As
you walk around in a new house, you can notice that there is an
absence of squeaks in the floor boards. Everything seems to be solid
and there is no squeaking, thumping or cracking noises that you are
aware of. With some homes, the time comes sooner than later when the
floors began to make more noises as you walk around in the house.
Certain floor boards are avoided as you know they are going to make a
noise if you step on them. I have a friend that is a missionary in a
country where he lives near a volcano and quite often he will include
a picture of the volcano sending off a cloud of smoke or steam. It
seems to be happening more and more frequently these days. There
are also reports of earthquakes happening more and more around the
earth in places where there have never been earthquakes before. The
earth seems to be groaning day after day. Second Peter 3:10 says, “
But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the
which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the
elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works
that are therein shall be burned up.”
The preceding verse speaks
about man's opportunity to embrace the Lord Jesus Christ in
repentance and to believe on Him as His personal Lord and Savior, and
how this is the desire of God the Father and we often remark how that
God is not willing that any should perish. Then, the next verse
comes which starts out with the word of contrast, “But...” This
contrast should speak to our hearts about the necessity to share the
Gospel message with as many people as we possible can. The Bible has
long exhorted us to witnesses of the message of salvation and the
earth groans with the same message. There will be, at some time in
the future, God's final call. We don't know when it will come but
when it does things will drastically change. I had just laid down
for a nap a couple of years ago when the bed began to move. At
first, I thought it was my rather large cat, Sasha. She was no where
near the bed. Then, it happened again and I jumped out of bed. I
discovered later that there had been an earthquake between
Charlottesville and Richmond Virginia near a town called Louisa. We
felt it over a hundred miles away. When the earth moves, you don't
sit there and try to plan out your future destiny but you begin to
hang on to something and plan to get to safety as soon as possible.
The scene in the above passage is far more devastating than the
groans that we hear from day to day. The Scriptures remind us that
the day will come as a thief in the night in which we will think that
we are completely safe in our own castle. Chances are pretty good
that if you are reading this, you are a believer. If you are, then
you should be concerned about those who are in your circles of
acquaintances that are not believers because they will not have a
clue as to what is taking place. We never know what is going to take
place a day before the quake, or the storm, or the eruption of the
volcano but God has given us ample warning of things to come in His
Word. If you are a believer, are you concerned about family members
who are not? If you are a believer, are you concerned about the
souls of your friends who are not? The Word of God is clear that
there will be an end of God's call. It is not “if” it will
happen, but “when” it will happen. The next time you hear a
creaking floor board in your house, just remember that God is calling
people today for repentance but that call will end as a thief in the
night. Praise God for His message of salvation.
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