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The Ride to Hell February 24, 2009 • By Ed Wrather 02.24.09
But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. - 1 Corinthians 2:14-15.
Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it. - Matthew 7:13-14.
I once took what I thought was a ride from hell soon after starting a new job in 1975. The company I worked for had two offices, one in Elk City, Oklahoma and one in Monahans, Texas. The owner of the company decided that we needed to go to Odessa, Texas which is about 40 miles from Monahans to pick up a new inspection unit. Jim McMasters was going to be the operator of the new unit and I was going to be the assistant operator. The owner of the company, Earl Beard, had just bought a new Mercury Marquis. When we were ready to leave I tried to sit in the back seat but Jim insisted that I sit in the front. It did not take very long to understand why he wanted to sit in the back.
It is 400 miles from Elk City, Oklahoma to Odessa Texas. Our trip took only four hours! This was before air bags, or shoulder belts - the car did have seat belts and I definitely had mine fastened. Through the little towns that we went through, Earl did slow down to around 70 to 80 mph. He also slowed down once going around some curves to about 90 mph while making a call on his mobile phone and driving with his knee. I think I prayed more on that trip than I had in a long time. I was praying for a highway patrol officer or a deputy sheriff or someone to see us and stop us. We did not see any law enforcement on the trip to Odessa. On the way home, after we left Jim to drive the unit back, we saw one highway patrol officer while we slowed down briefly behind a group of a few cars that were driving slower. After being stopped many times for speeding Earl finally bought a plane and obtained his pilot’s license. Of course, he already had a lot of hours in, flying at low altitudes!
If I had it to do over again I would have confronted Earl and asked him to slow down. If he then did not slow down, I would have at least tried to have him let me out on the side of the road somewhere, anywhere. I knew that I was in danger but I did very little about it. There are countless millions of people even billions of people that are on a trip to hell which is far more dangerous than the trip that I took. James says, “For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away (James 4:14).” The trip will soon be over and they will arrive in a place that is worse than the worst that they have ever experienced in life and there will be no escape (Read Luke 16:19-31).
If you are on that trip to hell the time is now to get off that road and onto the narrow road that leads to Heaven. The time is now to open up the door and jump out. Escape while you still can! Jesus is the only way of escape. Receive Him as your Savior (John 1:12; Revelation 3:20) and begin to walk down the narrow way to Heaven where the joy and peace will never end.  Visitor Comments (0) Be the first to post a comment! Where did we come from? How shall we live? What happens after we die? In the Bible, God provides us with helpful clues. We may not know whether or not we are wanted by the police unless we ask; however, we need have no doubt about our being wanted by God. God wants you! Do you really know Jesus? Or, are you just going through the motions?
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