I first started ignoring “WARNINGS” when I was a child. I could not wait to tear off the “Do Not Remove Under Penalty Of Law” tags from our pillows. I was living in the danger zone…a law breaker. This made my mother nervous.

Have you noticed how many “Warning” messages we get every day? Last week we bought a simple metal Shepherd Hook. It’s the kind you hang bird feeders & flower baskets on. The printed label stuck to the rod read; “Warning” CONTAINS LEAD. May be harmful if eaten or chewed. May generate dust containing lead. Wash hands after use. Keep out of reach of children.” Really! I guess there is a problem with people chewing their Shepherd Hook.

Sometime back while brushing my teeth I noticed the “Warning” on the toothpaste tube. “WARNING Keep out of reach of children under 6 yrs. of age. If more than used for brushing is accidentally swallowed, get medical help or contact a Poison Control Center right away.” Yesterday while my hygienist cleaned my teeth I asked him about the poison in the toothpaste. He told me that if a person swallowed too much fluoride, they would have stomach issues.

Everything has a warning label. But who are they truly printed for? As Forrest Gump famously said, “Stupid is as stupid does.” Because we are flooded with so many “WARNING” messages I tend ignore them.

There are some truly serious “WARNING” messages we should take to heart. Take for instance, an electrical substation “WARNING” sign. One mistake will electrocute a person. But there are even more serious warnings. We find them in the Bible. They have eternal consequences.

In the NIV Bible the word, “WARN” is used 112 times. The word  “Repent” 78 times. And the words “Turn From” are used 219 times. We find the first “WARNING” in Genesis 2:16-17, “And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” How did the first warning go? Adam & Eve ignored God’s warning. Since then, we have been dealing with sin. We know from Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death,” God’s Judgment.

The Bible contains many examples of God sending His messengers to warn the people to “turn from their wicked ways” (Acts 3:26)… “to open their [spiritual] eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness and release from their sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified (set apart, made holy) by faith in Me (Jesus).’Acts 26:18 (AMP)

God spoke to us through Paul in 1 Corinthians 10. He gave us an example from the Old Testament for people of his time and ours. “These things happened as a warning to us, so that we would not crave evil things as they did, or worship idols as some of them did. As the Scriptures say, “The people celebrated with feasting and drinking, and they indulged in pagan revelry.” And we must not engage in sexual immorality as some of them did, causing 23,000 of them to die in one day. Nor should we put Christ to the test, as some of them did and then died from snakebites. And don’t grumble as some of them did, and then were destroyed by the angel of death. These things happened to them as examples for us. They were written down to warn us who live at the end of the age.” 1 Corinthians 10:6-11.

Jesus gave us a warning and a Blessing in John 14:6, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

In Revelation 22:13 Jesus summed it up this way, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.” He is all we need.

Is He First in your life…your day?