DAYS OF NOAH: I am my father's son-in-law and my mother-in-law is my stepmother!

"And just as it happened in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: they were eating, they were drinking, they were marrying, they were being given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all."

Luke 17:26-27

The April 12, 1993, issue of Newsweek unknowingly reported the signs of the times.

Bill Wyman, of The Rolling Stones, married his son's wife's daughter, a woman 34 years his junior. Her mother married Wyman's son, Stephan, a man 16 years her junior. That makes Stephan his father's son-in-law and his mother-in-law his stepmother.

No wonder Jesus made this prophetic comment: “And just as it happened in the days of Noah, so it shall be also in the days of the Son of Man … .” Truly, those days are upon us!

Christianity, Illustrations,
Licentiousness, Religion

CALL: Run If You Want!

Southern California is earning a well-deserved reputation as the “freeway-chase capitol” of the world … and rightly so. At least once or twice a week now, the evening news reports on another semi-brain dead simpleton who apparently believes he can outrun the police.

Recently, however, one chase was especially interesting. The suspect speed off like all the other car-chase celebrities but then added an extra component … running out of gas, he jumped from his vehicle and fled on foot; then, jumping a guardrail, he inadvertently leaped over the edge of a 400 foot embankment … the final section of which was a vertical, 75 foot drop to the canyon floor.

The suspect broke his pelvis, both shoulders, and suffered multiple head and body lacerations and scrapes. He was arrested in the hospital after being treated for his injuries. Local authorities expect a lawsuit to follow.

I recall another man who tried to run from a higher authority: the prophet Jonah. He tried to flee from God when called upon to preach to Nineveh. In the case of the prophet his leap was aided by fellow travelers and ended in the gut of a great fish.

In the end his injuries were more emotional than physical … and of course the cliff-jumper will end up in prison, while the prophet ended up in the gospels, being cited by the Lord Jesus Christ as the only sign this adulterous generation will ever receive. But the lesson is the same: run, but don’t expect to hide when God is calling!

Christianity, Illustrations,
Religion, Calling

HELL - No, not the one on earth!

ANOTHER GULF WAR! [Luke 16:19-31; Bosom of Abraham, Boundaries, Sheol, Signs]

In March of 1995, two American businessmen crossed the border between Iraq and Kuwait. Though they claimed they didn’t know the border was there … or that they might be arrested … they were arrested.

The border (the one they did not know about) was clearly marked by a continuous, uninterrupted ditch, ten feet deep and ten feet wide with a 15 foot berm on one side. Signs were also posted at several intervals, in several languages.

While stewing in an Iraqi prison, they pleaded for help from the outside. They implored those on the other side of the border they crossed to come to their aid. Help finally came; they were released and sent home.

Similarly, ignoring the gulf between himself and God, the rich man went about his business, disregarding the signs which clearly warned of the danger.

When the time came to pay the Piper, he claimed he didn’t know he could be imprisoned for all eternity, that it was a mistake that he hadn’t understood. He pleaded for assistance from the other side. And so, too, many will come on that same day, saying, “Lord! Lord!”


DEATH AND DARKNESS! [Luke 16:19-31; Other topics - Damnation, Darkness, Death, Eternity, Hopelessness, Perdition]

Carol Fuller was a 72-year-old grandmother living alone in West Hollywood in 1995. During a home invasion robbery she was locked in a closet, her home was ransacked and her car was stolen. All of this took place without anyone knowing. But the worst part followed.

Days later, investigators found her dead in the closet, her fingers worn literally to the bone, trying to claw her way out.

Sadly, Carol Fuller left this world experiencing much the same horror many will experience for the rest of eternity. Try as they might, claw as they might, they will only have death and darkness as their companion.