Dumitru had a good friend who was a Christian man, but he himself was not saved. His Christian friend Ioan often told him about Jesus, God’s Son, and that He died on the cross to save sinners from their sins. He tried to warn Dumitru that being saved from his sins was the only way to get to heaven. But Dumitru didn’t see what was so important about getting saved.
One evening, Ioan invited Dumitru to his home to have dinner with a few other Christian friends. Dumitru enjoyed being with these Christians, because they were very kind and happy, so he accepted the invitation.
Just as they sat down for dinner, Ioan saw that he had forgotten to buy bread and mentioned it. “There’s a market just down the block,” said Dumitru. “I can go buy some bread and be back in 15 minutes.”
As soon as he left, an idea came to Ioan’s mind. Quickly he told his idea to his Christian friends, and they changed into different clothes. Then they took the ones they had been wearing and placed them on the chairs where each had been sitting. When they saw Dumitru approaching the house, they all hid in another room and waited.
Dumitru, unsuspecting of anything, entered the house with the bread he had bought. Suddenly, he froze! He took one look at the empty chairs with the clothes piled on them and knew what had happened! “NO!” he cried in great anguish! He thought Jesus had called all the people to heaven who were saved from their sins! He knew all about what would happen when Jesus came. Ioan had warned him many, many times that Jesus would call all the Christians home to heaven someday. Nobody knew when that would happen, so it was very important that Dumitru needed to be saved to be ready!
Dropping to the floor on his knees, Dumitru tore at his clothes and hair as despair flooded over him. Ioan and his friends rushed out to him! They were afraid Dumitru would have a heart attack and die of fright and shock!
Shaking all over, Dumitru looked up at them and then immediately realized that Jesus hadn’t come yet. Right then and there he saw that eternity was real and it was very, very important to be ready. Dumitru accepted the Lord Jesus as his Savior there in the house that very day! His friends hadn’t meant to scare him that much, but he certainly got the message.
How many of you boys and girls haven’t accepted the Lord Jesus as your Savior? Sometimes a Christian parent hasn’t been home when their son or daughter came home from school and found Mom or Dad wasn’t there. They know Jesus is coming back soon to take all the saved people to heaven, and they also know they aren’t saved. It’s mighty frightening until the parent arrives home! Most realize then that it’s time to talk to Jesus about their sins and accept Him as their Savior right away!
ML-05/21/2017