“Salvation Shorts”
"Gather up the fragments that remain
So that nothing is lost.”
—John 6:12
"Love is patient. Love is kind, not arrogant,
Does not act unbecomingly.
[His] Love never fails...”
1 Corinthians 13:4-8
While rereading Chapter 3, Seeing Double, to get this book ready for publication (at the very end), my closest Friend reminded me of another Salvation Story. As I was closing with "witnessing," it isn't an excuse for confrontation. Instead, it means your life is an epistle or an open book everyone reads. Everyone "witnesses" how you live your life:.
My sister, Aunt Patty Cake, was flying home from visiting family and rerouted through a small city, Joplin. It was a more than an hour drive, and even though I'm not too fond of driving long distances (to put it mildly), because I'm a homebody, I decided it was a good opportunity to talk to my Husband. When I got to the exit, arriving well before my sister's flight landed, I realized the entire city was without lights! The only thing lit up was the local mall, and so I naturally went in to see what was happening.
Since this happened years ago, I don't remember why or how the city lost power or why the mall was lit up. But having the faith of a child, I believe it all happened for this special Jewess girl. He had an appointment for me to meet.
As I walked around, I noticed a mall kiosk and began looking at homemade heating pads that, when warmed, would ease muscle aches and give off a soothing scent. Soon, a lovely young lady approached me, and while we were speaking, she was accosted by a group of "Christians" who were out "witnessing." I listened as they confronted her about where she'd go when she died, and even after explaining she was Jewish, they didn't let up on warning where she'd spend eternity (and they made it loud and clear it was not heaven)!
After they finally left her alone and walked away, "proud of the way they were out saving people," she told me how much she hated Christians and how rude they always were to her. Kringe, gulp. I asked her about her lovely accent, and she said she had moved with her family from Israel.
Not knowing what to do or say, being a Christian, I picked out a few things to buy (which I honestly didn't want to purchase, but my Husband told me He wanted me to buy) when I realized I didn't have enough cash. When I assured her, I'd come back the next day (because I'd overheard people saying they'd closed the airport and there would be no more flights that day). I explained I had to return anyway, when she said, "I know you won't come back. It's just an excuse people give you to get away. I prefer people be honest and just say what's true."
The next evening, I returned to the mall with plenty of cash in hand. As I was walking towards the kiosk, I saw my sweet Jewess, first astonished, then smiling. "You came back!" "Yes, I said I would." Then, the moment of reckoning came. As she calculated what I owed and packaged my purchase, she asked me what I did for a living. I said, "I'm a writer," hoping to avoid claiming allegiance with the witnessing Christians who had rudely confronted her the day before when she pressed me, "What kind of books do you write? I'd love to read them." Gulp! Cheeks burning, I looked at her, and as our eyes met, I said, "I don't think you'd like to read my books. Because you see, I am a Christian, and that's what they're about.
Actually, I'd like to read your books, so I gave her my email address and said I'd send her any of my books she wanted. Ultimately, I sent her all the books I had in print, and shortly thereafter, she wrote to let me know she'd shared my books with her family. She'd told her family about me, about not defending the other "Christians," and how unlike a Christian I was—even driving and coming back the next day and purchasing most of the different products she was selling. We kept in touch, answering questions she had about this friend of mine who soon became a friend to this sweet Jewess, who is still Jewish but also a believer—along with most of her family here in America and a few back in Israel.
“Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly. [His love] bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails...” (1 Corinthians 13:4-8).
“About that day and hour,
no one knows,
not even the angels of heaven,
nor the Son,
but the Father alone."
—Matthew 24:36
In Brother John, I opened with wanting to share about his father, who was saved at the Final Hour— just weeks before he died from pancreatic cancer. When my third son went to ask for his future wife's hand in marriage, no one knew that just the next day, he would be given only a short time to live.
Jerry was living life to his fullest by the world's standards and was not interested in knowing God. Most of his money, and he had a lot of it, was made in what believers would find extremely distasteful. Nevertheless, all his daughters were believers, including my DIL, who worked for the megachurch I've mentioned previously our family attended, where more than half my children met their spouses.
Yet, in the blink of an eye, everything changed.
