PREFACE

During November 1994 I was seriously ill. For four days my life was in the balance. I did not ask the Lord for healing but prayed and said: "Lord, if my time has come, I am ready. It will be glorious to be with You and your children, but if you have further use me on Earth, I will be willing."

While I was recuperating the following thought came to me very strongly: "The time on earth for people to be saved is running out. I must explain the way to salvation to all people on earth as soon as possible so that as many as possible can be saved in time." I immediately thought: "If this is from God, it is an impossible commission. This will simply not be possible for me. One of the main reasons for my illness was that I have overworked myself. It will only mean that I shall very soon end up in hospital again. In any case no one can get everywhere in the short time left." Then the thought came to me: "You can write." "Yes, but I write only in Afrikaans, a language spoken and read by relatively few people on earth," I responded. "You can have it translated," the reply came. "Very well Lord, if that is a command from You, I am willing." I got started immediately.

Willie Marais

THE GLORY OF OUR SALVATION

One day I met a lovely young man and we started talking spontaneously. From our conversation it quickly became clear that he was deeply religious. He read his Bible and prayed every day. He went to church twice on a Sunday and he was a deacon and chairman of the youth organisation of his congregation. He was truly an active and useful member of his church. I liked him at once and wanted to know when he had become converted and accepted Jesus Christ as his Saviour. He reacted immediately, declaring that he had never personally been converted, nor had he ever accepted Jesus Christ as his Saviour, because he had been a child of God since birth. I had some trouble convincing him that one cannot enter the kingdom of God unless you had first been born from water and Spirit, because what is born of the flesh, is flesh and what is born of the Spirit, is spirit. (Cp. John 3:5,6) It is said of those who have accepted Jesus Christ, those who believe in Him, that they have been born of God. (John 1:12,13) Therefore, faith and conversion are the inevitable results of our rebirth. At his request I helped him to accept the Lord Jesus as his Lord and Saviour. (Cp. Col 2:6,7) Long after that I received a letter from him in which he testified as follows: "Before our encounter I was a servant of the Lord, but now I am His child." His testimony is proof that we should not assume that all good and religious people have already been saved. (Cp. Acts 10:2; 11:13,14) It is not religion that saves us, but the Lord of religion. The gospel of Jesus Christ is not a set of rules and regulations, but is vested in his Person. He Himself said: "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (John 14:6) He is the way, there is no other way, no other truth, no other life. (Cp. 2 Cor 11:3-6) It is not His example which helps us to save ourselves. No, it is He who purchased us for God by his own blood. (Rev 5:9) Therefore it is written: "He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life." (1 John 5:12) But how do we receive Him? In Revelation 3:17-22 it is written: "You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see. Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.  To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches."