“Do you think that there’s a God, Sis?” Mel asked his older sister as he stood in the doorway of her room.
“Maybe there is, and — maybe there isn’t!” she answered briefly.
Mel thought that over and decided that probably that was the way most everyone felt. Surely no one could know for sure.
Still, there were those neighbors who really seemed to believe in God. On Sunday mornings when Mel and some of the other neighborhood boys were having a game of ball, the children in this family would cut across the lot, where they were playing, on their way to Sunday school. They were always dressed nicely and all cleaned up, and somehow looked as if they enjoyed going to Sunday school. A ten-year-old boy named Don in this family was a real good athlete, and loved to play ball. But Sunday mornings he preferred to go to Sunday school, and in his heart Mel admired and envied him.
These folks had a Bible class in their home for boys and girls, and Mel went a few times. One time there was an object lesson that really impressed him. They had a boy sit up in front on a chair and tied his hands together with a string. He broke it easily the first time, but after many strands had bound his hands he could not get free with his own strength. The boys and girls were told that this was like sin. Before sin has a great hold upon us we can sometimes break bad habits, hut Satan continues to bind us until we are his prisoners and we cannot free ourselves. But the Lord Jesus can free us if we will trust in him, for, “if the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed” (John 8: 36).
When Mel grew older he went West with his brother one summer to pick fruit. They picked raspberries and blackberries and then apples in large orchards. The boys would race one another to see who could pick the most each day, and Mel usually won. One day a letter came from a pal back home with some surprising news in it. His friend Mike wrote that he had taken the Lord Jesus as his Savior at a tent meeting, and he was a different boy now. He didn’t care to do some of the things they had done before, for most of all he wanted to please God now.
That afternoon the apple picking didn’t go so well for Mel. On top of the tall ladder in the apple tree all he could do was look up into the sky and think about what Mike had said. Mike had always been a swell fellow. If he had needed to be saved, what about himself?
The first night after they got home, Mel went over to see Mike. He found that there was a Bible class going on, and was greatly embarrassed, but Mike insisted that he come in. He felt miserable and out of place, but afterward promised Mike to go to a gospel meeting with him the following Sunday night.
On the way they neared a railroad crossing where a high bank hid the view and just as they were on the track a big beam of light seemed right on top of them. The boys looked up in terror at the train engine that was about to crush them, but the engineer was grinding on his brakes and in a few moments the boys found themselves unharmed in a ditch.
The engineer had been able to stop the train in time, for there was only the engine and caboose. If there had been boxcars the weight would have kept him from stopping so quickly. In his heart Mel felt sure that the Devil had wanted to kill him before he had another chance to receive the Lord as his Savior, but he had forgotten the boxcars!
In the meeting that night Mel listened earnestly to a sermon on “Ye must be born again.” That sounded like the real thing to Mel. Others had always said, “Be good,” and “Do the best you can,” but Mel knew that he couldn’t be good enough to satisfy a holy God.
After the meeting Mike put his arm around him and asked, “Wouldn’t you like to receive the Lord Jesus tonight?”
They sat down and talked with an older Christian who showed Mel that he was a lost sinner in God’s sight, but in Romans 10: 9 God said: “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.”
That night Mel could not sleep. On his knees he begged God to save him. Then God reminded him that the work was all done. It was right there in Romans 10 and 9—all he needed to do was believe and confess! With a glad heart Mel thanked the Lord and rejoiced in God’s salvation.