Last time, I shared about Jerry, a man who was given a few weeks to live while he was in hospice care at a Veteran’s hospital. I shared the good news that Jesus Christ saves sinners; he believed, repented, was baptized on the spot in his room…then five days later, he went directly into the arms of his Savior. (Read about it here.)
Did I fail to mention that Jerry’s son witnessed the whole thing?
JERRY HAD ONLY A FEW DAYS LEFT because of a terminal illness, so his wife asked me to visit him at the Veteran’s Hospital so that I could give him the Gospel. I started the conversation by asking him what his next step would be. He pointed upwards.
“Heaven?” I asked.
“Yes,” he replied.
“Why are you going there, Jerry?”
“Because I’m a good person….”
I gently explained that no one is good enough and asked if he had kept God’s Ten Commandments, which is God’s Moral Law. He understood that he was a liar, a thief, an adulterer-at-heart, a murderer and a blasphemer, that he’d be found guilty on Judgment Day and he’d end up in Hell because of his sin. I vividly described the consequences of his sin and the reality of Hell for all those who would die unforgiven.
I was grousing to God about my problems the other day and he answered me through a classic devotional I read every morning called “Streams in the Desert.” It was compiled by a missionary’s wife in the early part of the last century as her husband lay dying for seven years. Perhaps this excerpt will
When I Met Muhammad Ali
I MET MUHAMMAD ALI LONG AGO in a little restaurant on La Cienega Blvd. in Los Angeles. I walked up to him and said, “Hi Champ!”
That was it.
I’m not sure if I was a Christian back then, but, if I was, I do remember this: I did NOT tell him about Jesus Christ. Ali died as an outspoken Muslim.
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