Alarm Clock

Working at home during this shutdown may have allowed some to set their own schedule. Many have commutes which have been shortened by several minutes to an hour. So, why not sleep in? Well, now that many of these same employees are returning to work, they are going to have set and obey their alarm clocks. Someone has said, “an alarm clock is a contraption designed to scare the daylight into us.” Spiritually speaking there are many times when God’s Alarm Clock needs to go off to awaken those who slumber in the darkness of sin and be awaken to the Light. Here are a few of these set according to God’s time and go off all around us.

Time to Wake Up

The first of these divine alarms goes off to inform us that it is time to wake up. It is found in Romans 13:11. “And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.” This alarm is set for those who are already saved to remind them that there is great danger in being a slumbering saint. Sadly, this alarm should be set to awaken those who come and sleep in the pew instead of worshiping the Lord. Perhaps, the greatest challenge facing the church today is not getting sinners into church but getting the saints out of bed. St. Mattress is still the most popular modern place of Sunday morning worship, even for New Testament Christians.

Life is too short and eternity too long for the saints or sinners to nap. The time to be saved is now while we live on the earth. Time is fleeting. If you have not been saved than obey the Gospel today. If you have been saved at some point in the past make sure of your calling and election sure by returning to the Lord today. If not, you will not be saved in eternity.

Time to Sober Up

The next alarm on God’s clock goes off in 1 Cor. 7:29,30. “But this I say, brethren, the time is short: it remaineth, that both they that have wives be as though they had none; And they that weep, as though they wept not; and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and they that buy, as though they possessed not.” Paul is commanding Christians to sober up to the reality that time is short. Although the context is dealing with the problems of marriage in the Corinth, in whatever relationship and spiritual condition you find yourself, it is wise to live with a sense of urgency concerning the limited time. There will come a day when all time will cease. A day will dawn where being married will not matter at all. Although marriage is a very serious subject and relationship, it is very short and limited compared to eternal life.

Time to Seek the Lord

The final alarm sounds from Hosea 10:12 telling us it is time to seek the Lord. “Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the Lord.” Now for all you city slickers “fallow” ground is simply that ground which has not been broken up or prepared for receiving seed or plants. Thus, the land is laying there useless by the farmer. To break up the fallow ground is to make the right preparations. Once the ground is ready then the farmer can plant in hope of reaping a harvest. In this case we are to sow righteousness in our lives, so that we may reap mercy on Judgment Day.

Too often we are too busy with trivial pursuits to plow and sow Yet we don’t mind too much spending our time in mundane moments. The average persons spends

• Six months siting at stop lights
• Eight months opening junk mail
• One year looking for misplaced objects
• 2 years unsuccessfully returning phone calls
• 4 years doing housework
• 5 years waiting in line
• 6 years eating (and if my scales are accurate I may have already put in my six years)

(survey of 6000 people polled in 1988, U.S. News and World Report, Jan 30, 1989, p. 81)

We pursue fame, honor, glory, riches, wisdom, earthly blessings, temporal pleasures. To what end? Being righteous? In hope of reaping mercy? We should pursue God’s honor, glory, riches of heaven, the wisdom from above, heavenly blessings, and eternal joy.

What if there was a watch which could count down the years and minutes you have left to live? If you had one of these, what time would your watch say? What if you could build into that watch some of the Divine alarms mentioned above to wake us up to the urgency of our soul’s salvation, the brevity of life and the need to start making preparations for eternity, NOW!

Seneca wrote centuries ago: “We are always complaining that our days are few, and acting as though there would be no end”.

– Daniel R. Vess