The upcoming conference 
at Emmaus Bible College, entitled “Iron Sharpens Iron,” is having me give several workshops/seminars. Registration for the conference can be found here. We’ve been thinking about the workshop —
Workshop #1: “Five Certainties in the Light of Tragic Events”
We’ve seen the first certainty which is: Man is fallen and capable of great evil. We’ve also noticed the second certainty which is: God is holy and will judge rightly.
The third certainty which we need to preach and teach is this Life is brief — One must be ready to meet God! We think of the poor victims in Las Vegas (watching a country music concert) or the young kids at the school in Santa Fe, Texas, and we must ask, “Were they ready to meet God?” This may seem like a heartless question, but it is not! If the gospel is true — and it is — and one must receive Jesus as Savior to have one’s sins forgiven, then none of us knows when our time might be up.
The Lord Jesus deals with this issue in Luke 13:1-5. Notice in the text to the left that He deals with two kinds of terrible evil in our world: (1) Victims of a Vicious Crime (vv. 1-3) and (2) Victims of a Violent Accident (vv. 4-5). There is much here in Jesus’ theodicy (a defense of God’s justice in the face of evil’s reality), but His major point is that we must be ready to meet God! One never knows when a Pilate will do the unthinkable or a tower might fall on an innocent group of people.
By the way, would you please notice that it is JESUS who brings up the second example of great tragedy, the falling tower! We should not dodge our unsaved friends when there are news reports of great tragedies. We should (on occasion) bring up such events to emphasize the uncertainty of life — and how one must be ready to meet the Lord! Your comments?
Bridge collapse in Florida.
Dr. Larry Dixon
larrydixon.wordpress.com 