IT CAN BE ANY MOMENT
Job 4:18-21/Ps. 23:4/Ti. 1:2

At almost a mile in diameter, it weighed millions of tons. As a visitor from outer space, it was supposed to land on earth one day in August 1989. Fortunately, somehow it skirted our planet and the terrible disaster didn't take place. If it had collided, it would have killed half the population of the world.

What was this being from outer space? It was an asteroid, of the type that comes very close to earth every year. This one passed some 28 million miles from earth. If it had fallen in the Atlantic or the Pacific, it would have caused 400-foot waves and millions of people would have died. "It missed us this time" the astronomers said, "but an asteroid can fall on the earth at any time."

Normally, we inhabitants of the earth live in ignorance of what happens in outer space. We are so preoccupied with our daily lives that we don’t often consider seriously what might lie beyond our globe. Space scientists, however, know that every year ten or fifteen large asteroids come close to the earth. One day, they say, one of these fireballs will be sufficiently attracted by the earth's gravitational pull to come plummeting our way at an incredible speed and cause inconceivable disaster. Geologists have registered proof that great asteroids have fallen on earth in the past and caused great calamities. They believe such a catastrophe to be the explanation for the sudden disappearance of the dinosaurs.

It's very interesting how the possibility of such a disaster can alarm mankind to the point of hysteria. Yet, as far as the individual goes, it is the same to die from a cerebral hemorrhage as it is to die from some universal catastrophe. We cannot escape death. However it comes and as little as we like to think about it, every one of us is going to experience it.

There is the threat of nuclear war involving chemical weapons. Violence is increasing in our streets. A decline of moral standards all around us has lead to a dangerous environment for all of us. New diseases approach epidemic proportions. All of these ways to die can make us fearful. We can get so worried about premature death that we forget Who is in control. But God hasn’t forgotten. He holds all the factors in His hands. Each of us has an appointed time to die. It won’t be too early or too late.

Of course this is not to condone our being reckless with either our physical safety or our health. God does expect us to use wisdom. Beyond that, He will take care of us, protect us, and keep us until that appointed time. All we have to do is trust Him.

Radio Mundial (World Radio) in Riobamba, Ecuador broadcasts A MESSAGE TO THE CONSCIENCE at ten each night. It has been airing our programs for fifteen years. Please pray that the seed of God's love will take root in the heart of each listener that hears the program today.