Don't get poisoned!! Sound the Alarm!!

We woke up the other morning to a house that was 62 degrees and no heat.  When I checked to see what was wrong with the heater I found out from some heating and air guys that had checked the unit that it  had a cracked heat box.  The good thing is they ordered a replacement part.  The strange thing is, they left the heat off because it could poison us with carbon monoxide!   Weren't we surprised by that last part.  Praise God, we are fine, but the realization that we could have died in our sleep was alarming at best.  When talking to my wife she brought up the point that we have a carbon monoxide alarm in our house and I told her she needed to check the batteries to make sure it is working as good as possible.  She made the reply, "It's plugged into the power of the house."  That's even better.

This whole thing brings to mind the point that a cracked commitment that let's the ways and poison of the world come into our life can get us when we least expect it.  Like the HVAC experts, we have an ongoing person who keeps our heart in good working condition and He is the Holy Spirit.  Periodic checks are needed to make sure everything is working right and that we don't have any major cracks in our spiritual life.  God also has a warning system for us if some poison should get through, and when the alarm goes off we are to make quick adjustments to keep the poison from killing us.  Now what would we have thought,  had we not put in the alarm because we thought nothing would probably happen to us and it wasn't needed.  We would have been very unhappy, but not before being very dead.  The alarms in life are made just for that "to alarm us."  If we are sleeping, "to wake us up."   If we are near exposure, "to tell us to get away."   If there is unknown danger, "now we know,"  Alarms are good.  Sometimes we get lulled into thinking we don't need alarms, because we haven't had any problems so far.  But we do....

Thanks to the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, everyone has heard of the "midnight ride of Paul Revere." But few have heard of Israel Bissel, a humble post rider on the Boston-New York route. After the Battle of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775, Bissel was ordered to raise the alarm in New Haven, Connecticut. He reached Worchester, Mass., normally a day's ride, in two hours. There, according to tradition, his horse promptly dropped dead. Pausing only to get another mount, Bissel pressed on and by April 22 was in New Haven--but he didn't stop there! He rode on to New York, arriving April 24, and then stayed in the saddle until he reached Philadelphia the next day. Bissel's 126 hour, 345 mile ride signaled American militia units throughout the Northeast to mobilize for war. 

The alarms that are given from pulpits of Evangelical churches throughout our world are being ignored and we are being lulled to sleep.  The ones sounding the alarms are unheralded heroes of the faith, IF they sound the alarm.  If they aren't sounding the alarm, they have become part of the poisonous problem of breathing in more worldliness and apathy.  They have unplugged their alarm from the power source and no longer believe there is anything to be alarmed about.  There is a foul wind blowing in our world and it stinks of evil, but the smell, like carbon monixide (the silent killer) is undetectable.  Only those plugged into the power source, God and His Holy Word, will hear the alarm and share that alarm with others.  Others may not listen to the alarm, or choose to ignore it, but the fact still remains, WE HAVE TO SOUND IT!!  It takes a very little amount of powerful poisonous evil to kill and we need to be aware of the effects.  Check out this fact:  A minimum lethal dose of botulism bacillus is .00003 micrograms per kilogram of body weight. That is almost the equivalent of a flea derailing a 100 mile freight train.   We may think we can ignore the alarm because we have become so self sufficient, but evil poison is very powerful and it spreads so much faster than we realize.  It's time for all of us to respond to those sounding the alarm and make changes and then carry on the alarm wherever we go.  Here's what God said through His prophet Joel in Joel 2:1 Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy hill. Let all who live in the land tremble, for the day of the LORD is coming. It is close at hand-- Don't be caught sleeping when God sounds His alarm and stayed plugged in to the power source so you can hear the alarm..

The Pilgrimage continues...

David Warren