Maybe you’ve sat down near a warm, cozy campfire or curled up with a book by the fireplace at home. You watch the flames swirl and bounce, and smoke gently curls around and around as it drifts upward. It almost makes you want to drift off lazily to sleep. You wouldn’t want anyone to wake you up either.
Nicholas Emerito was sleeping soundly near the fire in his fireplace one night. In fact, it was nearly morning when his little dog Mimi jumped up on his chest and began pawing him, barking loudly and licking his face. Slowly, very slowly, he woke up, looked around and suddenly panicked. The fire wasn’t just burning in the fireplace; it was racing through the living room where he had fallen asleep! It was quickly burning everything around him. How would he tell his family in time? His wife and little boy Peter were sleeping downstairs. Upstairs Deborah, Lisa, Patricia, Anthony and Edward were sleeping.
While Nicholas rushed downstairs to waken his wife and son, Mimi, who had always been afraid of stairs, made her way up through the flames. She awakened the three girls with her frantic barking and then bounded to the boys’ room. Deborah, Lisa and Patricia hurried down the already burning staircase and got out just in time. Edward made it too, but fourteen-year-old Anthony kept right on sleeping.
How could anybody sleep through fire, heavy smoke, screaming brothers and sisters and a wildly barking dog? It’s hard to understand. But there’s something else that’s even harder to understand. Maybe you or one of your friends has been hearing warnings for a long time about God’s coming judgment. Maybe the others have hurried for safety to the arms of the Lord Jesus, but you just keep right on doing what you’ve always been doing and continue to ignore the warnings. It might even be a little bit irritating to hear the gospel warning again. Why is everyone making so much noise about it when life seems so comfortable right where you are? The most important warning comes from God, not other people. His warning says, “Seek ye the Lord while He may be found, call ye upon Him while He is near” (Isaiah 55:66Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: (Isaiah 55:6)).
Anthony had two friends who risked their lives for him. Edward turned around and went back up the burning staircase through the choking smoke, but Mimi got there first. The two of them finally got Anthony awake, but now they were all trapped - the burning staircase had collapsed!
The boys’ dad placed a ladder against the side of the burning house and yelled for them to climb through a window and come down. But it was too late! Flames burst out of the house and blocked the escape down the ladder. There was only one choice left. They had to jump from the second floor window!
First Anthony jumped to safety. Then Edward followed, but his foot got stuck in the window. He worked it free and jumped to safety. Finally Mimi, the dog that courageously warned the whole family, with their urging jumped free of the burning, collapsing house.
Thanks to Mimi’s warning, the entire family was saved. Only a fool would have heard the warning and not tried to escape. But the Bible tells us “that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of His [Jesus’] coming?” (2 Peter 3:34). They choose not to believe that He is really coming. Anthony finally woke up, realized he was in danger and escaped just in time. Maybe you have a friend who needs to be awakened. Will you risk their ridicule and maybe anger to tell them, with Jesus’ help, how they need Him as their Saviour?
Or maybe you yourself need to wake up! “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness; but is long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come” (2 Peter 3:910). “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation”? (Hebrews 2:33How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him; (Hebrews 2:3)).
ML-09/10/2006