07 Jun From Here (How to turn your Setback into a Comeback) part 26

          A few years ago we had a very nice couple begin to attend at Joy.  The husband was a Christian but the wife was Jewish.  She was very curious about the whole “Christianity thing”.  She was inquisitive about Jesus possibly being the actual Messiah that she had read so much about in her Old Testament.  She continued to come and slowly but surely began to see our Jesus in a new light and finally became convinced that He indeed was the Christ!  Only one thing was holding her back from receiving Jesus into her heart and making Him Lord.  So she scheduled an appointment with me, her husband and my executive pastor.

          In that meeting she shared openly that she loved Joy church and she was finally convinced that Jesus was the Messiah, but the thing she was struggling with was her father.  You see, her father had died a number of years before as a devout Jew without ever receiving Jesus into his heart.  She had heard enough at Joy Church to know if she believed that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God, she needed to accept Him as Savior and Lord to gain Heaven.  Therefore, logic dictated to her that since her father never received Christ, that he must be in hell.

          This woman dearly loved her father and could not bear the thought of her dad languishing in hell.  As you can see, I had quite the dilemma in my response to her.  I could not pat her on the head and lie to her, and yet she needed this barrier removed before she could come to Christ!  All of a sudden God gave me a flash of revelation on the inside as an obscure but powerful Scripture arose from within…Luke 16:28 which says, “For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment.”

          Here in this passage of Scripture, you find a man in hell and his heart cry was to warn his family not to come here!  I then began to share with her that if her dad could communicate to her he would say, “Darling daughter, go ahead and please receive Jesus in your heart!  There is nothing I can do but please don’t come here!”

She began to cry as the Holy Spirit had touched her heart in just the right way and she readily received Jesus into her heart!  She had come to the decision that she couldn’t go back and do anything about her father, but she must live her life with Jesus…from here!

          Over the last number of months, we have shared with you our key verse for this series in I Thessalonians 5:16, “Rejoice evermore.”  In this short but powerful Scripture, we discussed the Greek word translated “evermore” literally means “from this point on”.  In every day language, it means “from here”.  

Join us next week as we continue to share “13  Facets to Live a Constructive Life” from here!