...you shall surely die.

This past week our family was watching Nova on the topic of tornadoes. I must admit to having had a dread fascination with tornadoes since a young age. The area where my wife and I grew up in west Cobb County in the (now) Metro Atlanta area is a relatively tornado prone area, and some experience with tornadoes there is a pretty common thing. As a very young child Sheila rode out a tornado in her parent's mobile home which passed them over close enough for her to hear quite loudly. In our previous home in Cobb County she once saw the drooping multiple-trunks of dogwood tree in our front yard standing straight up, twirling around in the air. Hurricane Opal spawned a number of tornadoes in our area in the middle of the night, one of which traveled through the woods straight toward our house and dropped a large oak tree right on the roof. And somewhere in the Nineties a tornado came through Cobb County (never heard a rating for it but would guess an F4) which absolutely destroyed all of the mature woods on either side of a certain spot of Hwy 120 as far as you could see on both sides of the highway. I was astonished that such a thing was even possible; it looked like the site of an atomic blast, or the wreckage from Mt Saint Helens.

In the episode of Nova they interviewed a woman who had survived a notable tornado in La Plata, Maryland. She and her husband  had been inspecting the construction progress on the home they were building when they walked out the front door. They didn't even know anything at all was going on. She said they just noticed a strange, utter silence with no birds or animals or any sound at all. Then she woke up amidst the twisted wreckage of their house, both arms broken, struggling to get to her feet. Searchers found her a few moments later before she passed out. When she woke up again she was in the hospital. They told her that her husband had been killed.

One moment they were inspecting their new home together; the next he was dead and she was shattered. They didn't even know anything was happening.

The next day after Nova, it turned out that a cousin of mine didn't show up for work that morning. They called his brother to check on him. He was found still in bed, having had a major heart attack, rushed to the hospital, and underwent multiple bypass surgery. It's a wonder he was even still alive.

Folks, you don't know when it's coming, but it is coming. The time of your death is drawing near and you don't know when it is. You might not even know it when it comes. It might be this very day, but it is coming. You have no idea how long you have, and when it comes your eternal destiny is sealed. Your fate will eternally be determined by what you chose about Jesus, and there will be no opportunity to change it. You won't be able to talk your way out of it.

What will it be if your time comes right this minute? If you have chosen to keep making your own decisions and to control your own life, Psalm 2 says, "He will break them with a rod of iron, He will dash them to pieces like a potters vessel." You will have no hope, no matter how 'good' you think you are, because you have failed to choose to give your life over to Him. Psalm 2 says that He will laugh at your foolish objections, and then He will distress you in His deep displeasure.

But you do have hope now. You can choose to relinquish control of your life and give it over to Him. He did exceedingly abundantly above and beyond all that was needed to be worthy of you giving your life over to Him. The Psalm then says, "Now, be wise o Kings, and be instructed you judges of the earth; Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling; Kiss the Son, lest you perish in the way, when His wrath is kindled but a little; Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him."

Now is the time! It is coming, and you don't know when. Now is the time to change allegiance, to vote out the incumbent (you) and vote in the One who will make a real change. Now is the time to let Jesus have the wheel before you hit the oak tree. Don't wait any longer, don't fool yourself any longer; it might be right behind you right now and you don't even hear it.

The scriptures teach us that every single person in who ever lived, including you, will bow down before Jesus and confess openly the He is Lord of all creation. Some will do it now in this life and have hope forever, and the rest will do it in abject terror as humiliated and defeated enemies of the King before they are thrown alive into the Fire.

Which will you be? Don't wait! Do it now!

Your time is coming!