Otis Horton was a good friend to my husband and myself. He and his family have always been special to us. Otis was an honorable man. If he gave you his word you could take it to the bank. Otis was not a Christian man, he respected the church and its teachings, but it just seemed Otis could never make a commitment to live for the Lord. Being honorable and being a good man is great, but you must be born again! We would throw out the life-line each time we saw Otis, but he just wasn't ready. We even stayed in his home when we would preach revivals in his area.
But there came a turning point in Otis' life. One night he had a dream. Otis had been a sergeant in the Army and he dreamed that he was facing his captain. Otis said that he was standing at a border of two lands. Where he was standing was green and fertile, but just a few feet in front of him was desolation, complete and total desolation. Otis said that his captain turned to him and said, "Sergeant Horton, up ahead is the point of no return. Once you cross into this land you can never return." This dream was more than just a dream to Otis; he knew it was a warning from the Lord. He knew that he had been shown God's Mercy Line. He knew that his many years of rejecting God's love and call to repentance must end. And praise sweet Jesus, it did. Otis and his wife went to the altar together and gave their hearts to Jesus.
Otis not only talked the talk, but he walked the walk. Soon after his conversion one of Otis' buddies called and wanted him to go out for a few beers. I never will forget what Otis told him. He said, "I can't. I have changed my way of living." And he had truly changed; he was a faithful soldier of the cross. Otis lived four years after he became a Christian. He read his Bible through four times, and was in a revival meeting somewhere just about every night. Just before Otis died, his wife said that as he lie on his deathbed he would say over and over, "sweet Jesus." When Otis passed away there were over a thousand people that came to his funeral. He was a very loved man and a good friend to many, but most of all a friend to Jesus until the end.
Otis was shown the Mercy Line, and he heeded the warning. There is a Mercy Line, and God's love and compassion is to ALL, all who will receive! It is not God's will that any man perish, but that all would come to repentance. Good man, good woman, you must be born again!
"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." [John 3:16]