Echoes of Grace: 2006

The airplane dropped down through the hot Mexican sky and lined up with the sleepy village. The loud buzzing noise startled nine-year-old Panchito and he ran outside to see the first airplane he had ever seen. Suddenly a white cloud burst from the plane. Was it smoke? The white cloud quickly broke up, fragmented into a thousand pieces as the wind scattered the little papers. On flew the little plane, apparently just fine. Others also noticed the little papers fluttering downward over the avocado plantations on the outskirts of town. Panchito shrugged his fear aside and joined the other children as they squealed and laughed, running through the fields to pick up as many of the little papers as possible.

“The picture on the front is very interesting,” he thought. “I wonder what the words say?” His parents had died and, since he had never been to school, he knew who must help him. He ran to her house.

Grandmother sat down beside him and read the touching story of God’s love for sinners, of how the Lord Jesus died on the cross, and about heaven and hell. This was a new message and it was a great contrast to the mixture of superstition and witchcraft that Panchito experienced in his town. One man was very upset when he read the papers. He scowled and spoke angrily to the people: “Bring me all of these papers. Come, and we’ll burn these lies in the town square!” The adults fearfully and quietly handed their papers over and carefully collected them from the children.

But Panchito was intrigued by the stories and Bible verses in the papers and determined to save them to be read another day. He tucked his papers inside his shirt, took the shortest way home and quickly slipped his treasure under his straw sleeping mat. Then he joined the other children in the town square where they watched the papers flame up. The smoke and ashes rose into the blue sky as some men cursed the people who had dropped the messages from the plane. The inquisitive Panchito often brought out his hidden papers and secretly had somebody read to him. What could be wrong with these words, he wondered? The paper explained how that God’s word, the Bible, teaches that God loved the world so much that He gave His beloved Son to die for our sin. Was there something wrong with such words? Were they not true? The paper talked about sins. He cringed as he thought about some of the bad words he had used that week. He had been told that stealing was sin. So were bad thoughts, and disobedience. This seemed to be the bad news that the paper talked about. But, apparently, the Bible said that God had done something about sin. The verse from the Bible was beautiful! “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

Many years had passed, but he had never forgotten those penetrating words. The papers had long ago become dirty and frayed and he had finally lost them as he moved about the country. One day as he walked across the main plaza in town, a stranger handed him a gospel tract. At home his daughter read it for him. He was surprised. “This is like the message that came from the sky at my village more than three hundred miles from here, fifty years ago.” The next day he went back to the plaza. The same man was there, and he was speaking about God. Panchito had never heard anybody read from the Bible before, but he recognized the message. The preacher asked, “Do you know that the Bible tells us that we have all sinned?” Panchito nodded his head. He knew this. This was in his paper from the sky. Mr. Alves continued and read from John 5:24: “He that [hears] My word and [believes] on Him that sent Me [has] everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation [judgment]; but is passed from death unto life.” Panchito could hardly sit still. SO, it was true! It was in the Bible!

Panchito went to the preacher. “This is the same message I heard in a paper when I was a child.” He thought for a moment. “This message is true. I am a sinner and I know that God sent His beloved Son into the world so I can be saved and forgiven for all my sins. I believe and receive this message right now, and I must thank God for saving me.” Not only did he welcome the Lord Jesus into his life, but his wife and four of his children and some of his grandchildren also received the message of the Savior and were saved. In order to read more of the Bible on his own, Panchito learned how to read, even though he was not a young man.

Probably the message of the Bible has not come to you from an airplane. Perhaps you have the Bible in your hand or nearby. But the message is the same. We have sinned. God did send His Son into our world to pay for our sins. He was sinless, but He suffered as though He had committed my sin. God offers us the gift of eternal life and salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord.

It’s a message from the sky, from heaven. It’s for the heart. Have you received it?

A Squirrel in Trouble

One beautiful summer day I went out for a walk on Port Williams Beach. It is a long, narrow strip of sand between the Strait of Juan de Fuca and a nearly vertical wall of compressed sand, clay and pebbles that the local people refer to as “high bank.” The high bank is somewhere around 80 feet high. It was cut out of the earth thousands of years ago by glaciers. At the top of the high bank is a band of evergreen trees. Sometimes eagles roost in the branches of these trees.

While I was walking along the beach, I happened to spot a small gray squirrel. I don’t know how he had first gotten down to the beach, but he was definitely out of his element. He was running ten paces one way, and then he would turn around sharply and run back to where he started from. I felt sorry for the furry little creature because the beach with waves pounding the shore is an extremely inhospitable environment for most animals. It had no source of fresh water for the squirrel to drink, or trees with seeds or nuts for him to eat, and precious few places for the squirrel to hide from predators such as eagles. Trapped on the barren landscape of the beach, I didn’t think the squirrel could survive for long.

Suddenly the squirrel did a curious thing. He abruptly stopped his running and jumped onto the wall of the high bank. I saw at once he intended to climb the wall as if it were a giant tree. He seemed to go straight up the wall almost at a run. He was a nimble and agile climber, but no matter how magnificent a climber the little animal was, I could see that there was trouble ahead for him. As I scanned the path the squirrel would have to take to reach the top, I saw that the last fifteen or twenty feet of the high bank formed a flat plane that actually angled back over the beach.

When the squirrel arrived at this section of the wall, he saw it too. He paused for just a moment to consider his path, and then he pressed on. He didn’t get too far before his claws lost what little hold they had on the wall, and he fell backwards, hurtling through the air. His body was so light that I barely heard a little tap when it hit the beach. I didn’t see any way I could help the poor fellow. Hopefully, he wasn’t badly injured and would soon figure out some other way to get back to the woodlands where he belonged.

Squirrels were not meant to live on the barren landscape of a beach, just as men were not meant to live apart from God. But sin has surely separated them from God! As the prophet Isaiah said in chapter 59 of his book, “Your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you.” Instead of living in the barren land of sin and shame, God wants all people to return to Him. “The Lord is...not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).

So that sinners might have a way of escaping the penalty their sins deserve, the Son of God gave His life at Calvary. The blood the Lord Jesus Christ shed on the cross is the power to wash the vilest sinner clean. “The blood of Jesus Christ [God’s] Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:7).

The squirrel trapped on the beach by the high bank knew he had to get back to the forest, and he set off to make an almost impossible climb. Often when men realize that their righteousness is nothing more than filthy rags, they set out to do the impossible too. They try to make themselves righteous by doing good works. But what they are doing is setting themselves up for a great fall, because “by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight” (Rom. 3:20).

Won’t you leave the barrenness of sin behind you forever and place your faith in the One who justifies the ungodly? God loves you and will surely count you righteous the moment you believe on His Son. Once you receive His Son, he will never leave you nor forsake you forever. God in His love has done it all for you by giving His Son. Won’t you believe Him and receive the salvation He freely offers?

Adrift on the Pacific

Three fliers were forced down in mid-Pacific waters. They survived for thirty-four days on a rubber raft, finally reaching a friendly island. This is their story.

Harold Dixon, U.S. Navy, in telling about their experience, says, “All the morning we sat and longed for rain, for we knew if we didn’t get it, we wouldn’t last long, and death by thirst is terrible torture. Gene suggested that we pray for help. I had thought of the same thing too, but had been ashamed to make the suggestion! I know the hesitation was wrong. We had all been brought up in Christian homes, but, like many servicemen, had drifted away from God.

“So in the blazing sun, in shark-infested water, we held our first prayer meeting. Each of us stuttered and mumbled his own way through a prayer, then asked God to bless our families at home and care for them, and, should we die, to protect our shipmates. In His great goodness, God answered. Hardly had we finished praying when there appeared an enormous dark cloud, and down poured the rain. We had our first drink in days!

“Late that afternoon, God still seemed with us, for as I was bringing up my ‘chart’ by marking another day on the port oarlock where I made a mark for each day at sea, the wind shifted abruptly to northeast. This was just what we wanted, especially as it held that way through the night.

“On the evening of the sixth day we decided to hold another prayer meeting. We badly needed more rain and something to eat. We started with singing hymns-that is, we sang what we could remember and hummed the rest. Once more we asked for rain and food and blessings on our families and shipmates.

“Next day we had rain and caught fish. They swarmed around, apparently attracted by our orange-colored raft. Gene caught them by simply leaning over and stabbing them with his pocketknife-these we ate raw. That afternoon we had another shower.”

For thirty-four days these experiences continued, and finally, when all hope seemed gone, the boat reached a friendly island of the Pacific and gently drifted ashore. That night a terrific storm raged, but God had heard and answered prayer and the men were saved.

It is unlikely that such an experience will ever happen to you, but there will be a time when the reality of God and eternity will be forced on you. You may have “drifted away from God” as the three fliers had, but in His patient grace He still pleads with you: “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool” (Isa. 1:18).

Attitude Determines Altitude

The expression, “Attitude determines altitude” is used a lot in education. It is also true in many other ways. For instance, you might be the most successful businessman on planet earth, or you might be a poor, homeless down-and-outer, but no matter who you are, your attitude will determine at what heights you will spend eternity. Your attitude toward the Lord Jesus will determine whether you will make it into heaven’s glorious heights or whether you will spend eternity in the depths of hell. In both cases, attitude determines altitude, and there is no escaping it.

Believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God who became a man, went to the cross, gave His life a ransom for you, and then arose from the grave in the power of an endless life, and you will be saved.

Believe something short of this—that He was only a teacher, merely a prophet, or that He didn’t rise from the grave-and you will never make it into heaven.

Salvation is a priceless gift from God. It is offered free to all for the very good reasons that we all desperately need it and we have no chance of ever earning it. Since “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God,” the man who seems upright in this world needs salvation as much as someone who is vile and contemptible. Only when you have the attitude of those who know they deserve nothing but wrath at God’s hands, and then come to the Savior, will you ever receive the gift of eternal life.

Someone might have a bright, cheerful attitude even in difficult situations. Someone else might have the type of attitude where they tackle every task with enthusiasm and gusto. These attitudes, though praiseworthy as far as they go, would not obtain for them eternal life. The immense gift of eternal life is only given to those who believe with all their hearts on the Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of God. As sinners, we need the Savior. The last thing anyone needs is to deceive themselves into thinking that they might do something to earn God’s grace. Good works will never cancel out the sins we have done in our lives. However, the blood shed on Calvary’s cross can remove those sins once and forever the moment we believe on the Lord Jesus. “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:7).

Attitude determines altitude. You need an attitude of faith in the Savior of sinners if you are ever going to make it into heaven. He is the only Savior of sinners this world will ever know. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31). Won’t you believe on Him that heaven might be your eternal home?

