The doctor was a cardiologist, a specialist in heart disease. He had over thirty years experience in cardiology, overseeing the progress of hundreds of patients regularly. If anyone should be aware of his own heart, the doctor was the man.
One day, a new machine was installed at the hospital where the doctor practiced medicine: a new, $1.5 million CT scanner. The scanner, called the Somatom Sensation 64, replaced two older-generation scanners.
Always interested in the newest medical technology, the doctor readily agreed to be the “guinea pig” for a free test on the Sensation to give the cardiology department practice on the new machine.
Taking 45 minutes between patients, the doctor hurried to the radiology department, took the test, and went back to his patients without waiting to see the results.
The next day his pager went off, summoning him back to radiology. There he was shown images of his heart. His good, dependable heart did not show what he expected. One artery was 70% blocked. Further testing showed even worse damage, though there had never been a recognizable symptom of “heart trouble.”
“The doctor” immediately became “the patient”! He was promptly put to bed and prepared for surgery. His old reliable heart would need a bypass operation-and needed it quickly.
Have you ever had a good look into your own heart? The Bible says that “the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jer. 17:99The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? (Jeremiah 17:9)). And then there is the immediate answer: “I the Lord search the heart...even to give every man according to his ways.” Everything looks good on the outside: no chest pain, no arrhythmia, just nothing to show the trouble within. Why, you are the best person in the community, the one everyone looks up to and depends on. Surely you have a “good heart.”
But the Bible says that “there is none righteous [good], no, not one” (Rom. 3:1010As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: (Romans 3:10)). When you look into your own heart, is it as “good” as you hope? Do you find a little bit of envy? (Why did he get that raise instead of me?) A touch of deception? (It was only a “white lie” to make her feel good.) Maybe a bit of “fudging” on those tax records? (Everybody does it!) Is your heart really as perfect as you thought?
What then can you do? Can you go back and just erase all those little dark spots on your conscience? Hardly! They are too many-and too poorly remembered.
Then perhaps you will just be more careful and live a better life? In the future you will be very, very good-practically sinless, in fact. Can you do it? Really now, can you? And if you could, would it wipe out the past? No. “God requireth that which is past.”
Then what?
Then fall back on the age-old remedy-the tried and true cure for sin. Millions have tested it-millions have proved it-and it is as powerful as ever. Look in your Bible, in the book of Isaiah, chapter 1 and verse 18: “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.”
And that wonderful, wonderful verse: “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:1616For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)).
After his successful surgery, the doctor said, “God has given me a second chance; I’m going to use it!”
God may have given you many chances to receive salvation and eternal life. This is one more opportunity—use it! There might not be another.