Now is the Time to Believe

Dwight L Moody, by his own admission, made a mistake on the eighth of October 1871. On that day, he made a mistake he determined he would never repeat.  He had been preaching in the city of Chicago. That particular night drew his largest audience yet. His message was “ What will you do then with Jesus who is called the Christ?”

By the end of the service, he was tired. He concluded his message with a presentation of the gospel and a concluding statement: “ Now I will give you a week to think that over, and when we come together again you will have opportunity to respond.” A soloist began to sing.

But before that final note, the music was drowned out by clanging bells and wailing sirens screaming through the streets.  The great Chicago fire was blazing. In the ashen aftermath, hundreds were dead and over a hundred thousand were homeless. Without a doubt, some who heard Moody’s message had died in the fire.

 He reflected remorsefully that he would have given his right arm before he would ever give an audience another week to think over the message of the gospel.

“Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” (2 Cor 6:2)

“Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell and make a profit’; where as you do not know what will happen to you tomorrow. For what is your life?  “(James 4; 13,14)