COLLASPING BUILDINGS AND CEMETERIES SPEAK

The constantly changing scenes when you travel on highways gripped my heart as we returned this week from the book signing trip to the Kansas City area and Nebraska.

We passed numerous empty houses and barns, glassless windows and open doors gaping, sun-dried rough walls long without paint, many roofs collapsing. I wondered who built the buildings and what the family was like that lived there. I could almost see an aproned mother hanging clothes on a line, and children screaming, laughing and running while the father plowed a nearby field. Had the whole generation passed on and only the house remains to remind people this family lived?

Reminds me of James 4:14: Whereas you know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor, that appears for a little time, and then vanishes away.”

Numerous cemeteries cut from land beside the highway tell the world people from the area have stepped into eternity. Headstones made the grave yards look more populated than the small towns we went through. 

Makes me think of 2 Corinthians 6:2 “Behold, now is THE ACCEPTABLE TIME, behold, now is THE DAY OF SALVATION.”

Yet, evidence of life covered the landscape—green fields in various stages of growth. Cattle, most facing their heads the same direction, munched grass. Huge silos held not only food, but seed for another summer.

Ecclesiastes 11:6: “Sow your seed in the morning, and at evening let not your hands be idle, for you do not know which will succeed, whether this or that, or whether both will do equally well.”

Signs along the highway encouraged us and told us how far the towns and cities were, the safe speed to go—even hazard warnings.

Psalm119:-105 “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.”

Among all those vacant homes, other houses testified to life within. Someone mowed the grass, cut and baled the hay, painted the dwelling and fence, drove a school bus or farm machinery, and another prepared dinner within. In the cities and towns we passed through there was lodging, eats, fuel, hospitals, pharmacies and everything a human could need.

2 Peter 1:3 “His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness.”

Yet, who knows how long the busy people filled with life will remain here? Life passes quickly. Do they know Jesus? A motto on my mama’s wall declared, “Only one life; ‘twill soon be past. Only what’s done for Christ will last.”

All these scenes reminded me that sharing the gospel should be a priority. Urgency clings to Jesus’s Great Commission: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Swallowed by Life Summary: Do you believe you could live with someone else’s heart or kidneys, but not without your body? Evidence shows we’re more than flesh. The author, a prolific religion writer and retired medical journalist, talks about the evidence; the wonder of life with all its electrical systems; the awesome truth about cell death and regeneration; mysteries surrounding the change from mortal to immortal; where we go when our body dies; resurrection; and a glimpse at what we will do in heaven. Questions and answers make this non-fiction inspirational book a great text for group study. It’s written for support groups, religion classes, people with chronic or terminal illness, individuals who fear death or are curious about it, the grieving, and those who give them counsel.
Review: “It was wonderful how the author merged the medical with the spiritual.”

Purchase here: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001KJ2C06

As writers. an easily reached harvest field is within reach of our fingers. For the first time in history we can touch the world from our homes because of computers and the internet. Let’s make disciples, and teach them the wonderful knowledge from the Lord.