A World Without Warnings

If you are over 40 and read the title of this article, “A World Without Warnings,” you might have shuddered in terror. If you are under 20 years of age your reaction might have been, “Now that’s what I’m talking about!” Age has a lot to do with the way we respond to warnings. In the early years of our lives our reaction to someone who cautions us about something we intend to do is “yada yada”. A remarkable transformation takes place, however, as we get older. We turn from carefree risk takers who ignored the conservative warnings of our elders to the very ones who warn other people!

Now older readers might be chuckling a little because we remember how things often blew up in our faces because we blatantly disregarded wise warnings. It might even be that some of us feel deep regrets. Hard, hard experience is the single most potent force in opening the human spirit to warnings.

God gives us warnings in his letter to us. A simple way of putting his warning might be, “Do get so caught up in what you are doing that you blow me off.” Tragically, people of all ages react to his warning with “yada yada”. Others dismiss his strong advice as primitive scare tactics. But the grim reality is, no matter how fun life can be, it is going to end for each one of us. We may not like to be warned about this inevitability, but even the most laid back person must admit it is probably a good idea to give what happens in death some thought.

This weekend we’re going to be looking at some warnings God gives us in the New Testament book of Hebrews. Sure, they can go against the grain of our egos if we’re into a macho competition with God. But if we have the uneasy feeling that instead of us telling God what to do, we should be listening to him, these warnings serve to keep us focused on what is really important in life. Warnings, they can save lives – for eternity.

Saturday evening worship: 6:00 pm
Sunday morning worship: 10:00 am