If someone knocked on your door and said a wildfire was tearing through the countryside with only minutes to go until reaching your house, would you run? You probably will say yes now; but if the pressure was really on you and you had just a few minutes to leave everything you own and love behind and run for your life, would you really do it?

Late October, 2003. A wildfire rips through a valley in rural San Diego County, killing 12 people. A survivor who fled from the firestorm in the middle of the night as the flames were consuming his front yard told a national newspaper1 that he tried to warn others to run as well. The news story reported that “some… disregarded his frantic warnings or responded too casually.” Several, the survivor recalled, “wanted to save their televisions and computers. They looked like they were packing for a trip. The ones who listened to me and left the area, lived. The ones who didn’t, died.”

The tragedy was made all the more bitter by the reality that some could have escaped if they had listened to the warnings. According to a police officer quoted in the news story, “We’re begging people to leave and they don’t take us seriously. They want to pack some clothes, or fight it in the backyard with a garden hose. They don’t seem to understand that this is unlike any fire we’ve seen.”

Would you run? Maybe. But many didn’t in this California fire, and millions more are not running from the eternal fire that is only moments away… the burning anger of God’s wrath upon this world. Do you see the danger? Are you running from that fire or still holding on to this life?

“But the Day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.” -2Peter 3:10

Please, don’t wait to run because you love the things of this life! You won’t make it in time. You will not escape His punishment for your life of sin and disobedience. You think you are a good person? Your good deeds will not be enough for you to stand in God’s judgment. To rely on the “good” things you’ve done would be as foolish as the person fighting a wildfire with a garden hose! God’s anger burns too hot for every lie, every hatred, every lust, every unforgiven grudge, every selfish act, and every evil thought in your life, to simply be extinguished by anything you can do.

I am begging you to run right now, to escape with your life, to run and not look back! The fires of God are coming; run to the only One who has quenched God’s wrath, Jesus Christ! There is forgiveness from God through the blood of Jesus Christ lovingly shed on the cross, an escape from God’s fiery wrath upon your life. The way out from the pursuing fires is simple, though few will take it. Faith in Jesus alone is your only hope. Jesus said: “…I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” -John 14:6

Those who run to Jesus will live. Those who don’t will die in the flames. This world is not worth it, and there is no time to waste!

“Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father but is from the world. The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever.” -1John 2:15-17

1-Bowles, S. (2003, Oct 31). Death by fire: Fast-moving flames overtook many victims as they fled ; Hesitation is a fatal mistake as Calif. firestorm closes in. USATODAY p. A.01