Bandits Use Pepper

It was an Eastern city, nearly 2000 years ago. A funeral had just passed through the gate. The dead man was the only son of his mother, and she was a widow and many people of the city were with her. And when the Lord saw her, He had compassion on her and said unto her, “Weep not.” And He came and touched the stretcher for the corpse, and those that carried him stood still.

And He said, “Young man, I say unto thee, Arise”! And he that was dead sat up, and began to speak. And He delivered him to his mother. And there came a great fear on all; and they glorified God.

It was another Oriental city some twenty-four hundred years ago. A funeral had just passed out through the gate. Many people of the city followed, and the mourners wept, as only those without hope can weep. China’s greatest sage, Confucius, was passing and heard the wails for the dead and saw the procession slowly make its way to the hills outside the city. He passed on to his house-not to eat-but to mourn and fast, in bitterness of soul, for his helplessness.

For nearly twenty-four hundred years China followed the teachings of her dead sage, but both Confucius and his teaching have proved helpless and hopeless. What a contrast to Confucius was the Lord Jesus Christ! For 2000 years—and more—He has been giving life, eternal life, to millions. It is available to all—it is offered to all. Have you received that wonderful life yet? Why not?

Behold, I Come Quickly

The Word of God assures us that the Lord will suddenly come and take the world with as great a surprise as the flood did in the days of Noah, or the destroying fire of God that fell on Sodom. Haven’t we seen recent examples in our own time? The Tsunami? The Pakistan earthquake? And those—terrible though they were—were still limited in their extent. The coming day of judgment will be global.

People may laugh now, as they often have before, and say scornfully, “Where is the promise of His coming?” But God is faithful, and His Word is true. The Lord Jesus speaks from heaven: “Behold, I come quickly” (Rev. 22:7). Again in verse 12: “Behold, I come quickly.” And the third time in verse 20: “SURELY I come quickly.”

Take God at His word. Christ is coming! How soon no one knows-but, PERHAPS TODAY! Can you say, “Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly”?

What about your sins? You dare not meet the Lord with them unpardoned. Oh, bring them at once to the cross! Jesus said, “Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37). No one ever sought forgiveness and was denied.

“He that shall come will come, and will not tarry” (Heb. 10:37).

Choose Now

“Someday,” you say, “I will seek the Lord;

Someday I will make my choice;

Someday, someday, I will heed His Word

And answer the Spirit’s voice.”

God’s time is now, for the days fly fast,

And swiftly the seasons roll;

Today is yours! It may be your last;

Choose life for your precious soul!

Choose now, just now! Your soul is at stake!

Oh, what will your answer be?

It’s life or death, and the choice you make

Is made for eternity.

Choose now, just now, for the Lord is here;

Must He for your answer wait?

Choose now, just now, while the call is clear;

Tomorrow may be too late!

Collision Course

There was terror on Interstate 70. A panic-stricken woman, driving at speeds up to 100 miles an hour, was being pursued by two police cars trying to bring her under control. They radioed for help: “She’s crossed the median strip—airborne—she’s headed east in the westbound lane!

Eastbound—in the westbound lane—on the interstate.

Sergeant Kenneth Pollock was not with the traffic division. He had had years as a trooper on the road and had seen more than enough of traffic accidents. At the latest, his son had died in his arms, a victim of a motorcycle accident. Shaken and grief-stricken, Pollock transferred to the narcotics division and became an undercover agent. Now, in an unmarked police car in the westbound land of I-70, he heard his radio crackling with the officer’s frantic call.

Breaking his cover as an agent, he jumped from his car and held up his badge, waving cars to a stop. Running between the cars, he shouted to people to get out and get away—get away from the road as far as possible.

One couple did not understand or, with their newborn baby girl in their van, may have been too unfamiliar with the infant’s safety seat to get her out quickly. Pollock could see them still in their van at the very head of the line of parked cars.

Only seconds to go! Pollock ran to his car and raced to the front of the line. He looked ahead and “there she was!” The runaway car was heading straight for the van. Gunning his motor, he came up on the van’s left, swerved sharply to the right and stopped directly in front of the speeding car.

Just in time! His car was hit instantly (“it sounded like a cannon going off!”) followed by a second crash as the maverick car plowed into a parked Cadillac-and stopped.

Eager hands helped a dazed Pollock from his smashed car, injured but alive. Three cars were totaled, several people were injured, but no one was killed, not even the woman whose deep depression had sent her racing down the road at suicidal speed.

Kenneth Pollock, no longer a trooper, did not have to risk his life. He did not have to “blow his cover,” to sacrifice all his training in the narcotics division. The man whose life and family were saved by Pollock’s heroism saw the hand of God in the sergeant’s action: “God knew exactly where to put him,” he said.

And we could say that God knew “exactly where to put” Jesus between us and destruction. We have an appointment to keep, an appointment inexorably drawing nearer-how fast we do not know. We are “appointed...once to die, but after this the judgment” (Heb. 9:27). But—“Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many.”

Yes, the Lord Jesus came between us and judgment, came willingly. There was “no cause of death in Him,” but “Christ...suffered for us...who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth...but... His own self bare our sins in His own body on the [cross]” (1 Peter 2:21-24).

The sergeant survived, but his injuries were such that he will probably have to take early retirement. In spite of that, he says, “I’m just so pleased that these people didn’t have to suffer the horror that I went through by losing a child.”

The Lord Jesus was “wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed” (Isa. 53:5). Still, it says of Him, “He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied.”

He was wounded, He was bruised for us—for you—for me. Have you ever realized that the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, gave His life to save your soul? Believe it! Receive it! And thank God that He knew exactly where to put Him-between you and destruction.

“God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

Cyclone

Rain-seventeen inches of rain-and the rivers were all raging torrents. Wind-roaring wind-uprooting trees and un-roofing buildings. And darkness, without moon or stars or electric lights. A night to seek shelter and wait for day. Cyclone “Bola” was striking the north coast of New Zealand, and it was all one swirl of wind and water.

In the midst of the turmoil Colin Devitt heard a message on his radiotelephone. There were people out there-five people stranded in a small truck which was about to be swept away. Colin had only a school bus, a big, bulky, lumbering school Busan unlikely rescue vehicle! But with his father, Alan, he set out through the rising waters.

He reached the place where the truck could be seen out in the middle of the rushing water, and the first thought was that they would have to turn back. Water was running through the cab now; it looked too deep for the bus.

But over the radiotelephone they could still hear the voices of the men in the truck, pleading for their lives. To stay there would be certain death for all five.

Gingerly Colin eased his big bus into the water, struggling through the water and the broken trees and debris that raced along with it. There were now no lights in the bus; their only light came from the headlights of a land cruiser that shone out across the darkness.

Finally pulling up alongside the truck, they had a hard job getting the five people in it into the bus. A frightened woman and a small boy were too terrified to climb across to the bus, an elderly man was in the midst of an asthma attack, and the other two men in the truck had been battling the flood in rescue work until they were exhausted. Somehow they made it, even though by now water was splashing up as high as their windshield and the road was completely hidden.

Safely out of the storm, one of the men told reporters, “Mr. Devitt saved all of us. We owe our lives to him. That guy is more than just a hero!”

Colin Devitt faced tremendous peril to himself when he drove into the flood. His life might have been the price he paid for his mission of mercy. If he had been swept away, the five people on the truck would have had no hope, no chance for life.

We too were once without hope—without God in the world. But the Lord Jesus Christ came down where we were and at the cost of His own life made a way of escape from the flood of judgment that is surely coming on this world. “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Tim. 1:15). How simple that is! And now: “Whosoever believeth in Him...[has] everlasting life.” That is simple too. It just means that the way of escape has been provided, and that anybody who will may believe and receive the salvation He offers. Have you? There is no other way.

Get Right with God

“Get right with God.” Your load of guilt is heavy,

And God alone can take that load away;

He gave His well-beloved Son to suffer

Upon the cross, your every debt to pay.

“Get right with God.” No longer be rebellious

Against the love that seeks your soul to win;

Bow down at last, and as your Lord confess Him

Whose blood alone can cleanse away your sin.

“Get right with God.” Eternity’s before you;

How dark’ twill be as, banished from His face,

You must go forth into a night of sorrow—

A stranger ever to His saving grace.

God Was There the Whole Time

On the morning of May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens suddenly exploded in a tremendous volcanic eruption. About one mile west of the base of the mountain, young David Crockett photographed the almost-unbelievable sights.

Suddenly David glanced up and saw a thirty-foot-high wall of mud, ash and debris cascading down toward him like a tidal wave. “I didn’t stop to think how far away it was. I jumped into the car and got out as fast as I could,” he recalled.

He raced down a gravel road on the valley floor, catching nightmarish glimpses in the rear view mirror of what was following him. Finally, he veered off on a logging road.

“Just as I got down toward the bottom of the valley, the road didn’t just wash out. It exploded! All of a sudden it was gone!”

Unable to drive any further, he left the car and waded on through flowing hot mud and ash. Twice the air around him turned pitch black and he had to stop momentarily until he could see again. Finally he made it to a small hill where he spent the day waiting to be rescued.

“I really felt God was there the whole time. That’s the only way I made it,” David said from his hospital room. “The whole valley was gone. Absolutely gone.” And God surely had preserved David from almost certain death.

David escaped; many others did not, but there is a much greater danger for each one of us than a thirty-foot tidal wave of mud. “The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up” (2 Peter 3:10).

Will you be delivered from that destruction? It can only be if you accept the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior. He loves you, and He wants to save you from the wrath to come.

“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31).

Good News That Wasn't True

The 10:00 A.M. report raced through the West Virginia coal mining town like lightning. “There was an explosion at the mine.” That was true, chillingly true.

At 6:30 A.M. thirteen miners were trapped 10,000 feet from the Sago Mine entrance and about 260 feet underground. January 2006 was off to a tragic start.

“They’ve sent a rescue team to find them.” That was true, reassuringly true.

The Bible describes the similar position we are in. The prophet Isaiah said, Your sins have separated you from God. The Apostle Paul said, You were dead in your sins. Not flattering, but true. It seems we’re trapped, though above ground.

The worried families and friends gathered at the nearby church and got reports every couple of hours. They heard the good news near midnight: “They’ve found them and they’re alive.” That was not true. Very unfortunately, it was NOT true.

In the church and on the streets more than 250 voices celebrated the false good news. Some sang, some cried for joy, but mind-numbing news would come in three hours.

Along the way, I suppose you and I have also heard good news that is not true—such things as, Everybody gets to heaven in the end—God only expects you to do your best—it doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you are sincere. Maybe such news is reassuring, maybe sincerely believed, but still NOT true.

