A Word of Encouragement with Elizabeth Rice Handford
A dear woman who attended my Bible class was diagnosed with brain cancer. She had only a
few weeks to live. She was a retired school teacher. She’d come to Christ only two years before. She
was too sick to have visitors, but she asked me to come to see her at her home. She lay in her hospital
bed, cuddling one of her little kittens. She had two problems, she said, as she faced death.
“I can’t remember all my sins so I can confess them and be forgiven before I die.”
What a simple Bible answer there is to that problem! “Rachel, don’t you remember that when
you asked Jesus to forgive you, the Bible says He forgave all your sins? He paid the penalty for every
sin you ever committed when He died on the cross. There’s not a single sin recorded against you.”
Isaiah 44:21,22 (NLT) says:
I the Lord made you,
I will not forget you.
I have swept away your sins like a cloud. . . .
Oh, return to me,
For I have paid the price to set you free.
“Thank God,” she said. “But I have another problem. I’ve never ‘saved’ anybody.” (I had told
my Bible class about the blessed privilege we have of telling others about Jesus, so they can be pardoned
and ‘saved’ from their sins, too. So Rachel was grieving that she’d never brought anyone to Jesus.
“Rachel,” I answered, “when you trusted Jesus, you became such a sweet and exciting witness
about Him to everybody. Your life changed; we all watched you glow with your love for Christ. You
can’t guess at how many people have been touched by your sweet example.”
There’s an over-powering parable about this in Matthew 20:1-16. A man owned a vineyard, and
he needed workers, so at 6:00 in the morning, he went to the market place and hired everyone he could
at a fair day’s wage. He went back at 9:00, 12:00, and 3:00, and hired others, promising them a fair
wage. At 5:00, the eleventh hour, he hired a few more workers. When 6:00 came, the workers lined up
for their pay. The ones who’d been hired at the eleventh hour were paid first. They were paid as much
as if they’d worked a whole day! The workers who’d worked all day thought sure they’d get lots more
money, since the late workers had gotten a full day’s pay. When they didn’t, they groused. But the boss
(who, of course, represents God) said,“Friend, I haven’t been unfair.
Didn’t you agree to work all day for the usual wage?
Take your money and go.
I wanted to pay this last worker the same as you.
Is it against the law for me to do what I want with my money?
Should you be jealous because I am kind to others?
Rachel had been a Christian only two years, but the Lord Jesus will reward her as if she’d spend
her life serving Him!
You may feel as Rachel did. You may regret bad decisions you’ve made in the past,
opportunities you neglected, time and money wasted on foolish pursuits. As you can see from Jesus’
words, you can begin serving Him now. Jesus so delights in the person who, even at the eleventh hour,
turns his life over to Him. He can use you today in ways you can’t imagine. He loves the workers hired
at the eleventh hour, who surrender their hearts to His will, no matter their rocky past.
What grace is this? To come late into the kingdom, but to receive all God’s treasures as if you’d
spent a life-time serving Him? Yes! That’s the grace He freely offers you and me.