In late August, 1956,
I found myself in a dark and lonely place in my mind. I was young, and lonely, feeling the world was to big and lonely
for me. I knew about Jesus, and I knew aboutheaven and hell, but it really didn't come together in my mind
what it all meant.
In
my hurt and confusion, the devil whispered in my mind that the only way out was to die. I found myself looking out a
fourth floor window into the dark night. As I prepared to open the window and let myself drop over the edge, I heard
an audible whisper next to my right ear. It said, quite clearly, "You are jumping into Hell!" I was
startled. The voice was plain and clear. But I went again to open the window. Again I heard the whispered
voice, loud and clear, by my ear. "You are Jumping into Hell! This time I was so frightened that I ran away from the
window. I grabbed a short stubby pencil and a piece of paper, and wrote a poem that expressed my heart's lonely cry
for the Rest that Jesus had promised.
Come unto Me, Jesus said in His word, and I will give you Rest. But where was my Rest? I
had no peace of mind. I had no peace of soul. I had no Rest. I will give you Rest, Jesus had promised. But
I had no Rest.
Then
one day, I got invited to church. It was a church full of the praises of people who had found the Rest of Jesus.
The pastor saw me sit down in the pew, and shouted
at me, "Young lady, God wants to save your soul, right now!"
I burst into tears.
He got the whole church praying for me, as he came down to pray for me in the pew.
He put his hand on my back and shouted at the devil to leave me, and I felt suddenly a lifting of a chain on my Will.
The pastor led me up front, and I knelt down to pray,
with the whole congregation shouting their prayers behind me.
I told the Lord, I know I've hardened my heart against You. Will you soften my
heart so I can let You in? And when You have, put a smile on my face".
My sobs and tears instantly stopped, and I broke into a pure, joyful laughter.
The Lord had taken my soul from dark night to glorious
light. It had been as though I was lost in a dark night at the end of a blind alley at midnight. But the Lord
exploded in my soul like a Fourth of July .
If you will call on Jesus, and ask Him to forgive your sins, He will answer immediately,
and pour His precious blood over you soul, and you will enter into the newness of life that He promised.
Many of today's churches have forgotten what they
exist for. Churches do not exist to give preachers a good steady paycheck, or to sooth people to sleep about their souls.
Christ came to set men free from the bondage of the power called sin. Sin is the power inside your soul that makes you
mad when people tell you to obey God's laws. It is the power in your soul that makes you nervous when people pray. And Oh! how you hate it when the Bible is held up
as the Word of God. I don't want to believe God that way! If I admit that Jesus Christ actually is the Saviour
of the world, God in the flesh, then I might feel the need to repent of my sins!
But still, we are faced with the words of Jesus, Come
unto Me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you Rest. Take My yoke upon you. Learn of Me.
You will find rest to your souls. He promises Rest. REST. REST. Rest of soul. Rest of mind. Rest of
Spirit.
Why
don't you have Rest now? Because you are trying to live your life with the power of Sin dragging you down.
All the ridicule and all
the making fun of religion and all the put-downs you get from people who don't believe in Jesus cannot quiet the cry of your soul.
Deep down in the lonely depths of your heart, you want peace. You want Rest. But the only answer is Jesus.
The one we call the Good Thief that hung on the cross next to Jesus, said, Lord, remember me when you enter into your kingdom.
He recognized Him for who He was--the Sinless Son of God. He repented of his sin. He could do nothing to atone for his
own sin. But Jesus forgave him of his sins, and when he next opened his eyes, he was in
heaven, forever. The same promise is to you,
if you will turn to Him in repentance for sin, and receive Him in faith and love.
People today do not understand what Hell is, or why it is. When Jesus died on the cross, it only took three hours
for Him to suffer and die, and take theeternal punishment for our sins. Hell is everlasting, because we were made to
be everlasting souls. From within, out of the heart of man, comes the evil thoughts, thefts, adulteries, lies, betrayals,
and all the cruelties that Jesus calls sin. If we refuse to repent of these fires in our souls, when we die they are
still a part of us, and we take them with us. We are dragged away from God by the fires of Hell that are already in
our own souls, created by our own souls. God did not make the fires of Hell. We make them ourselves, and they
become an eternal , everlasting, part of us. When we call on Jesus to forgive us, He pours His Holy Blood over our souls
and puts out the fires of Hell, and cleans us up. We then become filled with His spirit, and when we die, we are drawn
to Heaven.
We
might be living in the 21st century, but God is still God, His Word is still His Word, and Jesus Christ is still the Saviour,
calling to you to repent of your stubborn self will, and let Him clean you up and give you newness of life.
Don't be afraid. Let go. Take a deep breath,
let go, and repent of your sins. Ask Jesus to give you the Everlasting Life and forgiveness of sins, that He died
to obtain for you.
