Short Stories

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The flames were leaping out the windows as I jumped onto the drive shaft of the car. It was lying on its side in the middle of the road. Gray smoke choked me and heat from the flames burned my nostrils and my eyes filled with tears. I felt faint and nauseated as I emptied the fire extinguisher into the passenger window.

The co2 did little to knock back the orange-blue flames that shot out the window singeing the hair on my face and hands. The intense heat caused me to fall backwards onto the oil-slicked road, busting my right elbow and cutting my knees.

I got up and hobbled around the front of the car to see two figures completely engulfed in flames. My heart almost failed me at the grotesque sight. I almost panicked! I wanted to run from the sight, but I covered my eyes and reached through the broken out windshield and grabbed one of the figures. Pulling as hard as I could, I retracted my hand only to find it full of roasted flesh and bits of burned clothing.

I failed to rescue the victims! My mind went into shock and I set down on the ditch bank, covered my burning eyes with both hands, and cried the tears of failure, remorse, and compassion.

That happened thirty-nine years ago while I was serving as a Virginia Beach police officer, but I can still see those two burning human beings and still smell that sickening sweet aroma of burning flesh.

Later, I learned that the driver was an eighteen-year-old youth that I had arrested the previous Saturday night for being drunk in public. He was dancing around in the parking lot of a fast food restaurant, drunk as a skunk! When I took him into custody he kept saying he was dancing with the Devil. Little did he know, but that was exactly what he was doing.

I don’t know what his spiritual condition was at the time he left this world, but I do know he didn’t leave peacefully. He left behind a grieving family that was stunned by his violent death. The other man was a twenty-one year old husband and father to be. I had to tell his wife, who was eight and a half months pregnant, that her husband of one year was not going to see his child born or watch him grow up.

I have noticed that so many people, even those who call themselves Christians, are dancing with the Devil. They try to get as close to the world as they can, flirting with Satan and his false promises. Satan has a flaming wreck ahead for those who succumb to his seductions.

You know, sin can be grotesque and sickening to us when we try to minister in this world, but we can’t sit on the side, with our hands over our crying eyes, and give up. Failure is not an option!

I have since learned that I can’t rescue people by my own power. I still shed many tears for those who are being consumed by the fires of unrepentant sin, but not the tears of failure. I can’t save a single soul from hellfire, but I can lead them to the One who died for them, that they might have everlasting life.

There are many tears shed for those who are dancing with the Devil. Don’t let yourself be the object of those tears! Don’t let the stench of your burning flesh go up as a memorial to you for eternity!

Rev 3:20 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.

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