Noel Caldwell,
Retired, Midlands Technical College, Columbia, SC
Just before Christmas I was found to have colon cancer, which led to an operation and chemotherapy. I view this as something God allowed to happen in my life — for reasons I might not know until I get to heaven.
However, I can say that through the resulting changes in my daily activities during this “pit-stop” in my life, God is doing some new things in me and preparing me for the future. Having to back off of some of my ministry activities has given me more time for prayer, reading the Word and thinking about what really counts.
We’ve all heard that you don’t see a U-Haul trailer behind a hearse. However, as a true believer and follower of Jesus Christ, we can influence and in effect “take some people to heaven” with us when we die.
We can take family members, relatives, friends, work associates, students, and others that we’ve influenced and helped to become followers of Jesus Christ. Some will precede us and others may follow us. A good number of my academic associates, faculty and staff, have crossed over before me. My heart was gladdened knowing that I had previously been personally involved in helping some of them come to saving faith in Jesus Christ.
One colleague who had become a part of our engineering faculty before my coming to the college had to retire from the faculty for medical reasons. Although he was a rather “hard boiled’, no-nonsense type person, he was nearing death and I sensed that I should go to his home and talk to him about Christ. He listened to my personal testimony and I shared the gospel using the Four Spiritual Laws booklet. After we interacted about how to be sure of going to heaven, I felt quite confident that he would soon pray and receive Christ. I continued to pray for him. He died several weeks later.
Several months later my wife and I felt impressed to invite his widow to a Christian business community meeting. The speaker shared about his coming to faith in Christ. The meeting ended with a prayer invitation. She went forward and prayed. That night she went home with a joyful, new radiance on her face. To our shock she passed away a few weeks later with pneumonia.
The prophet Daniel says that those who turn many to righteousness shall shine like the stars forever and ever, Daniel 12:3b. Let me encourage you to develop or find a good gospel presentation and commit to memory its major points along with applicable scriptures. Then trust the Holy Spirit to help you flesh out the skeletal outline you memorized so you can personalize the gospel to each individual. My greatest joys in my very full life have come from leading people to Christ and in helping them become His disciples. The same can be yours, too.
© 2007 Noel Caldwell Used by permission of Faculty Commons