Write it on paper

Genesis 12:1-4

“When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, ‘I used everything You gave me.’”

                                                                 Erma Bombeck

Calendars are an interesting thing. We plan, schedule and cajole our time so that we are able to meet the demands of our responsibility. I hate to be late for anything. I was raised that if you are supposed to be somewhere at a certain time, that meant you were at least five minutes early. I still live by that principle (much to my wife’s chagrin). However, invariably something goes wrong. Some time ago, we were scheduled to fly out of Kansas City at 6 a.m., which meant that we needed to be at the airport by 5 a.m. However, my alarm clock went off at 4:15 instead of 3:15. Our airport was forty minutes from my home. Needless to say, we barely made it. You see, life is what        happens to us while we are making other plans. Our lives are subject to detours and corrections that we never expected or imagined.

Abraham and Sarah could testify to that. They were planning for retirement when life "happened" to them. God adjusted their agenda. He told Abraham, "Get out of your country, from your family and from your father's house, to a land that I will show you" (Genesis 12:1). So this old couple packed up the tent and headed out to only God knew where. When Alexander the Great had completed his     conquest of Persia, he headed east. Author Halford Luccock said the general "marched off his maps." That happened to Sarah and Abraham. God gave them marching orders without a map. They   needed only enough faith to begin the journey, and they headed out to unknown territories and unimagined adventures. God never told them He would turn them "every which way but loose" before fulfilling His promise of a son who would become a great nation.

The lesson in all of this is very simple. Make your plans, but write them on paper, not in concrete. Use a pencil instead of a pen. God and life have a way of intruding and leading you on a journey that you might not have anticipated in your wildest dreams. Solomon said it just perfect, “A man's heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.” (Proverbs 16:9)

John 3:16, I John 3:2

“Men talk of killing time, while time quietly kills them.”
- Dion Boucicault

I have a dilemma. I am required by my relationship with Jesus Christ for you and I to establish an honest, genuine relationship before I discuss with you what I'm about to discuss. But it's a catch 22. I may never meet some of you. There are those I send these devotions to that I do not know, and there are those of you that are receiving these from people that are forwarding them to you. Yet I cannot bring myself to face my Creator unless I do my best to give you the opportunity I've been given.
So I'm going to assume that you, dear reader, do not believe the things I do and I'm going to tell you about my Lord. You see, someday I WILL face Him and I couldn't stand it if He said, "You say you cared about people, yet you didn't even try to tell them about My sacrifice for their sake?"
The thing is, someday you'll face Him, too. And you won't be able to point to my poor presentation of this message, my "pushiness," or any other way in which I may have been a bad example. I'll answer to Him for those things. At some point, you'll have to humble yourself, examine your own heart and admit your need of a Savior regardless of my bad example. You will not be able to look at some poor televangelist’s bad example of Christ. There will be no one that you will be able to blame for your choices today.
Someday it will be just you and Him and He'll say, "That messenger on the Internet? Oh yes, his interview is next week. The Televangelist? He may be a hypocrite but that's not your concern. He will answer to me if he was. Now I'm asking you why YOU rejected My sacrifice."
God so loved each one of that He did not send someone else to save the world, He came himself. I remember that statement hanging on either side of our sanctuary growing up. I think about it often. The great God of the universe, the one that spoke all things into existence, loved me so much that He became a man like me so that one day I might be like Him. I can’t wait to see Him.
The older we get, the more urgent it becomes to discuss this subject. So I cannot afford to mince words. You have a choice to make today. Will you bow to Him now or will you wait until later. The sound of His return is in the air. We are closer to the coming of the Lord than ever before. We MUST be ready to see Him.
The bottom line is a changed life can be yours if you want it. You say you want the one you have? Consider yourself fortunate for the time being. But it won't last forever. When you face the Master, you can do it with confidence.

“Men talk of killing time, while time quietly kills them.”
- Dion Boucicault