Matthew 8:21-22 “Another of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, first let me go and bury my father.'”
In today´s terms, we would say something like ‘let me take care of my father first, until he dies’ or ‘let me first get a college degree’ or ‘let me polish myself up first by stopping sinning, or by getting married.’ Best one in Nicaragua, which appears to be honorable but isn’t, is ‘when I don’t have to take care of a sick parent’. It doesn’t have to be either or. ‘Accept the Lord? They ask?’ I’m too busy right now, but ‘Next Time!’
Marcos 7:11 But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, “Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban” ’ (that is, given to God)— Here it doesn’t apply. In fact, you will help your parents even more by being fully surrendered to God.
Sayings like things like ‘next time, a good time or the right time’ probably leads more people to hell than anything else. God loves your parents more than you do. If you get saved and serve the Lord, He will take care of them. If God needs a lawyer or doctor, He’ll save one. God wants you, right now, just as you are. He’s not mad at you, He’s mad about you, just the way you are. Come to Him today, unaccomplished, dirty, just as you are. Right here, right now. Plunge head first, into the deepest part of the pool! Sadly, most tend to think it through and say ‘Next Time!’
2 Cor 6:2. For He says: “In an acceptable time I have heard you, And in the day of salvation I have helped you.” Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.
When I was 5, my grandpa Cerbus said good bye to me. He was 60, and moving to California, where he would die a year later. He took me out back of the house, under an apple tree. (Springtime, in Burton Ohio). He prayed in tongues over me. I thought he was praying in Slovak but I didn’t understand anything he was saying. All I rember most of all is that I smelled apple blossoms. I wanted God so much. I fell in love with the Lord, right then and there, But I was only 5, so I said to myself ‘Next Time!
2 Cor 2, 15–16 We are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance fro.m death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life.
Going back to the subject. JustAsYouAre. The song that wrecked me and still does is ‘Just as I am’.
I first heard this song in the Cleveland Ohio Municipal Stadium,, home of the Indians and Browns (Puny Muny) when Billy Graham preached there in 1967. I was 10. Billy Graham preached about the coming tribulation/rapture and afterwards, George Beverly Shea belted out ‘Just As I Am’ Believe it or not, I smelled apple blossoms!!!! I ran for the sawdust trail (we were way high up in the cheap seats, nosebleed section) but my dad grabbed me because it was starting to rain, and wanted to beat traffic. I was ten. As we were driving home, (in the traffic jam that my dad wanted to avoid) we had one of the worst thunder storms I have ever experienced to this day. The Lake Erie shoreline sky turned lime green. I was petrified. I should have disobeyed my father and made a run for it. I was 10, he was 30. It would have been no match! (It’s ok to disobey authorities in order to obey God, Jesus did). I shouldn’t have waited. My life would have been so much better if I had just persisted. But I said ‘God, Next Time!’
Proverb 6:4-5 Give not sleep to thine eyes, nor slumber to thine eyelids. Deliver thyself as a roe from the hand of the hunter, and as a bird from the hand of the fowler.
‘Next time’ came 7 years later at the end of the Jesus freak era. I had almost lost my life twice. Car accident and farming accident. On a dreary, cold, rainy evening in Northeast Ohio, on October 17, 1974, Tony Byler invited me to a revival in Chardon Ohio sponsored by the Gospel House (Broadway in E Cleveland Ohio with Pastor Bob Sepkovich preaching,) I heard the Gospel again. When they played miraculously ‘Just As I Am’ , I went forward immediately. It was like a bucket of warm milk was poured over me, while I sincerely accepted Jesus Christ into my life and repented of all of my sins. I tangibly felt God’s love. I woke up the next morning hearing a voice audibly saying ‘wake up Child if God!’ I was estatic. I started Bible studies in High School and was a total Jesus Freak. (ASTOUNDED STILL BY HOW MUCH I THOUGHT I KNEW back then, now I feel like I don’t know anything). It lasted about 3 months, until around Christmas. Then I started to worry about passing high school and girls.
Mark 4:19 And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful.
I went into the Army, and almost died there as well. I said ‘God, I’m not ready yet. I need to get myself together first, Next Time!’
Proverbs 27:1. “Boast not thyself of to morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.”
Got through the Army, and I fell into selling cars. Made a lot of money. My best month I sold 66 new units one on one, belly to belly. I said ‘God, when I become rich enough, I’ll live on a mountain and worship you (notice how far I was drifting?). I was making lots of money right then and wanted to wait until I have more than enough…. in other words, Next Time!’
Luke 12:16-21 This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.
Then, unexpectedly, my life imploded! It was almost fatal. Along with massive successes in the car business and in the Army, there were massive disasters as well. I got on my knees, on a beach, all alone on New Year’s Eve 1993 (36 years old) and I said to the Creator of the Universe, ‘Lord, I recognize you as my only Hope. I am placing all my chips on you. I’ve blown it. I’ve betrayed you. Can you forgive me again? I know That You died for my sins. That you were resurrected from the tomb. Come into my life and take me as I am. I am a failure. I give up. I need you. I believe in you. Please accept me Just as I am’ and from that time on, I was saved, really really saved, again! I went to Calvary Chapel Merrit Island Florida that same evening and made it official by going foward with Jim Hargis and Rich Aguirre. There was no more ‘Next Time’.
Isaiah 1:18 “Come now, and let us reason together,” saith the Lord. “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
Please don’t wait to figure it out. Just do it. I have seen many people die. I have never seen even one death bed conversion. Most don’t even know they’re dying. They are too busy trying to breath. Don’t say ‘Next Time! Just Say, ‘Just as I am Lord, take me!’ God will make it work! It’s a lot better than saying ‘Next Time!’
Isaiah 55:2 “Come now, and let us reason together,” saith the Lord. “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
GOD will make a way where you don’t think there is one.
Isaiah 43:19 Behold, I will do a new thing, Now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness And rivers in the desert
PureHeartChildren’sFund
Winnie Pureheart Peters
PureHeartChildrensFund.org
Just As I Am
Just as I am, without one plea
But that Thy blood was shed for me
And that Thou bid’st me come to Thee
Oh, Lamb of God, I come, I come
Mm
Just as I am, though tossed about
With many a conflict, many a doubt
Fighting and fears within without
Oh, Lamb of God, I come, I come
Ooh, just as I am, ooh, I come
Ooh, just as I am, oh Lamb of God, I come
Just as I am, Thou wilt receive
Wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve
Because Thy promise I believe
Oh, Lamb of God, I come, I come
Ooh, just as I am, ooh, I come
Ooh, just as I am, oh Lamb of God, I come
Oh lamb of God, I come
Without my finally coming to the Lord, I would have never gone to the Managua dump. The Chureca (dump)ministries would have never happened. We are on our 4th generation there now. Read more here in my weak attempt at a book of what we are doing here in Managua Nicaragua since 1993. GLEANINGS FROM THE DUMP https://docs.google.com/…/124pWYATsWP…/edit
I am writing another book as well. It’s about a perplexing question I’ve been asking myself my whole life (since I watched King of Kings when I was like 6) my lifelong question has been, ‘If Jesus was alive today, walking among us, would I embrace Jesus or cry ‘crucify Him!’ The book is called MATT https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-48pMQBanvWVz2JYff6vrGgUK9S6c3g_qZi0rILvTlk/edit
I am looking for Co-Authors/Editirs or publicists for both books if they are worth reading
Love You
Dean And Winnie Peters