SALVATION - ARE YOU EVER SURE ?
This is a bit long, but please take the time to read and take from this article everything you can.
I'm sure all of you have thought at one time or another "How can I be absolutely sure of God and Jesus Christ, and the promise of salvation when I can't see, touch or feel them?". I accepted Jesus Christ into my life almost 40 years ago, and through Jesus came to God and a very personal relationship with Him. Over the years, I have read and studied my Bible. I've read about and heard about all the scientific efforts around the world that regardless of their original intention, have so many times proved the various parts of the Bible and Jesus are real. I've made every effort to open my mind and my heart to God's direction in understanding His word and will. For a very long time now, I can honestly say I have been, in my mind and heart, absolutely sure of all that I have come to know. Know, though, I can tell you of an incident that shows without a doubt that all that I have come to know, is in fact real.
You see, about five years ago, I left the house about six one morning. I was on my way into Dallas, about 45 miles away, to have an MRI done on my neck and have a follow up appointment with my back surgeon. The morning was warm and humid, and I had just taken a hot shower and the van didn't have A/C, so I didn't think to much of the fact I was still sweating. A little further down the road I started to have some pretty bad heart burn, again not thinking to much of it. Well, I got up on the Interstate, and was just a couple of exits up when I realized that something was very wrong, so I pulled off into a convenience store. I got out of the van and leaned on the building to see if the wind would cool me off some. After a bit I walked over to the edge of the parking lot and sat on the curb to get more of the wind. Almost immediately I had to lay down. I called 911 on my cell phone and after cutting out a couple of times managed to let them know where I was. I was able to call my wife, who was on her way to work, and call my son and leave a message on his phone about what was going on (by this time I knew I was having a pretty bad heart attack), and where I was. I called 911 back, but couldn't hold the phone to my ear. I remember a couple of cars driving near enough to look at me then driving of, apparently not realizing the trouble I was in. When the rescue squad arrived (I was about 15 miles out of town), they kept looking for me and couldn't find me. I managed to get their attention, and in a minute or so my son arrived. The initial response unit could only hook me up to a monitor, give me oxygen, and be there in case I needed CPR. The Critical Care response unit was still some distance away. I gave my son some things, told him I loved him, held his hand then proceeded to kid around with the rescue guys to try and get those looks off their faces.
The critical care unit finally arrived, confirmed what we already knew, that I was having a pretty bad heart attack, hooked me up to what seemed to be a couple of hundred things and off we went. At the hospital they put me on some morphine among other things, but I still managed to aware of most of what was going on. I had been an EMT so knew what they were doing. My wife and son came in and out at various times and we talked and shared our love for each other. Then I remember the nurse yelling at me and it seemed I was just going to sleep. The next seeming instant, I was awake and she was scolding me and telling me not to do that again.....What did I do LOL.. I found out later that everything had stopped (It also happened on the helicopter into Dallas) and only the actions of the nurse (with God's help I'm sure) brought me back. They all had such long and disturbed faces. I finally told them that I was living person not a dead one and no matter what happened in that room, through God and His grace I was alive and would always be alive so smile and lets get at it. I also mentioned that I had a deal with God that I was going to fight for every breath and moment I could get down here cause I wasn't and am still not done loving and caring for those He trusted me with and I'm certainly not done serving Him. As my neighbor, who is fighting cancer, put it, even if it is time He's going to have to tug pretty hard.
Next thing I know there is a flight crew there getting me ready for a helicopter ride. I remember going for the smiles, and asking if I could ride up front and get one of those cool flight suits they wore, or even just some junior pilot wings. I kissed my wife and son and off we went. They apparently lost me once on the trip in. When we got to the hospital I remember my daughter there, and everyone in a hurry and running with me through the halls. Well it turned out I had three arteries blocked and they did emergency work to install some stints which ended up working out just fine. After a couple of days in the hospital and a few weeks at home, I was back at work.
I only give you so much detail so that you can envision what was going on. I was very aware that I was possibly, maybe even "probably" dying, and in fact had technically died a couple of times. The point of this whole thing is that there was never, never for even one moment throughout that entire ordeal that I had any question about my future. I had no desire to die, but I also was not the least concerned about what would happen if I did. Oh, I knew that it was going to take some time for God and I to go over all the things in my life where I messed up, but I also knew that Jesus would stand at my side and as bad as I had screwed things up at times, I would be forgiven. I could and can only hope there will be some moments where some of the things that I have done will be shown to me and how they have helped others or taken God's ministry somewhere that He wanted it to go.
Sure the choices I made with eating, exercise, etc., without a question brought on the heart attack, and choices I have made throughout my life have not turned out right in various ways. But we have the power to make these choices and to change how we are doing in order to make things better from what we learn.
