Monday, October 7, 2024

The Christian What If Zone: Time Travel

 

We are about to embark on an adventure through the world of imagination, where random thoughts and mindful meanderings blend. We are going to travel through the electrical impulses firing in our brains to open the world of possibilities. We are about to step into “The Christian What If Zone.”

Ok, that may have been a little dramatic, but I wanted to lead into this by making the point that this will be an exercise of the imagination. So, please indulge me with this.

                Imagine, if you will, you are in your church sitting in one of the pews. You and several others are attending a prayer service. The pastor is leading the time and has just asked for everyone to pray for the people of the surrounding community, the lost, the lonely, those in need, and those who are hurting. You close your eyes.  The church is silent as you pray, but if you are honest your mind is wandering.

                After a few minutes, you start hearing people and cars. At first the noise seems very distant, but it gradually gets louder. You also notice the smell of exhaust and food cooking. Is that the smell of hot dogs? The impressions are faint that at first. It seems like your imagination is getting the best of you, but as they slowly become more intense you start to realize there is something happening around you. A car horn blares loudly close by. You open your eyes, and you are shocked to find that you are not sitting in the church any longer. You are now sitting outside on a bench in the middle of a large city. There beside you on the bench is a newspaper. It is the New York Post, and you notice one of the articles on the front page is about President Bush. You stand up and look around to figure out exactly where you are. Then you notice the two buildings standing before you. You quickly look at the date on the paper, September 10th, 2001. You lift your eyes and see the Twin Towers standing before you.

                As you stand there looking, you watch people coming and going out of the building. They are going about their business, and they have no idea what is about to happen. They do not know that the buildings are going to be destroyed in a terrorist attack the next day. The attack will kill around three thousand people. They do not know, but you do. Watching the people going about their business your heart breaks for them. You cannot explain how you got here at this time, and you do not know how much time you have before you are pulled back into your own time. Still, you are here, and you know what is coming. So, here is the question. What would you do with the time you have? Take time to think about that.

I am using this to help us get the feeling of where we are as Christians. We cannot go back and save the people in the Twin Towers, although I wish we could, but we do find ourselves in a similar predicament. We know the future because we have the Bible. We know that God so loved the world that he gave His one and only Son, John 3:16.  We know that he did not send his Son here to condemn the world. Jesus was sent here to save the world. We have the knowledge of God’s love and the sacrifice on the cross that can save people from a terrible torment. Like the person in the “What If” story we do not know how much time we have before we are pulled out of here. We also know that time is short. We cannot just sit and do nothing. We must try. We must help bring as many people to safety and to home as we can. We must find that same urgency in our evangelism. Let us not waste a moment.  Reach out, share the hope, and be the light in someone’s life today.

Have a blessed day,

Layman Ray


Prayers:  Please pray for the lost in your community and around the world.  Start a discussion with those you know. I believe most people come to Christ because someone loved them enough to reach out to them.

Salvation's Path (allsoulscount.com) This is a link to All Souls Count’s web site. Feel free to print the All Souls Count article on salvation if you would like to share with someone you would like to reach.

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