The Well Within Series

Keith Miller in his book The Scent Of Love tells of the young

intern who was brilliant and competitive, and wanted to get his

hands on the toughest cases that came into the hospital. One day a

man was brought in very sick. His temperature was high, his blood

count was down, and his fluids were out of balance. He was in bad

shape, and this young doctor said, "I'll take him." He started

working on the sick man and got his temperature down. Then he

got his blood count up, and his fluids in balance. Everything was

going quite well, but suddenly the patient died.

The supervising physician came by just as the intern was covering

the patient, and he noticed he was furious. He watched

unobserved from the hall as the young doctor grabbed the chart at

the front of the bed, took a pen out of his pocket, and scrawled

something across it. Then he stormed angrily out passed the

supervisor, and never said a word. The older physician could not

resist going into to see what he had written. It said, "This patient

was in better condition when he died then when he first came to

me." This is in the same category with the statement, "The

operation was a success, but the patient died." It sounds strange,

but this is the goal of the physician of the soul-to make sure people

are in better condition when they die.

Corrie Ten Boom got the warning that a Jewish orphanage was

to be raided, and all the babies killed. She quickly got some of her

Dutch boys dressed up in Nazi uniforms, and sent them to the

orphanage to demand that the babies be turned over to them. With

tears they were handed over. The people did not realize that they

were really saving the babies. All were given to families to raise.

One of the boys involved in this clever rescue said to Corrie that he

believed the most important work of his life was the saving of those

babies. Corrie said to him that as important as it was, the more

important work is saving people forever by telling them of Jesus.

She put her hand on his shoulder and said, "Pete, every Christian is

called to be a soul winner for Jesus.....and in your life there will

come a times when you will see that as the most important work for

you.

Six months later he was arrested, and given one week to live. The

day before he was executed he wrote this letter to Corrie. "All the

boys in my cell are sentenced to death. I am so glad that I could tell

them about Jesus and they have accepted Him. I know that when

they shoot us tomorrow, we will all go to heaven, because we have

brought our sins to Jesus and He has made us all children of God.

We know that the house of the Father with many mansions is our

very close future. I see now that the most important work for a

Christian is to win souls for eternity. Like the young doctor, this

young physician of the soul could have written their death

certificates with these words: "These boys were in better condition

when they died then when they came to me." Jesus could have

written this concerning the thief on the cross as well.

This is the ultimate need of all mankind. We cannot solve the

problems of the world. It will be a fallen world until Jesus comes

again, and it will be a world of unsolvable problems and crooked

paths we cannot make straight. But we can make sure that the

victims of this fallen world are in better condition when they die,

then ever before. That is the great human need that Jesus

addresses in John 4. He does not offer the woman at the well

marriage counseling, or some advice on self-esteem therapy. After

being rejected by five husbands, she no doubt had a head full of

psychological problems. Jesus did not inquire if there were

children involved, and offer her family guidance, or legal advice on

how she could get out of Samaria and start a new life. This woman

may have had more problems than we could imagine, but all Jesus

offered her was a spring of water that would well up to eternal life.

He was not solving all her problems, but He was offering her the

chance to be in better condition when she died, than she ever was

before she met the Messiah.

The point I am getting at it this: Man's greatest need is for

eternal life. There are a great many studies on man's basic needs.

He needs food, air, water, shelter, clothing, and he needs love and