Don’t Forget

Remember Lot’s wife. Luke 17:32.
One of the fugitives ventured to cast a look backward to the doomed city, and she became a monument of God’s judgment. If Lot himself had manifested no hesitancy to obey the angels’ warning, but had earnestly fled toward the mountains, without one word of pleading or remonstrance, his wife also would have made her escape. The influence of his example would have saved her from the sin that sealed her doom. But his hesitancy and delay caused her to lightly regard the divine warning. While her body was upon the plain, her heart clung to Sodom, and she perished with it. She rebelled against God because His judgments involved her possessions and her children in the ruin. Although so greatly favored in being called out from the wicked city, she felt that she was severely dealt with, because the wealth that it had taken years to accumulate must be left to destruction. Instead of thankfully accepting deliverance, she presumptuously looked back to desire the life of those who had rejected the divine warning. Her sin showed her to be unworthy of life, for the preservation of which she felt so little gratitude.
We should beware of treating lightly God’s gracious provisions for our salvation. There are Christians who say, “I do not care to be saved unless my companion and children are saved with me.” They feel that heaven would not be heaven to them without the presence of those who are so dear. But have those who cherish this feeling a right conception of their own relation to God, in view of His great goodness and mercy toward them? Have they forgotten that they are bound by the strongest ties of love and honor and loyalty to the service of their Creator and Redeemer? The invitations of mercy are addressed to all; and because our friends reject the Saviour’s pleading love, shall we also turn away?
The redemption of the soul is precious. Christ has paid an infinite price for our salvation, and no one who appreciates the value of this great sacrifice or the worth of the soul will despise God’s offered mercy because others choose to do so.
Conflict and Courage p. 54
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Prayer Requests
—–Please pray for Noah, age 6, who had a pediatric stroke and has had significant damage. At first they thought he had fallen off from the monkey bars, but he had a stroke instead. Please pray for his recovery and for his family as they go through this terrible ordeal. Rose
—–Please pray that we make the right decision regarding our future plans. Rose
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Dear Friends,
While Esther was up in northern Wisconsin for the Christmas holiday some years ago, she called and told us that her car wouldn’t start. Later Brian’s brother came over and charged up the battery for over an hour. Then it started. She took it to a mechanic who assured her that the battery was fine and that all appeared normal under the hood. During the rest of her visit, the car worked normally. She got the oil changed before heading back home. All appeared to be fine then too.
When I called Esther about 9:00 PM the night they were due to be home, she told me that they were within an hour and a half from Lincoln. That was good news. So many things can happen when traveling long distances. About fifty miles from their destination, however, all was not well. As soon as I answered the phone, I could hear the worry and tension in Esther’s voice. The battery light was on and the car was overheating. Since they were near an exit, we told them to pull off there. We told them to turn off the engine. Ron was sure that the serpentine belt had broken, but when Brian checked under the hood, he told him that it was intact, but had somehow slipped off. Knowing that there had to be a reason, Ron called the towing service. They said it would be about an hour before someone could tow them.
After hanging up with them, I asked Ronnie Jay to call his friend Brandon who is a mechanic. He did. Brandon felt that it was a pulley that had failed and told Ron that there might be a way to drive the car home. Since it was less than an hour from his house, Brandon went to see if he could help. Upon arriving, however, he soon saw that a bearing in a pulley had completely frozen and the car was not drivable. Again the towing service was called.
Before going to bed, we told them to call and keep us updated. They did. The tow truck driver did too. About once or twice an hour we received a call from Esther with an update or from the driver asking what to do about this or that. That was what we wanted them to do, but we got very little sleep in between calls. Finally, about 3:15 AM, our travelers arrived in Lincoln tired, cold, hungry, but safe. How thankful we were that the car had its problems close enough to home for it to be towed the rest of the way to her and Ronnie Jay’s apartment.
Ron commented that the reason Esther’s battery had failed last week, was a sign that the pulley’s bearing was failing. Because the mechanic assured her that the engine was functioning normally, Esther was lulled into a false since of security. Thinking all was well with her car, she had embarked upon this cross-country drive to get home.
So it is with Christ’s coming. Our Dear Saviour has given us signs so we may be ready to meet Him in the air. (I Thes 4:16, 17) Our Loving Redeemer warns, “many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.” Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits.” “To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.”
Matt 24:11; 7:15,16; Isa 8:20 Paul warns of a time when the message given from the pulpit will be the same message as the mechanic gave Esther last week—“all is well.” They will give the people the message they want to hear rather than the message that would prevent a breakdown along the road of life. “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doct! rine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.” “When they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.” 2 Tim 4:3,4; 1 Thes 5:3
In these last days, our Great King urges us to, “Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.” Isa 58:1 Through Ezekiel, He explains, “Son of man, speak to the children of thy people, and say unto them, When I bring the sword upon a land, if the people of the land take a man of their coasts, and set him for their watchman: If when he seeth the sword come upon the land, he blow the trumpet, and warn the people; Then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning; if the sword come, and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head. He heard the sound of the trumpet, and took not warning; his blood shall be upon him. But he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul. But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is tak! en away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand. So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me. When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die; if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand. Nevertheless, if thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it; if he do not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul. . . . As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die?” Eze 33:2-11