TOM was a lively boy, nine years of age, in a family of earnest Christian people. A missionary from China was staying with them for a while, and they were having a happy time together. Surely they should be happy whose sins are forgiven and who know the Lord Jesus as their Saviour.
Tom and the missionary were great friends. Tom had so many interesting things in his pockets and showed his friend many little tricks that a regular boy likes to do. Tom liked to hear the missionary sing in Chinese and to hear stories about the leopards and wild animals that people used to hunt in those parts of China.
One day a missionary found Tom in tears and asked what was the matter. It came out that Tom had been given a quarter that morning and had immediately rushed down to the store without telling anyone and had spent the whole quarter on himself, buying candy bars and pop. Tom’s mother had given him a scolding and asked the missionary to talk to Tom. This only made poor Tom sob more than ever.
Together they sat on the sofa and by and by Tom confessed that he had done wrong. As they talked together the missionary kindly spoke of how wrongdoing comes from being wrong ourselves; that is, from having sin in our hearts.
He told Tom how that the Lord Jesus had died on the cross to take away sin, and that if he would open the door of his heart to the Lord Jesus, He would come in. There and then, Tom said he wanted to be saved, and together they knelt down by the sofa. In all simplicity, Tom told the Lord Jesus that he was a sinner, that he wanted to be saved, and asked Him to come into his heart. When he got up from his knees the burden of his sins was all gone, and he had the joy of knowing that he was a child of God through faith in the Lord Jesus. God, for Christ’s sake, had forgiven his sins.
Soon after, Tom found his mother, and putting his arms around her he told her what had happened, asking her forgiveness. She told her dear boy that she readily forgave him and how happy she was that he had come to the Lord.
After that, Tom went back to his friend, the missionary, and said, “If that had been your quarter, what would you have done with it?”
The missionary thought for a moment, then he said: “Well, there are a number of things I might have done with it. I might have given a nickel of it to the Lord.”
“Could I do that?” asked Tom, eagerly.
“Of course you could,” said his friend, “now that you belong to Him.”
Some time later, when the missionary was having meetings in that city, who should come to him one morning but Tom. He handed the missionary a handful of nickels and pennies, a little over a dollar altogether, saying, “I want you to send this to the boys and girls in China.”
Quite a long while after, the missionary met Tom again and asked him if he remembered the time when they knelt together by the sofa in the parlor. With a happy smile Tom said, “Yes, it was there I accepted the Lord as my Saviour.”
Perhaps someone reading this story would like to say, like Tom, “I am a sinner, I have done wrong, and I need a Saviour. Lord Jesus, be my Saviour.” As surely as you confess yourself a sinner and take Jesus at His word, you will be saved.
ML-06/21/1970