Last week we were hit with the importance and the urgency of getting the gospel out to our friends and neighbors before its too late. Of course it would seem obvious that this should be the great and foremost issue in the mind of every believer. Its been well said that he who knows what he has been saved from will know what he has been saved for. How can we ignore the plight of the world around us? How could we smugly say to the world, ” Go to hell; I’m saved and I don’t care.” In order to say that, one would have to have a heart of stone. Don’t be like the seed that fell among thorns and let the cares of this life or the deceitfulness of riches choke the word and make it unfruitful in your life. Don’t be like the rich man, fairing sumptuously every day on the riches of Bible study and fellowship while Lazarus lies starving at your gate.
Charles Spurgeon said, “She is a traitor to the Master who sent her if she is so beguiled by the beauties of taste and art as to forget that to ‘preach Christ … and Him crucified’ is the only object for which she exists among the sons of men. The business of the Church is the salvation of souls.”
Joseph Arlean, the great Puritan preacher said, “But from whence shall I fetch my argument? And with what shall I win them? I would write to them in tears! I would weep out every argument! I would empty my veins for ink… if only they would be prevailed upon to repent and turn.”
Can you feel the passion in that man’s heart for the lost? Does not your own heart burn within you as you read the emotion in his words? Can you also sense the urgency with which he preached the gospel? May we be as this man was, and have hearts so set ablaze by the Spirit of God, that we, too, would be able to say that we would “empty our veins for ink”. How many of us have emptied a pen of ink to write to a loved one about the everlasting life we’ve found in Jesus Christ?
If we would just be more eternally minded it would really put things in perspective about our time here on this earth. Life is so short, and there is nothing we will be taking out of here, …except people. Imagine you have a bank account that gets credited $86,400 every day. The only catch is that it does not carry over a balance from day to day – every evening it erases any part of the balance you failed to use during the day. What would you do? You would withdraw every penny, naturally. Each of us has such a bank. It’s name is “time.” Each morning, it credits you with 86,400 seconds and each night it erases whatever part you didn’t invest in good purposes. It carries no balance, and allows no overdrafts. If you fail to use the day’s deposits, the loss is yours. There is no going back, and no drawing against tomorrow. Invest it so you will get the utmost in God’s will. The clock is running. Make the most of today.