BE CAREFUL OUT THERE
Mark
13:5-9
Watch out that no one deceives
you…When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. Such things
must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and
kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, and
famines. These are the beginning of birth pains. You must be on your guard.
A man that walks down a
street without knowing he missed being hit by a falling tree by just inches is
not thankful. Unless someone turns him around and shows him what almost
happened to him, he will keep walking down the street. But the man made aware of
the closeness of such a near death experience is greatly thankful. He is aware
of the magnitude of the events surrounding his near death and his life.
A gracious and merciful love is the sole agent that can
destroy the sin of calloused and hardened hearts. God is love. God alone is the
destroyer of sinful hearts. He alone can change what was once at odds with
truth and return it to the fountain of all truth. A man who has been the
greatest of sinners understands how much he has received in God’s turning his
heart from sin. He is able to understand forgiveness in the fullest sense of
the word.
Unless God changes our
hearts, we will never know how close we are to destruction until it is too
late. Unless the grace of God, a grace man cannot fully understand, connects
our minds to our hearts in a way that touches our souls, we are doomed.
