She took the Bible I gave to her and seemed glad to get it. Her husband had recently left her. She and her children were doing their best to make it without him. I tried to encourage her and point her to Jesus. Like many people she seemed to think that she was just fine. I had taken some groceries to her from our food pantry. She was very thankful.

I didn’t hear anything from her again until I saw that she and her husband had been arrested on drug charges in another county. I’m not sure what has happened to her kids.

That isn’t a unique story by any means. It is happening all the time in our culture. There is a strain of religion that is present in many today. They know about the Bible. They know about God. They’re ok – and yet they’re not.

Give me Jesus.

He was a successful businessman. He had lots of money and was the chairman of deacons in his church. He was faithful in his church attendance and if he wasn’t going to be there he made sure to leave his tithe check on the Lord’s Supper Table. Yet his business dealings were sometimes shaded by questionable tactics and he was known in his community as a shrewd businessman, sometimes too shrewd.

The church is full of imperfect people. That’s the only kind that the Lord has. But when His people are looked at with scorn and derision because of how they conduct their business then the name of God is blasphemed and the people of God are shamed.

Give me Jesus.

His life had been a wreck. He was known for drinking. The men of the church had visited him so often on visitation night that he figured out to not be home that night each week. The men changed their night and found him at home. He had been drinking. But that didn’t stop the Lord from saving him. His life changed that night.

In coming years he was a faithful, loving member of his church. He was also a faithful husband to his wife when she needed him the most. He stayed by her side through Alzheimer’s and when she was gone this is what he said, “She stayed by me all those years when I was drinking. This was the least I could do for her.” Jesus was glorified in their lives and all the way through their deaths.

Give me Jesus.

She was a faithful member of our church but her husband was lost. I cultivated a relationship with him because we both liked to garden. That relationship bore fruit when I got the call that he had been diagnosed with lung cancer. In the hospital I visited with him and shared the Gospel. He prayed to receive Christ.

He came home and lived for only a few short weeks. But he had changed. Now he wanted to have prayer at the supper table. He was different. His buddy who was staying with them at the time noticed the change. He ended up giving his heart to Jesus as well.

I got the call the night he died. At four in the morning I went to the home and comforted his wife and helped lift his lifeless body from his death bed. When I preached the funeral I was moved by the fact that this man had lived his whole life without God and yet God had redeemed his life and made him a brand new man.

Give me Jesus.

The stories fly through my memory and yet I can’t share them all. From children, young people, folks with terminal cancer, senior adults – Jesus Christ saves souls and changes lives. There have been many who had no change come, no salvation. Yet others believed and were gloriously changed.

I can’t quite grasp how some people can hear the Gospel and smile and say, “I’m ok.” When in reality they are not. But I also can’t grasp that God would save ANY of us. We don’t deserve Him. But that is why He came. That is why He died. And that is why He rose to life again on resurrection morning. He conquered all so that we could share in His victory. I am rejoicing.

Give me Jesus.

Your Pastor,

Bro. Tim Hobbs

P.S. That chairman of the deacons got saved when he was in his eighties! Can you believe it? Praise God.

 

“Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Can affliction or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? …No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” (Romans 8:35, 37, CSB)