For the families of the miners, the truth exploded like a bomb when the horrible announcement came at 3:00 A.M. Now there were tears of distress, not tears of joy. Twelve miners were dead in this unspeakable tragedy.

Thankfully, the Bible tells us not only the bad news about how we’ve gone so dangerously far astray, but it also brings good news—and it is TRUE. When writing to believers, the Apostle Paul reminds them, “By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast” (Eph. 2:8-9).

I have a question for you. Have you ever welcomed the good news about this gift of salvation? Did you ever first of all believe God’s bad news about your sin and need of a Rescuer?

You are trapped by sin, unable to free yourself. The Bible says that Jesus “is able...to save them to the uttermost [completely] that come unto God by Him” (Heb. 7:25).

Another verse says it this way: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Tim. 1:15).

It may seem too good to be true, but it is TRUE. It is God’s Word.

How Many Baths?

It is hot in India, hot and humid. The blazing sun beats down on the steaming land at midday, but in the early morning hours there is still a little of the night’s coolness left. In the morning light the Ganges River flows softly, its waters reflecting the red and gold of hundreds of minarets and towers on the temples and shrines of the great city, for this is Varanasi, the holiest city in India. It is a beautiful, picturesque scene.

Beautiful, at least from a distance. A closer look reveals that the river is serving as an enormous sewer for the city and for the towns and villages above it. All sorts of trash float by, along with an occasional dead goat or monkey, a half-burned body from the Ghats above, or even a not-at-all-burned body of some beggar who was simply thrown into the river.

Now there is beginning to be a stir and movement along the banks of the river, and women are beginning to come down to the water walking alone or in groups. Surely these women will not touch that polluted water! But yes, one by one they go down to the river and unhesitatingly immerse themselves in it.

Who are they, and why do they do this?

They are widows, Hindu widows, and they are seeking to wash away their sin of widowhood.

All other Hindus are permitted to wash away their sins with one dip in the river, but a widow must do it daily—every single day—for as long as she lives.

When she is too old and feeble to go to the river, friends will still bring her a copper urn of the sacred water every day.

About 10,000 widows live in Varanasi. Most are living in abject poverty, struggling to earn just enough to stay alive, but fervently and devoutly washing to make themselves clean.

Can water, no matter how clean and pure, applied to the outside of the skin make the heart inside clean?

Job says it this way: “If I wash myself with snow water, and make my hands never so clean; yet shalt Thou plunge me in the ditch, and mine own clothes shall abhor me” (Job 9:30-31).

No, the purest water and the most frequent bathing cannot wash away one sin. David, who wrote most of the Psalms, understood this when he prayed to the God he had sinned against, “Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin....Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow” (Psa. 51:2, 7).

A lifetime of washing in the Ganges can never cleanse the heart; the poor widows of Varanasi are throwing their lives away as surely as if they had followed the old Hindu custom of being burned to death on their husband’s funeral pyre. It is a hard, sad life they are doomed to, and all for nothing for nothing.

The Word of God tells us that “the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). Yes, God offers cleansing from sin: “Through this Man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: and by Him all that believe are justified from all things” (Acts 13:38-39).

If only the widows could know that!

Hurricane Allen

With all the devastation caused by hurricanes in recent years, we sometimes forget that there have been other storms that were just as threatening, just as dangerous. One storm, Hurricane Allen, was one of the most dangerous storms ever to threaten the Texas coast. With its swirling winds as high as 170 miles an hour, it was predicted to be “the storm of the century.”

A number of tornadoes spun off from the main hurricane, accompanied by torrential rains. As he viewed the fury of the approaching storm, a weatherman in Brownsville, Texas, was so awed that he ended his weather advisory with a prayer: “May God help us!”

Did God help?

The director of the National Hurricane Center describes how “Allen” slowed its forward speed just enough before it hit land: “We had a very delicate race yesterday. If the storm had moved in to land sooner, it would have hit southern Texas with much more force, and if the landfall had come later, Allen could have raked northward along the entire Texas coast. It was like a hurricane with eyes. Every time it threatened a populated area, there was a little zig in the track.”

What did the headlines say? “LUCK saved Texas!”

“The Lord...commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth the waves....Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and He bringeth them out of their distresses. He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still. Then are they glad because they be quiet....Oh that men would praise the Lord for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men!” (Psa. 107:24-31).

In just the same way that Hurricane Allen threatened the Texas coastal cities, we are threatened by the storm of judgment against sin. God has warned us of this judgment, and He has provided a way that we can be saved from it. Will you trust in “luck” to save you? Or will you trust in the mercy of the Lord? Because “Christ died for our sins,” God offers salvation to all who believe on the Lord Jesus.

"I Don't Want to Be Saved"

On August 29, 2005, hurricane Katrina, with 145 mph winds, wreaked havoc in Louisiana. Part of the city of New Orleans is below sea level and protected by a dike or levee. A storm surge breached the surrounding levee and water flooded into the city. It was devastated.

Many people died in the city. Many houses were under water. Where the water was not so deep, some people would not leave their homes. They had nowhere to go and no means of travel, and they knew that abandoned homes were being looted. Rescuers reached these homes and took people to higher and safer ground.

For others, home is home to them, and they would not leave though the water surrounding their homes was polluted with sewage and dead bodies.

One such person told the rescuers, “I don’t want to be saved.” Exposed to disease, starvation and death, still he would not leave. It is hard to believe that anyone in such a condition would refuse rescue.

Yet many are just as indifferent to the condition of their immortal souls. God’s Word has told us that “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23).

There is, however, an offer of salvation-an eternal salvation free to all who will accept it. “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

The Lord Jesus told some people in His day, “Ye will not come to Me, that ye might have life” (John 5:40).

Dare you say, like some in Louisiana, “I don’t want to be saved”? Or are you willing to accept God’s offer of free salvation?

I Thought I Was Dead

Seventeen-year-old George had thoroughly enjoyed his trip. He and more than sixty others had flown to Lake Tahoe for a weekend of fun and skiing and were now ready to return home.

As the passengers buckled their seat belts in preparation for takeoff, the stewardess aboard the charter flight began her usual warnings concerning safety procedures in case of an emergency. Many of the passengers had heard the warnings so often before that they felt no real need to pay attention to the instructions.

“It seemed like when the stewardess was going through all these safety things,” George said, “everyone was just laughing. I took her seriously.”

Does that sound familiar? Perhaps you have heard the gospel so often and have had warnings as to your soul’s need presented to you so frequently that you no longer feel the need to pay attention.

“It’s just the same old stuff,” you mutter to yourself. “I’ve heard it all before.”

The warnings, however, are necessary. “God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not” (Job 33:14). God has declared that sin is punishable by death, and that “all have sinned.” These warnings sound harsh, and you may be feeling that, while someone else may need these warnings, you certainly do not. But all have sinned, and all need a Savior.

I may have flown thousands of miles in many different types of aircraft and never once needed to put into effect the emergency procedures outlined so carefully by the crew at the beginning of each trip. That does not mean that I can ignore the warnings. Emergencies do occur occasionally, and it is necessary to know the correct procedure to follow.

George and his fellow-passengers heard the instructions, whether or not they needed them, and the charter flight took off.

“All of a sudden we hit some turbulence,” he reported, “and we were going up and down and it was pretty shocking. But everyone was laughing in the airplane and thought it was nothing. I just saw sky out my window,” he continued, “and all of a sudden I saw the ground coming up and the pilot said we were going to crash.”

Suddenly the laughter turned to screams and within seconds it was all over. George, following the safety instructions, had his legs up and his head covered with his hands. He found himself sliding through fire and suddenly realized he was outside the plane. Ripping off his seat belt, which was still attached, he ran from the burning plane as it exploded.

“I thought I was dead,” he recalled. “I was scared!”

George, his father, and one other man survived. Sixty-eight others perished in spite of the safety warnings. Some, depending on their position at the moment of impact, had almost no chance of escape from death. God, however, is offering you a sure escape from coming judgment. He sent His own Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, down to this earth to suffer and to die so that you could escape the wrath to come. The blood which He shed on the cross can wash away every stain of sin and make you ready for an eternity with Himself in heaven.

“The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:7).

Won’t you accept God’s sure offer of salvation today?

I Will Never Walk Again

“Behold, men brought in a bed a man which was taken with a palsy: and they sought means to bring him in, and to lay him before Him [Jesus], and when they could not find by what way they might bring him in because of the multitude, they went upon the housetop, and let him down through the tiling with his couch into the midst before Jesus” (Luke 5:18-19).

This is the story of a sick man who could not come by himself to Jesus. Four faithful friends picked him up with his bed and carried him to the Lord. The way, no doubt, was difficult, and when they came to the house where Jesus was, there was no opening through the crowd for them to bring him to Jesus. But these friends found a way through the roof! There is always a way for those who want to find Jesus.

The Lord Jesus saw not only the physical condition of this man, but also—what was worse by far his sins, and He said to him, “Man, thy sins are forgiven thee.” It is of first importance to know that your sins are forgiven; it is more important even than health.

There was once a woman who had no feet, but she, too, came to Jesus for the healing of her soul. In after years she loved to tell the story of God’s grace.

She had been disappointed by a man. He had promised to love her always and had gotten hold of all her money. Then he left her—an old, old story.

Without God, despairing, she had gone to the railroad tracks and thrown herself in front of a train. After a long while, when consciousness returned, she found herself lying in a hospital bed. She looked around the strange room, and then she tried to rise. A terrible shriek burst from her, a scream of despair. Both of her legs had been cut off by the train!

For days her cries and groans rang through the hospital, and she could hardly be quieted even by sedation. A Christian nurse cared for the poor woman, in a quiet way, loving her and praying for her.

At first the poor invalid would pay no attention to her, but the nurse prayed for a way to speak to this despairing soul. The moment came at last. “Oh, my feet! My feet! Why did I wake up? Why didn’t I die on the track? Why? Why?” After a pause: “Now I’ll never walk again, never be able to go where I want. I’ll be a cripple, eternally fastened to a bed.”

The nurse came to sit by her and gently held her hand. The unhappy woman was quiet for a moment. The nurse asked, “Where did you go when you had good feet?”

The patient looked up and said, “In the morning to work.”

“And then?”

“After work I went home for my supper, and then I walked the streets and met my friends...” She began to cry again.

“And then?”

“Then we would go to a party.”

“And then?”

She tried to raise herself up and said in pain and despair, “I strayed somewhere! Anywhere! I lived on the street.”

“And if you had feet today?”