Jerry was terrified of dying. So, while trying to lend his support, my son remembered something he'd mentioned. Jerry said that if he were to speak to any pastor, it would be the pastor of the megachurch when he'd seen their commercials. If I had to guess, it was the style of preaching that stemmed from studying to be an attorney, so he'd present his case and let the jury, those listening, decide. Knowing Jerry was about to meet his Maker, my son called the senior pastor, knowing this was an eternity moment in time. Not only did the pastor agree to come right over, but his wife said she wanted to come along, too.
Within minutes, at the "appointed time," Jerry heard the Good News, dropped to his knees, and cried out to the Lord to be saved. Instantly, Jerry was born again and immediately freed from the fear of dying. His wife, too, was saved. Sadly, the treatment began to take Jerry's life and transform his appearance, leaving him horribly weak, so at my son's wedding, he was only able to walk his daughter halfway down the aisle.
Like my son, I believed that the Lord planned to heal Jerry so he could continue his quest to share the Good News with everyone he met and the friends or family he knew needed the Lord, too. Yet, our plans are not His plans, so on returning from their honeymoon, Jerry passed away. Yet, as sad as it was to lose a father who was so young, everyone was given Jerry's Final Hour testimony to absorb and then to share over and over again.
Guide my feet and
A light for my path."
—Psalms 119:105
There's no doubt this is one of the hardest Salvation Stories for me to write since it's about my own father. If you've read my book "Restore Your Health," you'll remember I shared a testimony about my father who suffered a stroke. However, the testimony focused on what happened after my mother was permitted to stay in the hospital on their 59th wedding anniversary and sit up in a rocking chair all night.
Prior to this, we'd been told he would not make it and would pass away soon. Knowing he might have only minutes or hours to live, I went in and closed the door to speak to my father. He was unconscious and would soon slip into a coma. Nevertheless, I'd seen and heard plenty of testimonies of how people who could not respond heard what was said to them. So I took my father's hand and began to whisper into his ear, telling him how much I loved him, how much I would miss him, and not to be afraid.
"Dad," I asked, "Do you see the light? There's a light in front of you. Do you see it? That's the Lord, and He's calling you to come home. Reach out for His hand and accept Him and His gift. Ask Him to save you from this life so you can go on to spend eternity with Him. I'll come and meet you in heaven soon. I love you more than I can ever say." I know I said more, but as you can imagine, I'm having trouble going back and being in that dark room. But what happened next was I sat up and noticed tears running down my father's face and noticed, too, that he had such a tranquil, peaceful expression. Finally, I was at peace.
Yet, there's a thief who's often just waiting to steal our joy and peace. "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly" (John 10:10). The nurse walked in and said without any prompting, seeing his tears, "Oh, he can't hear you and tears happen quite often to unconscious patients slipping into a coma before dying." Even though I was rattled, I believed my father had heard me and had seen and done exactly what He led me to whisper in his ear.
Once again, if you've read "Restore Your Health," my father miraculously came out of his coma three days later when, again, I leaned down just inches from my father’s ear and whispered, “Dad, we’re going to take you home. Dad, do you want to come home?” My father opened his eyes and said, “What do you think?" My father was different. At perfect peace, living without medication (since we had let him go and wanted him to remain for as long as God wanted him to live). My father lived a full nine more months, allowing each of his seven children to come and spend time with him—saying all the things they wanted to say and words they longed to hear from their father.
When all had said their goodbyes, one morning, my mother was praying with my dad, like she began doing every morning, and left to answer a knock and when the hospice nurse went in, she said, "He's gone," but now was in a better place.
Conclusion
Like all of us, we still have unsaved family members and many others who are not living for the Lord. My hope and prayer is that you'll no longer use your energy and imagine yourself as the one who will save them. As I wrote in my Wise Woman ages ago, "For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through Him.” John 3:17. If God didn’t send the Lord to JUDGE the world, I am sure He did not send me (or you) either!
Instead, God said, "For you have been called for this purpose because He also suffered for you, leaving you an example so that you would follow in His steps." "What if [we] could speak all languages of humans and even of angels? If [we] did not love others, [we] would be nothing more than a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal." God is not speaking of tough love, but of the kind of love that is tough—actually, impossible to live— without His love flowing through you, loving the unlovable.
Love that is "patient, kind, and not jealous. Love that does not brag and is not arrogant. Love that does not act disgracefully or seek its own benefit. Love that is never provoked and will not keep an account of a wrong suffered.
