In the early 90s my wife Zebo and I lived in Des Moines, Iowa. One freezing night around 3 a.m. on December 26, I was awakened by a knock at the door. I quickly got dressed, answered the door and found the neighbor lady and her baby from the apartment next door standing there in their pajamas. She said, “My baby started crying and woke me up a few minutes ago, and when I came out to the kitchen to get a bottle, I smelled smoke. Do you smell it?” I said, “Maybe a little ... it’s probably nothing. Go back inside and I’ll go down the stairs and check out all three floors. I’ll let you know what I find.”
I started walking down the center hallway of our floor, stopping at each door to smell for smoke and to feel each door for heat. Nothing seemed out of order. Then I went down the stairway to the second floor. I could really smell the smoke now and I knew something was wrong. I pushed open the door and saw flames coming through the door of a utility room. I quickly ran upstairs and down the hall to our apartment, asking the Lord to help me warn everyone and for us all to get out safely.
Wake Up!
I ran back to our bedroom to shake my wife awake. As I put on my shoes and grabbed my coat I told my wife, “Zebo, get up, get up! The place is on fire. It’s down on the second floor at the other end, so we have a few minutes. Get dressed, put on your coat, grab your purse and the important paper file and I’ll be back for you. I’m going to warn people about the fire.”
“Okay, okay,” she replied. I ran out the door and started by warning the neighbor lady with the baby, telling her where the fire was and to call the apartment complex superintendent and get out right away.
Then I went down the hall banging on each door yelling, “Wake up; wake up. There’s a fire on the second floor. You need to get out right away and go down the south stairs; it’s the only way out.” I kept banging on each door until I heard an answer. Some were irritated at first at being so rudely awakened. But once they understood my warning, their attitude changed. Once I knew they understood the warning, I would go on to the next door.
Then I ran down the stairs at the end of the building opposite to the fire on the second floor, where I met up with the superintendent. He started warning people on the second floor, so I ran down to the first floor and started banging on the doors and warning those people about the fire and that they needed to get out right away.
Still Asleep
When I finished, I ran back upstairs to get Zebo, and to my surprise she was fast asleep. I shook her and yelled, “Zebo, Zebo!”
She awoke, asking, “What, what? Why are you yelling?”
I answered, “BECAUSE THE BUILDING IS ON FIRE. WE NEED TO GET OUT RIGHT AWAY. YOU NEED TO GET DRESSED RIGHT NOW!” Well, now she was wide awake, and don’t you know, she was dressed and ready in about two minutes. We grabbed our important paper file, Zebo’s purse and my wallet and opened the door.
By now the hallway was black with smoke. I went back in, breathed a quick prayer for the Lord’s help, grabbed a couple of towels and wet them to hold to our noses so we could breath. We could hear people crying and coughing and someone saying, “Help me; I can’t see!”
I shouted, “It’s okay. We’re going to get out. The fire is at the other end. Hold each other’s hands, put one hand on the wall, get down low and feel your way until you get to the stairs where I am. You can use the hand railing to guide you down.” The stairs were right outside our door, so we held hands and felt our way crouching down low where the air was a little better.
Still Trapped
The others followed us down the stairs and out into the cold but clean air. As we ran out, we could hear the fire trucks coming. I told Zebo to start the car and turn on the heat to stay warm. Then we heard a man yelling from a second floor window. “We can’t get out — there’s fire in the hallway.” I ran to the building just below the window and hollered, “How many are there?”
He answered, “Me, my wife and two kids.”
I turned, pointed and yelled at one of the young men watching: “You’re big enough — come help me catch these kids.” Then I told the man in the window, “Break out the screen and let down your kids and wife one by one, feet first. Lean out the window, drop them and we’ll catch them.”
One by one he let his kids and wife down, leaning out the window holding their hands. When he had let them down as far as he could, he let them go and the young man and I caught them. Last of all the man crawled out, held onto the windowsill by his fingertips and dropped. We caught him and with that everyone was safely out of the building.
What’s Wrong With Warnings?
It’s okay to wake people out of their sleep and warn them of danger when the building they are sleeping in is ON FIRE!
So it is with the gospel. It is okay to wake people out of their sleep and warn them of danger when they are in danger of HELLFIRE!
I warned those people in our apartment building about the danger they were in because I cared and did not want to see anyone get hurt or die in the fire.
If you are lost and in danger of hellfire, why would you ignore a warning? Even if you get irritated, want to fall back into spiritual indifference or are worried about what you might have to leave behind, are those reasons to stay in the firetrap of sin?
A Christian has a serious responsibility to warn people about coming judgment, but it’s a joyful privilege as well.
“The word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man ... hear the word at My mouth, and give them warning from Me. When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand” (Ezekiel 3:16-1816And it came to pass at the end of seven days, that the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, 17Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me. 18When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand. (Ezekiel 3:16‑18)).
It’s great to have warnings about danger, but warnings are incomplete without action. Evacuation Alert: Will You Act on the Warning? makes the point pretty clear.