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PROCRASTINATION BUSTER NUMBER 2 – Sudden Death
At a party thrown to raise funds for breast cancer research in July 1996, this pretty woman hummed the tune of the song, “I’ll survive!” But little did she know that she would not survive too long. On August 31, 1997, at 12:23 a.m., this pretty woman and her boyfriend crashed to sudden death in a Paris tunnel. They were heading toward a ten-room apartment overlooking the Champ Elysees possibly to spend a passionate night together after an intimate dinner at the Ritz Hotel. That pretty woman you know was Lady Diana – someone who died when she wasn’t thinking of it one bit!
Sudden death not only happens in football. It also could happen in your life and mine. That’s why we read, “Don’t brag about tomorrow, since you don’t know what the day will bring” (Pro. 27:1). Absalom was the Bible’s answer to the handsome movie stars of our time like Leonardo DiCaprio. He was handsome and dashing. He dreamed about becoming the king unseating his father.
Death was waiting for him when he was not thinking about it the least bit. His long locks got locked into a low tree branch as he rode majestically on his horse after he “unexpectedly” encountered some soldiers who were still loyal to his father! He was gone. Death may be closer to you than you can ever think. Salvation or a commitment to Jesus is out of question after death (Heb. 9:27).
Even if you manage to surrender your life to Christ in your deathbed, it will be nothing but an insult to God. Billy Sunday put it provocatively: “Deathbed repentance is like burning the candle of your life in the service of the devil and blowing the smoke in God’s face!” You wouldn't dare to give the person you love and respect a cup with just coffee remains to drink, right?
This idea is not mine. I borrowed it from Prophet Malachi. He blasted the spiritually slumbering people of his time who offered blind and lame and sick animals to God as sacrifices with these scorching words (put in present-day context): “Try a trick like that with your banker or your senator – how far do you think it will get you?!” (Mal. 1:8). When we are young and energetic, that is the best time to surrender our life for Him. By doing that, we offer our best to Him – the strength of our youth. The preacher in the Old Testament packs a punch when he says, “Don’t let the excitement of your youth forget your Creator. Honor Him in your youth before you grow old and no longer enjoy living” (Eccl.12:1 NLT).
The time to let it rip for Jesus is now, not when we are pushing old. When ‘even a stroll down the road has its terrors’ in old age, what in the world can we do for Christ then? (cf. Eccl. 12:5). To think there is no guarantee we will live up to old age makes it all the more urgent that we throw our lives for His service fully. The conclusion of the Preacher hits the hammer on the young head toying with ‘surrender-later’ notion: “Yes, remember your Creator now while you are still young, before the silver cord of life is broken!”(Eccl. 12:6 NLT).
At a party thrown to raise funds for breast cancer research in July 1996, this pretty woman hummed the tune of the song, “I’ll survive!” But little did she know that she would not survive too long. On August 31, 1997, at 12:23 a.m., this pretty woman and her boyfriend crashed to sudden death in a Paris tunnel. They were heading toward a ten-room apartment overlooking the Champ Elysees possibly to spend a passionate night together after an intimate dinner at the Ritz Hotel. That pretty woman you know was Lady Diana – someone who died when she wasn’t thinking of it one bit!
Sudden death not only happens in football. It also could happen in your life and mine. That’s why we read, “Don’t brag about tomorrow, since you don’t know what the day will bring” (Pro. 27:1). Absalom was the Bible’s answer to the handsome movie stars of our time like Leonardo DiCaprio. He was handsome and dashing. He dreamed about becoming the king unseating his father.
Death was waiting for him when he was not thinking about it the least bit. His long locks got locked into a low tree branch as he rode majestically on his horse after he “unexpectedly” encountered some soldiers who were still loyal to his father! He was gone. Death may be closer to you than you can ever think. Salvation or a commitment to Jesus is out of question after death (Heb. 9:27).
Even if you manage to surrender your life to Christ in your deathbed, it will be nothing but an insult to God. Billy Sunday put it provocatively: “Deathbed repentance is like burning the candle of your life in the service of the devil and blowing the smoke in God’s face!” You wouldn't dare to give the person you love and respect a cup with just coffee remains to drink, right?
This idea is not mine. I borrowed it from Prophet Malachi. He blasted the spiritually slumbering people of his time who offered blind and lame and sick animals to God as sacrifices with these scorching words (put in present-day context): “Try a trick like that with your banker or your senator – how far do you think it will get you?!” (Mal. 1:8). When we are young and energetic, that is the best time to surrender our life for Him. By doing that, we offer our best to Him – the strength of our youth. The preacher in the Old Testament packs a punch when he says, “Don’t let the excitement of your youth forget your Creator. Honor Him in your youth before you grow old and no longer enjoy living” (Eccl.12:1 NLT).
The time to let it rip for Jesus is now, not when we are pushing old. When ‘even a stroll down the road has its terrors’ in old age, what in the world can we do for Christ then? (cf. Eccl. 12:5). To think there is no guarantee we will live up to old age makes it all the more urgent that we throw our lives for His service fully. The conclusion of the Preacher hits the hammer on the young head toying with ‘surrender-later’ notion: “Yes, remember your Creator now while you are still young, before the silver cord of life is broken!”(Eccl. 12:6 NLT).
