Don’t wait till later!

This past Monday night as I was checking the news headlines and I was sad to hear of the death of Steve Irwin (aka the Crocodile Hunter).

It is ironic in a way to me that Steve made his living dealing with dangerous animals but was killed by a Sting Ray. In doing some research I have found that there have been very few deaths due to Sting Ray’s since they are not know to be aggressive. Several articles I read stated that there has been something like 17 documented cases where a Sting Ray sting has resulted in someone’s death.

As I was reading the other evening about Steve’s untimely and unfortunate death I was reminded of a couple of verses.

Psalm 139:16 “Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, The days fashioned for me, When as yet there were none of them.”

Psalm 103:15-16 “As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more.”

When we are formed in our mother’s womb, God already knows the number of our days. We will not receive one day more or one day less. This life is shorter than any of us care to admit and passes like a whiff of smoke rising from a fire.

How many times have we all heard someone that basically agrees with the Gospel of Jesus but they put off making a decision to repent and make Jesus the Lord of their lives? How many have died with making a decision about Jesus still on their “to do” list?

This is tragic and should never ever happen. I would urge you to learn from Steve’s untimely death that none of us are guaranteed tomorrow or even the next breath. Some might have been more worried about Steve’s safety on the day he was playing with Crocodiles. I doubt it occurred to his wife that his going for a swim with Sting Rays would result in Steve never returning home as he was kissing her goodbye that morning. If you can feel the Holy Spirit tugging on your heart then today is the day to surrender to the call right now.

If you are one of those who decided to wait ask yourself why?

Are you too wrapped up in your career? If you found out you had a disease that is fatal if not treated properly wouldn’t the career take a back seat to going to the doctor for treatment?

The fact is if you have never surrendered your life to Jesus then you do have a disease called sin. We are born with it but there is a cure. The cure is to accept Jesus as your Savior and begin to abide in and seek after Him daily.

Do you have sin in your life? Maybe you are a drunk or you have stolen or you have lied or you are involved in adultery or cheat on your taxes. Whatever it might be doesn’t matter really because in God’s eyes sin is sin but the Bible says that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us in Romans 5:8. You don’t have to clean up your act first to be saved. You simply need to make Jesus the Lord of your life and then ask Him to come into your heart and give you the strength to confess your sins and turn away from them.

Your eternal destiny is far too important to risk. I wonder if some really think deep down that trying to conquer the world is really more important than their eternal destiny. In Luke chapter 16 we read of the rich man. He was rich in this world but in eternity he ended up in hell.

If you say you are a Christian but cannot say for certain where you would go if you were to die right now then please examine your own walk. Are you living a lifestyle of sin? You need to examine whether you really know Jesus or you know about Jesus due to having “religion.”

What about the young person that wants to “do their own thing” now and accept Jesus later? Isn’t this basically admitting that you need Jesus now? Don’t wait, you are not promised tomorrow. I can think of several people that I attended high school with that didn’t live long enough to see our graduation day.

Don’t be like the rich man in Luke 16 that Jesus spoke about. He had it good in this life but the eternal consequences were not worth it in the long run. Why would anyone gamble with something so eternally important?

Eternity would sure be a long time to wish you had done things differently in the here and now:

Luke 16:25 “But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and you are tormented.”

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