Seize the Moment

My mother was married and divorced seven times, so I practically had a full-time ministry sharing the gospel with her former husbands. Three of them in particular come to mind.

There was Oscar Laurie, who adopted me. I was able to share the gospel with him, and he came to believe in Jesus. That was wonderful.

Then there was a man my mother had been married to in Hawaii. I visited him when I was speaking at the Waikiki Shell, which was very close to where he lived on Oahu. But he wanted nothing to do with anything I was saying.

Then there was Bill, my mother’s last husband. She had recommitted her life to the Lord a month before God called her to Heaven. Sometime later, I was going to the airport when I received word that Bill was very sick.

I thought, “What if he doesn’t last much longer? The irony is that I’m on my way to preach to people about Jesus, and here is someone who needs Jesus badly.” So I turned my car around and drove to Bill’s house.

The moment I walked in, I could see how seriously ill he was. I went over the gospel with Bill one more time, and then I said, “Bill, would you like to pray and ask Jesus into your life?” He always had been resistant to this, but he said yes, and he prayed.

I left Bill’s house for the airport, thanking the Lord for what had taken place. And later that day when my plane landed, I received a text saying that Bill had died.

Our job is proclamation. God’s job is conversion. Our job is sowing the seed. His job is reaping where it has been sown. Let’s do our part. Eternity is at stake.