Don''t Give Up!

"God don't let me make an impact on the world and lose my own family." This has been my constant prayer for 36 years of serving in missions, much of that overseas.

I didn't have the privilege of growing up in a Christian home. Since I was the youngest of nine children, none of my siblings were at home when my father was converted. My father was 60 years old when a young pastor contacted him. For two years my father was rude and resistant, but this pastor kept praying, believing, and visiting my father. Within two years he had won my mother and my father to Christ.

At the time, I was 20 years old, lost, and had no interest in church or serving God. I lived in Cincinnati, Ohio, and had my own interests. God was certainly not one of them. However, when I saw the change in my father, God began to speak to me. I bought my first Bible and began to read it. At first, I didn't even know that there were four Gospels. Someone helped me get started in the book of Matthew and for nine months I read God's word. A revival campaign came to my father's church, and he invited me to attend with him. I had become quite hungry for salvation. That Sunday morning I received Jesus Christ as my personal Savior. What a change it made in my life!

Through the years I have been praying for my older brothers and sisters. My first sibling to accept Christ was my sister closest to me in age. Her husband followed. My older sister was next and one by one God has been uniting our family as they come to Jesus.

My oldest living brother, age 83, had never accepted Christ. For years I witnessed to him and tried to help him reach the place of repentance. He always put off considering the decision to receive Christ. Then he suffered a serious stroke last year, and I talked to him again about Christ, but seemed to have no success in leading him to Jesus.

I was fairly frustrated and said, "Well, Jess, when will you give your heart to Christ?"

"Well, maybe never," he said.

I was not prepared for that response. I kept praying.

A few days later I was speaking by telephone to my brother-in-law who was at Jess's bedside. Then I talked with Jess. I had decided that I would not give up and let him sidestep the issue of his salvation this time. I kept talking and praying. Suddenly I sensed the Holy Spirit saying, "With all the talk and all the effort he still does not understand." I told my brother-in-law, "Earl, just work with him as if he doesn't know how to be saved, as with a little child." Earl and my sister began to give the testimony of how they were saved. Within five minutes, Jess called me back and said, "Louie, I have just been saved."

What an experience to witness my lost brother, on his way to eternity, giving his heart to Jesus at last! In those final days he continued to give strong testimony to how God had come into his heart.

You must never, ever give up.

This motivated me to work more closely with other members of my family, two brothers and a sister, who were not converted. After speaking to one brother in his 70s, I learned that he had given his heart to Jesus when I'd spoken at another funeral. As he gave his testimony, he began to cry. It was the first time in my life I had heard him cry, and they were tears of joy at his entry into the Kingdom of God.

A few days later, I visited a brother who was 78 years old and in poor health. He had lived without God. During our visit I presented the gospel simply, and we prayed together. He confessed his sins and came to Jesus Christ by faith. What joy to have my last brother come to Christ!

We are now praying for my oldest sister, to whom we have also witnessed. I once asked her, "Have you ever thought about receiving Christ?" She replied, "Sure, everybody thinks about it." However, we are not giving up.

We must keep interceding, augmenting our prayers with a day-to-day passion for the lost, even our family and loved ones. How wonderful it is to see people come to Jesus Christ. God uses each of us to witness, live a life of holiness, and present the gospel to the lost so that they can understand and believe in the Lord. Never, never, never give up!

Louie E. Bustle is the director of Global Mission for the Church of the Nazarene.

Nov/Dec 2007