Harry was a young man in the army. He had been brought up in a Christian family. His father and mother loved the Lord Jesus and knew Him as their Saviour and had taught their children about Jesus. But Harry had never accepted Jesus as his own Saviour. He knew how to be saved, he knew all about what Jesus had done, he had even memorized many verses in the Bible. But, he had never taken that step of accepting the Lord Jesus for himself.
Now he was in Korea during wartime. Even with some of his buddies being killed in the war, he still did not seem to be concerned about being saved. If anything, the war seemed to make him hard-hearted. “God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not.” Job 33:14. Some of his buddies were killed almost beside him. Still Harry did not seem to feel the need of settling the “heaven or hell” question for himself.
One night while Harry and his squad were on patrol, they were ambushed by the enemy. Harry was wounded and several others were killed. He was taken prisoner by the Communists.
For many days he lay in a North Korean army hospital where he had lots of time to think. Still, his close call with death and God’s mercy in sparing his life did not seem to soften his heart.
One day a young doctor in that Communist hospital came to Harry and asked him many questions. To Harry’s great surprise he discovered that the young Korean doctor was a Christian! The doctor had to be very careful not to say too much about God, or he would be punished. It was the beginning of Harry’s “waking up.” He thought to himself, Here I am, brought up in a Christian family, having gone to Sunday school, having read the Bible, and still I am not a Christian. Yet now I am being urged to become one by a North Korean army doctor in Communist territory!
For the first time in his life, Harry was ashamed before God when he thought of how long he had ignored the Saviour who loved him. The Lord Jesus wanted to bless Harry. He had followed Harry all the way to Communist North Korea to bring him that eternal salvation that only Christ can give. When Harry thought of that love and the prayers that he knew were going up for him every day, he broke down. He surrendered to God and thankfully accepted the Lord Jesus as his own Saviour.
If you, like Harry, have not yet surrendered to Him who “loved me, and gave Himself for me” (Gal. 2:20), why not give up your fight and ask Him to be your Saviour, too?
“God be merciful to me a sinner.” Luke 18:13.
“Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.” 1 Timothy 1:15.
ML-03/19/1989