Guidelines For Living

Narrator (Male): Take a break from your busy schedule and join Harold Sala for Guidelines for Living.

Harold Sala: Why a sovereign God spares some, but allows others to face the fire is something we will never fully understand this side of heaven. That fact was again illustrated on the morning of September 11, when the World Trade Center was destroyed.

One young man forgot his ID badge and had to return home to get it. That delay caused him to arrive at the WTC late enough to be spared. An acquaintance of my neighbor's was standing in line to board the ill-fated United flight, when inexplicably, he decided he would rather fly to Orange County, even if it meant having to change planes instead of take the non-stop flight to LA. That decision spared his life.

Others though went to work and were in the very area where the planes crashed, and yet lived to tell about it. Stanley Pramnath is a deacon in his Assembly of God church, as well as a Sunday school superintendent. On that morning, he rose early as he normally does, spent time in prayer and headed for the train that would take him to work.

Yet on that morning, for reasons he couldn't explain, he prayed earnestly, "Lord," he cried out, "cover me and all my loved ones under your precious blood." Afterwards, he explained, "And even though I said that and believed it, I said it over and over and over."

What happened to Stanley is too long a story to relate in these few moments, but he was in his office when the plane crashed, with part of the wing of the plane hurled into the doorway of his department. Trapped in the debris up to his shoulders, he felt God supernaturally spared his life as he navigated 81 smoke-filled, debris-laden flights of dark stairs with suffocating air choking his breath.

He later gave thanks saying, "Lord, had you not been in control, I would not have made it." He agrees with what David wrote in Psalm 68 when he said, "Our God is a God who saves. From the sovereign Lord comes escape from death."

Question: Are those who were spared more spiritual or more in touch with God than the hundreds who tasted of the grace of God as they were swept into the doors of heaven? That was the question that was put to Jesus which Luke recorded in the 13th chapter of the book that bears his name.

Some skeptics asked Jesus about a tower that collapsed, killing some 18 people. And Jesus silenced the argument by saying they were no more guilty than those living in Jerusalem. But Jesus did tell them that unless they too repented, they would likewise perish.

There are no pat answers to the question of why God chooses to spare some, why others are called home or face eternity. Hebrews 11 is the great chapter that talks of the heroes of the faith who found deliverance. But it also says, "Others were tortured and refused to be released."

The passage speaks of those who were stoned, were sawn in two, were put to death by the sword and otherwise tormented. But the writer closes thing, "These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. God had planned something better for us so that only together with us, would they be made perfect or complete."

A final thought: safety is never the absence of danger, but the presence of the Lord. And when God's time really comes, there should be no fear. "Absent from the body," says Paul, "is present with the Lord." So until that time, make the best of every day, friend, and live every day so that if God called you home, you are ready. You know you are God's child, and you are positive that heaven's door would open for you.

Narrator (Male): That's it on today's edition of Guidelines. You've just heard Guidelines for Living. For more practical and inspirational messages, visit guidelines.org. If you find our devotionals helpful and would like to share them with others, consider supporting our ministry with a donation. Again, that's guidelines.org. Thanks for listening to Guidelines for Living.