Word for Wednesday
And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it also be in the days of the Son of man. Luke 17:26
I had a little Maranatha sticker on the dash of my car; it was an encouraging reminder that the Lord is coming at any time. A young man I worked with was travelling with me to a news conference in the city; because I was taking my car and going early, he opted to go with me rather than wait for the work van that was carrying the camera crew. He spied the Maranatha sticker, and wondered what it was. Let me tell you, it’s not easy to explain the Rapture to an unbeliever. He knew nothing about it, and, after I began explaining, he lost interest quickly. The Rapture is just as sure as the flood was in Noah’s day, but the world has little interest or concern and their apathy can affect you and me as we live in the glorious anticipation.
Some have suggested that Noah faced opposition and criticizm as he built the ark. Based on the way people around us today simply ignore the warnings of the Rapture, I doubt it. I think they just laughed a bit and shrugged or just ignored the ark. Noah’s preaching didn’t bother them; they just tuned it out. Most people around us today just tune out the Gospel, failing to grasp the relevance to their own eternal welfare. Just as Noah’s preaching had little or no impact on his generation, so we face little response to the Gospel today. Scott MacLeod was preaching in Labrador this month, and was amazed at the large numbers of unsaved who regularly attended the Gospel meetings. Some of those folks have been attending for many years, and the message appears to make no impact; it’s just a way to pass a Sunday evening, it seems. Does all that apathy we are encountering mean we stop preaching?
We don’t know what convinced Noah’s sons to join their father in building the ark and in boarding it. We don’t know what convinced three young women to agree to marry ark builders in a day when nobody had ever seen an ocean. But these six people were willing to join Noah and his wife in building an ark and in preparing for the flood that they were convinced would come. Was it Noah’s preaching that reached his own family? Very possibly. Will our own families today be reached with our faithful and persistent peaching of the Gospel? We can’t tell, of course. Buyt we do know that they won’t be saved at all if we don’t continue preaching the Gospel.
In these days of the Son of man, it is worthwhile to proclaim the Gospel, if it reaches our children. -Jim MacIntosh