Running Out Of Time

This morning while lifting weights I was watching some television. It takes my thoughts off the biceps, triceps, lunges, etc, and time goes swiftly by. Flipping channels to find something interesting, I checked out the History Channel. This day the show was about 2012 ... the year all apocalyptic folk are talking about. The Mayan calendar ends in 2012, folks say, therefore the end of the world is near. Actually, scientists say the Mayan calendar starts and ends with a planetary alignment and is actually circular, just starting all over. However, it's got people comparing prophecies of the Bible, Nostradamus and apparently even the Hopi Indians to see if our world will come to a cataclysmic end in three years. There's even a movie coming out this autumn called "2012" talking about that very thing. Everyone wants to know if and when the world will end.

Even Jesus said he didn't know when it would end. Mark 13:32 tells us only the Father knows (guess that eliminates Nostradamus, the Mayans and Hopi), then he tells us to be alert and watch the signs He mentions earlier in the chapter.

One thing popped in my mind however while doing my repetitions: if the world would come to an end in 2012, have I told everyone who needs to hear about the saving grace of Jesus?

I had a dream several years ago where the Lord was teaching me about discipleship and the expediency of it. In my dream, I was in a multi-car wreck on a highway. I jumped out of my burning car unhurt, but noticed the hundreds of cars around me also on fire. I asked God, "What should I do?" And he said, "Open the doors and show them the way." Of course, I found some excuses why I couldn't complete this task: "But Lord, some of these people are unconscious. How will I wake them? Some are much larger than me. How will I carry them away from the firey cars? "What if I pull some and they don't listen and get out?" He said to me, "I have other people to do those jobs. You just open the doors and show them the way." I looked to my right and saw ambulances arriving with professionals to rise the unconscious and carry the injured away. Then I heard the Lord said, "After you show them the way, send them back to the other cars to open the doors and show them the way." Seeing all these cars on fire, about to explode and kill the people within them, I knew I had little time to open these doors and rushed to complete the job.

Yes, very profound. I woke up shaking and in tears. We are running out of time. People truly are sitting in burning cars about to be consumed by eternal death, and we as Christians have the job to open those car doors and show the people the Way. And we need to do it now.

Who knows about 2012? The end of the world could be anytime. Anytime! We need to start telling God's children about Jesus and do it immediately.

They're running out of time.