We loaded our luggage onto the overhead shelves above our
seats around nine in the morning. What was once at the beginning an occupied
train car quickly became a sardine can of arms, legs, and faces. There were
families seated in plastic chairs in the walkway between the Catholic pew seats
that lined our backs. There were women with babies lying on straw mats they had
laid out under tables and seats. There were hammocks strung between the
shifting, moving train cars.
We watched, observed, and eventually partook in the communal
sharing of space, food, seating, drinking water, and conversation.
As the evening went on and the sunlight began to disappear
from the windows of the train, more and more people began to lay down newspaper
and cardboard boxes on the floor among the trash and the cockroaches – hoping
for some shut-eye on the brightly lit train.
One o’clock in the morning rolled around and all I could
bring myself to do was read the Word and listen to worship music through my
headphones. It is in times like these that I have found myself feeling closer
to the Lord and He begins to speak so gently, and I hear Him more easily, and
see Him more vividly.
“Matthew 25” (song) by Misty Edwards came flooding into my
ears and God began opening my eyes to a picture of His return. At the time, I
was one of three people awake on the train. I looked out to see everyone in a
deep, deep slumber. The Lord showed me that this is a picture of the human
race. The train represented life, mankind, and the world picking up speed into
the last days. Though their stop may be approaching, though Christ may be
returning, they slept into the night unaware and unprepared. Soon the
significance of the ratio of those asleep and those awake became incredibly
urgent, pressing, and required immediate attention. “Awake, awake oh sleeper!
“Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; obey
it, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you
will not know at what time I will come to you.” Revelation 3:3
“3But understand this: If the owner of the house
had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch
and would not have let his house be broken into. 44So you also must
be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect
him.” Matthew 24:43-44
I understood the full weight of responsibility that fell on
those who were awake. The funeral dirge began playing in my ears and my heart
began to break. The funeral dirge will begin sounding throughout the earth,
will I lament? Will I be moved to action? As I looked around the train I saw
those that were rapidly heading into their eternity.
Isaiah 63 came flashing into my mind,
His garments will be stained crimson! The hem of his clothing stained in blood.
He will tread through the blood of His children who have rejected Him, and it
will ravage His heart. He mourns and weeps over His children! How badly he
wants them to turn to Him! If they would only cry out to Him that He may save
them! How gut-wrenching this was to me! There is urgency like never before! I
heard a pastor this past Sunday quote the latest study done, a CONSERVATIVE
estimate of time when the entire human race will have heard the gospel: 2025 to
2032! He comes back when the gospel has reached every ear! He is
coming to take His children with Him who have their lamps filled with oil!
Intimacy with their Creator, their Father, their God! He entrusted US with the
responsibility to GO out into our backyards, our cities, our country and make
disciples, NOT CONVERTS, prove His will, heal the sick, cleanse the leper! We
are co-laborers with Him! Let us do our part! Let us be moved to action. Let us
pray for compassion. Let us do the will of our Father
