Sound The Trumpet : The Spider in the Cornfield

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“The Spider in the Cornfield”
by Art Sadlier
October 14th, 2013

There once was a spider that lived in a cornfield. He was a big spider and spun his web between two stalks of corn. He got fat eating all the bugs that got caught in his web. He liked his home in the cornfield and planned to spend the rest of his life there.

One day the spider caught a little bug in his web, and just as the spider was about to eat him, the little bug said "If you let me go I will tell you something very important that will save your life."

The spider listened for a moment because he was amused. "You had better get out of this cornfield, the little bug said, "The harvest is coming." The spider smiled and said, "What is this harvest you are talking about? I think you are just telling me a story."

"Oh No!" said the little bug, "It's true, the owner of this cornfield is coming soon to harvest it."

"All the stalks will be knocked down, the corn will be gathered up and you will be killed by a giant machine if you stay here."

The spider said, "I don't believe in harvests and giant machines that knock down corn stalks. How can you prove this?" The bug said, "Just look at the corn stalks and see how they are planted in rows. This proves the field was created by an intelligent designer".

The spider laughed and said, "This field just evolved and it has nothing to do with an intelligent designer, corn just grows that way." "Oh No", said the little bug, "This field belongs to the owner who planted it, and the harvest is coming soon".

The spider grinned and said "I don't believe you", and he ate the little bug for lunch.

A few days later the spider was laughing about the story the little bug told him, he thought to himself, "A harvest, what a silly idea, I have lived in this cornfield all my life and nothing has ever disturbed me. I have been here since those stalks were just a foot off the ground. I'll be here the rest of my life, because nothing is ever going to change this field. Life is good and I have it made."

The next day was a beautiful day in the corn field. That afternoon as the spider was about to take his nap, he noticed some thick dust in the distance. He could hear the roar of a great engine. Just before he took his last nap he said, "I wonder what that could be?"

Jesus said in Matthew 25:13, "Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of Man cometh." 300 times in the New Testament we are told of His coming. Don't be like the spider in the cornfield.

Jesus said we will not know the exact time He will come for the Church. Since we are barred from knowing the timing of the rapture, any date speculation is folly.

Although we are restricted from knowing the day and hour, we are encouraged by the Lord Jesus to understand the general time frame of His return. Jesus foretold of conditions that will be in place just before His coming.

Jesus mentioned a great variety of signs; spiritual, natural, societal, and world political. All around us today we see the signs of the soon coming of Christ.

God is a God of great love and great mercy and He is longsuffering but He hates sin and disobedience and rebellion, His mercy has a limit. When the line of the limit of God’s mercy and longsuffering is crossed His judgment falls.

I am reminded of the WW2 story of a little boy in Croydon England coming home from school at lunchtime. German bombs had damaged the town hall clock. As he passed the town square the clock began to strike the noon hour. As he often did, he counted the gongs of the clock, 1-2-3----9-10-11-12- 13. He ran home as fast as he could and burst into the kitchen with the words “mommy, mommy it is later than it has ever been before!”

Friends, Jesus is coming, we do not know exactly when but we know it is nearer than it has ever been before.

My friend, God has made you and you are accountable to Him. “I have made the earth, the man and the beast that are upon the ground, by my great power and by my outstretched arm...” (Jeremiah 27:5). The Lord said, “Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die” (Ezekiel 18:4).

Jesus said, “Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3). Repentance is an absolute requirement of salvation. Repentance, if it is genuine, arises from a deep and profound conviction by Christ’s Spirit that we are indeed wrong doers, who in sinister sin against Him have become alienated from Him.

In His wondrous grace, generosity and love He extends to us His mercy and forgiveness and acceptance on the basis of His own magnanimous self-sacrifice on the cross.

He demands that we, for our part, turn from our wicked ways, repent of our wrong doings, seek His companionship, and claim His amazing justification and total forgiveness.

“But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Corinthians 5:21). “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:9-10).

During WW11 a US aircraft ditched in the Pacific Ocean, many of the crew drowned, but five managed to scramble onto a life raft. They drifted for twelve days in the burning sun, their skin was scorched by the sun and their rations were exhausted. Their lips were cracked, their tongues were swollen and they shrank into living skeletons. Two went mad and leaped overboard. Another died quietly in the night and they rolled his body into the sea.

There were two left, when the rescue vessel found the raft only one was alive. The survivor wept as he told the story of his companion’s death. He said, “The night before you found me it rained, the raft caught a pail of fresh water. I tried to give some to my buddy; it would have saved his life. He fought me; he thought I was trying to poison him with sea water.”

My unsaved friend that is a picture of your condition, Christ died to save you and He is earnestly reaching out to you. He is offering you salvation full and free, but you think He is trying to hurt you. You are turning away from the water of life and you will die and go to hell forever. Come to Christ in repentance and faith right now before it is forever too late.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13