A lot of people I know of have friends in Joplin, Missouri. So they're feeling the unimaginable devastation and loss there on a personal level. It's always that way when a disaster has a face.
Many people in the region are mobilizing to help in some way. The stories emerging from the rubble are touching all of us deeply. And even causing many to rethink their own response to frequent tornado warnings.
One of Missouri's U.S. Senators said, "I've heard tornado warnings my whole life. And honestly, you don't take them very seriously when you hear them over and over again. It's kind of, 'Here we go again. Nothing ever happens.'" But with what's happened in Joplin, that changes everything."
I got an email today from a lady who told me, "Here in tornado alley we have learned to ignore the warnings because we are used to the storms." When it comes to a twister, ignoring the warnings can be fatal.
Tragically, so many people have made that same mistake with Jesus. Especially people who've heard about Him over and over again. "Here we go again." The people in the greatest spiritual danger of all may be those who've become immune to the message of Jesus. You can hang out with Jesus' people, hear a thousand times how Jesus died for us, even agree with all those beliefs about Jesus - and still be in danger of an eternity without Him. Because you can have tons of Christianity and miss Christ.
One of the most sobering warnings in the Bible asks: "How shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation?" (Hebrews 2:3). You may have never out-and-out rejected Jesus. But if you've never out-and-out given yourself to Jesus, you are as lost as someone who's never heard the warning siren of the Gospel. In a tornado, the one who never heard the warning and the one who just ignored it will suffer the same fate.
When you keep hearing about Jesus dying for your sin and just sit there, you are, in the Bible's words, "hardening your heart." Until one day, you can't come to Jesus. Because God says, "My Spirit will not contend with man forever" (Genesis 6:3) and "seek the Lord while He may be found" (Isaiah 55:6).
If there's a chance you've been living in the false security of knowing about Jesus - without really knowing Jesus - maybe you are a reason God stirred me to write this. As one more warning. So you might finally say, "Jesus, I'm Yours." If you can feel His tug in your heart, there's still a little more time.