Clang, clang, clang! Alex and Faith, with Alex’s father Fred, were driving over a railroad track when suddenly the railroad warning bells began to ring. At the same time, the gates started lowering and the warning lights started flashing. Something must have gone wrong with the warning system, because there had been no warning before the gates started coming down!
The train was coming!
Startled and in a hurry to get out of danger, Alex pushed the gas pedal to the floor to get off the tracks as fast as possible. The car responded with a loud grinding sound, but not with the extra power they needed. Thankfully, they had enough momentum to get over the tracks before the train came. They were able to coast down to the light and around the corner before the car lost all its momentum. Every time Alex stepped on the gas, they just heard that same horrible grinding sound, and no power was going to the car.
Once Alex got the car pulled over, it became clear that other things in the car weren’t working either. Not only did the gas pedal not do its job, but the brake didn’t seem to work. And the steering was extremely stiff. Finally, Alex set the emergency brake, and that worked to park the car. Then they all got out to see what they could see.
Their son Nathan had been behind them in his car, and he knew more about cars than they did. He looked under the hood, but he found no clue as to what might be the problem.
There was a friendly man out walking his dog, and he happened to be the owner of the house they were parked in front of. After they called a tow truck, he helped steer the car into his driveway and off the street, while they all pushed. Nathan’s car couldn’t hold all of them, so Nathan and Fred drove off to get Fred’s car to take the place of the dead car, while Alex and Faith waited in the cold winter evening.
When the men at the garage where they towed the car checked over the car, they were embarrassed. Alex had taken the car to that garage for a few repairs that week, and the mechanic had taken the axle apart to see if it needed to be replaced. He had decided that it didn’t need to be replaced, but when he put it back together, he didn’t finish the job correctly. He left the axle loosely connected, and not as it should have been. It had worked fine as long as there wasn’t a great amount of stress on the axle, but under the pressure of the gas being pushed hard, it had come completely disconnected.
This story reminds me of how some of you might look like a Christian to others. Perhaps you’ve even told your parents that you are saved, but deep down in your heart, you know you aren’t. Maybe you go to Sunday school, memorize the verse and say it nicely, and behave as a good child should behave. But you haven’t “connected” with the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, by trusting in Him to wash away your sins. You don’t really know the Lord Jesus as your personal Savior. Just as the axle worked fine until the emergency happened at the railroad tracks, this life might seem to be working just fine. But you may know that someday soon the Lord Jesus is going to come to call to heaven all those who know Him as their Savior. There will be no warning that day! There will be a loud trumpet call that only those who are saved will hear, and suddenly, all of those who hear it will be gone. Will you be among them? “The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever [always] be with the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-1716For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 17Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 4:16‑17)).
Messages of God’s Love 10/19/2025