“Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one! Deuteronomy 6:4 (NASB)

Knock, knock, knock’in on heavens door*. Part 2

* “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door.”  (Written and sung by Bob Dylan, CBS Records)

August 1981, Cruising south along Interstate 95 through the rolling hills of North Carolina, I am alone in my escape. Few cars are seen in the distance in either direction. It has a calming effect as my mind wanders through the moments, the flashes of warning I had experienced in the previous few weeks. In my ignorance I had almost missed them. Some of those warnings were so profound I could not help but ponder my short-sightedness.

If you knew what I knew, you would not wonder why I frequently checked the rear-view mirror. Their arm had a long reach if they decided to extend it. I knew they would, so I looked again and again until I saw it. The very thing I feared came upon me!

I was cruising down a long sweeping hill at seventy miles per hour. Up over the hill behind me pops a black Cadillac Sedan Deville with cream-yellow Jersey plates. He is catching up fast. “Oh Jesus….,” came to mind and mouth. Not that I was on such intimate terms with Him. It is amazing how we speak His name as though familiar. Why does He come to mind or mouth first anyway?

The car is the right color, the right plates, dark tinting, and I imagine anger in its ominous aggressive charge. “Oh God, please don’t let them catch me out here.” I knew what the headlines would read in the local Podunk Gazette. “Man found dead in bullet riddled car!” Dateline: Podunk “After careening off of Interstate 95, a car and its driver, both riddled with bullet holes, were found in a ravine. The young man appears to be the victim of extreme road rage. There were no witnesses. His identity is yet to be established.”

The black Caddy came bearing down on me. Fear consumed me as my heart raced. For some reason I did not try to outrun him. It would have been useless. I drove he drove, until finally upon me, He made his move to pass along side. The moment of truth had come. “Oh God….. “

How does my story relate to this book? We, yes we, are facing a moment of truth. The enemy of God is now overtaking us, pulling along side of us. Do we know our enemy? Do we know what is to come, how we will react?

Now wheel to wheel, I am looking at my adversary from the corner of my eye. I floored it and jerked the steering wheel hard to the left crashing against the Black Caddy! My car was heavier and pushed the other off the road in a cloud of reddish dust. It rolled over and over moving forward with me in slow motion as I wrestled my car under control. It was then I saw a small child thrown out of the broken rear door window. Ejected like a rag doll rocket, he flew through the air toward me, I slammed on the brakes! With a deadly smash, my windshield became a massive web of fractures. Framed by the chaos, looking at me as wide eyed as I was at her was the bloodied lifeless face of a little girl. Those chasing me would not have had …”Oh God, …OH GOD …OH GOD!” I screamed in wide-eyed terror, “What have I …?” 

What have I done? Fortunately, I have only told you a story, a story of me reacting the wrong way, in a true situation. In that imagined moment, fear chose for me. I failed to be sure who my enemy was or was not. I chose violence in the face of fear. They lose. I lose. Had this really happened, the life I was to receive from God would never have happened. Likewise, the eternal life we are to receive from God will never happen if our reactions to future fearful events are not held in check by His Spirit and His powerful understanding.

“If we remain in His grip, how far from His heart can we be!”

In the guardianship of Christ,

Michael

    Exit Strategy

   We initiate the return of Christ!  (The E-book)

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