[Lyrics from “Open Your Heart” by John Fischer on the album, “Still Life.”]
This is decision time. Fish or cut bait. Come down off the fence. This is the seventh game of the World Series; someone’s going to win and someone’s going to lose by the time it’s over.
You can put it off, but how long do you plan on doing that? How long have we got? What are you waiting for? Are you ready? Not yet? Okay… How about now? Are you ready now? Not yet? Okay… How about now?
If you aren’t ready now, you won’t be ready then, and then will probably be too late. Sometimes you have all the information you need to decide, you just have to do it.
You’ve been fooled from the start
Why not give in and open your heart
Can’t you see we’re close to the end
You no longer can laugh and pretend
You’ve been fooled right from the start
Why not give in and open your heart
Jesus calls you why don’t you choose
When you’ve got nothing there’s nothing to lose
If you turn away from His grace
You may never more see His face
This isn’t God being mean. It’s just that even Grace has its limits. We are in the age of Grace. God is favorably disposed. He is offering to forgive everything and welcome you into His family. But the door will close on this age – it will close quickly and permanently. You won’t know before the time, only after, and after will be too late. So are you ready now? Not yet? Okay… How about now?
Don’t go searching into the skies
He’s right here in front of your eyes
You don’t have to go very far
He will come to you right where you are
How He loves you and wants you to see
The full measure He made you to be
With his presence living inside
You will never have to live a lie
You’ve been fooled from the start
Why not give in and open your heart
God has our best interests at heart. Opening your heart to Him is to find what you’ve been searching for all along.
“From one man [God] made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’” (Acts 17:26,27)
So near and yet so far… So are you ready yet? No? If not now, when…? How about now? Are you ready now? Not yet…?
How about now?
John Fischer The Catch 
This reminds to of one of my current favorite songs, “City on Our Knees” (TobyMac) – “Why not now?”
John, today you’ve touched on one of the many questions I’m living. What about all the billions of God’s children who never heard of Jesus, who never had the opportunity to accept him as Lord and Savior? Or who have spent their whole lives believing (as do we) that they are worshipping God in a perfectly acceptable way, although different from ours? What about all the souls that came and went before Jesus? I struggle with the concept of a God who “wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim 2), who loves me and you and EVERYONE else even more than you love Chandler, and yet who would put the majority of us on this earth for a small slice of time, knowing that the majority would not pass the test and would be condemned to an eternity of torment.
This is of course one of the biggest theological questions of anyone who loves, God, people and the Bible. I couldn’t begin to answer it here but perhaps I can give you some things to think about. 1) John chapter 1 says that Christ is the light which enlightens every man coming into the world. If that’s truly what it says (and it is one of the most accepted translations of the passage), that would mean everyone is exposed to some truth about Christ for which they will be responsible. 2) There are a number of scriptural passages that only make people responsible for the amount of truth that has been revealed to them. So someone who has gotten next to nothing will be judged accordingly. 3) God has said that if you seek me with all your heart, you will find me. Well that would be as true for someone growing up in a Muslim country as it would for someone growing up in America. How God’s going to handle that I have no idea. 4) I believe that in the end, God will be seen as being entirely fair and all mouths will be shut.