MORNING MANNA 3-1-22
DO WHAT YOU CAN“—-ye shall be witnesses unto me–” Acts 1:8
I recently ran across this following story in my drafts by a missionary. It told of a loathsome leper, old and dying, who came to the leprosarium operated by the Methodists in China. Someone had told him that he would find room there, and he had come there to die. He was in the final stages of the disease, clad in nothing more than a bit of burlap tied around him by a string. He had not a relative in the world. But in the leprosarium he settled down in the room given him and began talking with the Chinese chaplain. After hearing the Gospel, he was asked if he wanted to become a Christian. “No,” he said.
“Why not?”
“Because,” the poor man replied, “you say your Jesus died for me. He gave himself for me. I have nothing to give him in return for a gift like that.”
“Oh, he wants no gift except yourself.”
“But how could he possibly want an ill-smelling, rotten old leper like me? It can not be!”
But eventually the old leper was convinced, and he humbly asked Jesus Christ to come into his life as Savior and Lord. Then what did he do? He started limping from patient to patient, telling the good news——
But he had less than two years to live. Soon both of his feet dropped off, both of his eyes decayed from his head, and his life ebbed away. As he was dying, the chaplain came to his bedside for a final conversation. The old man felt badly that he had been converted so late in life. He worried that he had not done more. And when the chaplain leaned over to speak with him, the old fellow said this: “When I reach Father’s house, will Jesus blame me for not getting any more, or will he remember that I was just a rotten old leper? I only got fourteen.”
What did he mean? He meant that during his two years, he had won only fourteen souls for Christ. Fourteen souls! He only had twenty-four months, but he had been about his mission — doing what he could where he was.
May God forgive us of our unconcern and help us do what we can, where we are, while we can.
David Stone
Lakeway Baptist Church
5801 FM 1960 E
Humble, TX. 77346
