He Draws the Unwilling
The greatest gift of all is the gift of eternal life and that is life in Christ; it is Christ himself, who died to save sinful people from an eternity of separation from God.
God had answered our prayers by giving this wonderful gift, a Person who loves and redeems those who believe in him, to Jack who had been so slow of heart.
We were grateful and still we grieved. We grieved for ourselves only, because we knew Jack was healed and happy, yet we missed him.
Life went on. The church friends, fellow Christians, and others who had been so supportive during the time of illness were never forgotten for their generous gifts and loving encouragement.
The financial crisis that developed during the illness was resolved by life insurance which Jack had purchased only two years before his death at a time when he was in excellent health. He always had an uncanny ability to make good investments at the perfectly opportune moment. Some of the undeveloped land he purchased ripened as prime lots at ideal times when Mandy most needed help to pay for college and other large expenses.
God has given grace and strength to Mandy, continuing to test her faith through many trials and difficulties, to assure that his relationship with her remains two-sided and alive.
In the initial years following Jack’s death, we would often look back and remember the events surrounding his miraculous salvation and new birth. I prayed deeply to understand why Jack could not have been healed. Mandy felt it had to do with the type of personality he had. He had always been the sort to be influenced by his friends, desiring to go along with them and to please them. Perhaps he would not have been able to remain strong in the Lord, but would have fallen back into old patterns. The way that God arranged things, he was separated to his family and to the Lord while he lived. It was better to take him when he had just reached the Mountain, before he had time to stray or to backslide.
No matter how hard we may try to understand, there are mysteries of the Kingdom that we cannot fathom. Was Jack right that his cancer was a discipline? If we agree to this, are we not forgetting that God puts our sins as far as east is from west when we seek his mercy and pardon for all that we deeply regret having done?
Was it the prayer of abandonment which we had prayed, asking God to do whatever it might take to save Jack, that achieved the glorious breakthrough? Paul did instruct the Corinthian believers to hand over a man involved in sexual immorality to Satan “so that the sinful nature may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord.” (I Cor 5:5) Grievous sin calls for drastic action to be taken in order to avoid the worst consequences— namely, utter destruction on the day of God’s Judgment.
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