Warnings

By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark… Hebrews 11:7a

And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ. Philippians 1:9,10

Have you ever been in a situation when some kind of warning bell rings in your head, and at first you are not sure why? It can happen in the car while you are driving, causing you to take a different route, perhaps avoiding an accident? It can happen at a work event, or a family gathering where you are introduced to a new member, but very quickly, for some unknown reason you get the ‘feeling’ of unease? Or in a church setting, you meet up with a new member who claims to be a Christian, but their words and life give them away?

God works in mysterious ways, so the old phrase goes, and it is true. We cannot figure out His ways because they are above our understanding, so it should not come as a surprise to learn that this same God can protect and warn His children when something is not quite right.

Sad to say that this same protective warning can also be caused by the conduct and words of someone in national or local church leadership that we look up to. We can’t always put our finger on why this should be so, but it would be foolhardy to ignore it altogether. The warning is there for good reason, and the converse is also true. Someone could also get the same or similar warning bell from the example of our life, so it’s all the more important that we live openly and with integrity. No Christian wants to be a stumbling-block to anyone at any age!