The oceans are never still. Besides the waves, which sometimes whip the surfaces of the great reaches of water so that they resemble seascapes of mountains and valleys, underneath its surface are currents. Whether storm rages or calm persists, these currents never stop moving in their prescribed paths around the world. The surf that washes the coasts of one continent is likely the same water that flowed through some mid-oceanic trench a short time before.
The North Pacific Current travels the greatest stretch of open water on the globe, flowing unhindered across six thousand miles of open ocean from Japan to the northwest coast of the United States. Beachcombers in this part of the United States often find Japanese glass fishing floats that traveled the breadth of the ocean. These currents can carry everything that floats on the sea. They can carry a giant ship as easily as a gull’s feather. In fact, unless an object has a means of propelling itself, the force of the current is irresistible.
The ocean currents are powerful, but there is one current-time-that carries everything before it, and no one has found a way to resist its power. Every single thing in creation is being swept along by it. Not a single person, not a single thing is outside its influence. As every second ticks, as every minute passes, as every day changes to night, you are traveling on this mighty current and are closer to the time when you must leave this world.
One lifetime is the amount of time that God has given each one of us in which to make the most important decision of all: whether or not to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. This is of ultimate importance, because after death it will be too late to respond to God’s invitation to receive salvation as a free gift. No one will be able to say that he didn’t have enough time to respond to God’s message of love, for each person has been given a lifetime to make that decision. Of course, we don’t know when our lives will be over, so the only wise thing to do is to consider the claims of the Lord Jesus now and receive Him as Lord and Savior immediately.
For everyone who chooses to reject the offer of free salvation this great current of time is inexorably moving him or her to the moment when he or she must die and face God’s fiery judgment against sin. A verse in the Bible reads, “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Heb. 9:2727And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: (Hebrews 9:27)). Another verse reads, “Our God is a consuming fire” (Heb. 12:2929For our God is a consuming fire. (Hebrews 12:29)). The same Christ through whom men were invited to receive salvation in this life will be the One who sits in judgment and in supreme power sentences unbelievers to eternity in the lake of fire.
That is why it is so important to hear the gospel now. Consider it seriously and in faith receive it. It tells us what God has done in a day of grace so that sinners will not have to face Him in the Day of Judgment.