Signs, Signs, Everywhere a Sign
I found myself humming an old tune from the Five Man Electrical Band the other day.
The year was 1971 and the song was “Signs.” It would be years later when I would hear it, play it, actually take requests for it, but as I was humming the other day, I realized I had forgotten most of the lyrics. All I could remember was “sign, sign, everywhere a sign….do this, don’t do that, can’t you read the sign?” I could also remember, “long-haired freaky people need not apply…”
The song is about a guy in the late 60’s trying to get a job, but because he has long hair, society frowns on him. He then looks around at the fences and gates and walls that people put up around themselves with signs that read “KEEP OUT”. He feels put out and left out and then, he finds himself standing outside a church and the sign reads:
“Everybody welcome, come in, kneel down and pray.
But when they passed around the plate at the end of it all, I didn’t have a penny to pay,
So I got me a pen and a paper and I made up my own little sign.
I said, “Thank you Lord, for thinkin’ ‘bout me. I’m alive and doin’ fine.”
Signs, signs, everywhere a sign.
We are surrounded by signs. Just look around you. Even from where I sit writing this morning, I see a sign that reads “EXIT”.
Signs are intended to inform us. They are also meant to warn us of impending danger. We can choose to listen and heed those warnings or, do things our way.
Take the beach for instance.
You might see warnings for High Surf, Rip Currents, Strong Currents, Slippery Rocks, Sudden Drop Off, Waves Break on Ledge. You might see signs that read No Swimming or No Diving. These signs cannot prevent you from swimming or diving, but they have warned you that it is dangerous to do so. What will you do with that information?
Jesus gave us signs. He told us what to look for, but He also gave us free will. This was the ultimate act of love. Our Heavenly Father does not force us to do what is right. What a sacrifice, truly, to allow us to do things He knows will harm us and perhaps even cause our eternal death.
Jesus is coming soon. The signs are all around us.
“But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.” 2 Timothy 3:1-4 ESV
Talk about a Warning Sign!
For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 2 Timothy 4:3 ESV
We are living in “end times”. Jesus second return is eminent.
Do we see any of this going on around us today? Can we relate to any of those verses?
Yes! The signs are all around us. Jesus is coming soon! Are we ready? How do we get ready?
The simple answer is accepting the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior.
We are told that if we confess with our mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in our heart that God has raised Him from the dead, we will be saved. Romans 10:9.
I looked up other synonyms for the word Savior. This is what I found:
Redeemer. Liberator. Deliverer. Protector. Rescuer.
Yes! Our Jesus is all of those and more. He is our friend and our brother and He is coming back to take us to heaven, to His Father’s house!
“Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” Luke 12:40 NKJV
by Jeanette Stark – Wednesday, March 15, 2023