Your last chance

Man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment. Hebrews 9:27                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

The last person to be rescued from the crumbled remains of the World Trade Center on 9/11 was a woman by the name of Genelle Guzman, who was working on the 67th floor of Tower One on that ill-fated day. Genelle was able to work her way down to the 13th floor when the building collapsed. As the result of God’s mercy, she was trapped in an air pocket with a steel beam an inch from her head. In the 27 hours that her body was pinned in the coffin-like debris, Genelle prayed and thought a lot about her life. At that time, she was living with a man to whom she was not married, and Genelle knew that this was wrong, “God,” she cried, “if You will save me, I’ll serve You!”

God heard her cry and she was rescued, the last living person to be plucked from that horrible pit. And what happened? She straightened up her life, got right in her relationship with God and turned her back on wrongdoing.

The psalmist wrote, “You are forgiving and good, O Lord, abounding in love to all who call to You” (Psalm 86:5). The prophet Nahum wrote, “The Lord is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in him” (Nahum 1:7).  Four times in the Old Testament you find these words, “I called to the Lord in my distress...”

God is gracious and often gives you a second chance, but there is a grave danger in waiting too long. For some there is no time to make peace. Is it any wonder that Paul wrote, “Now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2)? The bottom line is that some things just won’t wait. Making peace with God is one of them.

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this:  While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.