by Pastor Jack Hyles (1926-2001)
"IT'S WONDERFUL!"
Mr. Carter was his name. He was a cancer patient in Baylor Hospital in Dallas, Texas. As I witnessed to him, he was antagonistic. The harder I tried the more angry he seemed to get. His rudeness embarrassed his wife who was observing the conversation from a nearby chair.
After seeming to have failed, I simply bowed my head and began to pray. As I prayed, he suddenly shouted, "I believe it, and it's wonderful!"
When I finished praying, I asked him if he had received Jesus Christ as Saviour. He said, "I just did, and it's wonderful!" He prayed a prayer of thanksgiving, interrupting the prayer occasionally to say, "Lord, it sure is wonderful!"
Upon completing his prayer, he turned to his wife and said, "Honey, it is so wonderful to be a Christian. You ought to be one, too."
"Well, I think I am a Christian," she replied.
"No, you ain't!" he said. "You ought to try it and get what I got. It's wonderful!"
I then proceeded to tell her how to be saved, being interrupted periodically by Mr. Carter's saying, "Do it, honey. It's wonderful" She then began to pray the sinner's prayer only to hear him say again and again, "Ain't it wonderful, honey! Ain't it wonderful!" She, too, received Christ as Saviour.
Salvation is not the result of a feeling, but isn't it refreshing to be present when faith manifests itself in joy?
I gave him a little Testament to read. Three weeks later I was called to preach his funeral. As I approached the pulpit of the funeral home in McKinney, Texas, I noticed his hand on his heart and in his hand was the Testament I had given him. "It was his last request," said Mrs. Carter. A new Christian like Mr. Carter best described his salvation with the simple words, "It's wonderful." As I left the hospital and as I left the funeral home, as the soul winner I could best describe my joy by simply saying, "It's wonderful!"
