It was stuck in the door—a booklet on safety. I found it when I returned home from the store. Carrying it into the house, I laid it on the table along with the other mail.
Later, looking through the mail, I noticed the booklet again. It was all about downed power lines and what to do and what not to do if you should be near one. I read it from cover to cover and then set it aside with the other mail for my husband. I remember thinking to myself that there was a lot of good information packed into that little booklet. However, I soon forgot about it.
My husband found the booklet a few days later when he went through the stack of mail. He also read it and remarked about how good it was.
After that the booklet would be found in most any room of the house. Each member of the family who read it thought it was too good to throw away, so they would set it somewhere else. Then another person would pick it up and read it.
Sometime later our son Rick, who was seventeen at the time, was driving on the main street of town during a heavy rainstorm. The winds gusted to hurricane force. Rick was following a bus that had stopped for a passenger. He was waiting for the bus to move on so he could make a right turn.
Suddenly several live power lines fell across Rick’s car, snapping, buzzing and shooting fire! Rick didn’t move, he didn’t panic—he waited for help. After several minutes many people gathered nearby, shouting advice to Rick about what he should do. Most of what they told him was wrong, and he would have been killed if he had followed their advice. Rick calmly sat still and waited.
Thirty-five minutes passed before the power was finally turned off and Rick was told that it was safe to move the car.
Later I asked him how he had known what to do. He led me to his car. Opening the door, he pointed to the booklet that had been around the house for several weeks and somehow had ended up on the front seat of his car.
Yes, Rick had been in real danger. But by acting correctly and not listening to bad advice, he escaped injury and possible death. How many of you are not acting wisely about eternal life? Do you know the danger you are in if you are not saved? Each of us as sinners is on a dangerous road that leads to hell. But God in His love for us has provided a way of escape. He tells us about it in His Word, the Bible, where we find exact instructions on how to be saved from our sins and receive everlasting life. Read them for yourself: “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me” (John 14:66Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. (John 14:6)). “By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:8-98For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9Not of works, lest any man should boast. (Ephesians 2:8‑9)). “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:77The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. (John 1:7)).
Be careful! There are people who are giving wrong instructions. They have their own ideas. Don’t be misled by what they say. Read what God says in the Bible, and then do what He tells you. If you have a Bible in your home, have you read it? Rick would not have known what to do if he had not read the safety booklet. God shows us plainly the way to heaven, but we must go His way or not at all.
ML-01/31/2010