Suicide
Written by Joe Oden Thursday, 07 August 2008 16:32
One night as I was on my way to preach in Garland, Texas. I stopped at a gas station about two miles from the church. While I was in line to check out, a man that had been drinking all day started making jokes with the female cashiers as he bought another beer. I reached in my pocket and realized I did not have my personal tract, “From Dope to Hope” to hand him, and asked my wife if she had one. She didn’t, and I was very disappointed because I felt I missed a divine appointment. As my wife and I were getting in the car to leave, he pulled up behind us and started talking to me. I immediately asked my wife to get a tract. I got one and had to run out because he was about to leave the parking lot and pull into the street. I went over and handed him the tract through his window and as he read the title, “From Dope to Hope,” he began to weep. He told me that it was what he needed, and that he was about to commit suicide. I invited him to the church service that night and he agreed to come. I followed him home, and he got in my car with his Budweiser and came with us to church. Some might say, “Why did you let him get in the car with a beer?” It’s because he was lost and didn’t know any better. After he got saved, I could teach him that you shouldn’t drink beer. I was not going to let that be the reason he did not come to church. He told some people that night he was going to go home and take scores of Tylenol and go to sleep. But, guess what? He got saved instead