"Pray for all men...who will have all men to be saved"
1 Timothy 2:1, 4

When I was saved, 66 years ago, my mother and father were not saved and NEVER went to church. I tried to share the gospel with them and my father was hard and told me clearly to "keep my religion to myself." To say it broke my heart, is an understatement.

One thing I could do, though, was to pray for him and this I did with tears and fasting. Very often I cried myself to sleep praying for my parents. About ten years later, I had the joy of leading my mother to Christ.

When I went with Jerry Falwell, he made me sit on the platform when I was not out of town preaching. My wife sang in the choir. My father began watching the first part of the church service just to look for Celeste and me and would then turn the program off. Unbeknown to me, much later, he began to watch the preaching.

I was invited to preach a revival for a pastor friend in Jacksonville, my home town where my father still lived. My mother was now in heaven. The pastor was BI-vocational and pastored a small church of less than one hundred.

My father picked me up at the airport on Saturday and took me to the motel and than said to me, "Son I will see you in church tomorrow." Believe me I was shocked beyond imagination for he never went to church. He came back Sunday night! Monday night he had a meeting but came again Tuesday and then Wednesday and then Thursday night. A sixteen year old girl was saved that night and came confessing Christ as her Savior. I turned the service over to the pastor and he said, "I believe there is someone else who ought to get saved tonight, let's sing one more verse of invitation." Don't you ever criticize someone for singing one more verse. We began to sing and my father stepped into the aisle and began to come forward. I bounced off that platform, met my dad and said, "Dad, do you want to accept Christ." He replied, "Son, I am ready." I explained the gospel to him again and we knelt there, both of us weeping our hearts out, as he, at 85 years of age, prayed to receive the Lord Jesus as his Savior. He went to be with the Lord 4 years later and I had the joy of preaching his funeral and over 30 people prayed to receive the Lord Jesus at his funeral.

O dear people, don't say, I can't do anything but pray for my loved ones. You can't do anything better than to pray for them. He told us to "pray for all men" and that includes our loved ones. Don't quit. Don't give up. Keep on praying. I prayed for 35 years for my father. Believe me it was worth it. Pray daily for "all men," all the lost of the world and you have a vital part in every person's salvation. Doesn't that make sense?

All because of Calvary, C. Sumner Wemp

See our PrayerBoard at http://prayerboard.sumnerwemp.com