By Dr. Mark Creech
Someone once said, “Opportunities are seldom labeled.”
Wouldn’t it be great if opportunities were marked? Wouldn’t it be fantastic if every prospect for something good – something meaningful – something prosperous – had a bell attached to it that would alert us, going “ding, ding, ding, ding?” But, unfortunately, that isn’t the case. And, for many, opportunity is bigger going than coming.
Such was the case for Gary Kildall. In 1973 Kildall wrote the first popular operating system for personal computers, named CP/M. According to writer Phillip Fiorini, IBM approached Kildall in 1980 about developing the new operating system for IBM PCs. But Kildall snubbed IBM officials at a crucial meeting, according to another author, Paul Carroll. On the day IBM came calling, Kildall chose to fly his new airplane. That prompted the frustrated IBM executives to turn instead to a fellow by the name of Bill Gates. Gates was founder to a small software company called Microsoft, and his operating system named MS-DOS.
Well, you know the rest of the story; Gates is now worth billions of dollars.
Jesus once spoke about the way we should respond when we are confronted with truth from God’s Word. He said, “Therefore consider carefully how you listen. Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what they think they have will be taken from them” (Luke 8:18).
In other words, if we respond to God’s offer of grace, we will know Him and come to enjoy even greater opportunities to prosper spiritually, as well as numerous other ways. But if we reject it, we will find God withdrawing Himself more and more, until what little knowledge we have of Him and the opportunities to be gained in it remain no more.
Let me tell you something critical. God’s kingdom is coming. It is inevitable. Are you aware of how magnificent and marvelous His kingdom is going to be someday? In Jesus Christ, God comes with the offer of a lifetime, and if you are found investing your life in other things, neglecting that which is eternal, you’re going to meet with great tragedy.
I once remember hearing the story of two brothers that were being interviewed for a truck-driving team. Their potential employers confronted them with a hypothetical situation. The interviewer said, “Charlie, imagine you’re driving the truck and LeRoy, you brother, is up top asleep. Charlie, your truck is loaded down. You are going down a steep mountain, when all of a sudden your brakes fail. You try your emergency brake and that fails. You try to gear down and you strip all your gears. Now, without any mechanical means of stopping, you are accelerating 80-90-100-110-120-130 miles per hour. Now, at this rate the road suddenly narrows into one lane and goes over a one lane bridge. And from out of that horizon you see another truck coming toward you in exactly the same situation you are in. At that point, Charlie, what would you do?”
Charlie’s instant reply was, “I’d wake up LeRoy.” The employer asked him, “Why in the world at a time like that would you wake up LeRoy?” Charlie replied, “Well, you see sir, LeRoy ain’t never seen a great big wreck like that.”
We laugh. But it’s unfortunate that with every opportunity for good spurned, there comes an inevitable crash – an inevitable wreck – a loss to make us mourn.
The Scriptures tell us, “The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth” (Matt. 13:41-42). That’s the end of every person who misses their opportunity to become a citizen of heaven.
Pay attention!!! You may never read something as important as what you are reading at this moment. Don’t miss your opportunity to positively respond to God’s promise to make you a royal member of his family. Don’t miss your opportunity to be born anew and have a new life. Don’t miss your opportunity to receive Jesus Christ as Lord of your life. God’s kingdom is coming. It’s going to be incredible.
The Scriptures say, “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Romans 10:13).
Opportunity is ringing, ding, ding, ding, ding. Don’t miss it!!!