She wept some more. “It was the only life I knew. But now I’ll never walk again—never—never”

The nurse gently patted her hot, feverish hand and said, “There is one way you could travel yet, and it is the best and most glorious way. If you had good feet, possibly you would not think of going this way.”

“What did you say, nurse?”

Now the nurse told her of the way the man with palsy went through the roof straight to the Lord Jesus, and how he had his sins forgiven. The invalid said no more. That night she could not sleep; she was thinking of the way, the only right way, that those without feet could travel.

The next evening the nurse was on duty again. The sick woman was eager to hear more of the Savior of sinners. And the nurse was glad to respond, “I came to Jesus also, and He is mine and I am His.” And the invalid allowed the nurse to carry her through the roof, as it were, to Jesus. The moment came when she too came to Jesus saying, “Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner.”

“When He [Jesus] saw their faith, He said...thy sins are forgiven thee” (Luke 5:20). So she also, without feet, learned to travel the way to heaven. After this, in telling her story she would say, “It is most beautiful this way, more so than wherever I have gone before.”

Now she tells others how she came to Jesus without feet, and how happy she is in traveling the narrow way. And she has become a guide for many to the Savior. Though she has no feet, she has a heart for the Lord-a heart cleansed by the precious blood of Jesus.

Many have good feet, but many stray away from the Savior. Do you?

Ideal Retirement

People are expecting to live longer and healthier lives than ever before. Baby boomers are reaching retirement age in record numbers. Retirement communities in warm climates are experiencing real estate booms.

Ideally, it would be nice for retirees to have saved enough money to be able to enjoy such things as a comfortable home in a pleasant climate, health insurance and top-notch doctors working in modern medical facilities, and leisure activities such as sports, hobbies, arts and crafts, or travel. Ideally they will retire in good health and with a network of family and friends to supply support and company.

Health, wealth, family and friends are all gifts from God. However, they are not His most important gifts. He has gifts far more important and long-lasting. Take the gift of “eternal life,” for instance. God sent His Son into the world: “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

Just think for a moment what it cost God to offer the gift of eternal life to this world! The Son of God left the glories of heaven and came to this earth to be born in a manger. At the age of thirty He took up His public ministry and traveled incessantly through the country of Israel, healing the sick and preaching the gospel to the poor. After three and a half years of self-denying service, He was taken by men who hated Him because of envy. They arranged to have Him condemned to death. Roman soldiers took Him to a hill called “Calvary,” on the outskirts of Jerusalem. They fastened Him to a cross by pounding nails through His feet and hands. Then they hoisted the cross up and dropped it into a hole in the ground so that it stood upright. There were crowds of men watching the spectacle, and they mocked and taunted Him, saying, “If Thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross.”

For six excruciating hours He suffered on the cross. Every breath He took was pure torture, as He had to pull Himself up against the nails piercing His hands and feet to expand His diaphragm and draw air into His lungs. But the real depth of His suffering on the cross wasn’t physical; it was spiritual. In the last three hours on the cross the sky was darkened and God’s awful wrath against sin fell on His beloved Son. “He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin” (2 Cor. 5:21). The depth of His suffering, when He was made sin for us, no human being will ever be able to fathom. Hear His anguished cry: “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” (Mark 15:34).

Do you know why He was forsaken? He was forsaken because He was bearing the heavy load of our sins so that all that would believe on Him might go free and not bear the punishment their sins deserve. He gave His life at Calvary so that sinners who deserve to die might instead receive the gift of eternal life.

Beware! What men consider ideal retirement may well be a gently sloped road to a lost eternity. The ideal conditions for retirement—health, wealth and leisure—are also well suited for the work of the enemy of man’s soul. Satan knows he has the best chance of keeping souls in the dark about the Savior when they are traveling down a smooth road in life without any potholes, sharp curves or signposts which might cause them to think seriously about their relationship with their Creator. If Satan can get them to the end of life’s road without coming to the Savior, he has a terrible surprise waiting for them. He will have succeeded in his mission, for he knows they will be shut out of God’s presence forever in a place called hell. This malicious, powerful being hates everything God loves, and He does all he can to keep men and women from coming to the Lord Jesus Christ.

By God’s grace, won’t you shake off the tunnel vision that views this life as the be-all and end-all of existence, and realize your need of eternal life and the Savior? What will you do with Christ? Your eternity depends on your answer.

"In Jesus"

I’ve tried in vain a thousand ways

My fears to quell, my hopes to raise,

But what I need, the Bible says,

Is ever, only, JESUS.

My soul is night, my heart is steel—

I cannot see, I cannot feel;

For light, for life, I must appeal

In simple faith to JESUS.

He died, He lives, He reigns

There’s love in all His words and deeds;

There’s all a guilty sinner needs

Forevermore in JESUS.

Though some may sneer, some may blame,

I’ll go with all my gilt and shame,

I’ll go to HIM because His name,

Above all names is JESUS.

Justice

Justice today is a controversial subject. Everyone has an opinion for or against a verdict, and many a loud conversation is devoted to second-guessing the verdicts of the judge and jury.

“Of course he was guilty-but that judge let him off with a slap on the wrist!”

“She looked so innocent, all dressed up so well, the jury just fell for it.”

“It was that lawyer got him off; he should have been executed!”

“Probation-community control-house arrest-what is the country coming to?”

Doesn’t it seem strange that the human sense of right and wrong-of justice-should be so deeply stirred in some instances, and so apathetic in others? There was one Man who never did any wrong. Does a Man deserve to die who “went about doing good”? A Man who healed the sick and opened the eyes of the blind? His enemies could not find one honest charge to bring against Him, and listen to the words of His judge: “Ye have brought this Man unto me....I, having examined Him before you, have found no fault in this Man touching those things whereof ye accuse Him.”

Righteous indignation against tyranny and injustice, so loud in so many cases, is silent here. They delivered Him to be tortured and murdered! Were they ever brought to justice? What was their punishment? The world and its princes took sides with the murderers! Look around you at the world today and see if it is any different.

But God saw, and what a vindication of the Lord Jesus is found in Acts 17:30-31: “God... now commandeth all men everywhere to repent: because He hath appointed a day, in the which He will judge the world in righteousness by that Man whom He hath ordained; whereof He hath given assurance unto all men, in that He hath raised Him from the dead.”

The Judge has been appointed and the day has been set, but the great tribunal is not yet in session. Sure, unerring, divine retribution will fall on all His enemies. The One who was the victim has been appointed the Judge, but the gospel of God is proclaiming a wonderful message of glad tidings to repentant sinners today. Between the committing of the crime and the setting up of the great white throne of justice, He who was the victim and is soon to be the Judge has become the Savior.

“Be it known unto you therefore...that through this Man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins” (Acts 13:38). Oh, the wonder of that love!

Katrina: Who Is to Blame?

When hurricane Katrina’s storm surge broke through the levee and flooded New Orleans, devastating the city, who was to blame?

The engineers who designed the levee?

The public officials who permitted the city to grow up on land that was below sea level?

The individuals who built their homes, businesses and dreams on land that was subject to massive flooding?

The federal government for not making the city safe against a level 5 storm?

The local government for not ordering a general evacuation earlier?

Blame is a heavy load to carry, and apparently there is enough of it to go around for the devastation which occurred in New Orleans. It is an all-too-human trait to want to pass blame around as much as possible in deep hardships, but the question of who to assign blame to for the destruction may not have a simple solution.

Here is another question which is far more important to you than anything concerning Katrina could ever be: When a soul dies without ever having turned to God in repentance, who is to blame for the misery it will have for all eternity? Does it make sense to place blame on any of the following?

Education systems which exclude the concept of a Creator God?

Families that fail to impress on young minds that every human being is ultimately responsible to God for their actions?

The giant entertainment industry which seeks to keep minds so absorbed that they have no time for serious thoughts about eternity?

A culture permeated by an atheistic worldview?

These things are all sadly true, but the responsibility to receive Christ as Savior rests forever with each person. Even though all these things are stacked against it, God has given clear and plentiful witness that Jesus Christ is the Savior men need. From glory He came to be born as a man on earth. In His life He clearly fulfilled distinct, remarkable and innumerable Old Testament prophecies. His teachings were with words of matchless love, grace and power. God confirmed the message of the Lord Jesus through the miracles He performed. Of all men who ever lived, His words alone perfectly matched His deeds and life.

After three and a half years of ministering to the needs of those around Him, He let Himself be taken and nailed to the cross. His sacrifice is the greatest act of love the world will ever know. He is now seated at God’s right hand in heaven. He will come back to earth in judgment, but before He does, during the time of His absence, He is calling souls from this sinful world to believe on Him and receive the gift of eternal life.

Men nailed the Lord Jesus Christ to a cross of shame. They meant to get rid of Him. But God raised Him to the highest place in heaven. His name is now far higher than any other. He is the One that sinners must look to if they ever hope to be saved and to go to heaven. “Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is none else” (Isa. 45:22). He is the One-the only One-who brings life to the world. “In Him was life; and the life was the light of men” (John 1:4). “I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand” (John 10:28).

The word “responsible” means “able to respond.” Every member of the human race is able to respond to His love. If they choose never to do so, they alone will bear the blame and consequences of their decision forever. They are completely without excuse if they never come to Him.

Lost in the Fog

The summer months along the Pacific Northwest Coast are known for quick-moving areas of dense fogs. If you visit any of the small towns that dot the coast during one of these fogs you would certainly hear the low, booming foghorns which almost sound like a cow mooing, only many times louder and deeper. The foghorns sound at regular intervals and are usually located on buoys on open water just outside the mouths of harbors. Sometimes fog is so thick that after passing through it you feel as if you could wring water out of your clothes.

One sunny August morning, Steve Sackman and a group of friends set off from near the mouth of the Quilayute River in Washington to go fishing on the Pacific in a 24-foot boat. Not long after they were out, they hooked into a 35-pound salmon and were having a great time trying to land it on the boat when unexpectedly a giant fog rolled in. The fog was so thick that the men on the boat couldn’t see more than several yards in any direction and soon became disoriented.

The mostly uninhabited coast is dangerous in this area with lots of sea stacks, dangerous currents and rocky islands. The fog blotted out all sight of the landmarks on shore that they were using to steer by. It blotted out all sight of the sun so that the men on board had little hope the fog would soon burn off. They had a compass on board but it seemed dreadfully insufficient to guide them through the many dangerous obstacles in the water. They might have passed within several yards of a safe haven and never known it. Unfortunately, in this sparsely populated region there were no foghorns to guide them to safety.

