"For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit." 1 Peter 3:18 (KJV)
The windshield shatters. The seat belt pins Joe back in his seat. The airbags deploy. Shrapnel from a sign reading "DANGER BRIDGE OUT" is flying through the air and into the car. As Joe looks to the other side of the abyss, he realizes he has no chance to reach its safety. As he falls deeper and deeper, hurtling down at a speed he has never known his last conscious thought is: "Why didn't anybody warn me?"
Is Joe right? Were there no warning signs? No flagman? Ten miles back, a flagman had urgently tried to get Joe's attention. He had waved his flag and yelled, but Joe was driving very fast, concerned with some problem at work, and he never saw him and missed the man that would have saved his life! Two miles later there was a sign with flashing yellow lights. It read "REDUCE SPEED: BRIDGE OUT 3 MILES AHEAD!" Joe had been trying to close this deal with a Chinese Factory and was calling the office to see if a fax had come in. Joe never saw the sign that would have saved his life!
Three miles later, He rounded a sharp curve. Standing in front of a sign reading "ROAD CLOSED BRIDGE OUT" was a man who was bleeding from his hands and feet. The man had been hoping Joe would not make it this far, but as he heard him round the corner, He waved his hands furiously and yelled at the top of his voice, but Joe was checking on his tickets to Europe on his blackberry. He saw neither the man nor the sign that would have saved his life! Joe's world went dark and silent simultaneously as he hurtled toward the destiny of a sinner who never trusted our Lord!
Like Joe, many people ignore the signs on the road to Hell. They think they can close the "sin gap" separating us and God on their own. They completely ignore the Living Word of our Father, the "flagman." They ignore what the Holy Spirit tells them deep in their souls, missing the second warning sign. As they foolishly speed toward their own demise, they miss the "BRIDGE OUT ROAD CLOSED" sign and zoom right past The Messiah and his outstretched arms. They ignore Him as they plunge toward the fiery depths of Hell and its eternal consequences! Then they remember passing the flagman, the warning sign, and Jesus standing at the edge of the abyss. But the hour has grown much too late.
Copyright 2007 Timothy E. Davis