Close Calls

1 Corinthians 15:51-53 (NKJV)

51 Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed— 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. 53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.

Have you ever had a moment where you experienced something that you thought would surely bring you to ruin? Perhaps you were involved in a motor vehicle accident that changed you physically, emotionally, and even, spiritually. Maybe it was one of those "close call" moments, and it changed you, and you are no longer the same.

My wife has experienced a close call moment back in August 2004. She was involved in an accident where a car lost control and crossed into the lane of our group riding motorcycles. The car hit my wife nearly head on, causing a traumatic amputation of her left leg above the knee and a severely broken pelvis.

That day changed her in a blink of an eye. One minute we were riding our bikes on that beautiful Saturday heading home after a blessed day of celebrating life. Then boom! Life was then, and is now, completely and utterly different for her, and for me. Today she is confined to a wheelchair and has to deal with chronic pain that doctors cannot seem to get a complete handle on giving her any sort of relief.

Later on she was also changed spiritually. During our young married life, we never really understood anything about God, other than the religious experiences we had in our youth. But we learned a hard lesson after the accident, that God was in total control and caused us to once and for all, get real and love the Lord for real.

I am sure we, like most people in religious denominations, assume we are good to go with God, and will make it to heaven one day. There are a lot of good people who think they are just OK with being lukewarm in their faith. But without a true love for Jesus, they are going to spend eternity in hell.

That day in August 2004 changed her and me in a flash. I woke up and rededicated my life back to God. My wife survived and finally accepted the gift of grace, that not only saved her physically from death's door, but moreover, saved her eternally by receiving the gift of grace by faith in Christ. That day changed her forever.

You never know what the next minute holds. Those "close calls" you may have encountered, or soon to encounter, could one day be too close, and take you out of this world. The question is, where will it take you? Heaven - or Hell?

Know this, God knows everything about you and sees and hears all that you do. Sooner or later, He may allow you to be put in a situation, much like my wife, to get you to wake up and realize that your life is not your own. That your sins, that have already condemned you to eternal damnation and hellfire, have been forgiven by the death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ.

God gave His only Son and nailed Him to the cross as a sin offering for the whole world once and for all. He did that out of His great and awesome love you and me. It is nothing we can do on our own to ever save us from eternal judgement.

The change in us that saves from a close call, is only by the grace, mercy and love of God. The destiny of your eternal soul is dependent upon the choice you make today - to accept this gift and follow Jesus in obedience, by faith and be changed from the inside out, or continue to walk along that wide and easy path that leads to destruction, where many will go.

Only you can decide which way you go. And let me say this, not making a decision, is in fact, a decision. One day this world will have to endure a reckoning. The question is how will you respond?

Acts 4:12 "Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”