True Stories

1. My cousin was buried in China when she was five years old. Her parents told her she was going to be with Jesus. Her last words were: “Mama, which one is our house?”

2. I lived to swim four miles across the Sea of Galilee at age 65 by yielding to my twin brother’s plea when we were 14. I was trying to swim farther than I could and would have drowned had my brother stayed on the bank.
I wouldn’t listen to him but he wouldn’t stop following me. Being a poor swimmer, his constant call of, “Come back!” grew fainter and further behind.
Finally, my anger turned to fear he would drown and I went back.
That’s how man gains his life when he swallows his pride and turns to Jesus.
It can happen at any time, any place in a teardrop.
The devil’s lie is you will go to heaven by keeping rules and being good.

3. I was a boy on the bank of Red River watching my father fight the current for quite a while without any progress. My admiration of him being a better swimmer than me turned to fear when he called for help.
His next call was a plea as it looked like I was running away, but I was going to where the current would take me to him.
He was exhausted and kept his hand on my shoulder. Alarmed that I was swimming the wrong direction, he yelled, “Go to the bank!” (It was 50 feet upstream.)
I yelled back, “I am!” and went 200 feet to the bank downstream.
While lying on the bank he said, “I wouldn’t have made it without you.”
Will we lead any of God’s lost sheep?

4. The devil says wait till a better time.
Before a softball game, I had walked away in the middle of 'diry joke.' Later I met the player, and asked, “How do you run so fast? I wish I was in your shape.”
He laughed--showing a heart operation scar and said, “I take it one day at a time.”
I wonder if Christ had wanted me to say, “Yes there’s no promise of tomorrow. Do you know Jesus?”
Instead, I said, “I’ll see ya.”
Ten minutes later he was dead. His last words were, “I’m dizzy”, and he left this world not knowing his life was over.

5. Some do know their last words.
The blood zigzagged across the sand from a dying soldier who was talking to a chaplain.
“Yesterday, I thought I would be killed, and I asked Jesus to save me. He came into my heart and I was so happy I though I’d live forever. I don’t know why I was hit, but tell my mother I’ll meet her in heaven.”
The mother wrote the chaplain, “You will never know what your letter meant to us, knowing our son trusted Jesus.”

6. My grandfather had a thousand acre ranch. The Holy Spirit convicted him of cheating a boy in a trade.
He got off his horse and knelt in a ditch asking Jesus to forgive and save him.
Years later, a doctor him, “Blood poison. You’ll not be with us in the morning.”
He told my grandmother, “Now, you can make our six sons preachers, and I said I’d never die in bed.”
So he put his boots on and sat in a chair waiting for a sunrise that would never come.
My grandmother called him Papa, and was a widow for 39 years.
One son became a missionary and my father was a chaplain.
As she slipped into heaven, she said, “It’s so beautifully! I see Papa.”
Your faith in Jesus determined your destiny.

7. At 93, my dad was confused. He said, “That’s a nice belt you have. If you give it to me I could get out of this horse trough.”
“No Daddy. You’re in a hospital bed.”
Dad’s tears changed to a big smile as he had my belt in his hands after I heard his last words to me, “I’ve done a lot for you.”
Do we realize what Jesus did for us?
Dad’s favorite song was “I want to go where you go.” During his last days, every time he saw Mama, he said, “Elizabeth, where have you been?”
Eleven years later, she followed him with a sweet smile on her lips. I know she had just heard, “Elizabeth, where have you been?”