“Provoking Christian Insights” series

Part 16

Home before dark

The other day, while walking my dogs, I began to pray as I usually do when we get out in the wide-open spaces and I don’t have to be so careful with the animals. This day I began to sing “Jesus Loves Me,” a song that I often sang when I was very young, and somehow the melody comes to me when I conduct my own worship service as we walk.

Interesting enough, I sing melodies that I’ve learned over my 70 years of life along with prayers that often include the “Lord’s Prayer,” and the “23^rd Psalm.” My interest in the 23^rd Psalm was piqued when the minister recited it in the televised funeral procession of Anna Nichole Smith. Of the six stanzas, he seemed to have left out a few lines. I began to run the Psalm through my mind and I had lost a line. After going back and reading the Psalm, I realized that I too sometimes left out a line. How could I forget something I memorized as a young boy?

 “The Lord is my shepherd:

   I shall not want.

 He makes me to lie down in green pastures:

 He leads me beside the still waters.

 He restores my soul;

 He leads me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.

 Yes, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

  I will fear no evil: for thou art with me,

 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies:

  You anoint my head with oil; my cup runs over.

 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,

  And I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.” (Psalm 23).

I wonder how many people today can recite Psalm 23 from memory? For me the lines are comfort. L know that the Psalm’s writer, King David, not only wrote the Psalm, but was also a sinner who begged God to forgive him of sin. And through David’s continued prayers and petitions, eventually God not only forgave David but also prospered him. Jesus would come from his lineage.

It is so good to know that our Lord not only forgives us, but he provides for us and promises us that we won’t have to endure Hell for our sin.

Someone once told me “I’ve never done anything wrong,” what sins should I have to be forgiven of?

Fact is we were born in sin and the Bible tells us “all have fallen short of the Glory of God.” So, if we want to find God we need to ask Him to draw near to us.

In my portable pulpit, over and over again, I am reminded that even though the words of  “Jesus Loves Me” are true, there is more to being Christian than just love. Steve Hill, well-known evangelist of the Brownsville Revival took the liberty to write additional verses to the traditional “Jesus Loves Me,” one of which is: “Jesus will judge me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. If I choose to live in sin, hell awaits me in the end.”

Last night my wife Peggy, remarked about how many of the new television shows have to do with cults and the occult. There is so much stuff out there on TV and on the Internet that is tied to sin that it is virtually impossible to avoid it. No amount of home schooling, Christian schools, or keeping children away from the mainstream will keep them from it. Times have changed, and people have changed with the times.

This is no new phenomenon. Times have changed several times since Jesus issued the Great Commission of going into all of the world and preaching the gospel. The problem is that we haven’t done it well enough.

Today, beautiful old churches stand as hollow remnants of worship, prayer, teaching and singing that today are more seen from the outside than the inside. Even a local soup kitchen doubled the number of meals served when they moved outside the church after the recent flood. Hill wrote; “People today are living in self-inflicted darkness. Having allowed the devil to blind them, they live consumed in sin. But God said He would not always contend with our self-indulgences and neglect of godly things,” (Genesis 6:3).
 

The text states, “night comes.” There is a time coming when you’ll no longer be able to makes things right with your fellow man. You may thing you have plenty of time for restoration, but only God knows the number of a man’s days.

I have personally witnessed so many people who waited until it was too late. For most, something happened. An accident, a fast coming illness, such as a stroke, that left them with no mental capacity to change. They weren’t quick enough to accept Jesus as savior, and I wasn’t quick enough to spread the Good News! Many men and women have simply waited too long to deal with their forever.

We must learn to reach out while people are quick and live. Now is the time to mend relationships. Now is the time to let God revive your family and draw the people you love together. I know this from experience.

My brother died to small cell lung cancer. We had fought all of our lives. At age 54, he had only two months to live. I made it a point to “bury the hatchet.” We made up wonderfully. The last two weeks were, even though he had to be carried to the bathroom, were the best of our lives as far as our relationship as brothers was concerned. The Bible speaks to this, we must make up with our brothers and sisters.

The doctor told my brother, when he asked; “How long do I have?” and the doctor replied, “Maybe three days.” Carl looked at me and said, “Did you hear that, Jim? My pleasures have killed me.” All I could do was sob. But, I praised God that he had given his life over to Jesus.

I don’t know you. I don’t know where you stand with God. But, if you are reading this with interest, I want to tell you that there is a time coming when you won’t be able to fulfill your purposes in life. I know many who are running around trying to make a plan work for their own lives. Most don’t know that God has a plan for your life and will draw you near if you ask him in.

We must check with God to find out what His plan for us really is. Worst is when we find out that we spent so much of our lives improving us and not our relationship with God.

We must work while it is still day and come home to Jesus before dark and there is no hope for us. “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me.”

INSPIRATION: “I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day; the night cometh, when no man can work,” John 9:4.  

Write: croneis@earthlink.net