Tragedies

By now most people have heard about the earthquake in Taiwan.  As of this writing there are still people who are trapped alive underneath the debris of buildings and rescue workers are trying hard to get them out.  A lot of tragedies never make but a brief mention in national or international news.

 

 

Take a house fire that kills a family, a tornado that rips through part of a town or a car accident that renders people dead.  In all of our local communities there are tragedies on nearly a weekly, if not daily basis.  The bigger the city one lives in, the more common the tragedies become. On occasion we hear of really big tragedies.

 

 

Take the 2004 tsunami in the Indian ocean that killed over 200,000 people.  Throughout history there have been some very big disasters that have killed scores of people.  Take the Black Plague for instance and the staggering number of lives that the disease claimed, estimated from 75 million upward to 200 million. I n America the biggest tragedies ever recorded was that of the Galveston hurricane in 1900.  It is estimated that between 6,000 – 12,000 people died as a result of that storm.

 

 

As I watched some videos of the devastation in Taiwan and the rescues workers hard to get to people, I couldn’t help but to get saddened at the need for the world to understand the necessity of accepting the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior.  Even as these men and women are pulled out of these buildings, with little life left in them, though eventually vibrant and healed once more, these same people are on the highway to Hell, with no hope, no rescue once they enter their eternal punishment.

 

 

All around the world there are people just like that, indeed all around America. How many people die in the world each year?  Yet the soul does not die.  How many of those who are dead awaken to life and how many of those awaken to a tragic ending that could have been avoided, if they had just STOPPED and considered their way.  If they had understood their deserving punishment and cried out to God Almighty for mercy, believing into His Son who paid the price for their sins and going forth following Him.  If only!

 

 

Rather what is happening and will continue to happen, is that man goes on living his life, determining to do what he will, refusing to acknowledge his sin and that he is guilty.  Shall a man who has a severed limb pretend that he does not?  Shall a blind man pretend that he can see?  Shall a deaf man pretend that he can hear or a mute man pretend that he can speak?  If not, then why do those who are on their way to Hell, pretend that they are not?!

 

 

You who read this and say “one more day, one more day”, will there be one more day?  Will your heart be receptive to repent before an Almighty God?  Do not be deceived, if God is speaking to your heart, then now is the time to go before Him.

 

“For He says: In an acceptable time I have heard you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you.  Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”  2nd Corinthians 6:2

 

“For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.”  2nd Corinthians 7:10

 

“And as it is appointed for men to die once, and after this the judgment…”  Hebrews 9:27

 

“Behold, I stand at the door and knock.  If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.”  Revelation 3:20

 

“Jesus said to him, I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  No one comes to the Father except through Me.”  John 14:6

 

“And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, as He gave us commandment.”  1st John 3:23