Don't Wait Too Long

I was listening to a radio preaching program this last week, and the preacher was talking about how people put off making a decision to accept Christ. He was telling this story, which, believe it or not, is true.


Anyhow, he was talking to a man about salvation, namely whether he (the guy he was talking to) would go to heaven if he died. The guy listened to him for a while, then told the preacher he had something pressing he had to do, but he would talk to him about it on Thursday of that week. The man didn't ever get a chance to have that talk because on Wednesday of that week, the guy was involved in a vehicle accident which took his life. That man had decided to table his decision about what He wanted to do with Christ. It's possible that the man may have had a change of heart before the accident (or maybe even during the accident) and asked Jesus to forgive him of his sins and come into his life. None of us can know that for sure because God's the only one with that information.


Here's where the story gets even more unbelievable. At the guy's funeral, the same preacher was talking to the deceased man's brother. Again, the subject was about salvation. The brother told the preacher that he knew that his brother was in hell because he didn't feel his brother had accepted Christ before the accident. The preacher also gleaned from this conversation that the brother was not saved, either. Believe it or not, the brother was involved in an accident less than two days later when his truck ran off the road. He survived the initial impact but was hurt so badly, he was barely able to move. Some people found him about five hours later. He had bled to death trying to get out of the truck trying to look for help. Both men died within 72 hours of one another. Again, there were opportunities for both men to accept Christ, and maybe considering his brother's death a few days prior, maybe guy #2 took the preacher's talk to heart and did ask Jesus Christ to save Him. Then again, maybe he didn't. They both had the chance to do so (the second guy- maybe he had more time to decide), but both put themselves in those situations because they wanted to "put it off until later".


I'm here to tell you I used to do the same thing, wanting to "be saved" until later. Fortunately, God was gracious to me and afforded me more time. He might not have, though, and if I hadn't accepted Christ, I would have spent an eternity without God in hell. I realize some people don't believe in hell, and there are others who believe hell is more of a figurative place than a literal place. Some even say that hell is figurative because it's mentioned in one of Jesus' "parables" in the New Testament. It's the one about Lazarus and the rich man. I really don't see how that can be a parable, though. As far as I know, every parable Jesus told always involved people in a non-specific reference ("there was a woman", "there was a man", etc). However, the story about the rich man involves specific names - Lazarus and Abraham. If the story about hell is just a parable, why are specific names mentioned?


If you're reading this and you haven't accepted Christ as your personal Lord and savior, you are playing "russian roulette" with your soul. Those of you who usually read my blog know I say that a lot. It's true, though. You are. Every day you "put it on the shelf" you are playing a dangerous game, one which will have eternal repercussions if you're time comes up to leave this earth. Please don't put it off. The Bible says today is the day of salvation. It doesn't say that the day of salvation is "tomorrow", "next week", "next month", "next year", or "whenever you want to deal with it". It's TODAY.



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