Time to Choose

I stood outside the convention room at a Holiday Inn.  Signed in and waiting for my turn.  This was one of those countless auditions I have found myself at throughout the years.  I had been called and now waited, along with all the others nervously chatting and pretending to be as cool as a cucumber.

Across the hall from us a job fair went on.  Young people streamed in and out looking for a new start.  Some would cast a glance over at where we stood and move on.  But some actually came over, sensing they were missing something, and asked what we were doing there.

Upon hearing this was an audition the wheels began turning.  The casting director came out and looked over the sheet and called the next name.  It was at this moment that the scam was tried.

These young people asked if they could be a part of this and were told this was a private audition.  But it didn’t stop there.  Now the lies came.  They were from NY and had an agent up there and could give their number if he needed.  But the casting director, having heard this before, calmly instructed that they needed to have been called for this audition.  If their name was not on the list then they were not allowed to enter.

Desperation set in from some of these wanting entrance.  More lies and now pleading, all to no avail.  They would not be allowed in.

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father, who is in heaven.  Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you.  Away from Me you evildoers!”  Matt. 7:21-23

There is coming a day when you and I will stand before the Lord and He will look over the book for our names.  Should He not see our name, we will be thrown into hell.  No amount of pleading or lying will change that.

But it does not have to be that way.  He loves you more than you can imagine.  He is calling you today.  Right now.  It doesn’t matter who you are or what your background is.  He is waiting for you.  Why don’t you turn your life over to Him? 

Folks, don’t wait.  There may not be another chance.

Trouble Ahead

A wall of smoke and fog laid over the interstate in the pre-dawn hours.  Visibility was down to a matter of feet.  Semis and cars continued their usual routes that morning, following too closely to the red lights in front of them, hoping this would lead them safely through.  But it didn’t.  A semi, traveling too fast jackknifed along the crowded interstate creating a chain reaction of accidents that did not end till seventy cars collided  and four lives were taken over a two mile stretch.  For days that stretch of the highway remained closed as crews worked removing cars seared from fire and metal twisted and crushed from blind collisions.

A Florida Highway Patrolman said this:  “We can’t control the weather, but we can control our accelerator.  These people didn’t slow down.”

A horrible moment this was.  But the warning signs were there to slow down or even stop and they were not heeded. 

Everyone knows they will die.  Everyone knows that this is coming.  The warning signs are here, bold and ever-present.  Friends and family die, wars and sudden calamities shout the warning to any listening that today may be the day you could step into eternity.

Yet very few slow their lives to listen to reason.  Very few take their foot off the accelerator to examine what will come in the next life only to collide with eternity at breakneck speed launching them into darkness with weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Jesus said:  “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.  But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”  Matthew 7:13-14

The answer is not to continue as you have been, following the one in front of you hoping they are headed in the right direction.  The answer is to pull off.  What you are racing towards will wait.  Your eternity will not. 

Look….over there….. you just passed Him.  It was Jesus standing off to the side of your life waving His arms for you.  “I am the Way, the truth and life.”

There is still time.  Pull over. 

Slice of Apple

Christmas Eve.  I am at a mall.  Somebody shoot me.  Standing outside the Apple store, waiting for them to open, I was here because it needed to be done.  Not by choice.  I would rather all my teeth pulled while watching C-Span.

We were having trouble with the churches computer so I was there to see what the trouble was under the hood. 

30 minutes before the store opened I was outside waiting.  The glass doors were part way open and as the employees entered everyone inside cheered and called out their names.  They were having a meeting before they started their day; I could hear the joking and laughing.  Everyone was in a great mood. Soon after they took their places in the store as the manager walked out to open the glass doors.  Smiling to me he stuck the key in the automatic opener and the gang in the store started rhythmically clapping for my entrance.  The doors slid open and I walked inside to cheers and applause.  It was Christmas eve. and they were about to be slammed but they didn’t seem to mind the impending madness.  I had to walk the length of the store to get to the counter where they would help me and as I walked I was greeted and applauded for.  A smile came to my face.  Here I was with a problem.  This was an inconvenience for me to be here.  For all I knew our computer could be fried and everything lost on the hard drive.  Yet I was smiling.  I felt like they were happy to see me.  These young kids (at 38 all of them now seem so young!) looked happy to be there and sincerely enjoyed what they did.  The environment they created was instantly warming and inviting.  It did not stop with the applause.  Once I reached the front I was quickly helped and personally looked after.  The whole experience was incredibly surprising to me; especially in a time where customer service is at an all time low.

But here is what struck me about this moment.  The greeting I received; the feeling I had upon leaving was, unfortunately, better then most churches give on a Sunday morning.  I left the Apple store with a feeling that I was important to them and I wanted to go back.  I had a problem when I arrived yet through it all I left feeling special.

Some arrive on a Sunday morning, cross the thresholds of our churches not wanting to be there.  They have a chip on their shoulders, a problem they are carrying and they, a lot of times, would rather be home in bed or at Starbucks.

Unfortunately they leave with that same burden and the same feeling of ‘my problem remains’ nothing has changed.

We carry the greatest news the world has ever heard, have been freed from death and will live FOR ETERNITY with Christ; yet have trouble making eye contact with a guest and saying ‘hello’.  I understand the concerns for not wanting to be overbearing but we must understand that all of us desire to be special to someone.  To be needed by someone.  The world is growing increasingly solitary.  Relationships, true, honest relationships are becoming scarcer. 

We can do more.  We can give more.  Sunday is not about cliques and social time with the friends we already have.  That is secondary to Christ and reaching out to others.

We can no longer be surprised when people find refuge in drugs or gangs or sex.  They will find it where they can get it.  I found it at the mall.  The mall. 

 The church should be the most exciting, alive place on the planet