Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. (John 3.5-6)
For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. (Romans 10.13)
When Jesus called me to serve Him, aged 15, everything changed.
I was now in the Fifth Form in Selhurst Grammar School, Croydon; it was to be my last year before I left school. For some reason they had separ- ated my twin brother and myself, so it was just me in that particular class. I remember that year very clearly; for our weekly religious lesson, we had a master who was what one might call a ‘modernist’. He denied that the miracles in the Bible happened; he didn’t even believe in the miracle of Creation but leaned to Darwin’s theory of evolution. This upset and annoyed me very much, because I had been brought up to believe in God as Creator of Heaven and Earth and to accept the Bible totally – with all the miracles.
Week after week I challenged him on the Authority and Divine Inspiration of the Bible. One of my favourite texts was, ‘All Scripture is given by inspiration from God.’ Every week I would counter him with Scripture, and if I didn’t know the an- swer I would go home and ask my father, who could always find the correct verses to help me. The boys in my class seemed to enjoy this, as we were the only class in school that never followed the curriculum; the whole Scripture lesson consisted of my arguments with the teacher. At the end of just one term, he came to me and suggested that we start Bible study and prayer in the school. I’m sure that he had accepted Christ, as every lesson I always brought in a clear call to salvation. Later I also found that two boys in the class went on to become preachers of the Gospel.
As well as bringing the Truth of the Bible to my teacher in my last year at school, I kept up my preaching to the boys in the playground – I was a real ‘Hell-Fire’ preacher. In fact, I was so strong, and I have never forgotten, that two of my school friends, rejecting my offer of salvation, shook hands and declared that they would go to hell together.
The Bible says there IS a Resurrection of the dead and a Judgement Day – when EVERYONE of us must appear before God’s Judgement. If you live in your sin and die in your sin without finding the healing from sin, there is no longer any forgiveness – there is a hell for those who will not repent. The most important thing in this life is not physical healing; it is the question of sin and what you do about it. There IS forgiveness, there IS healing from sin, a way into the Kingdom – through the love of God, who sent Jesus Christ His Son to die on a cross, to pay the price of your sin, to forgive you, to break the curse of the devil and set you free.
The Bible says, ‘Whosoever shall call upon the Name of the Lord WILL be saved.’ The Glory of Heaven and the awfulness of hell are real. We must all make this choice, we only have this life in which to repent, otherwise it’s too late.