I work in a hospital in the suburbs of Chicago and would like to tell you about someone I met there. Her name is Sandy. She was a schoolteacher who lived in the Chicago area. Sandy had developed a serious lung disease that progressed to the point that she required hospitalization.
Shortly after she was admitted, I went into her room to give her the medication that would make it easier to breathe. As I walked in, I saw a Bible on her bedside table, so I asked her if she had read the Bible.
“Not really,” she said, “but people in a prayer group are praying for my recovery.”
I asked Sandy, “Do you know where you are going to spend eternity?”
“No, I’m not sure,” she replied, “but I hope to go to heaven.”
“Do you know the Bible says that you can have your sins forgiven and know where you are going to spend eternity?” I asked.
“Nobody ever told me that before!” she answered.
So I told Sandy that “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,” and “that through this Man [Jesus] is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: and by Him all that believe are justified.”
On subsequent nights I continued speaking with her about God’s way of salvation. Then her physical condition worsened and she had to be transferred to the Intensive Care Unit. If Sandy was going to survive, she needed to be placed on a respirator.
I was at the bedside when she said to the doctors, “I’m counting on you guys!”
Those were the last words she ever said, for after that Sandy’s heart slowed and then her heart stopped altogether. We performed cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR), but it was too late. Sandy was dead.
I’m telling you this story because I want to ask you, Who are you counting on?
Is Jesus Christ your Savior? Or are you counting on the prayers of others or your own good works?
“Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us.”
Where is Sandy now?
If she received Jesus Christ as her Savior,
HEAVEN.
If she did not accept Him as her Savior,
HELL!
There are no other options.
Friend, instead of living a life without an assurance of eternal blessing, risking eternity in hell, and counting on the prayers and efforts of others, why not come to Christ now? Accept Him as your Savior for an assured and blessed eternity, and a much happier life here on earth. Jesus said that He came that you might have life, and that you might have it more abundantly.