Nuggets 68: Terminal

  • B. Shelburne
  • May 5, 2007
  • Series: Nuggets

I hardly knew when they brought him in.  During the small hours of the night they laid him on a bed across from mine.  It was a hospital ward in Africa and I was recovering from surgery.  Only in the morning did I really become aware of the new patient lying there.  The guy next to me told me the story.  The injured man was out partying with someone else's wife and while driving drunk hit a tree.  He had terminal brain injuries and would last only a few more hours.

The last moment before impact was apparently etched on what was left of the man's brain.  Though he was comatose, his right foot kept stabbing as if at a brake pedal.  It was an awful picture--a person still futilely trying to save himself when there was no remedy left.

Jesus told a parable about people who had been invited to the wedding banquet but came too late and "the door was shut."   I heard a mournful song based on those verses.  It included the words, "O what an awful picture, standing outside, denied..." 

If God is to be moral judge of the universe, a time of final reckoning has to come.   We are used to thinking that even if we have been neglectful, there is always something we can do.  We think we can put off change and repentance until later.  That is not true, for three reasons.  One, we may die at any time.  Two, judgment is surely coming.  Three, we may become so hardened in disobedience that we lose the capacity to repent.  If you are still able to feel conviction of conscience, then thank God and do what you need to do now.  If you can delay it for a day or a week, chances are strong that you will delay it terminally.

Matthew 25:1-13;  8:11-12;  Luke 13:23-28;  14:16-24;  Isaiah 55:6,7;  59:1,2;  Psalm 32:6;  2 Corinthians 6:2;  Hebrews 4:7,11-16;  9:27;  10:16-31;  2 Peter 3:9-14;  1 Timothy 4:2

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Copyright 2007 by G.B. Shelburne, III.  May be freely reproduced or forwarded for non-commercial purposes provided content is unchanged and this copyright notice is included.  These shepherding messages are sent to members and friends of New Beginnings Church (www.nbchurch.com), to students and alumni of South Houston Bible Institute (www.shbi.org), and to other interested persons.

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