Morning Moments

My how things change!

I remember hearing my dad talk about going to hear Billy Sunday preach.  Sunday's quotes are sometimes amusing, such as the time he was praying about his next meeting and pause the prayer to ask, "Maw (his wife), where is it we are going next?"

Days were different then!  This convert from Baseball player to Bible preacher of the late 1880s is known to have said, "Nowadays we think we are too smart to believe in the Virgin birth of Jesus and too well educated to believe in the Resurrection.  That's why people are going to the devil in multitudes."

The Press reported about Sunday's first public appearance as a preacher, "Center fielder Billy Sunday made a three-base hit at Farwell Hall last night.  There is no other way to express the success of his first appearance as an evangelist in Chicago."

Wouldn't it be wonderful to hear of something like that happening in Chicago these days when on every side but the North side there is murder and mayhem.  Gangs have been broken up into "clans" of kids who seek identity and respect and if they don't get what they think they deserve they kill.  Sounds like the days of the mobsters all over again.

But it's not just Chicago!  It's happening all over the world for one reason or another.  Europe is in a mess because of its socialistic entitlement society, the Middle East is a powder keg exploding from one place to another.  The entire area is like a dam that is leaking and we attempt to stick a finger in the hole to stop the leak and get soaked in the process.

It is no different anywhere else really with social, economic, and environmental issues.  Prices rise while incomes drop, people work more hours to take home less money, if, indeed they have a job at all.

PAUSE now!  "Lift up your eyes for your REDEMPTION draweth nigh."  We have been told these things would come.  We heard the preachers of old, the Sundays, the Moodys, the Spurgeons, the Finneys, the Torreys, and so many others, but we continue having things pretty good and still do relatively speaking.  I drove around town on Sunday and saw waiting lines at every restaurant in this city and we probably have more restaurants per capita than any.

While so many have it so well, others are being persecuted for their faith and killed for it.  The noose around the necks of Christians, even in the West seems to be tightening.  Sin is rampant!  Sex is promoted everywhere we look - fornication, adultery, bi-sexuality, homosexuality, same sex marriage, not to mention our frivolous attitude about divorce and re-marriage.   It was practiced so long in the pew that now it is practiced in the pulpit by many.

HOW LONG O' LORD?  How long before God says, "ENOUGH!"  There is a line drawn, you know!  And when God comes down as He has throughout history, HE WILL COME DOWN IN JUDGMENT and there will be no turning back.  Regardless of one's eschatological position, JUDGMENT is coming sooner than we think.

BUT NOW there is a window of opportunity!  Opportunity to turn to Jesus, to learn to love Him and live for Him.  Opportunity to tell others about Him who may have never heard before.  Opportunity to have sins forgiven and promise of Heaven.  OPPORTUNITY!!!  Make the best of it!

BLESSINGS!