When it became apparent the fog was not just a small patch but instead a massive fog bank, Steve Sackman took the only sensible course of action. He called for help. His two-way radio was broken and could only receive messages and not send them. So Steve called for help on his cell phone. The 9-1-1 operator quickly put him in contact with the Coast Guard. The problem with calling on a cell phone was that the Coast Guard could not get a fix on the boat’s location like they could if he was calling on a radio. The Coast Guard realized that the lives of the men on the small boat were at risk in the fog and organized a large search effort to find them. They called in several boats, helicopters and planes; one search plane even came from as far away as northern California. They searched over a thousand square miles of sea to find the men.

For a good part of the day and all the night, as well as the morning of the following day, the fishing boat remained lost in the fog. Early in the afternoon of the second day a fishing boat with a much better electronic navigation system was cruising along, monitoring the Coast Guard’s effort to find the lost boat on the radio, when they spotted the missing men in the boat. They were able to lead the missing boat to a Coast Guard ship which eventually brought them to safety.

A day and a half is a long time to spend lost in the fog at sea. However, a great many people are remaining lost in a different type of fog for a lot longer than a couple of days. It seems as if a great fog bank of unbelief has rolled in over the hearts and minds of many people and is blocking out the knowledge of God from their sight. Just as the fog blotted out the sight of the sun from the fishermen on the boat, so the fog of unbelief is blotting out “the Sun of righteousness [who shall] arise with healing in His wings” from the hearts and minds of people (Mal. 4:2).

The Sun of righteousness is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. His righteousness shines infinitely brighter than any other who has ever lived. In the Gospels you can read of His perfect life in the midst of all sorts of evil. His perfect devotedness to others even led Him to the cross where He gave His life a sacrifice for sinners.

The fog of unbelief is so thick that men can’t see for themselves how near God is to them. They don’t see that it is God who made them, and God who has cared for them every moment of their lives, and who even now at this very second is the One who gives them breath to keep them alive: “He giveth to all life, and breath, and all things” (Acts 17:25).

Don’t let the fog bank of unbelief that seems to have covered so much of the world keep you from coming to the Savior. God loves you! He has done all that is necessary so that the guilt of your sin might be put away forever. If you have been wandering around lost in the fog of unbelief, it is not too late to change. Call out to God for help, open your eyes to see His wonderful grace, believe and receive the salvation which is in Jesus Christ alone.

Lost on a Dark Mountain

Brian Gawley was in training for running in high-altitude marathon races. He mentioned to a friend that he was driving up into the mountains for a long run for a workout. Unfortunately, he did not tell his friend specifically what trail he was going to take.

He parked his car at the Appleton Pass Trailhead in the Olympic Park and then ran ten miles on a trail through heavily wooded mountainsides. When he got to his destination, he took some time to explore some side trails. During all his running he hadn’t seen another person.

He thought he had given himself plenty of time to run the ten miles back to his car before sunset, but when he was still miles away from his car darkness fell on the mountains. Brian continued to travel in the night, thinking he could find his way in the dark. Unknowingly, he wandered off the main trail, and continued to walk for a while. At one point he slipped and banged his head against something. In the darkness he couldn’t even tell what he had bumped into.

With a throbbing head he realized he was lost and that it was too dangerous to try to travel anymore. He decided to stay right where he was for the night. He was wearing shorts, a T-shirt and running shoes. September nights in the mountains can get very cold. Often, during the night, his body would start uncontrollably shaking. To warm himself, he would stretch his arms and legs in an effort to get his blood circulating. He couldn’t sleep at all.

If the run had gone according to his plan, Brian would have made it to his car with daylight to spare. However, the evening light faded quickly from the sky, and he lost his way in the dark. When souls don’t see their need of God, how quickly a spiritual darkness settles over them! In the darkness they wander on paths that lead to destruction. “Wide is the gate, and broad is the way, which leads to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat.” It is called the broad way because there are so many crowded on it that it has to be wide to accommodate them all. People want to live just as they please, without regard for God, and just about anything is permissible.

Where does the broad way eventually lead? Does it lead to a fun-filled life? Deep heart satisfaction? No, it inevitably leads to dissatisfaction, death and eternal destruction in hell. People who have loved darkness in this life will, at death, be sent to the utter darkness of hell. There is no escape.

Brian Gawley didn’t like being lost in the dark. If you don’t like being lost in spiritual darkness you can look to the Savior. “I am the light of the world,” the Lord Jesus said; “he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness.” Only in His light can men or women who have wandered onto the paths of darkness ever find the way to safety, freedom and life. If you want to get on the path that leads to life, you need to come to the Savior.

You can be sure the Lord Jesus is searching for you. In the parable of the lost sheep, a shepherd leaves his flock of ninety-nine and goes out to search for his one lost sheep. Perhaps the shepherd had to search at night on a dark mountainside full of dangers. He searched until he found it. Then, rejoicing that he had found that which was lost, he brought the sheep home. The Lord Jesus is like that shepherd, and sinners who are in darkness are like the lost sheep. All heaven rejoices when a sinner gets saved and is brought home to the God who loves him.

Brian Gawley remained lost on the mountain for two more nights before he was located by searchers and brought home to safety. How much longer will you remain in the darkness before you come to Christ Jesus for salvation? “There is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” Won’t you come to Him today?

New Orleans

UNIMAGINABLE! The headline of a New Orleans newspaper fairly shrieked across the front page as hurricane Katrina came ashore with death and destruction in its wake. But was it unimaginable? No, not really. Some minds have imagined and considered and had nightmares about the probability of such disaster for many years.

More than seventy years ago, a ten-year-old child visited the great city and was taken to see the levees that held back the water from the city. Looking up, far above her head, she could see ships traveling on the water beyond the protective levees, and she added a bit to her bedtime prayer: “Please, Lord Jesus, don’t let the levees break!”

Was it just a child’s imagination? By no means! New Orleans was below sea level, sinking lower and lower over the years, and within reach of dangerous hurricane winds and the turbulent waters of the Gulf of Mexico. What a blueprint for disaster it became!

Geologists, coastal engineers, climatologists—all have discussed the dire possibilities and have published their predictions and opinions of possible hurricane damage. Little more than a year ago a national magazine published an almost exact scenario of the damage if a major hurricane struck the city. A geologist from the University of New Orleans said, “It’s not a question of if it will happen; it’s when.”

No, there was no lack of imagination!

But the sky was blue, the sunshine was warm, and it was so easy to forget care and worry and just live in the present.

Now it has happened, and it is eerily predictive of another day, a future disaster, a time called the “Great Tribulation,” “that shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth” (Revelation 3:10).

The great wind of the hurricane came first, about 135-145 mph, but the strongest winds blew to the east and demolished coastal towns in Mississippi and Alabama. Citizens of New Orleans breathed a sigh of relief, congratulating themselves that “it missed us again!”

One could almost hear a voice from Rev. 9:12: “One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter.” A listener might not hear the surging storm water in Lake Pontchartrain, but it quietly overtopped the levees and opened wide breaches in the protecting walls.

Soon the water was standing over 80% of the city. Power systems flooded, making the pumps that the city depended on shut down. Thousands of people were stranded on rooftops, in attics, or anywhere to avoid the dirty, polluted water. With inadequate shelter, there was little food or drinkable water; looting and arson soon broke out, overwhelming police and firefighters and all the forces of law and order. Chaos!

One person described it as “a disaster of Biblical proportions.” It was not that in size, but a preview of the time of the Apocalypse that is coming, not if, but when. Is it a warning for all of us, whether living in a hurricane zone or not? Absolutely! We are already hearing of “wars and rumors of wars... famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes....These are the beginning of sorrows.”

But-before the storm struck New Orleans, there were warnings: Evacuate! Get to higher ground! This is not a test; this is real! And more than a million obeyed and escaped the horrors threatening the city.

Have we had our final warning? How much longer will the road to salvation and safety be open? Tomorrow, that road may be closed. Then “how shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?” But today, in this one little moment of time, God still looks on humanity, “and if any say, I have sinned, and perverted that which was right, and it profited me not; He will deliver his soul from going into the pit, and his life shall see the light” (Job 33:27-28).

Nicodemus

Many years ago there lived in Jerusalem a man named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. He was connected with a respectable denomination called the Pharisees, who followed all the laws and traditions strictly, and rigidly kept all the fasts and feasts.

During the Passover week when a great many strangers from all over the country were in the city, there was a great stir about one Jesus of Nazareth who was at that time in Jerusalem. He was said to be working miracles and had thrown out of the temple a number who had been making a market of that holy place. The denomination to which Nicodemus belonged was against Him, almost to a man.

In spite of this, Nicodemus was not satisfied. He would not be led by public opinion, but was determined to go and hear for himself. So after it was dark one night he set off alone to have an interview with Jesus.

Before Nicodemus had been very long in the company of Jesus, he was told that “except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3).

This shocked him; he believed in men being religious and keeping the law, but of being born again he knew nothing. Then Jesus told him something else more startling: “Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.” Not only wicked men, like thieves and murderers, need to be born again, but also you-your own self!

This cuts at the root of all religion. It does not matter how good people are, or what denomination they belong to; Jesus says they must be born again or never enter the kingdom of God. They may say their prayers, read their Bibles, and “do the best they can,” but if they are not born again they cannot see the kingdom of God. It’s a must be.

A man once said that he did not think he needed to born again because he was brought up religiously as a Christian. Now, if any man could have gone to heaven without it, that man was Nicodemus, and yet to him the Savior said: “Ye must be born again.” We know that Nicodemus believed the necessity for the new birth and that he received it. He was quite literally born again! That timid man, who came to Jesus in the dark so that no one would know, later stood boldly in the midst of the chief priests and Pharisees and defended Jesus. Truly, a new man.

What must one do to be born again? Not pray for it; not work for it; not try to love God, but receive Jesus Christ, the gift of God. Listen! “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son,” and “as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name.”

When a person receives Jesus Christ, he becomes a Christian. In other words, he becomes God’s child.

Have you received Jesus as your own Savior? Are you a believer? Do you believe that the Jesus who died for you was the Christ of God-that He lived, He died, and He rose again, for you? If not, you are at this moment outside the kingdom of God. If you live outside and die outside, you will be outside of heaven but inside of hell forever.

Not Ready

The Honda diesel generator purred smoothly as the old man stood beside it. Just the look on his face said he was pleased, satisfied.

“Yeah, she started right up as usual. Listen to her!”

He spoke again to his listener, my friend Larry: “I do this every Thursday. Don’t ever want to be stuck in the winter cold. Got to be ready!”

That last comment sounded strange, because that very afternoon last week, in Deep River, the thermometer was bursting past 102°F.

