Thank You, Lord, for Receiving Me!

"Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way, he is a thief and a robber.  But he who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep.  To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out...I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture...My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand."  John 10:1-3, 9, 27-28

By God's grace, I was privileged to see one of the Father's sheep hear His voice and enter into the sheepfold a few weeks ago!  How I rejoice in the work of the Holy Spirit to draw this dear lady to Himself!  I will call her Mary for the sake of her privacy.  

Mary is 70 years old and has had a very hard life.  She is now in the end-stages of COPD as a result of having smoked for many years, is on hospice care at home, and is barely able to breathe, even with constant oxygen usage. Many times, her mind is not sharp due to lack of oxygen. The Lord has privileged me to be able to minister God's Word to her weekly for the past few months, and we have gone chronologically through the Old Testament, hitting many of the high points particularly in Genesis and Exodus. We spent a lot of time in the first three chapters of Genesis, as well as much of Exodus.  I wasn't sure she was understanding a lot of what we were studying; however, I had faith that the Holy Spirit could and would draw her to Himself in His time, through consistently hearing the gospel as displayed in Scripture.  I would regularly ask her, "Mary, when you die and stand before God, and He asks you why He should let you into heaven, what are you going to say?", and her answer would always be something along the lines of, "I'm a good person", or "Because He's a forgiving God", or "Because I really want to be there".  I would then ask her if that was what we had studied that day in whatever passage we had talked about, and I would go over the gospel again with her.  It was obvious that the Holy Spirit was drawing her, because she was always very open to hearing God's Word.

Around Thanksgiving and Christmastime, it appeared that Mary was not going to live much longer; her memory was very bad, she fell, and was mentally very "out of it".  I cried out to the Lord to give her some more time to believe the gospel, because I had no assurance that she really understood or believed it yet.  She was sent to a hospice respite facility for 5 days some time after Christmas, and she came back more alert and was breathing better.  I was praising God for His intervention in her life, and felt sure that He was going to save her soon.

Three weeks ago, we were up to John 4 and were studying the account of the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well.  We talked about how Jesus sought out this woman, and how He graciously and lovingly kept asking her questions that would reveal her heart and what she was worshiping.  We talked about how He led her to the accurate conclusion that she was worshiping all the wrong things, and was consequently parched with spiritual thirst, always looking to one more relationship to satisfy her never-ending desire to satisfy the desires of her heart.  Jesus did not condemn her for worshiping the wrong things, but lovingly guided her to see that He was better than all the things with which she had filled her life.  If she would believe that He was the Messiah, the One who had come to make payment to God for her sin, then she could have everlasting life welling up inside her like a satisfying spring of water that would never run dry - Jesus would satisfy her true heart's need and she would never again have to thirst for something more.

How thankful I am that Jesus came through the door of the incarnation - "taking on the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross." (Phil. 2:7-8) It was the only door into the sheepfold that Holy God had provided, and His Son had to walk through it in all its suffering and humiliation if mankind was to be brought back into fellowship and relationship with God.  It is God's grace alone that has provided us a way back to Himself, through the person and sacrifice of Jesus Christ.  And the Lord tells us we must enter through this door of Jesus Christ through faith in what He has done in our place.  Without faith in what Jesus has done for us, we will always try to come to God by some other means - we cannot enter through the door unless we hear His voice and follow it.  

That day, Mary said that she would like to have communion at her house.  I asked her why, and she said she wanted to have her sins forgiven.  I smiled and told her that Jesus did not require her to take communion in order to have her sins forgiven, and she said, "He doesn't?!"  I had her read John 3:16, and the light began to dawn on her face as she incredulously asked, "You mean, I only have to believe?!"  I then asked her if she remembered the account of the Israelites in the wilderness who were bitten by fiery snakes sent from God because of their complaining; and how God told Moses to put an image of their pain up on a tall pole, so that all who would look upon it would be healed of their snake bites.  She said she remembered.  Then I asked her if everyone who was bitten by the snakes looked on the serpent on the pole so they could be healed.  She said, "Probably not", and I asked why.  She stated that some were probably too proud to do it, or thought it was a stupid thing to do.  I then had her read John 3:14-15, and I could see the Holy Spirit visibly giving her sight!  Then, with tears streaming down her cheeks (tears streaming down mine as well!) she said, "I believe!" and then immediately, "Why did I wait so long to believe?!", then, "I feel like a heavy weight has been lifted off my shoulders!", then, "I want to tell my kids that I'm going to die a Christian, and I want them to be Christians, too!"  The work of the Spirit of God is unmistakable and absolutely life-transforming!  

We then read from John 3 about the new birth, and then from John 10 about the Good Shepherd so she could begin to understand what had just happened to her, as well as John 5:24, explaining that once she was headed in one direction, trusting in her own goodness to save her and that was the way of death; but now she's heading in the opposite direction, she has passed from death to life because she's now trusting in Jesus' righteousness as her righteousness.  She displayed understanding of the Scriptures like never before, and was so excited that now someone loves her and accepts her!  We read from Colossians 2 about how the record of our sins has been nailed to the cross, and she said, "My book is huge!"  Then, this dear precious lady prayed, thanking Jesus for accepting her, and telling Him it would be a great privilege if He'd allow her to work for Him in this life.  Here she is, lying in bed, barely able to breathe, let alone get up and "do" anything!  I read Colossians 1 to her and explained that all God is expecting from her is that she lie in bed and adore Him - that that will completely fulfill the purpose for which she was created!  

Our God is not a hard task-master like our heart idols are.  He never leaves us thirsting for anything else but Himself, and He quenches our thirst with the presence of the Holy Spirit in our hearts.  He only wants us to love and adore Him, whether that means we lie in bed, unable to move an eyelash, loving and adoring Him in our hearts, or whether that means He gives us strength and grace to get up and lovingly serve Him with our bodies.  God does not need us to get His work done - He simply graciously invites us to come along with Him in what He's doing in this world and be a part of it.  

When I went back the next day to see Mary, she was beaming and asked me what my family said when I told them she was now a Christian!  I truly did not know if she'd even remember the previous day, but I needn't have worried!  The Spirit of God is alive in her now and He will never leave her.  

This experience has cemented forever in my heart and mind two valuable principles: 

(1) God tells us that He uses the foolishness of the gospel preached to save those who believe (1 Cor. 1:21); even though I may never personally see another person come to Christ as a result of faithfully proclaiming the gospel over and over again, I know that it is what the Lord will use to save some.  And, 

(2) As long as someone is still alive, there is still hope that God's Holy Spirit will bring that person to faith in Jesus Christ.  

Sisters and Brothers in Christ - be faithful to keep proclaiming the message of the gospel to your families and friends, neighbors and co-workers - God may use your loving ministrations and proclamation of the Word of God to save those people.  When the Good Shepherd calls, we do answer and know His voice.  I implore you today to pray earnestly to the Good Shepherd to call the names of your loved ones, so that they will hear His voice and enter in by the door into the sheepfold.  

"I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly."  
John 10:9-10