The Messenger - Jan/Feb 10No Shelter
It was a beautiful, hot, sunny day and we were sitting on a grass area near to the beach having a picnic. All was most pleasant and enjoyable. The children were enjoying themselves, playing games and frolicking on the grass. Other families were on the sand, some building sand castles and others splashing about in the water. The whole scene was one of blissful joy and happiness.
We noticed a dark cloud in the distance and wondered what was to come. The vast majority of people either did not see the cloud or did not care. After all it was far away and nothing could be allowed to disturb this unusually happy day. However, as the cloud approached we, and a few others, packed up and took our picnic stuff back to the car. We had just finished this when there came some very large spots of rain quickly followed by a downpour.
The beach and the grass area were very speedily vacated and as one group passed our car a woman called to her children, “Get to the car quickly, because there is no shelter here.” What a statement! What solemn, spiritual lessons can be learned here!
Some people think that life is just a jolly time and will go on without their pleasant lifestyle being interrupted. Others fool themselves by thinking that a life of sin involving squalor and uncleanness is acceptable and even normal. Yet, whether we consider the rich or those less fortunate, the dark clouds of Divine judgment are gathering and soon will pour out God’s wrath upon all. This world has rejected God and the gift of His Son, Jesus Christ. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” John 3.16. God’s Son “came into the world to save sinners” 1 Timothy 1.15. Rather than being accepted He was rejected and crucified. “He came unto His own, and His own received Him not” John 1.11. God will deal with this world because of their rejection of His Son.
Dear reader, are you concerned as to where you will find a shelter? Will you realise too late, “There is no shelter here”? Those who lived in the days of Noah were warned about the coming flood but they rejected the shelter of the ark and only 8 souls were saved. The Lord Jesus Christ bore the punishment for our sins when He died upon the cross and all who trust Him for eternal salvation will find in Him a shelter from God’s judgment. “And a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land” Isaiah 32.2. Augustus Toplady wrote a very famous hymn when he was caught in a thunderstorm in Burrington Coombe, England, a rocky glen running up into the heart of the Mendip range and there, taking shelter between two massive piers of limestone rock, he penned the hymn, part of which is quoted,
“Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Not the labour of my hands
Dear reader, make sure you have Him as your eternal shelter, because there is no shelter here.
Reproduced from "Assembly Testimony" obtainable from W. Neill,
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Bible VerseTo open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me. (Acts 26.18)
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