Fifteen Minutes
My cell phone rings, I’m in the middle of something very important…but I answer it anyway. On the other end of the receiver, well it was not what I expected… I said “excuse me,” then I fell to my knees, and then to my face! I was ruined, and I was really messed up. When I finally gained some composure, I heard these words, “I’m coming for you in fifteen minutes, and I’m taking you Home!”
This did not really happen, but the reality of it gives me a sense of urgency and alarm. You see, the caller was JESUS, and HE had given me a fifteen minute warning. If only you and I could have such a warning…it would all be different. The way we act, think, pray, witness, and the list goes on. If you would receive a phone call, right now, from JESUS, as HE tells you, “I’m coming for you in fifteen minutes, and I’m taking you Home!” What would you say, what would you do? First and foremost, you will never get that call, nor will you ever get that kind of warning…. So please pay attention.
If your heart is still beating…and obviously it is, if you are reading this, and you still have breath in your lungs, then it is not too late! Each one of us have things in our lives that we need to change, but yet we wait, WHY?! Each one of us have done things, and are doing things that JESUS would never do- and yet have failed to REPENT…why!? Each one of us, even this very moment as you are reading this, have failed to be obedient in certain areas of your life- and yet you’re waiting for something…what are you waiting for and WHY?! If you knew you only had fifteen minutes to get things right, to get things together and in order…you would do it…but yet, you wait, and you do not know what the next fifteen seconds even holds for you. I know even now, you agree with me, but many of us, if not most of us, will continue down the path called “normal” believing we have time, and folks, we don’t!
Martin Luther stated the following, and I beg you to grab a hold of it, and never let these powerful words go, “Live as if CHRIST died yesterday, rose this morning, and is coming back tomorrow!” Why do we live like we have tomorrow, when HIS Word is clear, “Do not brag about tomorrow, since you do not know what the day will bring!” (Proverbs 27:1) If you are thinking, “well Tim, I just don’t think that way!" I’m okay with that (I think), but can you and I “live” that way…knowing that even today could be our last day, or maybe we only have fifteen minutes…until we see JESUS face to face. If so, what would you need to do in that moment, before HE comes for you?!
To make JESUS famous always, Timothy L. Sheldon Senior Pastor