““Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’” Mt. 7:20-23
“Why are you here?” I asked a little girl one day as she dug her fork into her delicious hot breakfast that was jammed into a little take-out container. “Not going to school today?” I said.
It wasn’t a snow day. Despite the early morning chill, it wasn’t cold enough for snow. It wasn’t a holiday. She hadn’t missed the school bus. She was driven by car to school each day.
“The alarm broke,” she essentially told me. She didn’t seem concerned. She explained she would still get to school. She would simply be late. The school doors would be open. She would attend her classes. Life would go on.
This isn’t about a little girl and a broken alarm clock, you know. It’s about us. This world. And the fact that just about every direction we turn when it comes to the news the Lord seems to be sounding an alarm that this world is coming to its demise and that we need to repent and commit our lives to Christ as Lord before it’s too late. And that for those of us who have already repented and committed our lives to Christ, we need to wake up and examine our hearts and lives continually to ensure we are genuinely walking according to the ways of the Lord rather than according to the world’s wicked ways. That we are truly following Him rather than following our flesh. That we are sincerely submitted to the Lord rather than deceiving ourselves and reigning as little gods of our lives.
The news worldwide isn’t the only indication our alarm clocks are going off, is it? If we open our hearts and eyes, isn’t the Lord by His Spirit also giving us individual, personal warnings and reminders that we have changes to make, stuff to let go, and actions to take, that we need to purify ourselves for Him, forsaking wickedness and evil and walking humbly in His light?
The Bible is full from start to finish of warnings that we must leave behind our ungodliness and devote our lives to the Lord, that we need to seek His forgiveness and choose day by day to live for Him.
That little girl was late to school because her alarm clock was broken. But our alarm clocks aren’t broken! The Lord in His infinite love and mercy for His Creation sounds a perfectly working alarm so we will wake up from our slumber, from our lukewarm-ness, and from our deadness, that we would repent and come into His everlasting light!
The school doors were open that day for the little girl with the broken alarm clock, but heaven’s doors will be forever shut to those who don’t give their lives wholly to the Lord before it’s too late. To those who don’t hear the alarm clock going off and run in repentance to the Lord and with a true turning to Him and His ways.
If you have read this message, you have heard an alarm clock going off. Please awake while the Lord’s arms are still outstretched, while heaven’s doors are still open, while there is yet time to surrender all to Him. A life forever apart from the beautiful, holy, righteous, precious, glorious Lord, forever apart from fellowship with Him, forever apart from a perfect everlasting life in His presence, a life of eternal torment instead in the lake of fire await those who do not hear the Lord’s alarm, who do not hear His warnings, and who do not arise and come running to the mercy seat of the Lord with repentant hearts and a genuine commitment to live for Christ for eternity with their lives henceforth bearing the fruit of belonging to Christ forevermore!