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| The Greatest Story | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Name: | Victor Scardella | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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| The Greatest Story I Ever Heard ! By Victor Scardella |
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Matthew 18:3 and he said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven"...: At a Gospel Rescue Mission in downtown Indianapolis, Indiana in 1985 where I worked we had Chapel services every night. The Director of the Mission was a southern Baptist minister and he liked southern music like banjoes and guitars and the kind of music that you might hear on the tv show hee haw. Well, one night he brought in some southern musicians and some other visitors to the mission and had an old fashioned southern church service instead of the normal every day typical chapel service. It was longer than the guys had experienced but was the most moving and memorable service I had ever experienced at a mission. The director had three children : a 12 year old boy, a 9 year old girl and a 6 year old little girl. Generally speaking, most children get kind of fussy and fidgety in a long church service (some adults too) but, this was no ordinary service and even the ending was extraordinary. Instead of a typical invitation for those who needed to accept Jesus into their hearts and lives, the director told a very special story and here it is : There lived in a small country town a family with a dad, a mom and a little boy. They were not church going people but they tried to live good lives and be good people. One day the local church people decided to go out into the small community and invite those who had never come to their church to come and visit their church. When they got to the home of this small family they knocked on the front door. The mom answered the door and the people from the church introduced themselves and asked if the family would like to come and visit their church. The mom said she was not interested and she thought her husband and son would also not be interested. But, the little boy poked his little head out from behind his mother and said "momma could I please go to the church"? Reluctantly she said ok and the little boy was so excited for the upcoming opportunity to go and visit the church on the next Sunday that he started getting ready that very day. He got his little shirt and his little tie, his little dress pants and his little coat, he got out his little shoes and shined them up real nice and he was already to go on Sunday morning. When Sunday morning came he was outside waiting. The church bus came and picked him up and took him to church. He got to go to Sunday school where he learned about Jesus. After church he went home and told his momma all about it. Then, when his dad got home from work he told him all about it. The next Sunday he went back to the church and learned about salvation and accepted Jesus into his heart. He then asked his mom and dad if they knew Jesus, and they said no but, it was good that he knew him. Then everywhere that his mom took him he would ask people do you know Jesus ? Do you know Jesus ? Do you know Jesus ? He continued to go to the church every Sunday and learned many more things about God and the Bible. Well, it was finally time and he was finally old enough to start school and so he went to school and asked everyone there, Do you know Jesus ? Do you know Jesus ? Do you know Jesus ? One day at school he got a stomach ache and the school nurse called his mother and told her she should come and pick up the little boy and take him home. So, his mom came and picked him up and took him home. After they got home, his stomach ache got worse and he was in a lot of pain. So, his mom called the doctor and he said she had better bring him in to the hospital to get checked out. By the time they got to the hospital his condition got even worse and he had a high fever. Even though he had a high fever and was in a lot of pain, he still mustered up the strength to asked all the nurses : Do you know Jesus ? Do you know Jesus ? Do you know Jesus ? Then the doctors came and took him into an examination room where they checked him over to find the cause of the illness and try to determine what the illness was. The whole time that the doctors were checking out the little boy, he kept asking : Do you know Jesus ? Do you know Jesus ? Do you know Jesus ? By this time his dad had heard about the little boy's condition and came down to the hospital to be with his family. Finally the doctors came out and gave the parents the bad news. They said that they found a large tumor in the little boy's belly and there was nothing they could do for him. They did not expect him to live much longer and they said that the parents could go in and sit with their little boy. By this time all the nurses and doctors at the hospital had heard about the little boy who wanted to know if they knew Jesus and were concerned for the little boy and were also courious about him so they all gathered in his room with him and his parents. Also, some people from the school and town shops heard about his condition and came and gathered with the rest of the people at the hospital in the room of the little boy. After several hours of silence, the boy screamed : "momma, momma" ! His mother answered yes son, what is it ? Do you see the angels all around my bed ? They are singing, do you hear them ? No, she said I do not see them or hear them. Again he screamed : "momma, momma" ! His mother answered again, yes son, I am here. Look, there is Jesus standing there by the end of my bed ! He is holding out his hands and I can see the nail holes from when he was on the cross ! Can you see Jesus standing there ? His mother answered, no son, I can't see Jesus standing there. He began to cry and said momma, daddy, everyone, you need to give your hearts to Jesus so you can see him and the angels, they are ready to take me to heaven now. And with that he took his last breath. All at once his mother knelt beside his bed and began to pray : "God, I want to know the Jesus that my son knew", the little boy's father knelt beside the bed and began to pray : "God, I want to know the Jesus that my son knew". Then, all the doctors and nurses knelt down and began to pray : "God, I want to know the Jesus that this little boy knew". After that, everyone else there prayed too... "God, We want to know the Jesus this little boy knew". A lost little town came to know Jesus because of the faith of a little boy and as amazing as that story is, what got to me the most was when I looked over toward the director's children, not only were they sitting still and quiet, but I noticed tears - quietly steaming down their faces as they sat there listening to this story - I was so touched by this that I began to cry and as I did I also began to pray for the men there at the mission - that they would come to know the same Jesus that I knew and that this little boy in the story knew and that it only requires a small amount of child like faith to accept the gift of salvation and the promise of eternity in heaven. |
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