Hard. Serious. Real

When he came to the door , my sister had no idea what was up...

Here is what happened.

Jody   had been suffering from cancer for a long time.  He was suffering from the habit of chewing tobacco. Harsh consequences. A lump on his neck bigger than a softball.  Surgeries, pain medication, strong pain medication, and now it was beyond healing.
Jody was in a loud and angry mood.  He was planning to end his life. He carried a bag with just what he needed.  My sister asked him "Jody, do you know if you're going to heaven?"  And he said  " Oh yeah, I know all about that.  My mom took me to the Baptist church every Sunday morning, Sunday night and Wednesday night. So  I asked Jesus into my heart lots of times.. that hasn't worked for me. Look, at my life.  Living with my girlfriend for 15 years, living in sin".

At some point B-I-L  said  " Jody, please don't do it on June 1. That is our anniversary and all our families are going to be here"
 ( that is really what happened so I have to include it )

Jody responded " I got too many other things I have to take care of. I got to connect with my attorney and".. saying all the different things he had to take care of , Jenny and however long it takes her to go through mourning or whatever that is you go through.   He was not very kind talking about any of it.
  He rambled on and on and finally just before he was going to leave my sister said
"Jody as time goes on if you decide that you want to hear more about heaven you come over here and talk to me  OK?


It was three weeks later.   The phone call came,  It was Jenny " can we come over?"
The couple sat in the living room and most of the time Jody was quiet.  He could barely talk. He and his now wife, Jenny had gotten married. 
Jenny was crying most of the time, but she was able to translate  what Jody was trying to say.

He was ready for Barb to tell him what she wanted to share with him.

The basic plan of salvation.  He nodded his head.   He made eye contact.  As long as  they sat in the living room, Barb kept sharing.


At one point B-I-L said  " our grand daughter is coming over to spend the night.  She is coming for a sleep over. "
  (  that really happened,  kind of "unexpected"   but it gave my sister a few minutes to pray and think about other things to share.)

She recognized that he was feeling guilty and needed to understand God's forgiveness.  She mentioned that he had been angry when he came over before and he shook his head  ( very difficult, painful, for him )   The few words he spoke Jenny understood... but then he said "Crap" and everyone could understand that.

Barb said..
"Almost the entire visit he was just staring deeply at me, intently just listening, really deeply which was very encouraging.  I mean here I have this audience, he couldn't even answer me or talk back to me, or say OK I've heard enough or anything because he couldn't talk . Kind of trapped." 

Then she  said:  " I could tell he was really responding so I felt really like the Lord calls out to help and just as he wasn't angry and he was listening and he was getting the one point. I was talking about dying. And he didn't need to fear dying because he would close his eyes here and open up his eyes in heaven and I gave the story I heard years ago from Chuck Swindoll that your hand is in the glove and  when the glove comes off, and your hand goes up to heaven    God just happens in just a blink of an eye and so he didn't have to fear death.  It was you being with Jesus forever."
Then she looked at Jenny and said " Jenny this is something else, a bonus that when you believe that Jesus dies on the cross, he died for you."  She explained the simple plan of salvation.
She was listening, but did not respond, so I am not sure about her
but
"I feel maybe it was a gift the Lord gave to me. I did feel like if I had to vote one way or another, I would say Jody accepted Jesus and he probably already had years ago, but he was just feeling so guilty and unforgiven and he just needed to be reminded. I'm so blessed the Lord gave me the words.

When they left both of them gave us a big hug.


And Saturday morning was his final day on earth.





Thankful that the Lord used my sister
Proud of my sister's confidence and boldness  in sharing "Jesus"