Sonlight Devotional

There is no man that can leave this world and face God and say that God never gave him the op­portunity He gave to others.  What he has to say is that God did bring him to consciousness one day; that he did see Jesus, he did reject Him, and he is worthy of hell.  The point is, God MUST (there are few things that God must do), in order to vindicate His name, reveal Himself to every human being on earth.  A man can live godless all his life, but the hour will come when suddenly he will be awakened to consciousness.  One minute, one second will be like an eternity for he will see himself as he really is and see God as He really is.  In that moment he must either accept Him or reject Him.

I remember the story of a man I knew who heard me preach the gospel.  One day, God sent me from my desk in the office down to the stable to speak to him.  When I did, he rejected me.  He was offended by my audacity that I believed I alone knew about salvation, and that he, as a middle-aged man, had gone to many churches and be­lieved he knew God.  I turned to leave him because he would not allow me to pray for him, but God turned me back when I got to the gate.  God said, “Go back and ask him, ‘What about sudden death?’”  So I went back and asked him, “What about sudden death?”  He took his cigar out of his mouth, clenched his teeth, raised his fist, and said, “Sudden death, sudden glory!  If God would give me one minute before I die, I would pray to Him and go into heaven.”  With that I left him, sadly.  That was in the middle of the week.

On Saturday morning he was in a car going out on some mis­sion and the car ran into a truck.  Five people were in the car, four adults and one child.  Instantly, three adults were killed.  He and the child were in the back seat.  The engine had come into the back seat and they were injured and taken to the hospital.  The doctor examined him.  His chest bone was pressed down against his vital organs, however, the doctor said he could save him.  “This one will live,” he said.  The man opened his eyes and said, “Doctor I have three minutes to live.  Call somebody to pray with me.”  He had rejected Christ for the last time.  I did not know it, nei­ther did he.  I was only a servant.  God had told me to ask him about sudden death and so I did.  He had rejected his salvation and his only hope for the very last time.  He tried now to find a way in and could not pray.  Pain and terror was in his body and he could not pray.  He wanted somebody to pray for him, but could not find any­body in the whole hospital.  Finally, one of the janitors rushed in to pray for him.  She knelt down, but before she could say a word, he was dead.  God gave him three minutes.  He asked for one, but God gave him three.  It was a mockery, because he could not pray to God in three minutes.  The reason being, he never prayed to God be­fore.  At that moment it was not the time to pray, it was the time to die.