“ ‘The time is surely coming,’ says the Sovereign LORD, ‘when I will send a famine on the land— not a famine of bread or water but of hearing the words of the LORD.

  People will stagger from sea to sea and wander from border to border searching for the word of the LORD, but they will not find it.

  Beautiful girls and strong young men will grow faint in that day, thirsting for the LORD’s word.’ ”  (Amos 8:11-13^a,italics mine, New Living Translation)

My father-in-law was one of the wisest, humblest, most godly men I’ve ever known.  His daughter, my wife, is much like him.  But it was almost not so for my father-in-law.  He almost missed it.

“I did not feel the call of the Holy Spirit as strongly the second night.  It scared me so badly that I went forward to the alter, confessed my sins, and prayed to receive Christ into my heart and life.”

My father-in-law was explaining how he came to faith in Jesus Christ.  He was a teen-ager, and brought up in church, but he was at the point of deciding whether to accept or reject what he had been taught by his parents.

He was at a revival meeting.  He felt the power of the Holy Spirit, convincing him that he was a sinner, that he needed a savior, and that Jesus Christ was that Savior.  My father-in-law said, ‘I felt strong hands on my shoulders, and looked around to see who was touching me.  No one was.  Well, no one I could see.  But I didn’t go to the altar. I didn’t pray.  I didn’t trust Christ.  I went home miserable.

“The next night, I went back to revival meetings, still miserable.  When they gave the invitation, I felt the hands on my shoulders again.  But this time, they weren’t as strong.  I realized I was becoming hardened to the call of God in my life.  It scared me so badly that I went forward to the alter, confessed my sins, and prayed to receive Christ into my heart and life.”

We all need second chances.  Thank God, many of us get them.  I myself have gotten so many more “second chances” than just two!

However, while many of us get them, no one is guaranteed even one second chance.  Life is dynamic, and can turn on a dime.

The ancient kingdom of Israel, comprised of the 10 northern tribes which had broken away from Judah, were given a chance to repent.  God sent Amos (a Judahite) to cry out against the Northern Kingdom of Israel.  He did.  However, they would not listen.  The king and the priests were in cahoots, and did not want to hear that they needed to repent.  After all, they were the leaders!  Who did this upstart, foreign “prophet” (who didn’t even claim to be a prophet, according to Amos 7:14) think he was, anyway!

Amos did not just speak God’s Word.  He also warned that there would come a time when people would search for the Word of God, would thirst for it, and yet not find it.  Presuming on a second chance means that we have not taken our first chance seriously.  Presuming on a second chance may well mean that we won’t get one.  There may well come a time when (in the words of Billy Joel), “She’ll ask for the truth, but she’ll never believe you.”

Am I using “scare tactics”?

Yes, I am!

But I believe that there are some things we really should be afraid of—afraid enough to allow God to change us.  Why should we be dying of thirst, when there is the river of life available to us all?

Why indeed!