What if you had been on that plane?

Well, on the way home from church tonight I heard about the American Airlines "regional jet" that crashed with a military aircraft in the Washington DC area (Arlington, Va.), and that there are casualties. It is a developing story; we'll be hearing more about it. For now, it's just that there are casualties. I didn't even know what a "regional jet" was. It's a plane with under 100 seats, but it was American Airlines and it was a flight from Wichita, Kansas, which is in the state I live in. I've been participating in our annual week of prayer this week and have been busy going to work and going to church every day of the week, so I haven't had a lot of time to write, and since this just happened, this is what has been on my heart. It is shocking. How does something like this happen? How does an American Airlines jet plane crash with a military aircraft at an airport as the jet is coming in for a landing? Someone videoed the crash. It looked like an explosion in the air. Search and rescue teams are looking in the river. All I can ever think about when things like this happen is I wonder if everyone on the plane was saved, and what about the helicopter? There will be a lot more news coming out about it, of course, and probably a cover story in People magazine. I don't mean to be cynical here. Of course we want to know about the victims and we hope there were some survivors. We won't know tonight. I am just struck with the way we are accustomed to terrible news in this day and age, so that it almost doesn't even faze us. It's almost like reality gets confused with fantasy. Because of films, we see this kind of thing on the screen, but when it really happens, I'm not sure how well we really understand what is real and what is made up anymore. We would all probably go crazy if we took to heart everything awful that happens in the world, and I don't think that is really the best policy. We can't do much about most of what goes on in the world. We can pray and we can hope and we can care, but we all have a limited circle of influence. I guess I should say we have the circle of influence that Providence has provided for us and we operate within that. On the other hand, prayer has an unlimited circle of influence. I have this belief that because God is sovereign, and omniscient, he knows who is either going to heaven already or who is never going to answer the call to be saved. It's a tragedy in either case, when a plane crashes in mid-air. I hate to think how horrendous that must have been. We don't know yet what happened and how many casualties there are but this is a real tragedy. There are so many tragedies anymore, and I just pray that God will bring people to their senses and deal with their hearts to believe in God and Jesus Christ and be saved so that when things like this happen, they are ready to meet him. I saw a famous person (It was R.C. Sproul) --he has died--I used to listen to him on the radio quite a bit, who said, "Jesus Christ doesn't 'invite' anyone to accept him; he commands it." That is true. He commands that everyone believe and be saved. In the Bible, Acts 17:30 says, "Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent." That's pretty powerful, isn't it? Pretty extreme,too. Well, that is God's word, and it's pretty pointed, that's for sure. "Because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained.. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead" (Acts 17:31). So, salvation is not an option. It is do or die. I just pray that people will take the gospel seriously in the days we are living in, and obey that command from God, because it is a command, not an invitation. I think those two verses might be some good memory verses for us. What do you think?