Shortley after my conversion in 1977, the pastor's wife asked me to go along with her to visit an elderly woman in Hospice care. She was ninety years of age. The daughter was there. She was not a believer and was against us going in to see her Mother. She became very angry and told us to leave. The pastor's wife held the Bible up to her and told her that she would be back because the Lord wanted her to come back for one more visit. To my knowledge she never went back.
When I went back to visit the elderly lady the daughter was not there. As I sat by her bedside I talked to her about eternity and God. She was in great pain. She told me that she had grown up in the Church and had heard all of that! She turned her face to the wall and refused to talk to me anymore, so I left.
On my way home I thought "The visit was a failure". Being a brand new Christian I didn't know that the Word of God will either touch a soul when it goes out or it will drive that soul away. How many people grow up in the Church and do not know God? Today, I know that everyone wants to go to heaven, but not all will. We would do well to think on what the Word says in II Corinthians 13:5:
Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you-- unless indeed you fail the test? John Calvin taught that one should not look to his works for assurance of salvation. He said we should look to Christ, the object of our faith.
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