Compel Them to Come in

“Then the master said to the servant, ‘Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.” Luke 14:23 NKJV

“Wow! Look at that sunrise,” my husband (aka sweet Larry) said to me yesterday as we were driving to the clinic for his early morning bone marrow biopsy that we hoped would yield positive results. “Isn’t that beautiful?” As I was agreeing with him and praising the Lord for the work of His hands that was on full display before us, the song “Come Jesus Come” by Stephen McWhirter began to play on the car radio…

“Sometimes I fall
To my knees and pray
Come Jesus come
Let today be the day

Sometimes I feel
Like I’m gonna break
But I’m holding on
To a hope that won’t fade

Come Jesus come
We’ve been waiting so long
For the day You return
To heal every hurt
And right every wrong
We need You right now
Come and turn this around
Deep down I know
This world isn’t home
Come Jesus come
Come Jesus come

One day He’ll come
And we’ll stand face to face
Come and lay it all down
Cause it might be today
The time is right now
There’s no need to wait
Your past will be washed
By rivers of grace

Come Jesus come
We’ve been waiting so long
For the day You return
To heal every hurt
And right every wrong
We need You right now
Come and turn this around
Deep down I know
This world isn’t home
Come Jesus come.” 

While listening to the melody, I couldn’t help but cry tears of both joy and sadness. Joy knowing that no matter what my husband’s test results were, he was ready and waiting to meet the Lord, and sadness knowing that millions of people in this world are not. And as much as I hopefully anticipate, desperately yearn for, and relentlessly pray for the return of my Savior, I pray every day for opportunities to compel people to accept Jesus as their Savior before it’s too late. You see, the Bible clearly tells us that we must be ready—because Christ will return at a time when we least expect it. Sadly, that means the millions of people in our world who are not ready will not be granted access into the Great Supper and will not ‘stand face to face’ with the One who created them. 

And, you know, while the thought of that happening won’t bother those who are lost, it should grieve the heart of every believer so much that they are filled with a sense of dire urgency to heed the command of the Master to “go out into the highways and hedges, and compel” the lost “to come in” —not only that heaven might be filled, but that the lost might be kept from the pain, anguish, and the weeping and gnashing of teeth that those in hell will experience for all of eternity. 

This literally means that we (meaning every single believer in Jesus Christ) must get outside of the four walls of the Church building and go into our schools, our streets, our neighborhoods, our alleyways, our cities, our towns, and even venture into the outermost and most dangerous of hedges to reach people with the Good News of the Gospel. Our search and recovery mission should be exhaustive and ongoing until the day we go to be with the Lord or He returns and meets us in the sky. 

So, knowing the fate of all those who die in their sins is eternity in hell, may we, like Paul, declare “Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!” And then pray for, look for, be prepared for, and seize every opportunity to tell someone about Jesus so that they can be so ready for His return that they will join the saints in singing, “Come Jesus come. Let today be the day.”

Heavenly Father, thank You for promising eternal life to all those who place their trust in You. Help us to compel others to make that same choice by reminding us that hell is a real place and a place so awful that we would do all we can to keep people from going there. Lord, help us to remember that the harvest is ripe and we are the workers that need to be found busy bringing in the harvest upon your return. It’s in your precious name we pray Jesus. Amen. 

Happy Running!