The Missed Turn
The apostle Paul before King Agrippa relates what Jesus said to Him in the Heavenly vision on the road to Damascus: “I will deliver you from the Jewish people, as well as from the Gentiles, to whom I now send you, to open their eyes, in order to TURN them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.” – Acts 26:17-18 NKJV.
He who would love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips from speaking deceit. Let him TURN away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the LORD are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their prayers; but the face of the LORD is against those who do evil. – 1 Peter 3:10-12 NKJV.
But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people TURN away! – 2 Timothy 3:1-5 NKJV.
A driver on his way to a paintball game in Austria missed a turn…and flew 30 feet across a river slamming into a cargo ship! The car landed upside down, with the nose of the car stuck in the ship. The accident left Tom Stockreiter, and three of his friends, also hanging upside down over the river. Stockreiter said after the accident, “I just missed a left turn, but when I went straight on I saw I was going straight to the river. I slammed on the brakes, but the car skidded and just went even faster. Then we took off and all I could see was water until we hit something. It was a lot more exciting than a game of paintball, but I wouldn’t want to do it again.”
A missed turn when you are driving can cause you all kinds of problems with the possibility of physical injuries or worse. However, there are other kinds of turns that we can miss that can be even more damaging. The Bible tells us of some of those turns that we do not want to miss.
The number one spiritual turn to keep from missing is the turn from “darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God.” Taking this spiritual turn will allow us to “receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.” Have you missed the turn? Our GPS unit on our recent trip (2010) would always recalculate the route when we got off course. If you missed the turn, you need to recalculate the route for your life. Turn to Jesus, ask Him to forgive you of your sins, and invite Him to be your Savior and Lord.
Are you a liar? Do you cause pain to others because of your lies? Do you do bad things? If so, you missed the turn! You need to turn away from evil toward doing good. Turn now, because “the face of the LORD is against those who do evil.” But “the eyes of the LORD are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their prayers.”
The apostle Paul gives us a whole list of people in 2 Timothy and all of these people are in the category of the “face of the LORD” being against them. Paul says that we should turn away from people like that. If all of your friends are on the list, and you continually have problems, it may be that you have missed the turn.
Have you missed a spiritual turn or two in life? You need to recalculate your course, and get back on track before it is eternally too late.
(There are spiritual turns in life that you cannot afford to miss, because if you do the “face of the Lord” will be against you.)