Fri Inspiration

Morning Inspiration with Pastor Merritt

About ten years ago I got a call that a man in Laurel, MS, died. It was bittersweet news to me, because on the one hand it was sad to know that this man had lost a battle with cancer. On the other hand, it was a joy to know that he was with Jesus. I want to share his story with you.

I wanted our church in Laurel, MS, to sponsor what we called a “Starlight Crusade.” We rented out the high school football stadium and we invited famous people to come to draw crowds where I could preach the Gospel. On this particular night, I had invited Terry Bradshaw, who at that time was the quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers to come and give his testimony. That night, a man by the name of Pacey Cohen was driving home to commit suicide. For some reason he took a different way home that he normally didn’t take and he came right by that stadium. He didn’t even know the crusade was going on. He saw this big marquee out front that said, “Hear Terry Bradshaw – Quarterback of the Pittsburgh Steelers.” It just so happened that Pacey Cohen was a big Steelers fan. He thought to himself, “I’ll get one last thrill. I’ll go hear my hero, Terry Bradshaw and then go home and blow my brains out.”

After Bradshaw finished giving his testimony he left the stadium, because he had to take a plane back to Louisiana. There was really nothing there to keep Pacey Cohen and he could have gotten up and left himself and he wanted to, but he told me later, for some reason, he couldn’t do it. Pacey was Jewish. He had never heard the Gospel in his life. He had never been in a church in his life. I got up, preached a simple gospel message and I gave the invitation.

There were 3000 people there that night and Pacey was sitting on the very top row of those bleachers. He began to watch as people began to come down on that field and surrender their lives to Christ. He didn’t move. I was just about to finish the service when I said something I had not planned to say. I said, “There is someone here tonight and it will be your last night on this earth if you do not come and give your heart to Jesus Christ. You will not be alive tomorrow and you will spend eternity separated from God. The amazing thing is Pacey told me later he would swear in a court of law I was looking him right in the eye. If I was I didn’t know it. I had never met the man in my life.

Here is how we did meet. When we sang that last stanza, out of 3000 people, the only person that walked down those bleachers was Pacey Cohen. That night he received Christ. That next Sunday he joined our church and I baptized him. Are you ready for this? He became a full-time evangelist for Jesus Christ.

When his wife called me and told me that Pacey had died of lung cancer and had gotten to the point that he could only breathe 60 seconds without an oxygen mask she let me know on the Monday before he died that with his last breath and last words he led his own nurse to Jesus Christ. God took a heart as hard as a rock and made it a heart as soft as a pillow. Our job is to sow. God’s job is to grow. You do your job and God will do His.