Imagine the following hypothetical situation...it could happen to you. It is very early in the morning, and you and your family are still asleep in bed. Your neighbor backs out of his driveway to depart for work. He happens to notice that smoke is pouring out of the roof of your house. Realizing you might still be sleeping and unaware of the impending danger, or you might not even be home, he quickly considers what he should do. Concerned for your property and personal safety, he delays his departure for work and pulls into your driveway. He runs to the front door and repeatedly rings the doorbell. There is no sign of movement. He bangs on the door. Still no response. He grabs the doorknob and tries to enter, but the door is locked. Again he considers the possibility that no one is home, but there is no denying that the fire is raging overhead as he sees the smoke and hears the crackling of the hungry flames. He decides there is no time to waste, and that the situation calls for drastic action. So he walks over to the picture window, shatters it with a mighty kick, and leaps into the living room. Run-ning down the hall, he sees you lying asleep in your bed. Ignoring any normal thoughts of shyness or embarassment, he wakens you with his shouts. Noticing your grogginess, he shakes you and helps you and your family get up and out of the house. When you are all safely outside, he calls 911, and the fire trucks and emergency personnel are summoned. Though the house is badly damaged, you and your family are spared from severe injury or death, all because of an alert neighbor who cared enough to get involved and avert a tragedy.

As I said before, this could conceivably happen to you. If it did, wouldn't you be forever grateful to your neighbor? What if he had seen the flames but said, “Well, it really isn't any of my business”, and go on his way? What if he had thought when you didn't answer the doorbell, “Well, I guess they aren't home, so I'll get on to work”...or, “If I wake them up, they might get mad at me for interrupting their sleep, or for being so intrusive and fanatically urgent about something they may have discovered on their own without my help”? You would say, “No, of course not”! “I'm so grateful that you noticed our peril, cared enough to get involved, and took aggressive action to save our lives”!!

Well, Christian friends, think about the spiritual analogies and implications of the above hypothetical scenario. The applications are obvious. Our Lord Jesus said, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself”, (Mt. 22:39). That means we should love our relatives, neighbors, friends and coworkers enough to get involved in awakening them to the spiritual peril they are in. The reality is, there is a literal, burning Hell. All who do not trust in Christ as Savior and Lord will die in their sins and spend eternity in the flames of eternal torment. Most do not realize the urgent and desperate state they are in. They are dead in their trespasses and sins, and unconcious of the eternal destruction that awaits them if they aren't awakened to their plight and run immediately to the foot is the cross and accept by faith what Jesus accomplished for them there.

I'm challenging you to be a good neighbor, and do something to alert your loved ones to the one and only Way of Salvation through Christ. If you were lost and headed for hell, wouldn't you want your neighbor or friend to do that for you? If you are saved, isn't that exactly what someone did do for you?

At the end of this month of July, we are again having Neighborhood Bible Time, a unique week of reaching out to children and teens with the soul-saving message of the gospel of Jesus Christ. For one week, July 29th - Aug. 3rd, we are asking you to help us go all-out to rescue the souls of precious young people, ages 4 through High School. Please join us in inviting and bringing them to learn Bible lessons, sing songs, memorize verses, meet new friends and have some fun along the way. Now is the time to get involved in loving your neighbor as yourself.

In closing, I want to share a sobering poem that God has used to motivate me and others to be more assertive in sharing the good news of the gospel of eternal salvation.

YOU FORGOT MY SOUL

You lived next door to me for years; We shared our dreams,
our joys, our tears.
A friend to me you were indeed, a friend who helped me in
my need.

My faith in you was strong and sure; we had such trust as
should endure.
Not spats between us e'er arose; our friends were like,
and so our foes.

What sadness then, my friend, to find; that after all you
weren't so kind.
The day my life on earth did end, I found you weren't a
faithful friend.

For all those years we spent on earth; you never talked
of second birth.
You never spoke of my lost soul, and of the Christ who'd
make me whole.

I plead today from Hell's cruel fire, and tell you now my
last desire.
You cannot do a thing for me; no words today my bonds
will free.

But do not err, my friend, again; do all you can for
souls of men.
Plead with them no quite earnestly, lest they be cast in
Hell with me!!

--author unknown