Yesterday, I got a green light at the intersection. But the driver in the pickup ignored his red light and flew in front of me. It’s dangerous to ignore signs.

Question, do you ignore warning signs? Before you say no…did you know the toothpaste tube has a warning, “Keep out of reach of children under 6 years of age.” Warnings are everywhere. Even the powdered creamer container has a warning, “Caution: Like many powdered products, do not store near open flames or high heat source.” Warnings start when we are infants and continue throughout our life.

One area of life that causes some people to get reactive are the warnings of God. The common response is, “I don’t want to hear all of that ‘Thou shall not stuff!’” “God is a God of Love, so I don’t believe in that Old Testament stuff.” Or “I don’t want to think about it.”

God gave His first warning to Adam in Genesis 2:16-17, “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” Because Adam ignored this warning sin entered creation, and everything changed. Adam & Eve could no longer live in the Perfect Garden. Man (that is all of us) now would need a Savior. Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” and Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death.”

God is a God of Love because He gave. Ponder this well-known verse. “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” God loves so much He sent His Son, Jesus to die for us because we are sinners and no matter how much you may “try” or “think” you are a good person, it is only through the Blood of Jesus that a person can have eternal life with the Father. From Romans 10:9 “that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”

Saved? Saved from what? This is the part people want to ignore or not talk about. The eternal separation from God (the Second Death) …Hell…God’s Judgment is coming. Isaiah, Daniel, and many other Books of the Bible point to God’s final Judgment but nothing more focused than the Book of Revelation. Ponder this from Revelation 8:13, “And I looked, and I heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, “Woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the remaining blasts of the trumpet of the three angels who are about to sound!” This is the end of everything we see today. Nothing will survive!

But for Christ Followers we find in Revelation 21:1 “Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. 2 Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride (Christ Followers) adorned for her husband (Jesus, the bridegroom). 3 And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. 4 And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”

So, are you like the guy in the pickup truck blaring through the red light…too busy & distracted by the world today? Or are you, as described in 1 Peter 3:15, “…sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear”?

Jesus is coming! Are you ready? Are your loved ones ready?