News
   Valley Center
   Park City
   Kechi
   Bel Aire
   School
   Sheriff
   Police & Fire
   Deaths
   Looking Back
   Heard on Main Street
Municipal Court
Sports
   School Sports
   Rec League
People
   General
   Birthdays
   Engagements & Weddings
Opinions
   Editorials
   Letters
   Commentary
Columns
Church
Advertising
   Classified
   Legal

Hope and hilarity
By Chuck Terrill
Last Updated: August 20, 2015

What keeps you up at night? Cheap bean burritos can do it. So can pepperoni pizza. Watching the 10 o' clock news can certainly cause you to toss and turn in your bed.

Crime seems to be soaring. I don't know that society has ever seen the murders, bombings, beheadings and anarchy that have swept over our world.

Consider the threat of ISIS. Ponder Ferguson, Mo. Add in the raging fires in Washington and California. Consider the floods that have devastated Texas and the colonial northeast. Sea levels are rising at an alarming rate as the polar ice melts. Tornadoes have devastated countless families in places that never experienced a tornado before. Volcanoes continue to erupt. Tsunamis are on the rise. An abnormally active hurricane season is predicted. Airplanes seem to just fall from the sky. Even Kansas is experiencing weekly earthquakes. It seems as though God is trying to get our attention.

What keeps you awake at night? In our world, 154,000 people die each day. In the U.S.A., 2.4 million people die each year. As social and natural calamities increase, so does the death rate. Within minutes after death, those who have died discover their eternal destination.

How many of those who die each day know Jesus as savior? The vast majority of people approach eternity and are unprepared to live in eternity with him. The alternative is to live for eternity without him. How tragic.

When you can't sleep, please pray. Rather than worry, pray. Pray for our nation; we can still experience a revival. Pray for our world; there are missionaries around the globe. Pray for the lost in our own community; they are many.

We can't do much about those who are dying elsewhere, but we can do something for our friends and neighbors. Pray that your pastor would have an opportunity to preach to the lost. Pray that you would receive the supernatural courage to speak to someone about Jesus. At the very least, invite someone to attend church with you.

My grandmother always said, "God wakes me up to pray." She was right. May God wake us all up to our need to wake up and pray for a lost and dying world.

"For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night. While they are saying, ‘Peace and safety,' then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child, and they will not escape. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day would overtake you like a thief." (1 Thessalonians 5:2-4)

Chuck Terrill is pastor of Valley Center Christian Church. He can be reached at chuck@valleycenterchristianchurch.org or 755-1233.




Trending Stories
Valley Center Contact The Ark Valley News

Valley Center Another phase of housing gets started

Legals SEDGWICK COUNTY PUBLIC NOTICE

School Dance theme: ‘Blast into the Past’

Valley Center ‘Blast into the Past’

Other Sections
News

Sports

People

Columns

Opinion

Contact Ark Valley News | Archives