Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.

• Romans 12:1

“The nurses waited patiently as I collapsed into the chair, resting. “Why, O Lord, must I have this stair-climbing after this busy day of speaking?”
“Then I heard God’s voice, even louder than my pounding heart. ‘Because a great blessing is waiting you, a work which will give joy to the angels.’
“I looked up at the steps, towering above me and almost disappearing into the clouds. Perhaps I am leaving this earth to go to heaven, I thought. Surely that will give joy to the angels.
…
“ ‘Tell me,’ I asked the nurse’s mother, ‘is it long ago that you found Jesus as your Saviour?’
“ ‘I have never met Him,’ she said, surprised at my question.
“ ‘Are you willing to come to Him? He loves you. I have traveled in more than sixty countries and have never found anyone who said they were sorry they had given their hearts to Jesus. You will not be sorry either.’
“Then I opened my Bible and pointed out the verses about salvation. She listened intently. Then I asked them, ‘Shall we now talk with the Lord?’
“I prayed, then the two nurses prayed and finally the mother folded her hands and said, ‘Lord Jesus, I know already much about You. I have read much in the Bible, but now I pray You to come into my heart. I need cleansing and salvation. I know that You died at the cross for the sins of the whole world and also for my sins. Please, Lord, come into my heart and make me a child of God. Amen.’
“I looked up and saw tears of joy on the face of the young nurse. She and her friend had prayed so much for her parents and now the answer was given. I turned and looked at the father, who had sat quietly through all this.
“ ‘What about you?’ I asked him.
“ ‘I have never made such a decision for Jesus Christ either,’ he said seriously. ‘But I have listened to all you have told my wife and now I know the way. I, too, would like to pray that Jesus will save me.’
“He bowed his head and from his lips poured a joyful but vary sincere prayer as he gave his life to Jesus Christ. Suddenly the room was filled with great rejoicing and I realized the angels had come down and were standing around, singing praises unto God.
“ ‘Thank You, Lord,’ I prayed as I walked back down the long steps, ‘for making me walk up all these steps. And next time, Lord, help Corrie ten Boom listen to her own sermon about being willing to go anywhere You tell me to go—even up ten flights of stairs.’ ”

• Corrie ten Boom, Tramp for the Lord

Corrie ten Boom stopped halfway up the stairs.  She prayed, “Lord, my heart is unhappy.”  She begged the nurses to continue on, but how could a good nurse continue on when the woman they were escorting had an unhappy heart because of overexertion at an advanced age?

Tante Corrie was in Copenhagen, Denmark, and a ten-floor walk up meant ten floors to walk up.

I am not as old as Tante Corrie was at that time.  But I might have stopped a couple of times up those ten floors.

But what awaited her?  The parents of one of the nurses who was with her.  And neither parent knew Jesus.  For the nurse, it was life or death.

The atheists and agnostics want to silence Christians.  They pretend to be offended.  They often are offended, but not by the words that are said, but by the conviction in their hearts that they need something, yet they have rejected Jesus Christ.

But the Christian must speak.  For us, it is life or death.

Were the ten floors worth it?  To hear the angels sing, even more floors would have been worth the unhappy heart.

Lord, strengthen me.  Help us to be bold.  Lord, we cry over things that in the long run are trivial.  Two lives who will be with You in paradise compared to an hour or two before the heart rhythm gets back to normal.  Oh, Lord, it is worth much more.  In Your name I pray.  Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.