Times Up....

I thought you might enjoy listening to this song while you read the mini sermon that I gave today in my Homiletics class. I will tell you tomorrow what the class had to say about it! It wasn't a pretty sight LOL

I remember as a child going to the doctor’s office with my Mom. It was certainly not my favorite place to go, but there was one thing that I did like about it. The doctor’s office had a book called “The Bible Story,” a children’s book of Bible stories with great pictures just perfect for a child to read. I remember spending hours just looking at the pictures. There was one picture however, that really bothered me. It was a picture of Noah’s Ark with the rain falling down and the flood waters starting to rise. In the water around the Ark were many people pounding on the door trying to get in. I remember asking my Mom, “Why do those people have to die? Couldn’t Noah just open the door and let them in?” My mom sensing my anguish said “Jim look at the picture, if Noah opened the door, the water would flow in and all the animals would drown. Those people all had a chance to help Noah build the Ark and instead they mocked him and laughed at him, and now it was too late for them.”

My question is, when is it too late for us? I know that there are many of my colleagues in ministry that spend their entire careers preaching out of the Book of Revelation predicting the imminent second coming of Jesus. Well, my mother, God rest her soul, died waiting for two things to happen, the first was for the second coming of Christ and the second was for the Chicago Cubs to win a World Series. Neither of these happened in her life time, and I am pretty sure that the odds are good that neither one will happen in my lifetime either, although, I think that there is a better chance of the second coming of Christ.

There is however, a time when I do believe that it is too late. If you travel up I-65 just North of Seymour IN, there is a sign on the highway that says, “You have an expiration date.” This is the day that each of us must keep in mind. There is coming a day when we will no longer be able to help a neighbor in distress, there will be a day when we will no longer be able to feed someone who is hungry, there is a day coming when we will no longer be able to make that phone call that we have been putting off, or send that message that God has laid on our hearts.

We do indeed have an expiration date and then it will be too late. My prayer is that each of us is prepared for our expiration date, and when it comes we will find ourselves safely tucked inside of the Ark, warm and dry, and not flailing in the water pounding on the door begging to be let in.

Blessings