A few brave souls got into a raging battle on a hilltop somewhere deep within Vietnam. The fierce fire fight raged for hours with wave after wave of Viet Cong attacking our American soldiers. Though our men fought bravely, they were vastly outnumbered and finally ran out of ammo. It appeared as though all was lost and they were on the verge of being overrun when they heard the welcome thump thump thump of a helicopter approaching. Amid blazing gunfire, the chopper dropped a smoke bomb and landed on the hill. The survivors loaded their dead and wounded aboard first, and then hopped on themselves, and the chopper took off rising into the sky taking these few remaining brave men to freedom and thus saved their lives.
A friend of mine recounted this true story of these real life heroes, (one of which he knew), to me yesterday. He made the remark, “Now imagine what would’ve happened if the chopper wouldn’t have come”.
I had a big weekend with every minute scheduled to the hilt and by yesterday evening I was really tired. Nonetheless last night I drove up to Thomasville Georgia to Thomas state prison to rendezvous with my old Sunday school class leaders for the final service of their prison ministry revival.
It was good seeing my friends again and it was a good service. The room was filled to overflowing with inmates. A very talented singer sang several moving songs and then I spoke. At the end I asked the prisoners to come forward if they’d had enough of what the world has to offer as in being lonely, fearful, and miserable and instead wanted what Jesus Christ has to offer as in peace, joy, and love.
At first no one came, but then from the very back of the room a stocky muscular young black man started making his way through the crowded area to the front of the building. When he got there he told me he wanted to accept Jesus Christ as His Savior. Another inmate saw the first man have the courage to come forward in front of all of those tough inmates and then he came forward too.
I don’t know how many men ended up coming forward during the weekend revival, but even one would have been well worth any effort expended by us, (tired or not).
Lots of well-meaning people have been telling me to slow down lately and smell the roses. My question is if those good folks from Thomasville First Baptist Church and I had not gone to that service what would have happened to those men? What would’ve happened if the chopper wouldn’t have come?
Recently I received the following letter.
You have a unique and interesting viewpoint on life. You probably get hundreds of emails and maybe you’ll get to this one or maybe you won’t but I wanted to tell you about Enoch. I’ve been pondering about his life and the testimony written about him in the Bible. In Genesis 5:19-24 it talks about Enoch’s life. His father was Jared and Enoch’s son was Methuselah (whose name means when I die then the flood will come). But it says that Enoch only lived 365 years when all of his other relatives lived to be upwards towards 900 years. So in terms of his life, it was short but I am intrigued about the testimony that God chose to leave us concerning him in the Scripture and that is in verse 22 and again in verse 24, it says “Enoch walked with God” – that is the testimony of his life — not that he saved thousands of souls or that he did good works — his testimony was that “he walked with God.” And then in verse 24 it says, ” . . . And he was not; for God took him.” He was walking in such a way that God simply took him to be with Himself.
The next time we hear about Enoch is in the Gospel of Luke in a genealogy but then in Hebrews 11:5 it says, “By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him; for before his translation he had the testimony, that he pleased God.”
So my point is that we might run to and fro throughout the earth, but the most important thing is that we “walk with God.” I am praying for you today that God will strengthen you and give you long years beyond your own strength or ability — that you would continue to walk with God and be refreshed and renewed today and strengthened by the power of the Holy Spirit — that the Spirit would continue to lead and guide you into all the truth. Blessings!
I still cannot get over seeing that meteor streaking across Russia the other day. That son of a gun was moving so fast streaking through the sky it was breaking the sound barrier and exploding buildings in its wake. Finally it crashed and burned, but before doing so it had quite an impact.
I want to go out like that meteor. Frankly I have no desire to live to be 100 and die with tubes sticking out of every orifice. I would rather be like Enoch and maybe not live so long but “walk with God and please Him”.
God created us, (me and you), to live forever. We will spend those days either in heaven or hell.
Sobering thought eh?
We only have this very brief period of time to have an impact on this world and then we have all of eternity to rest up. Think about this today and every day, and don’t allow your job, hobbies, preoccupation with social events, and other secular things of this world to get in the way of what is truly important in life.
People all over the world are being overrun by satan and his vast army. Be one of those tireless chopper pilots that works around the clock and shows up just in the nick of time to snatch someone out of the enemy’s claws and an eternity of anguish in hell, Walk with God and help lead them to safety and eternity with our loving Creator.
Time is running out.
We can rest in heaven even for a couple of million years. If so led we can probably yawn and stretch, and say “what the heck” and hit the snooze button for another couple of million or so. There will be plenty of time to rest and rejoice with our friends.
Not so down here. Time is running out and billions of lost people are going to be swept away in the final flood of Armageddon if we don’t get off our duffs…
Matt. 24:38
“For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark…”