For He says, “AT THE ACCEPTABLE TIME I LISTENED TO YOU, AND ON THE DAY OF SALVATION I HELPED YOU.” Behold, now is “THE ACCEPTABLE TIME”, behold, now is “THE DAY OF SALVATION.”
2 Corinthians 6:2
It seems that whenever it is mentioned to people about the need to surrender to Christ today, it is common to get one of two responses: I need more time to think about it, or I don’t like pressure or scare tactics on spiritual matters. Now certainly we want people to respond to Christ out of sincere faith and a desire to know Him, not to please some person or simply to get some “fire insurance”; however, we must remember that Satan himself doesn’t mind people considering Jesus as their Savior, as long as he can get them to put off the decision until it is too late! He always says, “do in some other day!” The truth is that none of us knows for sure how much time we have left, either in our days to live, or when Christ will return. It is not a scare tactic to tell someone the truth that there is great uncertainty as to what tomorrow will bring and that we have to make each day count for eternity. I know that I would have great guilt knowing someone I loved passed away and I never told them about the gospel message when I had the chance to. Truly today is the day for everyone to respond to God’s grace and offer of forgiveness thru Christ. Living in Chicagoland means an almost daily dose of murders and mayhem on the nightly news about our city. Now this violence seems to be commonplace just about everywhere along with increasing division and anger in our culture. Certainly now is the time for everyone to put their faith in Christ as He alone can provide security and direction now and for eternity when everything around us is unstable and dangerous. Be sure of it for yourself and be generous in offering it to everyone you know!
Love in Christ,
Pastor Gary Houdek