Throughout his young life, I had been having a repeated
conversations with Zeke about God, sin, salvation, Jesus dying on the cross for
our sins, and how one can become a follower of Jesus. We had many good conversations, if only
brief, but he always said “I will accept Jesus later, when I am 5 or 6 or some time
later.”
Then on Tuesday, October 30th 2012 at 4
years and 11 months old, Zeke had was having a rough day and had pushed Selah, hit
Caroline, and was generally causing trouble.
For this Zeke received consequences, one of which was being sent to his
room. While sitting in his room and
evidently thinking about what he had done, a short time later he comes out to
Julie and says “I prayed to Jesus to become a Christian.” Julie answers “Right now, just now?” Zeke says “Yes!” When Julie asked Zeke how this happened, he
said that while he was in trouble he decided he needed Jesus’ help to stop
sinning and be a Christian. Julie was a
little startled at his abrupt decision, but was ecstatic for him and said that
we will talk to Papa and let him know when he gets home.
Upon arriving home and hearing the news, I sat down
with Ezekiel and asked him the about his
decision. He said essentially the same
thing: he had gotten in trouble and
while experiencing his consequences he decided he needed help to stop sinning
and prayed to be a Christian. I asked
him how he became a Christian and he said “I prayed to believe in Jesus so that
I wouldn’t sin anymore.” When I asked
him what Jesus had done to save him and help him he said, “He died on the cross
for me and my sins.” We then talked
about how the Holy Spirit wants to: (1) give us the same power that raised
Jesus from the dead, and (2) that he (Zeke) with the Holy Spirit’s help will
spend the rest of his life learning to trust God to choosing not to sin.
On top of it all, it was on Great-Grandpa Harned’s 88th
birthday which was a special treat for Great-Grandpa as he has worked, labored,
and prayed so hard for his family, children, grand-children, and
great-grandchildren all these years that we would love and follow Jesus with
all of our hearts. It was a great gift
to give Grandpa a couple days later when we told him what Ezekiel had done.
A picture of Zeke from October 2012
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