A God Wake Up Call

God is so awesome!  Just this morning I had the incredible privilege of leading a “50 something” businessman to Christ!  It was another one of those “Divine Moments” that I could tell God had been orchestrating for years.  One of the reasons I knew this to be true was the story this person told me just before he cried out to God to receive Jesus Christ as the only One who could forgive him of his sins, grant him the promise of eternal life to come, and the hope for a better, and more purposeful life, here and now.

He said that several years ago he was driving down a busy highway, and that he heard an audible voice speak to him. He relayed , “It wasn’t a voice I heard in my head, but literally an audible voice I heard speaking into my left ear.”  The voice distinctively told him, “Put your seat-belt on, now,” and for some reason he immediately did so.  He then described, with tears streaming down his face, that just moments later he found himself tangled up with a semi.  The seat-belt had saved his life, and he knew that it was God who told him to put it on just before the accident happened!

He then went on to describe, with what I heard to be coming from a tormented soul, how he had several other experiences throughout his life where he clearly sensed that God was trying to get his attention.  He wondered why it had taken him so long to actually stop, listen, and respond to the wake up calls God was trying to send him. He postulated that if he had, he probably would have been spared from some of the present pain he is experiencing from a series of poor choices he has made in his life.

I rejoice greatly in the reality that this person’s life is now changed and that he’s been forgiven through what Jesus accomplished on the cross on his behalf!  Yet, I also realize that the consequences of his choices will not be easily addressed or erased. That truly grieves me.  It also makes me wonder…

  • How many other people have experienced similar wake up calls to respond to God’s gift-offer of salvation and have not listened?
  • How many others are there who would respond–on the spot, like this person did–if they just had a follower of Christ who made themselves available to God to clearly share the good news of the gospel in way they could either reject or receive?
  • How many Christian business leaders are there who have received clear “wake up calls” from God to start leveraging their gifts, passions, possessions, and positions 100+% for Christ and His kingdom building purposes and are still resisting?
  • How many people will there be who do not see or hear about Christ because they give God the “busy signal?” How many profits will they lose because of ungodly ways of doing business? How many people will never set foot in a church because of how they were poorly treated by a, so called, “Christian business person?” How much pain will such persons have to experience before they finally cave and surrender their lives to do things God’s way vs. their own?
  • How many Pastors/Church Leaders have had God dial their number: challenging them to think about “doing church” differently, about investing in equipping their people to live out the reality of Christ in their workplaces, about stopping the crazy pace of working 80+ hours a week–“for the sake of Christ and the ministry”–while their families are in shambles?

O God, please….please, let us NOT miss your wake up calls!  Let us be so attentive–even to the slightest whispers of Your Spirit, to the verse/passage of Scripture that leaps of the page and into our heart, revealing Your will; to the person You send with a word of encouragement, instruction or warning–to ANY way in which You are trying to get our attention.  For your glory and our good, I ask this.  IN THE MATCHLESS NAME OF JESUS, AMEN!

 

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