“Got this baby before Y2K. Have to think ahead! If we ever need it, the wife and me, we’re ready!”

Larry spoke now. “Can I leave you this Bible verse poster to put on the fridge or the wall? It’s a verse about God’s love to us, how He sent His Son here to save us?”

The man was startled. “No way,” he said curtly. “I’m 87 years old. I have no time for that religious stuff. My dad was a minister, and when I left home almost 70 years ago, I left all that behind.”

He wasn’t finished yet. “I don’t know if there’s a heaven or a hell. If there is, I’m probably going to hell, but I don’t care.”

Think about that! He starts his generator every Thursday throughout the boiling summer, just to be ready for a cold day next December, if the power goes off. “Got to be ready.”

What amazing, calculating carefulness! He’s been prepared for the last five or six years. He could be admired in one way, but the old fellow is a fool. Not that I would call him that-God calls him that.

In Luke 12, Jesus tells of a man who had great plans for his farm, made all the preparations, calculated all the risks. Only one error-he had left God out-had no time to think of Him. He is called a fool. Why? Because he prepared for life but did nothing, thought nothing, about eternity. What’s eternity? That’s the longest journey you’ll ever be on. When your life here ends, timeless eternity begins. Ever thought about it? Made preparations?

Somebody gave me this acrostic for the word “Bible”:

Basic

Instructions

Before

Leaving

Earth.

Could I encourage you to dust off the old Bible and turn to John 3? Now see for yourself just what Jesus says about eternity, about being ready, about being born again, about our sins and God’s judgment, about His disdained love.

It’s all there, and more. Think ahead—be ready!

Now I See

The soul whose eyes close in death loses sight of earthly things and awakes to eternal realities. Knowledge is definite and clear.

For one who dies an unbeliever, there can be nothing but misery. God as Savior, the source of all mercy, is unknown and unloved. There is nothing now to help this unbeliever to forget or to blind his eyes. “Now I see”—the awful reality of the judgment of God.

While life and health are yours, we beg you to put your trust in Him. “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him” (John 3:36).

For the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, to depart this life to be in His presence is perfect joy. He who opens the eyes both of the body and of the soul gives the seeing one to say, “Whereas I was blind, NOW I SEE” (John 9:25)!

Ocean Currents

The oceans are never still. Besides the waves, which whip the surfaces of the great reaches of water so that they resemble seascapes of mountains and valleys, underneath its surface are currents. Whether storm rages or calm persists, these currents never stop moving in their prescribed paths around the world. The surf that washes the coasts of one continent is likely the same water that flowed through some mid-ocean trench a short time before.

The North Pacific Current travels the greatest stretch of open water on the globe, flowing unhindered across six thousand miles of open ocean from Japan to the northwest coast of the United States. Beachcombers in this part of the United States often find Japanese glass fishing floats that traveled the breadth of the ocean. These currents can carry everything that floats on the sea. They can carry a giant ship as easily as a gull’s feather. In fact, unless an object has a means of propelling itself, the force of the current is irresistible.

The ocean currents are powerful, but there is one current—time—that carries everything before it, and no one has found a way to resist its power. Every single thing in creation is being swept along by it. Not a single person, not a single thing is outside its influence. As every second ticks, as every minute passes, as every day changes to night, you are traveling on this mighty current and are closer to the time when you must leave this world.

One lifetime is the amount of time that God has given each one of us in which to make the most important decision of all: whether or not to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. This is of ultimate importance, because after death it will be too late to respond to God’s invitation to receive salvation as a free gift. No one will be able to say that he didn’t have enough time to respond to God’s message of love. Of course, we don’t know when our lives will be over, so the only wise thing to do is to consider the claims of the Lord Jesus now and receive Him as Lord and Savior immediately.

For everyone who chooses to refuse, reject, or even just neglect the offer of free salvation, this great current of time is inexorably moving him or her to the moment when he or she must die and face God’s fiery judgment against sin. A verse in the Bible reads, “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Heb. 9:27).

Another verse reads, “Our God is a consuming fire” (Heb. 12:29). The same Christ through whom men were invited to receive salvation in this life will be the One who sits in judgment and in supreme power sentences unbelievers to eternity in the lake of fire.

That is why it is so important to hear the gospel now. Consider it seriously and in faith receive it. It tells us what God has done in this day of grace so that sinners will not have to face Him in the Day of Judgment.

Only One Man

Is it possible that the great God above can care for one soul among all the millions of the earth? It is! The One who came to tell us all about the heart of God said, “Likewise, I say unto you, there joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth” (Luke 15:10). God desired that all should be saved, but He and all His angels rejoice over one. Have they rejoiced over you yet? The lifeboat men will save the whole of the shipwrecked crew if they can; if not, they rejoice to be able to bring even one safe to land. An example of this can be found in the records of the Deal lifeboat.

Looking out through his glass late one spring evening, Richard Roberts, the coxswain of the lifeboat, saw a new wreck upon the Goodwin Sands and, close to it, a solitary man. He was running wildly about, as if afraid of standing still lest the treacherous sands should suck him in. Only one man! Was it worthwhile launching the lifeboat for his sake?

The lifeboat men had no question at all about that, for as soon as the tide would permit there was a rush for life belts and the boat sped to the rescue. But to save that one man was no light matter. Night came over the scene, inky black, and their eyes could see nothing. The waves rolled over the boat, and though they shouted and strained their ears for an answer, no voice could be heard above the noise of the sea. They could only cast anchor and wait through the long night for the dawn.

With the first gray light they caught sight of the object of their search. He was not more than four hundred yards away, staggering towards the boat that had come to save him. Soon they were able to get him off those deadly sands and into the safety of the boat.

Unable to save himself, help came to him from without. So “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Tim. 1:15). Has He saved you?

The saved man was captain of a Norwegian boat which had run aground on the sands, and he had seen the six men that formed his crew drown before his eyes. He had lashed himself to the mast, and so he escaped the fate of the rest. When the tide fell and the wreck stood out of the water, he had unlashed himself and had for hours run up and down the sands. When the tide rose and night came on again, he had returned to the wreck.

He received a royal welcome when he was brought into the town of Deal, and, depend upon it, not one of the lifeboat men begrudged the labor and the hardships he had undergone to save only one man.

Oh, the value of one soul, who can estimate it? The whole world is nothing in comparison with it. For one soul, as well as for millions, Jesus died. For one soul He seeks today, and that one soul is yours. Welcome Him—welcome Him now.

Take this message from God Himself to you and make it your very own: God so loved you, that He gave His only begotten Son, that if you will believe in Him you shall not perish, but have everlasting life.

Then, over your one soul there will be joy in the presence of the angels of God, and with joy you can exclaim, “The Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me” (Gal. 2:20)!

Out of This Life

Out of this life I cannot take

Things of silver and gold I make;

All that I cherish and hoard away,

After I leave, on earth must stay.

Though I call it mine and boast its worth,

I must give it up when I quit the earth;

All that I gather and all that I keep

I must leave behind when I fall asleep.

I wonder often just what I shall own

In that other life where I go alone;

What shall He find, and what shall He see

In the soul that answers the call for me?

Shall the great Judge say, when I am through,

That I’ve laid up treasure in heaven, too?

Or shall it at last be mine to find

That all I had worked for I left behind?

Out of This Life

Out of this life I cannot take

Things of silver and gold I make;

All that I cherish and hoard away,

After I leave, on each must stay.

Though I call it mine and boast its worth,

I must give it up when I quit the earth;

All that I gather and all that I keep

I must leave behind when I fall asleep.

I wonder often just what I shall own

In that other life where I go alone;

What shall He find, and what shall He see

In the soul that answers the call for me?

Shall the great Judge say, when I am through,

That I’ve laid up treasure in heaven, too?

Or shall it at last be mine to find

That all I had worked for I left behind?

Payment with a Million-Dollar Bill

A young woman piled a load of expensive electronic equipment into a shopping cart and pushed it up to a cashier’s desk in a major department store. At first she attempted to pay for it using a credit card. When the store’s computer rejected her little piece of plastic, she searched in her purse and brought out a million-dollar bill. The cashier looked at it for a moment. It looked like genuine U.S. currency; it even had the feel of real money. However, the cashier was naturally suspicious. He called the store’s manager, and he at once contacted the police. They came quickly and, after a brief investigation, arrested the woman for trying to use counterfeit money.

To the cashier, it seemed too good to be true that a shopper whose credit card had just failed should have the means to pull a million-dollar bill out of her purse, and she was absolutely right. The million-dollar bill was a fake. Most of us have learned that when other people make offers too good to be true, we should be on our guard. Such offers are usually only attempts to take advantage of us.

Although men may sometimes seek to take advantage of us, God never will. He is making an incredible offer to you too. The offer is so great that it seems to our natural minds too good to be true. He is offering the gift of eternal life to all who will simply place their faith in His Son. “The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 6:23).

We live in this world and are so used to dealing with other human beings who, just like ourselves, are full of shortcomings such as deceit and selfishness that we naturally suspect everything. We fail to recognize that God is far different from us. He has no shortcomings. He is perfect in knowledge, in goodness, in truth and in love. “God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.”

The offer of eternal life doesn’t come from a human being like us. It comes from the supreme Being of the universe. Men may use deceit, but He never will. The offer to bring ruined sinners into His favor for all eternity is absolutely true. He can make this offer because in love He sent His Son into the world to give His life for sinners. “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

“Ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold...but with the precious blood of Christ.” To be “redeemed” means to be bought at a great price and delivered from the destruction that will inevitably overtake all people who remain in their sins. The Lord Jesus paid with His life’s blood so that all who believe on Him might be redeemed. What an incredible price God was willing to pay so that we might spend eternity with Him in heaven!

To all of mankind, who by their deeds deserve the darkness of a lost eternity, God is making this offer: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31). God is supremely trustworthy, and He will never fail in keeping any of His promises. This offer is meant for you. He wants you to take it. He wants you to receive the gift of eternal life and be His child forever.

What holds you back from taking it? Men may have hurt you in the past by their deception, but God never will. Oh, come to the One who is faithful and true, who makes incredible promises and keeps them to the fullest! The gift of eternal life is the most astounding gift anyone could ever receive. So even if the offer at first seems almost too good to be true, won’t you believe on the Lord Jesus that this gift might be yours?

Pharos

From 285 B.C. until the middle of the fourteenth century, Pharos, the greatest lighthouse in the ancient world, sent its beacons far out over the Mediterranean. How welcome must have been the sighting of the lighthouse to mariners of old who, traveling along a dangerous coast, used it to guide their ships into the safe harbor at Alexandria, Egypt. So impressive was this structure that over the years the name “Pharos” became the word meaning “lighthouse” in many languages, such as Spanish, Italian, French and Portuguese.

