A few years back Vernel and I were riding in a car with Yan Venter. We were on our way to the hotel in downtown Pretoria, South Africa. We were in route to an evening crusade, and I was asleep in the backseat. Suddenly, I heard Vernel shout out a warning. A spit second more and we would have been T-boned on the driver’s side of the car where I was sitting, behind the driver. Vernel's quick thinking saved our lives. Two other cars were part of the accident in which thirteen people were killed. It was at Soul’s Crossing. Occasionally, I think about that fatal day and about that split second between us and eternity. I wonder if those who lost their lives were believers? There was no moaning, no crying, no screams of desperation, they were just gone. Onlookers stood in silence as they observed the carnage. People were laid out on the sidewalk and covered with white sheets. There were women, their children, young men, and families celebrating a national holiday. All were unaware that each of them was just a breath away from eternity.
Within the hour I was standing before a packed church of hundreds of people, pleading with them to get right with God. Just think, the blink of the eye, the last word out of your mouth, a split second, and it's over. Done, all your life behind you. The question is are you really ready? Are you ready to meet your God?
Out of this accident, Vernel had to have a hip replacement; and I eventually had to have lumbar fusion on cracked vertebrae in my back. But, 13 individuals lost their lives and possibly their souls. Today, that still haunts me. I have faced my mortality on more than one occasion. Have you faced your personal mortality yet? You see, the people around you, as well as your family, have a choice to make; and a 'no' choice is a choice against the will and purpose of God in your life.
Have you ever had someone tell you their spiritual well being was a personal matter? I asked a Frenchman on one occasion at an altar in Paris, France, what he thought about what God was doing in him. His reply was interesting, to say the least, "I don't know, I have never been here before."
Where are you as you read this article? That is the most important question.
WE BELIEVE IN YOU!
Cleddie and Gaynell