There is one choice however that when the time comes to find out the results of it will not give you a second chance. What have you done about your relationship with God? If you were put in a similar circumstance as I was how would you feel? Would you feel as I did, or would you all of a sudden be very afraid of what dying would actually bring? What if you didn't get those moments to think about it and possibly correct and make that final decision? My son and I were driving down a residential road and came upon an accident that had just seconds before happened. A woman in a small car had lost control and slid sideways into a tree on the passenger side of the car. She had not been wearing a seat belt, so had been slammed into the tree as well from the impact. I got there and felt madly for a pulse, but she was already dead. The rescue squad was there right away, and there was nothing anyone could do. In those last seconds her mind had to be on trying to control the car, and she probably never realized that it was about to slam into that tree. She didn't have time to consider her choices about God and her beliefs. What would happen to you if you were the one in that wreck and all of a sudden were standing before God. Would Jesus stand beside you and say that He knows you or would He have to say that He doesn't know you? This is the most important choice of your life. God gives you the right to choose your belief in Him and find His forgiveness or to even reject Him. Going before the judge and saying well you know that I really did believe in you, I just didn't say so or acknowledge it, so that should count won't get you a reduced sentence, forgiven, a second chance, nothing. If your not willing to have a one on one personal relationship with God, how is He going to acknowledge you at that moment of judgment? You don't have to give up anything, become a preacher, go door to door or anything other than be who you are only with a personal relationship with God. The two of you will work out anything that you need to do and trust me when I say it will be just right. So many of us are just simple folks of faith and belief, just living our lives as best we can.
Over 40 years ago I came to God through Jesus Christ. I've not been all that good in the choices I have made since then, and would have liked to change many of the things I've done, but I can't so I learn, correct them where I can, and go on trying always to be better. I have, however over that time, continued to constantly read my Bible, study and listen to those that are much more learned than I, open myself to God in quiet and prayerful times, and to do everything I could do to learn more each day. I have only found more and more evidence that God does exist. We look all around us and see what creation has done (you will never convince me that out of absolute nothing, one cell came about and multiplied into literally millions of life forms all with a purpose in the existence of this planet). We see that scientists, archaeologists, and researchers the world over are finding more and more things that prove what we read in the Bible. You know as they prove these various events and happenings that are told in the Bible, you have to acknowledge that this message that is inspired and provided by God has to be true. Every time we try to prove it wrong, it keeps coming up right. As I look back, and at my life now, I can see that every minute of every day my faith and belief in God, in Jesus Christ, and His message has only grown and solidified itself through every part of my being.
You have to deal with and make this choice in your life. If you ignore it and just make no choice, it's the same as rejection. No one, ever, when faced with a choice of this magnitude should ignore it or wait for another time. Look at how you deal with buying a home or car or other material things in your life. Are you going to not give this choice the same amount of investigation and thought? Open a Bible (not just once but everyday for a few minutes) and give God the chance to speak to you. Seek out someone you trust that you know has God in their lives, or a pastor at a church, etc. and talk with them. You would talk with a financial advisor in an instant, now talk with someone who can advise you an a choice that is so very much more important. Remember that rejection of God is the only sin that can not be forgiven. Even if you haven't "accepted Jesus Christ as your Saviour and into your life" talk with God. He will listen and in ways that you don't expect, will speak back to you if you will be open to Him and let Him. It's ok to doubt and question things but only if you remain open to finding all possible answers to what you feel.
Ask yourself what you would be like if you were the one in that parking lot waiting for help, in that emergency room with a dozen highly trained medical folks around you filling you with medicines, rushing at everything they did, yelling to keep you alive, seeing the looks on their faces and the tears in your families eyes as they stood in the door watching, the helicopter ride, the running through the halls (people in hospitals are trained not to run with patients unless it's absolutely critical), what would your feelings be. Sure we would all be afraid of the act of dying itself, the finality of it, the method of dying, leaving our loved ones and so forth. Would you have the comfort of knowing that if you did die you would be with God, or would your biggest fear be that you had no relationship and may be going to Hell or into the unknown with absolutely no control. What about if you hit a tree with no moments to think and make a correction in the choices you have made? Don't hesitate. Do what ever you need to do right now, this instant to make the biggest choice of your life. Don't leave it to chance or the thought that oh God loves me and will let me slide. It doesn't work that way. The main responsibility in you life is the choice you make regarding your personal relationship with God. Make it and flood yourself with His forgiveness, grace, joy in your life, and confident comfort in your future.
Romans 1:9 - "For god is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel
of his Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers;"
GOD HAS A PLAN FOR YOU!
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May God lead and bless you in all that you do.
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