July 30, 2019 – Click here to listen
My son’s air conditioning went out one time and it happened over the weekend. It was blazing hot and of course due to the weekend no one would come fix it until Monday. His family suffered through it and it was a long hot weekend. So the repairman came on Monday. He asked to see the main unit and they took him to the basement. My son had just moved back to Atlanta from Tallahassee and had several boxes stored near his air conditioning unit. There is an on/off switch by the unit and someone had accidentally switched it to the off position. I suppose one of them had been looking for something among the boxes and had presumed the unit’s on/off switch was a light switch and had inadvertently turned it off and left it that way.
Imagine burning up all weekend and then finding out that all they had to do was flip a switch and refreshing cool air would have filled the house in moments. Then further imagine paying someone $70 bucks for a service call to tell you with a nice little smirky smile on his face that the switch must remain in the on position in order for it to work.
Duhhh . . . Egad!
It was difficult not to laugh when my daughter-in-law told me of this incident, but the scowl of her countenance made me think better of it. This morning I was thinking about this event and it reminded me of all of the people who have turned God off in their lives. Imagine having a Bible right beside one’s nightstand and never opening it to listen to what the Spirit of God has to say to you. Further imagine having a direct connection to speak to Almighty God the Creator of everything that there is and never taking advantage of it and praying to Him.
Sadly, that is what is happening daily as we suffer through the fears, pain, misery, and uncertainty of this broken fallen world. Many opt to forego quality time with the Lord incredibly so they can stare at their “one-eyed god” television and watch Fox News, CNN, or one of the other news outlets recap the latest global horror to include wars and rumors of more wars, murders, rapes, atrocities, corruption, religious persecution, sexual perversion, and every other bad thing happening in the world not the least of which is election coverage.
A tiny number spend quality time conversing with the Lord reading the Bible and then speaking to Him about their hurts and desires and expressing their love and thankfulness for Him in prayer. How about you, did you ignore the Bible on your nightstand and forget to pray last night? No problem, tonight turn on the God switch whereby you can instantly fill the room with God’s Spirit and enjoy His incomprehensible love and gentle reassurance. His presence is truly like a cool breeze on a hot day. There is no need to suffer through the sweltering miserable heat of this world. There will come a day when the God switch is no longer accessible and those who chose to ignore Him in this life will find out what the age-old expression, “It’s hot as hell!” really means throughout all eternity . . .
The heavens and the earth will burn up, but God’s love for His children is eternal and where He goes, He will take us with Him and the temperature? – Well it will be perfect . . .
Romans 8:38
And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow – not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love.