Five Minutes Til Midnight

Monday, March 26, 2012

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Two stories in one day's news stuck out to me. The first troubling story said that Twinkies could be going bankrupt. Now, how can that be? You talk about too big to fail! But, alas, the company that makes Twinkies was talking about filing for Chapter 11. Maybe if I eat enough of them in the next couple of weeks, I can make a difference.

But, then, there's the other story that is legitimately sobering; sort of a mirror of the times we're living in. They just reset the Doomsday Clock to five minutes before midnight. See, since 1947, that symbol of how close humans may be to imminent destruction has been set by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. Now, in 1947, it was set at seven minutes to midnight. Its "happy hour," I guess you could say, was 1991, when the Cold War thaw caused the Bulletin to set the clock at 17 minutes to midnight.

But recently, the dark shadows in our world have pushed the clock to five minutes before midnight.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Five Minutes Til Midnight."

Why do these world-watching scientists think it's so late? Well, the Japanese nuclear meltdown didn't help. And most menacing may be the deployment of over 20,000 nuclear weapons they said "with enough power to destroy the world's inhabitants many times over." And then they talked about "the prospect of nuclear weapons being used by some lone wolf, non-state actor."

Personally, I'm very glad that the hand that sets the real "doomsday clock" is the hand of Almighty God. I'll go with King David's declaration in our word for today from the Word of God in Psalm 31:14-15. He says, "I trust in You, O Lord; I say,' You are my God.' My times are in Your hands."

The symbolic "last days" language of the Book of Revelation describes a time when "a third of mankind was killed by the three plagues of fire, smoke and sulfur" (Revelation 8:18). Peter said that "the day of God...will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat" (2 Peter 3:12). Those are hints of something cataclysmic, but it's hard to know just what it will actually look like in earth's final act.

But honestly, I'm not worried about it. Oh, I would be if I weren't sure about what happens when time is up, whether on this world's clock or, more personally, on the clock of my life. See, when Jesus came, He added a word to "life" - Eternal. As in life that nothing can take from you, unending, unloseable life, even beyond my life's final breath or my world's final moment.

Days before His brutal death on a cross, Jesus announced, "The hour has come...What shall I say? 'Father, save Me from this hour?' No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour" (John 12:23, 27). The reason He came - to die. Jesus, the one and only Son of God. Why? Listen to the Bible: "He Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree" so that "whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life" (1 Peter 2:24; John 3:16).

That's the love that captured my heart. Jesus took my spiritual doom on Himself, absorbing all the hell for all my sin. He did that for you, too. Three days later, He proved He's the only One who can truly give a person eternal life by blowing the doors off His grave on Easter morning.

See, God bursts the bubble of "I'll get to heaven by being good" when He describes eternal life as something that can't be earned. He says all we can earn is the "wages of sin" which (according to the Bible) is "death." He says, "The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 6:23). By faith, I reached out and I took the gift that He paid for with His life.

So there'll be no doomsday for me or for anyone who has made the Savior their Savior. And maybe this is your day to do that; to reach out and say, "Jesus, I believe that some of those sins you died for on that cross were mine. And because You walked out of your grave, you are alive, and I want you to walk into my life today and secure my eternity."

I think if you go to our website, you'll find there some very practical help on how to be sure you belong to Him. YoursForLife.net. That's the website.

Listen, the clock on each of our lives is ticking and we can't see the clock. Only God can. When it strikes our personal midnight, destination will be set by decision; the one you've made about Jesus. I know where I'm going when it's midnight. I'm going Home. I hope you are too.