Thursday, May 3, 2012

HE DIED THAT OTHERS MIGHT LIVE.-- A TRUE STORY

     I was just 16 years old and my favorite sister had a son (my nephew) that was 3 1/2 years old.  I had a burden for my sister and brother-in-law that they would accept Christ as Savior so I asked a pastor in their town near where I lived with my parents to please visit them and talk to them about their need of Christ, which he did.
     My brother-in-law opened the door and asked the pastor to leave making a prophetical statement, "When I want a preacher I'll ask for one."  My heart was broken.
    A short time later there was a revival in their city and my sister-in-law invited my sister to attend and at her heavy insistence, my sister went forward supposedly to receive Christ.  But, my sister showed no evidence of a personal experience with Christ.
     A short time after my brother-in-law asked the pastor to leave my little, sweet nephew suddenly urinated blood.  When examined it was found he had a large tumor in one kidney.  The tumor was removed but the prognosis was not good.  This was in 1951.  My brother-in-law was devastated but still would not listen to the Gospel.
     Just about 6 months went by and the little boy became ill again.  This time the tumor had come inside his liver and there was no hope for his recovery.  He suffered terribly!  Time after time, I would lie beside him on his bed and read him Bible stories that he loved.  My sister began to take him to Sunday School.  By now he was a little over 4 years old.
     One day we were all sitting at the table talking about the latest prognosis when he shocked us all with a statement because we did not realize he understood our discussion.
     He calmly stated, "Sometimes Jesus takes little children to be with him and you're not supposed to cry, Mama."
      We were all shocked!  Where had this come from?  My sister decided his Sunday School teacher had probably taught this so she called the lady to thank her.
     The teacher finally confessed she had stayed away from the subject of dying so as not to disturb the little boy.  My sister was now REALLY puzzled so she finally broached the subject with my little nephew.  His answer to her question of where he had heard that was, "Oh, Jesus told me right here in my heart."
     The next Sunday he was so emaciated that he had to be carried on a pillow yet he insisted on attending church.  The next Sunday we had his funeral.  As a young preacher of 16 at that time (I started preaching at 14) I asked the pastor WHY hadn't God answered all the prayers that had gone up for that little boy!  Why hadn't he been healed!  The pastor assured me that God knew what He was doing, to just trust Him.
     My sister and brother-in-law were devastated!  My mother and I visited my sister often, at times. finding her asleep with his picture in her arms.
     One day we went to see her and she was happy and going about her daily chores.  When she went to the kitchen my mother whispered to me that she believed my sister had suffered a breakdown.
     When my sister returned to the room and saw our faces she smiled and explained that the previous Sunday she had gone to church and had truly been born-again and knew she would now see her son again.  One down; one to go -- my brother-in-law.
     One day he left work and began rushing to find the pastor telling himself over and over again that he had killed his son by his rejection of the Gospel.  He was so disturbed that just about two blocks from the pastor's home he had a wreck.  Being a small town, he knew the policeman, he told him he had something he HAD to do and he RAN to the pastor's home and accepted Christ and then returned to take care of the wreck.
     For many things we will have to wait until eternity to understand    but, for that one we had the answer.  He had died that two loving parents would be able to spend eternity with him.  Bro Don

1 comment:

  1. Excellent! A great example of how we should never give up. God doesn't!

    ReplyDelete