I Was Dying!

Someone approached me recently and asked, “Ray, are you ready to die?” He didn’t have a gun in his hand; he just wanted to know.

The next day, I felt as though I was going to die. As I lay on a chair at home with my eyes closed, Sue put a thermometer in my mouth. One minute later I handed it back to her and it read 107. It was off the charts. Can you believe it? It was over 107 degrees! Thermometers tend to go that high when you hold them real close to a light bulb for 2-3 seconds. Of course, Sue wasn’t fooled. And of course I wasn’t dying. I was just reacting as most men react when they get a bug.

However, one day I will die. It could be in 20 years, it could be tomorrow, and, as I told my friend, I am absolutely ready to die, because I know what is going to happen. I have been ready for 36 years. When I was converted to Christ in 1972, my secular buddies said my conversion wouldn’t last. It did, but they didn’t. Many of them are dead. Three committed suicide. Some died through drug overdoses and others through horrible accidents.

Recently, a mocking atheist asked if I had actually “spoken” to God. Believe it or not, I have. Many times. And I have been doing it for 36 years, like every other person who knows the Lord.

As it was my 36th second birthday recently, I think it would be fitting for me to talk directly to God now, and give Him a very sincere tribute for saving me from death and Hell. If you are an atheist or some sort of skeptic, you may not want to read any further, because the following is not for you. This is between us Christians:

"Father, I want to take a moment to thank You, with every ounce of sincerity I have, for saving a wretch like me. I truly once was lost, but now I’m found. I was blind, but now I see. This prayer is completely inadequate to express my gratitude, so what I can’t put into words, I will put into works. However long I have left on the earth will be used to do Your will, especially to reaching out to those that don't know You. I pray, along with my Christian brethren, for any unsaved who may read this--that they will repent and trust the Savior before it's too late, and come to know You, whom to know is eternal life. In Jesus’ name, Amen."