By Dan Wooding
Founder of ASSIST Ministries
PHILADELPHIA, PA (ANS) -- New York Times' bestselling author and international speaker Cecil (Cec) Murphey has written or co-written more than 120 books, including the runaway bestseller 90 Minutes in Heaven (with Don Piper), Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story (with Dr. Ben Carson), Rebel With a Cause (Franklin Graham), and singer B.J. Thomas's In Tune.
 |
A house fire similar to the one at the home of Cec Murphey |
His books have sold millions of copies, have been translated into more than 40 languages, and have brought hope and encouragement to countless people around the world.
But during an interview at the recent Greater Philly Christian Writers Conference, Murphey described the day that his world almost fell apart, when a devastating fire destroyed his home and his son-in-law died in the flames.
The life-changing drama began on the morning of February 27th, 2007, when the Atlanta-area home of Cec Murphey, who is known to many as The Man Behind the Words, burned to the ground. While Murphey, his wife, Shirley, and daughter C-C (Cecile) escaped, Cecile's husband, Alan Hege, was trapped inside and died in the flames.
"I was working in the office in my home when the fire broke out," he began. "I'm an early riser and I always start work between 7 and 8 AM and then I heard a noise coming from the basement where my daughter and her husband were living. I went down to investigate what was happening and I found my daughter climbing up the steps towards me and there was smoke all around her. She called out, 'It's on fire' and I quickly tried to call 911.
 |
Cec Murphey |
"I then wanted to try and rescue my son-in-law, but I couldn't get down the steps there because it was just so bad so I ran around to the back door to try and get in and it was worse. We could not get him out and we found out later that he actually died of a heart attack trying to escape from the fire. We didn't know at the time that he had heart troubles. He knew but he had not told us.
"For a long time, I sat by myself and watched the fire fighters try to put out the fire and I knew my son in-law would not come out of the fire. In the midst of that, the words of Job 2:10 came to me. Job's wife saw all the chaos and loss and told her husband to curse God and die. He replied, 'We have received good from the hand of the Lord. Shall we not also receive evil?' As that verse filled my mind, I heard myself say out loud, 'Who am I to feel I should be exempt?'
"In that moment, God gave me just this wonderful sense of peace. Don't misunderstand me. I grieved for my son in-law. My wife Shirley was fifty feet away with my daughter comforting her and as we watched our house, which was just over 2,000 square feet in size, burn to the ground, and yet we just had this sense that God was with us."
With tears in his eyes, Murphey went on to say, "The real loss, of course, was Alan. He and C-C were high school sweethearts and married after their first year of college. They had been married almost 30 years."
Now homeless, Cec Murphey says that he and his family received a real blessing of God.
 |
Book cover |
"In 1984, I ghosted No Mountain Too High, the autobiography of ultra-marathon runner, Stan Cottrell," he said. "We liked each other and had stayed in touch through the years. Stan lived 1.5 miles from our house and he and his wife, Carol, insisted that we stay with them. My agent, Deidre Knight, and my marketing director, Jan Coates, took over getting out information and notifying friends. That left us free to pull ourselves together emotionally.
"My office was the least damaged part of the house, but my computer was fried. Two of my neighbors rescued the hard drive. I bought a new laptop and was able to set it up. We were able to download everything except Quicken (that I used to keep our bank records). My library of reference books were totally gone, along with copies of the books I've written. To my surprise, our passports and most of our 2007 files were smoke-filled but readable. We were able to get new drivers' licenses.
"On the Sunday morning, we went to church, and it was communion Sunday -- perfect for us. The Reformers of the 16th century formulated the doctrine of the means of grace. By that, they believed that God provided grace through prayer, reading the Bible, hearing the Bible preached, the celebration of the sacraments, and the communion of saints. So on that Sunday morning, we were with our church family and felt their loving embraces!"
Then, he said, another "miracle' occurred. "We did have insurance and I taught a Sunday school class for fourteen years and a man in my class was a carpenter -- though actually he hadn't built a house before. He came to me and said, 'I'd like to rebuild your house for you and it's not negotiable. I will do this for you and I will give you exactly the house you want and it will cost you nothing -- except what the insurance pays.'
"I started to argue with him and he said, 'Did you not hear me? This is not negotiable.'"
So the kind friend was able to build them a brand new house and it turned out to be twice the size of the previous one.
 |
Wrtier Kathi Macias visting Cec and Shirley Murphey at their re-built home |
"And here's the thing that was so wonderful Dan," Murphey said. "I give help and scholarships to people and I do this because God's has given me so much financially. But here I was now with nothing. Well my literary agent sent the word out about the fire and people started sending in money and gifts and so I called her and said, 'I didn't authorize this. If I had known you were going to do this, I would have stopped you.' She replied, 'I know that, that is why we didn't tell you.'
"It was so hard for me to take from others, but I will tell you that I cried at some of these gifts that came from people who said that they had been blessed by something I had said some ten or fifteen years earlier.
One woman sent a gift of five dollars and said, 'I want to give you so much more, but it's all I have.' Many of the gifts came from strangers; it was absolutely amazing.
"And my neighbors, some of whom I'd never talked to about Jesus Christ, came to me and one of them said, 'I haven't been to the church for a long time, but just watching you here, and the way God has worked in your life makes, me know that I need to get back to church and he has."
After almost a year, the Murphey family was able to move into their "new" home.
What was the biggest lesson he learned from this?
Cec paused for a moment and then said, "Here it is: I serve a God of presence not a God of protection. What I have learned most of all is that God never promised to protect us, He just promised to be with us when we go through difficult places. 'When I walk through the valley of the shadow of death thou art with me.' All through the scriptures we seem to neglect that. So I learned that it doesn't matter what happens because God is always with us."
For more information on this talented writer, please go to: http://themanbehindthewords.
Note: I would like to thank Robin Frost for transcribing this interview.
| Dan Wooding, 70, is an award winning British journalist now living in Southern California with his wife Norma, to whom he has been married for 48 years. They have two sons, Andrew and Peter, and six grandchildren who all live in the UK. He is the founder and international director of ASSIST (Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times) and the ASSIST News Service (ANS) and was, for ten years, a commentator, on the UPI Radio Network in Washington, DC. He now hosts the weekly "Front Page Radio" show on KWVE in Southern California which is also carried throughout the United States. The program is also aired in Great Britain on Calvary Chapel Radio UK and also in Belize and South Africa. Besides this, Wooding is a host for His Channel Live, which is carried via the Internet to some 200 countries. You can follow Dan on Facebook under his name there or at ASSIST News Service. He is the author of some 44 books. Two of the latest include his autobiography, "From Tabloid to Truth", which is published by Theatron Books. To order a copy, press this link. Wooding, who was born in Nigeria of British missionary parents, has also recently released his first novel "Red Dagger" which is available this link. |
No comments:
Post a Comment