The Door Will Not Always Be Open

INTERESTING FACTS : "I preached as never sure to preach again, and as a dying man to dying men!" - Richard Baxter

DAILY READING : Jeremiah 7-9

TEXT : Jer. 8:20 "The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved."

THEME : Missed Opportunities

I would like to start this one off on a personal note. I cannot read this verse without hearing it in the voice of Joe Johnson. Many of you may remember Brother Johnson. He used to come frequently and preach at the church - his brother Dan has visited in recent years.

It was in 1997 and he had come to town for a series of meetings. We were in the church up on the hill, in the building where the Salvation Army is now. If I remember right he had just preached on a Wednesday night, and would be preaching again the next Sunday evening for the last time this trip. He encouraged us all to invite someone out to this last meeting.

Not long before this I had started working at Liberty. I had gone through a few weeks of training for the job and had become good friends with 2 people in the class during this time. I knew almost immediately when Brother Johnson asked us to invite someone out, that I needed to invite them.

I never did. It wasn't really a matter of fear as I remember it. Not to say that that's something I've never struggled with, but in this case they both knew I was a Christian and it wasn't really an issue. In this case it was just a matter of that I never got around to it. I can't remember if our schedules were such that I didn't see them from that Wednesday to the following Sunday - but I do remember that I never got around to asking them out to the service.

I assume as the service began I thought to myself that there will be other opportunities, but there never were for me. Situations changed and time changed things, and to this day I regret not inviting them. Brother Johnson began his message by reading the last few verses of Jeremiah Chapter 8, and then proceeded to preach on verse 20. It was, to me, a very powerful message. I can still recall the sinking feeling I felt in my stomach as He closed out the message - I had missed an opportunity. And I still hear Brother Johnson's voice anytime I read this verse.

Let us be careful when God gives us an opportunity and not fool ourselves into thinking there may be another chance, because there may not.

For those who have their curiosity peaked, you can hear the message from that night here : http://www.timefortruth.com/media/devotions/00 - The Summer Is Ended.mp3

TRUTH FOR TODAY : The Door Will Not Always Be Open

Living in Florida has its disadvantages, believe it or not. Bugs is a big one, but another one is seasons. We have generally one season here - summer, with varying degrees. Sometimes it's mildly warm, and other times you save on electricity and just cook your food outdoors, or on the dashboard of your vehicle. If you've ever gotten into your car and found something melted that wasn't melted when you left (and I'm talking plastics here, not ice cream), then you've experienced Florida heat.

To some having perpetual green sounds like paradise, but I like having seasons. All kidding aside there is something that is missed when there isn't the strong indication of change between seasons. Sure we have days in the winter when it gets cold, and there are some trees that will get some color, but overall the biggest change is that there isn't the sweltering heat that you experience in the "dog days" of summer. We don't look out our window at Thanksgiving and see wondrous display of color or feel that nip in the air as we visit family. We are absolutely never surrounded by a blanket of white in winter and one of our concerns is that it will be cool enough Christmas Eve to be able to start a small fire and not sweat next to it. In springtime the grass doesn't reveal itself again from beneath the earth as the world around us warms.

The seasons though for most of us act as markers. Their constant passing like mile markers on a highway remind us that all time in finite. The rate at which they pass, seemingly faster with age, reminds us that our own time is finite.

Here in this verse the prophet Jeremiah is lamenting the fact that each season has melted away into the next, and yet still Israel is not delivered, Israel is not saved. You can hear the desperation in his voice that time is running out.

Though we may think that this verse does not apply to us since we've already been saved and delivered, all around us is a lost world for whom time is running out. We would like to think that the opportunities for them to come to Christ are endless, but that is not true. Today is the day of salvation - tomorrow is not guaranteed.

Last Friday, in looking at one of the verses in Isaiah referencing the second coming of Christ, I mentioned the following verse :

"But first must he suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation. And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed. [Luke 17:25-30]"

There is another comparison to the days of Noah that I would like to make. There was a period of time when Noah was building the ark and preaching repentance, where the door was literally open for those who would to come. But there came a time, when the floods began to rise and the rain began to fall, when it was too late. The door has been shut and no one else was allowed in. And remember, it was God Himself who closed the door to the Ark - it was He and He alone who could say when the opportunity for salvation had ended.

Likewise with Lot in Sodom. Until the day that judgement came anyone who wanted to leave Sodom was certainly able. But once that time had passed and God's judgment fell on Sodom, no one was able to escape.

Do we realize for those around us who are lost that the door to the Ark will only be open for so long. That there will come a point in time when God will shut the door and no man will be able to enter in. For some, that time will be tomorrow. They will wake up and carry on with their plans, just like in the days of Noah, not knowing that it will be a day of judgment for them.

Let's ask God to remind ourselves of this truth and to once again break our hearts for the lost world that's around us.