I had much the same experience with a man that was dying
of
lung cancer. I do not know that he ever
darkened the door of
a church, but I know he had heard the Gospel many times
because his wife and daughter and a pastor had tried
many
times to reach him. The Holy spirit just had
me there at the
right time, because all I said was, " You are
seriously ill. Not
many people in your condition survive. You
have lost the
ability to do almost anything. You would not have to
give up
much to become a Christian." At that point, he
broke down
crying, and said , " I don't know
how". Like you, I led him in
a prayer and he turned to Jesus. He lived another
month,
was baptised (sprinkled in his living room because he was
too
weak for regular immersion), and his whole attitude
toward
everyone changed for the better. I am satisfied that
he is with
the Lord, but it was the work of the Holy Spirit, not my
blunt, unsophisticated comments that caused him to want salvation.
No one is ever certain, but I believe that all the
people that I have
truly led to the Lord could be counted on both
hands. I am not
interested in stacking up crowns, but I would sure like to
improve
on the numbers. Where do I get the spiritual laws
booklet?
-------Original Message-------
Date: Tuesday,
March 04, 2003 10:07:27
Subject: RE:
[TruthTalk] Presenting the Gospel
Terry,
When I used to work in the ICU I liked the soul-winning
part of it simply because you didn’t have time to mess around (ie: get
to know the person; build a relationship, etc.) and you had to just get right
to the point. They were in and out, either dead or alive. Also helpful was
the fact that the patients were usually quite aware of their fragile
mortality by the time they got there, so they were often motivated to hear
anything about getting saved.
I once heard that most folks never accept Christ as Savior
because no one has ever asked them to. This is so true! So instead of just
asking, “Do you know Jesus as Lord and Savior?” you need to
follow up with “Would you like to?” If death is eminent,
they will usually say Yes, which never ceased to amaze me.
When my husband’s 82 year old non-believer father
was on his deathbed I asked him, “Dad, would you like to spend eternity
with (your deceased wife and daughter, who were believers)?” He said
yes. “Do you know that the only way you can be in the eternal presence
of God is if your sins are completely washed away by the Blood of Jesus
Christ?” We explained very briefly what that meant, and he said
“Yes I want to do that.” This was remarkable, coming from a man who
had been a skeptic all of his life, who had also not been raised to be a
believer in his childhood.
So we held hands and prayed together, the sinner’s
prayer, with him repeating each sentence after us. It was that
simple. For the next couple of days before he passed away we spoke of
his looking forward to being with Jesus, and reunited with his wife and
daughter. Perhaps he was really saved; perhaps not. We never
know. But I can only believe that he was.
I don’t know if this helps answer your question or
not; I hope so. If you have ever seen the 4 Spiritual Laws booklet, it
is a wonderful aid to just sit down and go thru it together. A similar
booklet like that (geared for children) is what I used when my sons were just
3 and 6 years old. They prayed and accepted Christ with tears streaming down
their little cheeks right there on our sofa. I took their photo afterwards,
and marked the date in their Bibles, and they still mark that as the day they
got saved.
Izzy
-----Original Message-----
From:
[EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Terry Clifton
Sent: Tuesday, March 04, 2003
7:57 AM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Fw: [TruthTalk]
Presenting the Gospel
I sent this once, but am not
certain it got there. At least, no one acknowledged that they had
recieved it, so I am trying again.
Some of you who have been down
this road before please give me some pointers. How would you present
the Gospel to someone on their death bed that had never before been to
church or read the Bible? How do you keep it simple, convey the
message, and get a response from someone who until this moment has been
totally ignorant of God's love?
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