Waiting Too Late

The Lord is longsuffering with us, and oh how I'm grateful. Yet there comes a time when all of His warnings will be past and His judgment will come. As you look all throughout the Word of God at the promises of the soon coming of our Savior, and the examples of those who will be caught unprepared to meet Him, it made me think of all the times in His Word we see people that simply waited too late.
Remember Israel after the twelve spies were sent into Canaan? Ten came back with a terrible report of insurmountable odds. They pretty much said, "Yes the land looks great but the enemy is too big so don't even think about it." But when judgment was pronounced upon them they changed their 'tune.' They were ready then to fight, only it was too late, they had made their choice and God was no longer going to fight on their side.
What about later in Israel's history when we find Isaiah, Jeremiah, Micah and so many others foretell of their imminent doom? Time and again they would not heed the warning of the Lord and faced the prophesied judgment to come. Only then to realize they should have listened sooner.
There are so many we could list. What about the Roman Centurion at Jesus' crucifixion? He was there through the mocking, the scourging, the buffeting and the gambling of His clothes with all of the humiliation, yet it was after our Savior's death that he declared, "Truly, this was the Son of God."
Is it possible for us to break the trend and actually learn applicable truths from history instead of allowing it to simply repeat itself? Can we look at these examples and say, "Not me!" This needs to be a declaration on our part. We need to realize that the Lord is not slack concerning His promise (2 Peter 3:9).
Let us not be at ease in Zion or declare peace and safety when sudden destruction is looming around the corner (Amos 6:1 & 1 Thes 5:3). Let us declare that we are thankful for the ability to hear what the Spirit is saying unto the churches (Rev. 2-3). Because we can hear His voice we will heed His warnings and cling to the victory He secured on Calvary and through the Resurrection!
We declare today that we will not be lulled to sleep by an enemy bent on stealing our soul. We declare as Joshua, "Jos 24:15- And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD."
God bless you and keep you as you go forward with Him!

What Will you do WIth the Box?

Try to imagine yourself hiking through a thick, lucious forest. In the middle of the forest, you stumble upon a cabin, where you can tell someone is living. Slowly you push the creaking door open to find an older gentleman with tattered clothing and a matted beard hunched over a desk scribbling in a notebook. There are test tubes lining the walls; computer screens flashing all around you. The gentleman’s hygiene is not up to par to say the least, but you can tell that it is because he has devoted himself to his work, whatever that is. Out of curiosity and maybe a little bit of concern, you interrupt him from his work. You introduce yourself and surprisingly begin conversing. This meeting led to others and you soon become extremely close friends; the only secret between the two of you is what exactly this man's work is. After many years of close companionship the man in the cabin finds himself at death’s doorstep. While on his death bed, the old man pulls you to his side, grabs a box from under his bed and carefully hands it to you. He then begins to tell you that this is the results of his life work; that the contents of this box, contains the secrets to all of the world’s major problems. He said that if what is in this box is acted upon, the problems of world hunger, world peace, economic, moral, social and justice problems will all be solved. He explains further that it will be hard work, and it will mean sacrificing your whole life just as he has done to put it into action, but he assures you that if you do it, all of the major world issues will be resolved.
You are shocked, you’re speechless, and your mind races as you try to process what all just happened. As soon as you can, you take the box to a group of scientists who then test the old man’s results and find that what the man said was actually true. As you sit on your bed that night, you begin to realize the awesome responsibility that has just been handed to you. Here is the question though, “what will you do with it?” In your hands you hold the answer to all of the world’s problems, but what will you do? Will you shove it to the side in hopes that someone else will pick it up and put it into action? Will you stick it on a shelf or in a drawer with all the best intentions to one day pick it up and begin to work, but after you have lived your life a little? Will you begin working on this project only to get weary and burn out on it in a matter of weeks? I hope and pray that all of us would at that time pick the box up, realize that life is not just about us, stop being selfish and we would cause the sufferings of many people on our planet to cease.
Spiritually, what will you do with the box? In the spiritual side of things, we hold the answers to the church’s problems, and if truth be told the world’s problems now but many times we push them to the side only to forget about them and move on. God has given us his word, and he has promised us many blessings throughout the pages of the precious Bible if we would just listen, trust and obey. But many times we just take his word, put it in a drawer or on a shelf and leave it there until Sunday rolls around. Many professing Christians only open their bibles on Sunday morning when they turn to follow the preacher, and this is sickening to God. He has shown us in his word that we could have power, that we could pull down strongholds, that we could be strong in the Lord and that we could be more than conquerors! He has given us the key, if we would only put it into action. I urge you to ask yourself: What will you do with the box?