I heard something over the radio a few weeks ago, the like of which Iβve never heard before β and certainly never want to hear again. I heard the last words of the pilot on No. 214, a big jet plane that crashed to earth with 81 persons aboard.
Because of the weather conditions the planes were βstackedβ rather high around the Philadelphia airport, so the airport tower had just asked him: βDo you want to go on or do you want to hold?β The pilot had barely replied that he wanted to βhold,β when he said something about his big Boeing 707 being on fire! Then came the awful words: βWeβre going down. Two fourteen is going down in flames.β He said it calmly, and the Philadelphia tower answered back: βWe have your message, two fourteen.β
Just imagine, hearing the actual last words which the pilot uttered while he and eighty others were being hurled more than 5,000 feet to their death amid the flaming parts of their stricken plane!
Yet, one does not have to be in a plane to meet death suddenly. He can stumble off a curb and be killed or die suddenly in a hundred different ways.
The important thing is to be ready. We do not wish to frighten people into accepting Christ as Savior, but it is a fact that we ought to think more than we do about the uncertainty of life. Prov. 22:3 says: βA wise man foreseeth the evil and hideth himself, but fools pass on and are punished.β
No wonder Paul wrote in II Corinthians 6:
βWe then as workers together with Him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vainβ¦. Behold, now is the accepted time; behold now is the day of salvationβ (II Cor. 6:1,2).
We cannot offer salvation yesterday, for yesterday is passed. Nor can we promise it for tomorrow, for the opportunity may be withdrawn by then. The best we can do is to tell you that God loves you, and that Christ died for you, and urge you to act upon this now.
βBelieve on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be savedβ (Acts 16:31).
