BE PREPARED -- NOT LEFT BEHIND

"The Lord is not slack concerning His promise,
as some count slackness, but is longsuffering
toward us, not willing that any should perish
but that all should come to repentance."
(2 Peter 3:9)

The contents of this post have been mulling around in my head ever since the unexpected super derecho that blew through a few weeks ago, causing so much damage.  It made me think of how much we tend to take for granted, and how we are never promised tomorrow--or even the next moment, for that matter.

I couldn't stop thinking about the story of Noah, who was obedient to build an ark even though he had never even seen rain.  People taunted him, made fun of him, called him a crazy old man, until the very day God shut Noah and everyone/thing with him safely in the ark.  Then the windows of heaven opened up to let the floodwaters pour out, and those same people perished, as did everything else on the earth.

Why I didn't sit down and write the post then and there I'm not sure.  Maybe there was more to mull over?

Two nights ago we were hit by another big storm, and although it was nothing like the derecho, and caused no damage, it did share the derecho's unexpectedness.  Only hours earlier I had gone out to dump my trash, and noted how blue the sky was, and how the oppressive heat and humidity we'd been experiencing the last several days seemed a lot less intense.

Surprised by the storm, I sat on my bed watching the lights flicker and praying they would not go out.  Again, I thought about Noah, but this time I also remembered something said about those days in the New Testament, in Matthew 24, which chapter starts out describing the signs of the end times -- "Take heed that no one deceives you ... you will hear of wars and rumors of wars ... nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.  And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places ... you will be hated by all nations for My name's sake ... many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another ... false prophets will rise up and deceive many ... lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold."

I kept reading, and found what I was looking for in verses 36-39 -- "But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only.  But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.  For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying, and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be."

Just as the ark, in Noah's day, seemed foolish to the masses about to perish, so even today, "the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing" (1 Cor. 1:18a).  It is written: "'I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent,' ... For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believed" (1 Cor. 1:19-21)

Dear reader, if you are one of many who thinks you still have time to think things over before making a decision, please take to heart the verse at the very beginning of this post.  Don't put it off any longer, or it may be too late.  Be prepared, so you are not left behind.