The Take Off
    You’re sitting on the hold line or the numbers and clearance comes from the tower.  As you push in the throttle and gain speed the feeling of victory increases.  The lift off speed approaches so you pull back slightly on the control wheel.  At the moment of lift off, the bird goes from a very high rolling speed to a very low flying speed.  The flying speed is just above the stall point.  The bird flies sluggishly and any folly or stunts could be very fatal. After the climb-out the aircraft levels off and picks up speed along with stability, control responsiveness, and mission progress.
     In life it’s similar.  The human is ready to be born in the hospital.  The time is right (even if not a big delight) and bingo - a new physical life has officially begun.  It starts out slowly and gradually picks up speed.  There is a general feeling of victory as the age of accountability and adulthood is reached.  But the Spirit calls and the soul looks up.  It enters into the new realm of Spiritual Life realizing it was made to fly.  But from the point of high physical strength and progress to the level of an infant again is a shock to the individual.  His spiritual stature is small, weak, ineffective, and the contrast is humiliating.  His climb-out is a real challenge since the pull of gravity (sin) is strong.  At this point any folly or games with God could be fatal to his spiritual headway and possibly cause a crash.  As growth continues, he levels off, picks up confidence, and becomes stable, responsive to the Spirit, and mission progress begins to happen.
    Wouldn’t you be excited if God Himself spoke to you personally with a heavy voice and said, “Friend, I want to save you from hell and adopt you as my own son/daughter.  My Spirit will come into your being and give you a new start, my own perspective, and guide you to ultimate personal fulfillment in this life and prepare a place for you in celestial glory to spend eternity with me.”  Any normal person would not only be excited but would probably pass out for joy at the offer.  Well, He probably won’t call you in such a dramatic way, but the offer is truly open to you right now and the promises are AT LEAST the same.  However, there is one small catch.  To claim God’s very real gifts, you must receive Jesus Christ.  Will you do it?  Will you take-off today before it’s too late?  No one knows the length of his runway.
     “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and eat with him, and he with me.”  (Jesus Christ) “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come.”  “And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones; and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.”  “But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.”  Scriptures referred to are:  Revelation 3:20; II Corinthians 5:17; Isaiah 58:11; I Corinthians 2:9.

Many other Titles:  www.gospelnotes.org                                                 *  *  F. J. Stone  *  * 
                                                                                                                                            22