granted.” And her daughter was instantly healed.
We are children of Israel if we understand, Gentiles if we eat the raw meat and not live simpler. This is also an example of faith- third hand on Jesus. Just rely, it will be instant b/c it comes from just like the little girl. I will share this story w/y’all one more time (scars) Nah, probably a few more; don’t hurt. Learn this from third hand experience!
Now, back to Isaiah, the original association. Look for God to be lying in association, pneumonic devices. Isaiah 50:6; 6 I offered my back to those who beat me
and my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard.
I did not hide my face
from mockery and spitting.
Is this precisely what happened to Jesus?!? Isaiah 52:13-15; 13 See, my servant will prosper;
he will be highly exalted.
14 But many were amazed when they saw him.[a]
His face was so disfigured he seemed hardly human,
and from his appearance, one would scarcely know he was a man.
15 And he will startle[b] many nations.
Kings will stand speechless in his presence.
For they will see what they had not been told;
they will understand what they had not heard about.[c]
Has kings or world leaders (Franklin Roosevelt and WWII, Bush and 9/11 with resolutions) understood?!? Highlight understand. Exalted speaks of His resurrection and ‘lifted up’ speaks of His ascension.
Isaiah 53:2; 2 My servant grew up in the LORD’s presence like a tender green shoot,
like a root in dry ground.
There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance,
nothing to attract us to him.
Jesus was not a king like the Jews believe He will be, but this was prophesied in the Old Testament. He didn’t have beautiful things to attract to His appearance. That is of face value; look in your minds for the attraction. There you will understand.
UNDERSTAND B/C HE IS UNDERSTANDING!!!
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away
Heaven could be ages away or distant (like the blue stars I saw in my dreams) or it could be right within our minds (after all it was within my mind, my dreams.) Early on, my father was asked by a newspaper reporter what the prospects were for my recovery. He replied, “Josh’s limits are God’s limits and God has no limits.” I guess that pretty much sums it up. What you will see in writing this book, in person, as one of His sheep is the living God who was saved twice by His amazing grace. Life is precious and none of us know how many breaths we have. “Live for the now because tomorrow ain’t promised today.” God has a purpose for each and everyone of our lives. That is all the more reason that each of us should live this moment like it is our last by dedicating it all to the one who gave us life, our Lord and Savior. Come quickly Lord Jesus, even so, come quickly. I leave you with pictures of those two gorgeous girls and what I have to look forward to
THE REASON I KEEP BREATHING
He assures us throughout the Bible that if we follow His rules, the Bible, we will always have enough. My life is my assurance because it has always been enough.
Through that experience, I prayed to God that this was all a dream. Once again, I emphasize experience and for you to learn from my experience through the third hand because first hand hurts. Trust me, third hand experience is sufficient. We can learn this through testing chemicals, life’s experience and third hand experience that God is there.
This is another thing that could have only come from the Divine Power. One would think I was a beast of a man who was 6’0″ and lifted weights his whole life. Now, granted I did played soccer my whole life allowing my lower body to strengthen, but had only started lifting upper-body weights precisely one year before my wreck, weighed 135 lbs when the wreck occurred and am 5’7″ today. Why would you not believe someone who knows too much about the brain, body and all the systems of the body from first hand experience?!? This was all miraculous!!! Dios es fuerte.
We must learn that life is reference and the Source referred upon is God. If we rely on Him, we will succeed. If we do something good for God, we will always succeed. Good is succession and if we succeed, it is always from something good. The past is very important to me, thus I like to remember; in both lies God. My grandfathers words were true; I just had to remember them.
I know what everyone is thinking at the current moment and I did miss the Dallas Stars win the Stanley Cup that night, June 17th, 1999, but I had to fulfill a purpose. It would have been much simpler life if I had watched the game, but what a big purpose it must be to allow me to survive a wreck like that!