Appointed Time

On the way to the nursing home this morning I prayed that the Lord would lead me to the right person. There are so many people in these facilities. Honestly, you could simply go to one facility and meet new people every week. Death comes to us all but it is often met here. People also move to another facility or go into the hospital as well, so there are never enough laborers to get to every person.

James stopped me coming in the door to talk a moment. Then he asked if I would give him a push back to his room. As we arrived I remembered a woman that I wanted to stop in and see. As I was checking my notes, someone said 'hello'. Barbara was friendly and easy to talk to. She was cautious at first, though.

"What is it you want?" she asked.

"I am just a volunteer and I want to meet you." I smiled. I started off with some simple questions. "Where are you from, originally?" Barbara told me about her kids, now grown and gone. She was in her eighties, after all.

"My daughter Christine has been sick for 12 years." I thought of the woman with an issue of blood that had gone to Jesus for help.

"That's awful to be sick for so long. Can I pray for her right now?" I prayed that Christine would be comforted and that she would seek God. I prayed that Barbara would open her heart to the Truth.

"Thank you for praying for us, that was so nice."

"Do you go to church around here?" I asked her. I try not to speak of their life in the past. Most always have the hope that they will leave the home one day.

"Oh, I never went to church." she said. She told me that she lived across from a JW Kingdom Hall for a long time. "They were always knocking on my door, every Saturday! I always ran them off." she laughed.

We talked about God and what Barbara thought about eternity. We went thru the Law. Barbara got big tears in her eyes and began to cry.

"I did something very bad a long time ago...I was pregnant and the doctor came to me and told me that he could not save both me and the baby. I had an abortion. It's murder, isn't it? Will God ever forgive me for that??"

"It is murder, Barbara but God can forgive everything. You must go to Him and ask." I explained that to repent means to turn your back on your sin. "We can't tote our sin along and expect God to welcome us".

After Barbara prayed she wiped her tears away. "Do I need to get baptized?" We talked about that a moment and then she made a great statement. "We need to tell other people, don't we?"

That's twice in as many weeks that someone newly saved has known this. Really no excuse for someone to be redeemed and not say a word....makes you think twice.

Ezekiel 3:17-19 Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me. When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand. Yet if thou warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul.