I received an email letter from a young preacher in another state. In his message he shared heart-wrenching news. My young preacher friend had spent Saturday evening visiting with a couple who were out of duty with the Lord. The married couple acknowledged that they were separated from God by sin. Upon that acknowledgment, the young preacher asked the wife if she were ready to make her life right with God. She replied, “No, not yet.” The married couple indicated that they might be at the church services the following day.
The next morning the husband turned to awaken his wife so that they could get ready for the church service. He was unable to wake her because she had died in her sleep sometime during the night.
What a sad story. I wonder if she felt safe in her home. Consider it. What could possibly happen? She was just planning to rest. And although only in her fifties, she died while sleeping.
Events like this make me think of the song we sometimes sing as encouragement to respond to the Lord’s invitation: “Almost persuaded.” The song concludes with the sobering phrase, “Almost persuaded. Almost, but lost.” That is the sad situation of this dead sister. Maybe she planned on making her life right with God that next day. The problem with that plan was that she wanted to obey God on her own schedule. She wanted to obey as if she had the power to control the events of her life.
Incidents such as this drive home the point Paul made when he wrote, “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Cor. 6:2). We have no guaranteed amount of time on this earth. Death is not a respecter of persons. He comes to everyone, young and old, rich and poor, educated and uneducated. And since we do not know when death will knock on our door, we need to always be prepared for his appearance.
This life is not a practice run. We only get one life cycle to live. There will be no second chances. God clearly informs us that man will only live and die once. After death we will all be judged (Heb. 9:27). Our life is as a vapor. It appears for a short period of time and then it vanishes away (James 4:14).
Do you have plans of getting serious about your life as a Christian some day? Is it your desire to try really hard to live, as God would have you to live, sometime in the near future? Maybe you would like to sleep on it.
Almost persuaded, almost but lost!
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