The structure was a monumental feat in ancient engineering. The tower, made of marble blocks, stood over four hundred feet or forty stories tall. The base of the tower was a large square; the midsection was an octagon, while the topmost section was built in the shape of a cylinder. Fuel was hauled to the top of the lighthouse through a shaft in the center of the tower. Near the top of this tower a huge bonfire was lit every night. A great mirror reflected the light from the bonfire and created a beam of light strong enough to be seen by ships over thirty-five miles away.

The lighthouse was so well engineered and constructed that it stood for nearly 1700 years before it was damaged beyond repair by an earthquake.

Did you know that God’s Word is like a tall and powerful lighthouse? It sends out its beams into a world made dark by sin and unbelief. Its light can reach into the darkest heart and give it hope.

“The entrance of Thy words giveth light” (Psa. 119:130). It shows sinners how to find the way of salvation by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave His life at Calvary. “God commendeth His love towards us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8).

He paid the penalty of sin, which is death, so that all who believe on Him might be saved. When sinners obey God’s Word and believe on the Lord Jesus, it is as if they enter into the one harbor where they can find safety from sin, death and judgment to come. “Look unto Me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else” (Isa. 45:22).

If you are out on life’s sea, tossed about by storms and not knowing in the darkness which way to turn, won’t you let the light from God’s Word direct you to the Savior? Coming to the Lord Jesus you will find life, light and the sure hope of spending an eternity with Him in heaven. Once you come to know Him as your Savior, He will never cease to guide you during your whole life. However, if you continue to live as if you don’t need the Lord Jesus, at some time in the future you will sadly perish in the outer darkness of hell because you chose to reject Him. No light shines in that awful place, not even the faintest glimmer. Don’t pass the Savior by. You need Him very much, more than you can possibly need anything else.

Pharos far surpassed other buildings in height, greatness and excellence of construction. In time it became known as one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The Lord Jesus is wonderful too! Because He is of surpassing glory, He is even given the name of “Wonderful.” “Unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given: and the government shall be upon His shoulder, and His name shall be called WONDERFUL” (Isa. 9:6).

It is wonderful that He came into this world seeking for sinners. It is wonderful that He gave His life on Calvary’s cross and completed the work so all who believe might be saved. It is wonderful that He arose from the grave, victorious over sin, death and Satan, and now lives forevermore. His name is Wonderful, and “wonderful” describes everything He does. Won’t you believe on Him that you might have life through His name?

Profit or Loss?

What will it profit, when life here is done,

Though great worldly wisdom I gain,

If, seeking knowledge, I utterly fail

The wisdom of God to obtain?

What will it profit, when life here is done,

Though gathering riches and fame,

If, gaining the world, I lose my own soul,

And in heaven unknown is my name?

What will it profit, when life here is done,

Though earth’s farthest corners I see,

If going my way, and doing my will,

I miss what His love planned for me?

What will it profit? My soul, stop and think

What balance that day will declare:

Life’s record laid bare, will gain turn to loss

And leave me at last to despair?

Queen of the North

A passenger described what it felt like when The Queen of the North, cruising at 17 knots an hour through Canada’s Inside Passage, hit a submerged rock shortly after midnight. He said he felt a “bump,” not a crash, not a terrific jolt, but simply a “bump.” That seemingly insignificant encounter put a hole in the hull of the 115-meter-long ferryboat. It spelled disaster. Immediately after the impact the ship’s alarm bell rang. The bell was loud, long and discordant, signifying something dreadful had taken place. The captain quickly reviewed the situation and gave the order to abandon ship. He sent out an S.O.S. message over the radio urgently requesting aid. Many small fishing boats from a nearby village responded quickly. Efficiently, the well-trained crew helped passengers over the side of the ferry into the waiting, small craft.

As a final precaution, to ensure no one was being left behind, the captain ordered one of his crew to knock on the door of every sleeping compartment. Quickly the crewmember went through the corridors of the ship pounding with his fist on every door. At last, satisfied, the captain left the ship with the last of the crew. A short time later, those on the small craft which were circling around the stricken ship heard a loud hissing noise from the direction of the ship. They trained their spotlights on it and saw the bow disappear beneath the waves, causing the giant stern, white against the night sky, to rise rapidly out of the water, and then they watched as the ship with a horrible finality nose-dived to the bottom of the sea. The ship sank less than an hour after hitting the rock.

The survivors made their way to the nearby village. A count was made, and it was discovered that 2 of the 101 passengers were still missing. An extensive search was organized at once. When the two were not found, authorities came to the awful conclusion that the couple went down with the ship. Didn’t they hear the alarm bell? Didn’t they hear the knocking at the doors? Did they sleep soundly through both? Or did they hear the alarm and the knocking and think they were part of a drill which they might ignore? These questions will never be answered with any certainty, because the ship sank in 457 meters of water and is not likely to reveal any secrets. We are passing through this world at a rapid rate. Every day, every hour brings us closer to eternity. Have you heard God’s warnings about hell?

The verses in the Bible about this awful place ought to sound like alarm bells in our souls. Holy men of old were inspired by the Holy Spirit to write and speak about hell, as well as the Lord Jesus Himself. Here are just a few of many verses which speak of this terrible place which is waiting to receive sinners. “The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God” (Psa. 9:17). “Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matt. 25:41). “The fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death” (Rev. 21:8). These verses sound an alarm to horrible dangers. They are the real thing. They are not a drill. They are not an idle threat that God has no power to carry out. No one may ignore them with impunity. Sadly, many seem to be spiritually comatose and cannot hear the warning they contain. Don’t be among those who think these verses couldn’t possibly apply to themselves. “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23).

The Bible uses the word “everlasting” to describe the punishment of those who never repent. “These shall go away into everlasting punishment” (Matt. 25:46). How important it is for you to hear these warnings about eternal punishment and then turn to the Savior before it is forever too late. For those who become alarmed over the danger of their sinful condition, the Bible has good news. “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Tim. 1:15). He came to this earth, died, and rose again, with a special mission of reclaiming sinners for God. “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:32). The blood He shed on the cross has such infinite merit before God that it can wash away the darkest stains of sin. “The blood of Jesus Christ His [God’s] Son, cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). He invites all men to receive this cleansing and to be saved. “The Lord is...not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).

One of the last things the captain did before leaving the ship was to order a crewmember to knock on the doors throughout the ship. A verse in Revelation presents the Lord Jesus as knocking too. “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” (Rev. 3:20). Have you heard Him knocking at the door of your heart? No matter what your past may have been, He wants you to open and let Him in. He wants to be your Lord and Savior and to bless you for time and eternity. You may take Him as your Savior by placing your faith in Him, and then confessing Him before men. “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved” (Roman 10:9).

Isn’t the fact that you are reading this message proof that the Lord Jesus is knocking on the door of your heart? A songwriter wrote: Behold the Savior at the door: He gently knocks, has knocked before; Has waited long, is waiting still; You use no other friend so ill! Don’t let His knocking on your heart go unanswered. Don’t keep Him waiting, but believe on His name that the gift of eternal life might be yours. “This is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son” (1 John 5:11).

Refuge

Dark the clouds we see approaching,

Fierce and strong the winds that blow;

Wise are they who find the refuge-

Peace forever there to know.

God has sounded out His warnings

Ever since the fall of man;

Pointing to the only refuge-

And that refuge is a Man!

There was none in earth or heaven

But that One, that One alone,

Who could win the bitter battle-

Who for us could sins atone.

His the power; He has conquered;

His the victory for His own-

He Himself the only Refuge-

Other refuge there is none.

Satan's Clock

Satan’s clock is always wrong-it is either too fast or too slow. He tells the deluded soul it is too late; he is too big a sinner; he has “sinned away the day of grace.” His clock is too fast!

Or he tells the procrastinator to be saved, but not just yet. It is too soon; he must have a good time first. After all, he is only young and must see life. He is in business, and business must be seen to. Oh yes, he must be saved, but everything in its own time.

A little later will do—his clock is too slow!

An American missionary had been holding a series of special evangelical meetings in China, and at one of the closing services three eminent statesmen, Sun Yat Sen, Wu Ting Fang and Admiral Chen, were present. The audience was obviously moved by the gospel appeal, and Admiral Chen indicated his desire to accept Christ. As he spoke of his intention, his friend, Wu Ting Fang, whispered to him, saying, “Why not wait until tomorrow?”

Unable to persuade him to decide then, the missionary asked the admiral when he could see him to talk again of these things. “Oh,” said Admiral Chen, “call and see me at eleven in the morning.”

But as he was leaving the building, an assassin shot him and he was fatally wounded. At eleven in the morning, at the very hour when he proposed to make the great decision, his funeral service was being concluded.

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

Have you accepted Christ as your Savior? The time is NOW!

Such an Offer

“Such an offer!” Full and free!

Was it really meant for me?

That all my sins on Christ were laid?

That all my debt by Him was paid?

Yes. He says it, who has died-

“Believe,” and you are justified.

“Such an offer!” Pardon now

For hidden sin, and broken vow?

Yes, Jesus died for you and me;

His death for ours must be our plea.

Oh, what goodness! Lord, I take

This offer Thou dost freely make!

My one desire now shall be

To live for Him who died for me!

Surveillance

The pictures were all too clear! The little girl was struggling to escape from the grip on her arm, as the determined man dragged her away. The video camera rolled on unnoticed until the “missing child alert” went out. Then the search for clues to her disappearance quickly turned up the little camera, and the tape was viewed-viewed and broadcast widely on TV.

The phones at the police station began to ring: “I know that man!” “That’s the fellow who works at the station!” “It can’t be my neighbor. He seems such a nice man!”

But it was the seemingly “nice” neighbor; the callers all recognized him: his face, his clothes, even his tattoos, and the court-appointed defense lawyer had an impossible task. There was no arguing with the camera.

Sadly, only the body of the child was found.

Another unnoticed camera was rolling one night in a little store. The night clerk was alone behind the counter when a young man came in looking for money or drugs. The clerk refused him. The intruder leaped over the counter, gun in hand, and fired one shot-one fatal shot. There were no witnesses-at least, no living witnesses-but the videotape that was running showed the whole sequence of events clearly. Another impossible task for a defense lawyer!

Even the small details of everyday life do not escape that continual surveillance. Certainly an unmanned tollbooth on the highway has tempted many a driver to pass by the booth without paying, only to be surprised a few days later to receive a notice that his license plate was photographed at such a place and such a time, and the fine is _____!

