I was lying upon my hospital bed, waiting to be taken to the operating room. The operation was to be a dangerous one, and for the first time in my life I seriously took my bearings. What would it mean for me to wake up in eternity? Where would I spend it? How can I meet God?
These were questions that demanded an answer, and promptly too. All I had rested upon in the way of religious profession was giving way under me. I realized that the question of my sins was unsettled. It could be that I was going into the presence of God with my sins unforgiven!
Oh, how I longed for some little bit of the Word of God upon which I could rest for peace and assured salvation; but who could give it at that moment?
God Himself gave it; for as quick as a lightning flash a verse from the Word of God shot into my mind: "The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin." 1 John 1:7. I had learned it from my mother when I was younger. I gripped it with all the eagerness that a drowning man would grip a life buoy that had been thrown to him, knowing well that there was no time to lose. I said to myself, "I will meet God with that!" As in simple faith I thought upon God's testimony to the virtues of that precious blood, a sudden peace filled my troubled soul, such peace as I had never known before.
I was able now to go to the operating table with perfect confidence and calmness, and was, through God's mercy, brought safely through. Now I have come back from the very gates of death, able to say that trusting in the precious blood of Jesus, the worst sinner can meet God without a doubt in his heart.
You, too, may have only a little time to live. Don't wait as I did! Listen to the words of Scripture.
"Come NOW, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." Isaiah 1:18.
"Precious, precious blood of Jesus,
Let it make thee whole;
Let it flow in mighty cleansing
O'er thy soul."
Happiness
Where is it to be found?
Jesus said: "I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you." John 16:22.
Where then can happiness be found? IN CHRIST ALONE.