RELIGION —
I can hardly begin to describe the countless ways God has blessed me. He let me be born to godly parents and grow up with four siblings who loved Jesus. He called me to preach the gospel. I have shared the gospel on five of the seven continents of the world. I was married for 68 years to a servant of Jesus who birthed our five wonderful sons. He has allowed me to serve Jesus for 91 years.
Yet it dawns on me that the greatest privilege God has given me has been the honor of sharing the good news of God’s love with individuals who were living without hope and without God. And that is an honor God gives to every believer for it is His will that every follower of Christ share the good news of God’s forgiving love with someone who has never embraced it.
What is the good news? God loves us. He showed his love for us by letting Jesus die on the cross. Because of his shed blood, our sins are forgiven. Peace with God is available to everyone.
How do I obtain this peace? Saint Paul said it best in Romans 10, “If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” And to be saved is to find peace with God.
This was brought home to me again during a second reading of “Healing Meditations for Life” by David A. Seamands. A counselor, writer and preacher, Seamands shared his visit in the hospital with a woman who told him there was no need to pray because she had been so bad.
She told him the story of how her mother, whom she loved deeply, died suddenly. Overwhelmed with grief, the night after the funeral she and her older brother got “roaring drunk.” With great shame, she told Seamands how in their drunken stupor they had slept together.
“That’s why,” she said, “it’s no use for me to pray. I know God can’t forgive me, since I sure can’t forgive myself.”
Seamands said that very morning, in devotions with his wife Helen, they had read from 2 Corinthians 5:19-20. So it was fresh in his mind that he was God’s personal ambassador with His authority. So he took her by the hand and said, “Rosie, my name is Seamands. And I want you to know that God Himself personally sent me to tell you that Jesus died on the cross for you, and that He forgives you for that sins and all the rest of your sins.” After they prayed together, Rosie said to Seamands, “What you said God told you to tell me was wonderful. I’m going to try and believe it.”
Seamands returned to the hospital to see Rosie only to learn that she died in the night. But a nurse who recognized Seamands told him Rosie gave her a message to give him: “Tell Reverend David that I did pray, and I did believe what God told me, and I’ve got peace in my heart, and everything between me and God is all right!”
Surely there is no greater honor in this life than to share the good news of God’s love with someone who, believing it, can experience the joy of knowing that “everything between me and God is all right!”