Family Salvation

One of the major struggles I have relates to the salvation of my own family.  My maternal grandmother had the same concerns.  In the last couple of years she lived she wrote LONG personal letters to her children, grandchildren and I’m sure many nieces, nephews and cousins.  I vividly remember the letter she sent me, although I no longer have it.

The letter was probably 10 pages in handwritten length and it was about Jesus Christ from front to back.  It was a passionate plea for me to consider my need to accept Christ as my savior.  In one sense it was merely a written account of the same message she had been communicating to me my entire life.  You could not have a discussion with my grandmother that did not involve her relationship with Jesus.  All of my cousins can attest to that!  We started hearing about Jesus from the time we became old enough to listen.

You would think that such a deep family tradition in Christ would produce a family that is 100% converted to the Gospel truth.  Sadly, if talking about Jesus is any evidence of a person’s salvation my grandmother’s family has several members that never really got the message as she presented it.  And I can attest today that the message she proclaimed was nothing more than the real Gospel of Christ.  There was nothing in what she said that was weird, fanatical or extreme.  She was just a sinner saved by grace and she shared that at every opportunity.

I first heard my grandmother’s words about Jesus when I was just a little boy.  The last time I heard them I was in my 30′s.  I walked the aisle of a little country church when I was twelve, but I did not truly receive Christ until I was in my early 40′s.  So, how could a person hear the truth for decades without surrendering to it?  That is an amazing reality and it is the experience of many who ultimately surrender to Christ and are truly “saved”.

I understand today the incredible burden my grandmother had for her families spiritual condition.  She understood the supernatural aspect of true salvation and knew that it rested upon a genuine brokenness of self and the overwhelming awareness of sin and its consequences.  She could see in the lives of her family the lack of evidence of such brokenness and thus she saw the need to keep dripping on all of us at every opportunity.  Unfortunately, she preached to us so often most of us stopped taking her seriously.  In fact, we avoided her so we would not be held captive and uncomfortably confronted by all she said.  In many instances she almost created a unwillingness in all of us to listen to anything that had much to do with the Bible and our need for salvation – from anyone!   We all believed we were OK and wondered why she kept “preaching to the choir”!  Most of us didn’t  know we weren’t really members of the true choir.

I think all who have accepted Christ have a burden for the salvation of their family, yet they are cautious in their personal testimony to them.  My grandmother’s bold witness was a exception, not the rule.  I know I struggle with how to share the true gospel with my children, grandchildren, cousins, nieces and nephews.  How do I continue to say what I’ve said so many times, without driving them away?   I don’t want to be so blunt and direct and repetitive that I drive them away, yet I worry deeply about their eternal condition.

I think I have a decent idea of those in my family who truly know Christ and those who don’t and I struggle about what to do and say to those I believe are still lost.  One of the reasons I write this blog is to provide a record my family can access as God convicts them of their need for his grace.  Do you have a burden for your families salvation?  If so, I hope The God Wall can help you communicate the gospel to those who need it.  My prayer is that God will take the words written here and work them into the hearts of all who seek him.  I pray that most earnestly for my own family.