A few days later Felix came back with his wife, Drusilla, who was Jewish. Sending for Paul, they listened as he told them about faith in Christ Jesus. As he reasoned with them about righteousness and self-control and the coming day of judgment, Felix became frightened. “Go away for now,” he replied. “When it is more convenient, I’ll call for you again.” (Acts 24:24-25)The reaction of one who realizes the enormity of the Christians message yet is not ready to accept it is amazing. They know what God is saying, they know their need, they know you are right, yet they do not want to give up their control over their lives.
And they recognize the need, do not want to do it and they are afraid.
The gospel never leaves anyone untouched. To those who accept it, it brings life and joy. To those who refuse it, it brings a knowledge of what they missed.
They will go the rest of their lives and try their level best to pretend nothing happened, that they are fine. “I am happy,” they will proclaim, but you know and they know they are not.
They suffer the consequences of turning down the one connection that they were made to make, the connection of accepting God into their lives.
Felix was an important man. He had not gotten to where he was politically by being a dunce. But when he heard the apostle Paul speak about righteousness and self-control and the coming day of judgment, it scared him. Like all who hear of the gospel message and refuse it, he was impacted. When he heard of the state of those outside of Jesus and about final judgment, he became frightened.
His response: Go away. I am busy right now and have a lot on my plate, a lot of irons in the fire, I am a busy man, etc. when it is more convenient and I get my life straightened out, then I will think about accepting Jesus.
The problem is: there will never be a more convenient day. And besides, there is no requirement that you get everything in order before you accept Jesus and his grace. It is he who will put things in order. If you could have done it, you would have already and you wouldn’t be in the life situation in which you are now.
You need him, he does not need you. 2 Corinthians 6:2 says: At just the right time, I heard you. On the day of salvation, I helped you. Indeed, the “right time” is now. Today is the day of salvation. The more convenient time is now.
You accept him now or you could lose him. The more you put him off, the easier he is to put off until one day you find it is too late.
And then the convenient day is gone, just like it was for Festus.
What a shame – in the truest, more honest sense of the word – to miss the opportunity to give your heart to God.
No comments:
Post a Comment
To comment, post your comment and click the anonymous button. It would be nice if you signed it so I could know who you are.
You are welcome to say anything you want as long as it is nice. If I don't like it, or it is ugly, I will take it off, place it into the garbage disposal, grind it up, and allow it to be flushed into the Gulf of Mexico where it will be eaten by a fish and then excreted where it will lie on the bottom of the ocean until it is covered up by other comments.