Signs For The Times
by Allen Webster

    How many wasted miles, foolish injuries, and senseless deaths could be avoided if only people read signs? God must think the same thing, as He watches men fly down the devil’s highway ignoring all His road signs.

    STOP! “...cease to do evil; learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow” (Isa. 1:16-17). “Cease, my son, to hear the instruction that causeth to err from the words of knowledge” (Prov. 19:27). “...cease from thine own wisdom” (Prov. 23:4). “Cease not to give thanks…” (Eph. 1:16).

    YIELD! “Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God” (Eph. 5:21). “Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble” (1 Peter 5:5). “Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves” (Phil. 2:3).

    ENTER! “Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it” (Mt. 7:13-14). “For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Gal. 3:27).

    DO NOT ENTER! “Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men. Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away” (Prov. 4:14-15). “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful” (Psa. 1:1). “Make no friendship with an angry man; and with a furious man thou shalt not go: lest thou learn his ways, and get a snare to thy soul” (Prov. 22:24-25). “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death” (14:12).

    PROCEED WITH CAUTION! “Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established. Turn not to the right hand nor to the left: remove thy foot from evil” (Prov. 4:26-27). “...the way of the transgressor is hard” (Prov. 13:15). “The simple believeth every word: but the prudent man looketh well to his going. A wise man feareth, and de- parteth from evil: but the fool rageth, and is confident” (Prov. 14:15-16). “For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?” (Lk. 14:28). “A prudent man forseeth the evil, and hideth himself: but the simple pass on, and are punished” (Prov. 22:3). “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil…” (Mt. 6:13). “Every purpose is established by counsel…” (Prov. 20:18). “The name of the Lord is a strong tower: the righteous runneth to into it, and is safe” (Prov. 18:10).

    ONE WAY! “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (Jn. 14:6). “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:13).

    DO NOT PASS! “...A certain man went down from Jeru- salem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side” (Lk. 10:30,31). “Whoso stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor, he also shall cry himself, but shall not be heard” (Prov. 21:13). “He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord; and that which he hath given will he pay him again” (Prov. 19:17).

    WATCH FOR CHILDREN. “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it” (Prov. 22:6). “And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them...But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea” (Mt. 18:2, 6). “And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord” (Eph. 6:4).

    WATCH FOR CURVES! “...in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world” (Phil. 2:15). “Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall” (1 Cor. 11:12). “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Pet. 5:8). “For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief. Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth, and let not thine heart be glad when he stumbleth” (Prov. 24:16-17). NO U TURN! “And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God” (Lk. 9:62). “Remember Lot’s wife” (Lk. 17:32). “Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him” (Heb. 10:38). “For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them” (2 Pet. 2:20, 21).

    It pays to watch for signs on the heavenly highway!

This item originally appeared at House To House/Heart To Heart (March/April 2003)