On March 2, 1944, during the height of World War II, freight train number 8017 left Salerno, Italy, heading through the Apennine Mountains. Although it was not supposed to carry passengers, it was common at the time for both soldiers and civilians to hitch rides on any convenient train. So, as 8017 passed through several rural towns, it picked up about 650 passengers by the time it reached Balvano, a small town between two longs tunnels in the Apennies.
As the train began to climb the Galleria delle Army tunnel in the rain, it was suddenly forced to stop. No one on board had any reason to panic, but little did they know that more than 500 of those passengers would never that tunnel alive. There was no enemy attack. No collision. No derailment. That train simply stopped moving.
Whether it was stalled by its own weight or waiting for another train to clear the track ahead, it sat motionless in that dark tunnel for over thirty minutes. And that was all it took. Because wartime coal shortages had forced the locomotives to burn low-grade substitutes, the fuels they burned produced large amounts of carbon monoxide. As the fumes filled the tunnel undetected, the passengers never knew what was taking them.
There will be a moment in our lives when it will be our last moment. You and I will most likely not know when we will be taking our last breath, not unlike those passengers on the train. But of one thing we can be sure …. that moment will come for you and me. We all have an “expiration date” when time will be no longer and we will be released from the confines of it.
When that last day, hour, minute and second come, will you be ready? We get so caught up in the daily responsibilities, routine and chaos of life that we often fulfill our “daily duties” by rote or subconsciously memorized patterns without being fully engaged in the present moment. Yet it is for the present moment that God has made provision.
Today is what matters; not yesterday or tomorrow. Today is “the day” the Lord has made. Hebrews 3:15 says: “Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts, as when they provoked me.” Today is the day of opportunity and possibility. How are we choosing to live today? Today is the day we can make a difference. And today is the day we must prepare for that “last moment and last breath” so that we are ready to step into heaven. In 2 Cor. 12:7-8 Paul says: “… lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing I besought the Lord three times, that it might depart from me”. Then in verse 9 is God’s answer: “And He said to me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness …”
We live in a very chaotic world that is deteriorating more every day. Satan is never going to be satisfied with the sin and destruction he has worked in our lives. He always wants more. As far as he is concerned, there is never enough! Even in Noah’s time sin increased until God said it was enough and released the flood that covered the earth. Like in Noah’s time, evil will continue to increase today until God says “Enough”!
In 2 Tim. 3:13 we see a picture of what happens as sin takes hold on a people. “But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.” chapter 3 says it clearly: “Know this also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: form such turn away.” What a list! This is what happens when sin takes hold on a people. 2 Tim. 3:13 sums it up by saying, “but evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived”.
Jesus is coming back. He is coming back for you and me … and He is coming back soon. He will be coming to take His church out of the world and into His kingdom. But He is coming back for a church without spot or wrinkle. And He has made provision for us to be that church without spot or wrinkle. He has given us His amazing grace. And not just a little grace. He has made available to us (if we are His children) “all the grace necessary to defeat the enemy and fulfill God’s plan for our lives. In 2 Cor. 9:8 Paul says: “and God is able to make ALL GRACE abound toward you; that you ALWAYS having ALL sufficiency in ALL things, MAY ABOUND to every good work”. Abounding is all made possible by His Amazing Grace!
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