June 11, 2024 - Good Morning! It's Tuesday, June 11.
On a beautiful spring day in April of 1995, a man parked a van in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. It was exactly two years after the FBI siege at Waco. The van was packed with 5000 pounds of explosives, and at exactly 9:02 a timer clock stopped ticking. 660 people were injured, another 168 were killed - 19 of them were children in the day care. It remains the single deadliest act of domestic terrorism in U.S. history.
Timothy McVeigh, just 26-years-old, was arrested within hours. He was convicted and sentenced to be executed - and his life clock began ticking. He had six years to sit in a cell and think about his actions, about the dead, about the children. And then, on June 11, 2001 - exactly three months before another moment of terror - his clock stopped.
What must it be like to know the day and the hour of your death? Would that cause us to live our lives differently? Would we make different decisions, different choices? Would we have different priorities? McVeigh never showed any remorse for his actions, but I think most of us - knowing the days that are left on our clock timer - would be different. The Bible reminds us that we are not promised tomorrow. The Bible urges us, time and time again, to make the most of today.
James 4:14 - You do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? It is but a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.
Psalm 90:12 - Teach us to number our days, O Lord, so that we may gain a heart of wisdom.
Meet you back here tomorrow,
Bro. David
dmathis@fbccenter.org