Urgency

I have longed wondered what our Christian faith would be like if we had this true sense of urgency. There are many scriptures that speak of how short our lives actually are. You have James 4:14, "yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes." The first time I read this verse I didn't think much of it but when you really think deeper about what this verse is implying and how short of time we have on this earth you really start to get a sense of urgency. Why do we need this sense of urgency? It goes along with the world wide calling all Christians get. Evangelism. That is why we need to be urgent. If our lives are short, that also means that others lives are short, and if they are not Christians then they WILL go to Hell. We all have heard of Hell, but what is it? The Bible tells us that this is a terrible place to be, like in the account in Luke 16:19-31, “There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day.²⁰ And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, ²¹ who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man's table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores. ²² The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's side.^[a] The rich man also died and was buried, ²³ and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. ²⁴ And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.’ ²⁵ But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish.²⁶ And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.’ ²⁷ And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father's house— ²⁸ for I have five brothers^[b]—so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’ ²⁹ But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ ³⁰ And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’³¹ He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’” I realize that this is a long passage but I believe it shows what I mean in the fact that Hell is a terrible place and that we NEED to be urgent in our act of evangelism to save people from this terrible place that they are going to go if Christians do not go out and evangelize to the unregenerate. I believe that if we actually start to think of the end and where people will be going, whether saved or not, we will start being more urgent, or proactive, in our evangelism. So, I challenge those who read this to be more proactive in their evangelism to their community.