PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE

And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD. (Joshua 24:15)




In the last lessons titled; "THE HOUR BEFORE THE HOUR", we spent time finding out about the terrible hour of persecution coming to the church and saints of God. We learned that know one is escaping this, and that you must prepare NOW, to have the strength to stand, then. We learned of the weapons Jesus gave us to become warriors, standing strong, when the trouble comes. These weapons are:



• PRAISE AND WORSHIP (in church and in our everyday lives)

• PRAYER ( a time set aside everyday for one on one relationship building - not just at church or mealtime)

• PRECEPT- THE WORD OF GOD (the logos or written word of God that we should be reading and studying everyday)

I suggest you re-read these 4 part lessons as much as possible and let only your Bible reading time out number the times you read these. Who I want to talk to now are the people who have took this series to heart and are doing it. I am talking now to the people who are worshipping God with song, with dance, and with love and affection in their prayer time everyday. I am talking to the people who are listening to the call to prayer. Who are finding time alone with God every day, sitting at his feet to listen and love on him the way Mary did. And by the way, you will know you are doing it right when the "Martha's" of the church and world get mad. And, I am speaking to the ones who have took up the call to grab their Bible, dust off it's unused pages, and began to breathe it in to their soul as an astronaut consumes oxygen on the moon.



NOW THAT YOU ARE DOING IT............WHAT IS NEXT?



When once a house is built, then all that is left is what is called in the construction world; "PREVENTIVE MAINTAINANCE". The owner of the house will inspect said house every so often to check for leaks, cracks, termite damage and wear and tear that would cause the house to eventually rot and fall. When a bridge is finally built to span a chasm uncrossable, crews will come in to inspect its support beams and structural integrity for coming failure and possible castastrophe.



When the I-35 bridge in Minnesota collasped in August, 2007, it fell at the busiest, most crowded, time during the day. As people were rushing home from work, around 6:00 PM, that day one hundred people's lives would change forever. The bridge, built in 1964, hadn't had a "preventive maintaince" check in a long time. Because the bridge was took for granted it was working good, and had never had any problems before, inspections became fewer and far between. And because of this lethargy, un-noticed to the many children, dads and moms crossing this bridge every day, a crack had formed in one of the support beams holding this massive, 1,900 foot long, span up.



Wear and tear of everyday use, rain pounding on it's structure, the cold and heat making a cycle of freezing and swelling bolts and connections, finally formed a small, tiny crack. In the image below, taken from the bridge itself, is where inspectors of the disaster traced the failure....

  Above is the actual picture taken from the wreckage of I-35, showing the actual crack, just a few inches long, that caused the deaths of 13 people and injuring 145. Think of it! this little, tiny crack, caused 100 cars to plummet 115 feet to the river below, some to their death. In an instant, in a blinking of an eye, a bridge which stood proud for 40 years was lying at the bottom of the river, with 100 cars, mangled and twisted bodies, and 81 feet of bridge on top of them.


Beloved, this little crack did bring down the mighty I-35 bridge, but this crack is not what killed them. What killed 13 men, women and children that day? What sent 145 people to an emergency room was not a 4" inch long crack, not really. It was the utter failure and apathy of a crew, commissioned to stand watch over and inspect the mighty I-35, that ultimately is to blame. Slowly, over time, as wear and tear worked it's magic, as little droplets of rain pounded its joints little by little, the crew charged with keeping I-35 safe, over time, cared less and less and took for granted it's strength more and more. And at the very end, a small crack caused such loss of life


I don't blame the rain, it was just doing its job. Nor the elements or wear and tear, that also is a natural progression of time and physics. Who must bear the burden the rest of their lives of the many who perished that day were the leaders who were in charge. Beloved, what do you think would have happened had the crews been out there, inspecting every day? Combing over its beams and structure, keeping a trained eye on anything unusal or out of the ordinary? I can tell you this, that bridge would not have crumbled, and no one would have died.


So is with our spiritual and eternal lives dear reader. In the coming lesions we will describe to what our Lord requires of us in “preventive maintenance”. We will learn why the above scripture is key to your survival in this, and, you will see just how much you, and that bridge, have in common.