"Love that does not rejoice in unrighteousness but rejoices with the truth. The love that believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. Because God promises that this kind of Love never fails" (1 Corinthians 13:4-8). Because this kind of love also "covers a multitude of sins" (1 Peter 4:8).
Invest in loving the lost and begin to enjoy the wait—knowing the longer the wait, the more the lost plummet into complete darkness, the greater the testimony is being written by GOD'S own hand.
Armed with the truth and the many Salvation Stories you've read and hopefully shared, it will help you remain excited knowing dates of each salvation are marked and circled on His calendar since they are “yet appointed time.”
Be sure to "‘Record the vision and inscribe it on tablets, that the one who reads it may run. The vision is yet for the appointed time; it hastens toward the goal and will not fail. Though it tarries, WAIT for it; for it will certainly come, it will not delay.'” (Habakkuk 2:2-3).
When you begin to worry, remember that He hasn’t given us a spirit of fear but of power, love, and of a sound mind" (2 Timothy 1:7).
And finally, remind yourself (and others) He doesn’t need you. Trusting Him means you’ll have a front-row seat because you believe and trust His promise: “You… and your household will be saved" (Acts 16:31).
★★★★★ ~ Seeking the Salvation of a Loved One ~ Sara in Turkey
★★★★★ ~ Atarah in South Africa
I learned so many wonderful things from this Salvation Story and it has totally increased my faith in the Lord to save my brother at HIS APPOINTED TIME. I also learned that like Mary Magdalene that those who have been forgiven much are the ones that sit at His feet and are on fire for the Lord for how much and how far He went to save them.
I also loved the tip about if there is an upswing in my brother's life if things suddenly go well for him to keep my eyes on the Lord to finish what He started.
I love the title of this Salvation Story, it's called "My Brother John". My journal today is all about my brother too... There is so much in this Salvation Story about John which is similar to what my younger brother experienced in His life.
Recently my sister and I tried to set up a meeting with a man who overcame his own drug addiction and has started up his own ministry to help others. Unfortunately, before it could happen, my brother disappeared again. So HH has been showing us there is absolutely nothing we can do in our strength to save our brother. We have to "Let Go and Let God".
I learned that like John my brother also needs to hit rock bottom where my HH can pick him up! And also where he needs to get in order to be ready for HH makeover on His life. I have to believe that as radically as my HH changed Brother John he will do the same for my brother Heini.
I was so happy to read that there was nothing John's family (who were in ministry) could do to help him and that like John my brother needs to come to the APPOINTED TIME, the time my HH has set aside to turn his life around.
When I read this testimony I was firstly amazed at how similar John's situation was to my brother's life. I also love the testimony of the former drug addict who became a powerful evangelist after going down the wicked road for a time. My brother is no longer a teenager or a young man but actually a fully grown adult. So I am very encouraged by this testimony knowing that my HH is never too late but right on time!!
I will be living out these principles by sharing them with my sister and meditating on the scriptures and also speaking to my Love about it whenever I think of my brother or become worried or anxious for him as I have heard that he spent a night in jail and also that he has been seen standing on shop corners and it looks as if he is selling drugs, it has been hard on my sister as she drives past seeing him all the time and knowing there is nothing she can do. So I am encouraging her as well and will be sharing these scriptures with her. I am also fasting.
My dear wonderful and precious love. Forgive me for my unbelief. I have been trusting You for so many years for my brother to save him and transform him. Thank you that you have an appointed time for my brother and that your word says that you don't want anyone to perish but to have life and not just any life but an abundant life!
Dear Friend, like you I cannot WAIT for the day when I get to sit down and listen to the Salvation Story of a loved one, listen and hear how our wonderful Lord went about saving and transforming them :))
Then the Lord answered me and said,
“Record the vision
And inscribe it on tablets,
That [a]the one who reads it may run.
“For the vision is yet for the appointed time;
It hastens toward the goal and it will not fail.
Though it tarries, wait for it;
For it will certainly come, it will not delay.
God's appointed time to turn things around in my brother's life and to radically change him will come. I also love this version:
Habakkuk 2:2-3 New English Translation (NET Bible)
The Lord Assures Habakkuk
The Lord responded: Write down this message.
Record it legibly on tablets
so the one who announces it may read it easily.
For the message is a witness to what is decreed;
it gives reliable testimony about how matters will turn out.
Even if the message is not fulfilled right away, wait patiently; for it will certainly come to pass—it will not arrive late.
"And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death.”