Friday, February 15, 2013

Do You Ignore the Alarms of Life?

Startled by the deafening din of fire alarms going off all over the house this morning piercing my silence at 5:45am!! I flew downstairs and threw the wood stove into high burn to evict the imaginary smoke from the house, opened two doors to the outside to welcome the balmy 2F into our home, like we weren't already cold enough?? A wood stove will sometimes puff smoke back into the room instead of up the chimney. 



I stood on a table waving a denim skirt under the fire alarm (an old trick to make it stop blaring!!) as it continued to blast our ears. One of my children reluctantly showed up, another was trying to sleep in after getting up for work other days at 2am), and another simply figured there was no fire so relaxed to our new music.

What would we do if there was really an emergency??

Would we continue to sleep??

Would we ignore the alarm??

Do we 'tune out' real alarms in our life and those Spiritual ones that God places before us as warnings??

Do we keep trucking on in life when alarms are blaring their warning??

I think we often do!!

In modern Christianity it is common to play the middle-of-the-road, not living our lives fervently consecrated in total surrender to the Lord and His will for our lives.

We are not concerned about being holy. 

"Because iis written, Be ye holyfor I am holy."
~1 Peter 1:16~

There is a real fire raging in hell. 

"Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, 
and cast into the fire."
~Matthew 7:19~

Each one of us needs to be sure our salvation is secure; searching our heart making sure we are not just playing the game of Christianity without truly knowing Jesus Christ. 

It is not enough to live your life like a Christian; going to church, baptized, teaching Sunday school, reading your Bible, praying, and yet, not knowing Jesus as Lord and Savior of your life. 

It is a good thing to search your heart in this matter rather than waking up in hell because you did not heed the alarms in your life.

It is not 'a prayer' that saves you or anything else you can rely on but Jesus ONLY who saves. 

If you are like me, you have examined your heart carefully. I have sat through salvation messages and afterwards spent time really searching my heart until I knew from the Lord and Scriptures that I was truly saved. I would rather be sure now than surprised within the first minute after my life is over!!

There is another way of ignoring the alarms of life.

Have you ever noticed how busy life is these days compared to maybe ten or fifteen years ago?? (OK, so you are only 23 with four children and you were only 8 years old 15 years ago!!)

Even though my children are grown (18 and older) I still need to get up early so I am ready to roll with my day. People don't have time for each other (other than tweeting no more than 140 characters, REALLY?!) 

We find it difficult to slow down with God for more than 5 minutes!!

Not spending quality time in God's Word is NOT heeding the alarms of life. God's alarms...His warnings. 

When I was in my late teens and twenties, I did things that I would never include in my life any longer. Just a little dabbling in this and that and not ever thinking what God would really think of it. 

I was not heeding the alarms of life

I was rushing through each day as if there was not a holy God.

Heeding the alarms of life is a daily thing as we pay attention, spend time with God in His Word (not just reading the Bible), and purging the things that have no place in a Christian's life, repenting from sin and moving on in God's righteousness.

Are you heeding the alarms going off in your life?

Time is short!!

I find comfort and assurance in these words:

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you,
Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations:
That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:
Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:
Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls."
~1 Peter 1:4-9~

I'd LOVE you to leave a comment!!

Since I live out 'in-the-sticks'... friends, like you are a long ways away!!
Sooo, I'd love you to follow me on: 

Don't forget to linkup your favorite posts:



~Judith~

Print Friendly and PDF

13 comments:

  1. Oh my dear friend, thank you for this soul-searching post! I am so thankful you allow the Lord to use you on this blog. I appreciate all that you write!

    And I will have to remember to use a denim skirt in front of a smoke detector if the need ever arises :)

    Happy weekend!

    Hugs,
    Stephanie

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I was in the laundry room and that was just what I found :-) When our children were little we woke to a house of smoke and the alarm going off...they automatically went out on the deck in 20* weather, LOL, and I waved a pillow under the blasting alarm!! This house has really high ceilings and we had to get a tall ladder for our living room. Nothing worked...but it is fun to use ordinary mundane occurrences and bring them alive for a post.

      Have a wonderful day, Stephanie!!

      Delete
  2. We use a magazine. One of us runs around opening windows and the other stands underneath and fans the alarm with magazines. Then one of the kids runs and tries to calm the dogs who are going nuts, and the other kid alternates between helping calm the dogs (each kid can take a dog) or giving the magazine-fanner a break as their arms are getting tired. Lol! I swear, the dogs are worse than the alarm, lol!

    Wow, you get up early. Isn't it funny how the meaning of "early" changes for people? I remember a friend talking about starting her homeschooling day early. For her, early was 9:00 a.m. since she was a late sleeper.

    For me, 9 a.m. was late since we started our homeschooling at 7:30 a.m. By 9 a.m. we'd been at it for an hour and a half, lol!

    For that matter, "late" can mean something different too. I know a gal who stays up until 3 or 4 in the morning and sleeps until noon or 1:00 p.m. She did that when her children were younger too. She'd get them off to school and go back to bed. On the weekends they'd get themselves breakfast while she slept until 1:00 or so.

    She and a friend called me at midnight one night to see what I was doing and I told them I was sleeping, lol!

    Beautiful post, my dear. So sad but so true that some people think that just uttering the prayer saves you, when it's the belief behind the prayer that saves you. The belief that you know you have sinned, know you deserve punishment, and ask Jesus to be your Savior and save you from all that, because He has taken your place and your punishment.

    ReplyDelete
  3. You have turned that humorous event to good account.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hmmmm.... wood stoves used to sound so lovely but that would scare me near to death! Haha.

    A wonderful spiritual reminder as well.

    It brought the song,
    "Change my heart oh God" to mind,

    "Change my heart oh God,
    Make it ever true.
    Change my heart oh God,
    May I be like You."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Wood stoves are lovely...we have burned wood for around 25 years and I can only remember one other 'story' and it sure is cheaper to buy a pile of wood that takes us through two winters than buying oil!!!

      I like that song too...I think I know it. At least I have a tune going through my head for the words.

      Delete
  5. Great word. In our house our children are trained to wave dish towels at the blaring smoke alarm on their way to dinner. That's a little exaggeration - but not by much!

    ReplyDelete
  6. I don't think I could ever get to the point of ignoring a smoke alarm! Just stopping by from the GRAND Social Linky Party. Thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They call you to action they have gone off a little too often for no reason.

      Delete
  7. Great reminders, Judith! Eternity will certainly last a long "time" right? :) I don't find much joy in cramming lots of activity into my life when that activity doesn't have an eternal benefit. Thanks for the encouragement today!
    Blessings,
    Freda :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I totally agree!! Actually, everything we do does have an eternal value one way or another!!

      Delete

If you have gone a little way ahead, O friend, call back --
Twill cheer my heart and help my feet along the stony track.

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...