These are not isolated incidents. We little realize how often our actions are “caught on camera” how many little cameras are rolling all over the world. Technology has made possible a huge network of surveillance, although it is very, very limited. It cannot compare with the all-seeing eye of God.

Now that is something to think of with wonder and awe. We know that God is omniscient: Do we know what that means? He knows all. All? Yes, truly all. Even the “thoughts and intents” of your most secret heart. “Intents”? Acts not even committed, only thought about? If God can do that, what sin can be committed without His knowledge?

Not one!

The Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, said, “Nothing is secret, that shall not be made manifest; neither anything hid, that shall not be made known” (Luke 8:17). If even our worst, most sinful thoughts are known to God, what chance have we of entering into His holy heaven where nothing corrupt or defiling can enter? None at all, in our own efforts, our own worthiness, our own goodness.

But God, “who is rich in mercy,” has made a way. He gave His Son, His only beloved Son, to die for our sins. Isn’t that just overwhelming? God’s Word, the Bible, says it so plainly: “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8). More than that, we are promised that “whosoever believeth in Him [Jesus] shall receive remission of sins.”

“Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered” (Rom. 4:7). Sins covered and forgiven! And it is GOD who covers them, that same all-seeing, all-knowing God who says “their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.”

Have you admitted to God that you are a sinner and received that wonderful forgiveness? There is no entry into heaven without it!

Testimony About Jesus

Pontius Pilate, the Governor: I, having examined Him before you, have found no fault in this man (Luke 23:14).

Pilate’s wife: Have thou nothing to do with that just man (Matt. 27:19).

Herod, the king: Nothing worthy of death (Luke 23:15).

Judas: I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood (Matt. 27:4)

The repenting thief: This man hath done nothing amiss (Luke 23:41).

The Roman centurion at Calvary: Certainly this was a righteous man (Luke 23:47).

The Anchor

Fears undetermined plagued my mind

Of things illusive, undefined;

I tried religions, one by one,

And ended worse than I’d begun;

I sought for pleasures, found them brief;

Not anything brought real relief.

Good friends I thought sincere and fast,

Proved disappointing at the last;

That on which I once relied—

Self-righteousness and foolish pride—

I found to fail me in the test;

My wandering soul could find no rest.

Philosophy—the “good thought” trend—

Still left me empty in the end;

Adrift upon life’s troubled sea,

There seemed no anchor sure for me;

Then I was introduced one day

To One who knew the troubled way.

He had experienced it before

And knew I’d never make the shore

Alone—and on my own;

He paid the full price for my fare

Across the troubled waters where

I’ll never be alone.

Now as I travel o’er the waves,

I know it is His hand that saves;

A steadfast Anchor now have I;

My Anchor rests above the sky!

All other anchors anchor down;

An upward Anchor I have found!

“We have...an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast” (Heb. 6:19).

The Big One

Early (4:58 a.m.) one June morning, the residents of Southern California had a rude awakening. Jolted from their beds by an earthquake measuring 7.4 on the Richter scale, the first thought of many was, Is this the Big One? Has it come at last?

No, it was not the Big One. Almost three times as strong as the destructive quake in San Francisco in 1989, stronger than any other in California in forty years, it still was not the Big One.

But-seismologists had little good news for worried Californians. Instead of releasing tension on the San Andreas fault line, the earthquake and another one three hours later may have increased seismic strain in the region.

One resident, seeking reassurance, asked if it was not foolish to sleep outside while the aftershocks continued. The short but firm answer of the scientist was hardly comforting: “No, it is not foolish!”

Most certainly not foolish! Those who live in an earthquake-prone area are wise to adopt all possible safety measures whenever an earthquake advisory is issued.

But there are wise precautions to take, and also foolish ones. When a devastating earthquake destroyed much of the city of Charleston, South Carolina, in 1886, people came from miles around to be close to a certain preacher. They were not there because his home was particularly strong and safe; they were depending on being safe while near “such a good man.”

It was a nice thought, but the goodness of another man, of anyone, was no shelter. And when the final judgment shakes this world of ours, no amount of “goodness” will save-not our own, or another’s, or even the perfect, sinless life of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself will shelter one soul.

If Jesus had only lived His perfect life on earth and then returned to heaven without dying, there would have been no way back to God. We poor humans would have been left to struggle through our little while on earth and then sink into eternal darkness, eternal separation from God, forever barred from all light and love.

But Jesus came in love, came to suffer and to die. The way to God and heaven is open now. It would be truly foolish to try to depend on “goodness,” whether real or imagined. It is not enough to say, “Oh, my father was such a good man; I’ll be all right.” “My wife prays and goes to church; that’ll take care of me”; not even to believe that “I don’t do bad things-I’m pretty good myself!”

No, only those who have admitted that there is no “goodness” in themselves and that they must have a Savior and who have accepted the Lord Jesus as that Savior will be safe for time and all eternity. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father but by Me” (John 14:6). There is the way of safety, and there alone.

“If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved” (Romans 10:9)!

The Bridge on the Sand

There was once a man whom the Lord Jesus called “foolish.” What did he do that was wrong? Nothing illegal, nothing sinful, nothing really wrong, but he was foolish nonetheless: He built his house on the sand! Children in Sunday school sometimes sing a little song:

“The foolish man built his house upon the sand-

And the rains came down and the floods came up-

And the house on the sand fell FLAT!”

Yes, any child could have told what would happen! But the city planners, the civil engineers, the developers and politicians all got together and announced that they had a wonderful plan. They were going to build a new “wonder of the world.”

It would be a marvel of engineering, and it would solve much of the traffic problems in the rapidly growing city. It would be an elevated, reversible bridge over the interstate highway into the rapidly growing, traffic-clogged city.

The work proceeded well. About half the huge supporting pillars were in place, and the planners were ready to take the credit and to say, “We knew that we could do it!”

Then what happened? One of the massive piers quietly sank-sank eleven feet into the ground. Dismay and consternation! Then a rush of questioning and testing and drilling. What did they find?

The foundations for the great supporting piers for the bridge were buried between 65 and 75 feet underground-buried deep in Florida sand. Almost every pier would need reinforcing; some would have to go 25 to 35 feet deeper to rest upon enough limestone to (hopefully) support the enormous weight of the pier itself, the bridge and the heavy traffic. Sand was not a sound foundation.

Many of us are building our bridges on doubtful foundations. We expect to cross safely from this world into heaven on a bridge based on our own excellent character, our kindness, goodness, education, even wealth and charitable gifts. How terrible it will be to find the sand sinking!

The repairs to the expressway are now estimated at more than $120 million, but what amount of money can pay for salvation for a lost soul? The Lord Jesus said, “What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”

The cost is beyond imagining, but every day men, women, and even children, risk their eternal salvation for just a little pleasure or prestige or just a bit more money. Soon that sand will sink, and all that has been spent on unsafe bridges will sink with it.

There is only one sure foundation to build on for the eternal future, and it is not one of our building at all! “Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ” (l Corinthians 3:11).

“The foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are His” (2 Timothy 2:19).

The Cure for Fear

The patient was known to be dying. All that doctors, medicine and hospital care could do had been done, and nothing remained but to make his last days as comfortable as possible. The doctor, a caring, compassionate person, stopped by the hospital room for a “cheering-up” visit.

One day at the end of a “real up-beat visit,” the doctor casually asked, “Is there anything I can get for you?”

Wearily the patient answered, “How about something to take away the fear?”

There was no answer.

Medical science has no answer.

There is a whole arsenal of drugs and treatments to cure disease or to alleviate physical symptoms, but nowhere is there a specific drug to cure fear.

There is only One who can truly cure fear: the Lord Jesus Christ.

“Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death...that He by the grace of God should taste death for every man...and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage” (Heb. 2:9,15).

He cannot only take away the fear, but He removes the cause of it. Death is no longer a terror if we can receive a life that is beyond death and the grave.

The Lord Jesus promises absolutely that: “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die. Believest thou this?”

Do you believe this? Do you believe John 3:16: “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life”? Do you accept “the gift of God...eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord”?

If you can honestly say, “Yes-yes-yes” to these questions, if you can truly call the Lord Jesus Christ your Lord and say, “He tasted death for me,” why should you fear?

“There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear” (1 John 4:18).

The Doctor's Heart

The doctor was a cardiologist, a specialist in heart disease. He had over thirty years experience in cardiology, overseeing the progress of hundreds of patients regularly. If anyone should be aware of his own heart, the doctor was the man.

One day, a new machine was installed at the hospital where the doctor practiced medicine: a new, $1.5 million CT scanner. The scanner, called the Somatom Sensation 64, replaced two older-generation scanners.

Always interested in the newest medical technology, the doctor readily agreed to be the “guinea pig” for a free test on the Sensation to give the cardiology department practice on the new machine.

Taking 45 minutes between patients, the doctor hurried to the radiology department, took the test, and went back to his patients without waiting to see the results.

The next day his pager went off, summoning him back to radiology. There he was shown images of his heart. His good, dependable heart did not show what he expected. One artery was 70% blocked. Further testing showed even worse damage, though there had never been a recognizable symptom of “heart trouble.”

“The doctor” immediately became “the patient”! He was promptly put to bed and prepared for surgery. His old reliable heart would need a bypass operation-and needed it quickly.

Have you ever had a good look into your own heart? The Bible says that “the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jer. 17:9). And then there is the immediate answer: “I the Lord search the heart...even to give every man according to his ways.” Everything looks good on the outside: no chest pain, no arrhythmia, just nothing to show the trouble within. Why, you are the best person in the community, the one everyone looks up to and depends on. Surely you have a “good heart.”

But the Bible says that “there is none righteous [good], no, not one” (Rom. 3:10). When you look into your own heart, is it as “good” as you hope? Do you find a little bit of envy? (Why did he get that raise instead of me?) A touch of deception? (It was only a “white lie” to make her feel good.) Maybe a bit of “fudging” on those tax records? (Everybody does it!) Is your heart really as perfect as you thought?

What then can you do? Can you go back and just erase all those little dark spots on your conscience? Hardly! They are too many-and too poorly remembered.

Then perhaps you will just be more careful and live a better life? In the future you will be very, very good-practically sinless, in fact. Can you do it? Really now, can you? And if you could, would it wipe out the past? No. “God requireth that which is past.”

Then what?

Then fall back on the age-old remedy-the tried and true cure for sin. Millions have tested it-millions have proved it-and it is as powerful as ever. Look in your Bible, in the book of Isaiah, chapter 1 and verse 18: “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”

And that wonderful, wonderful verse: “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

After his successful surgery, the doctor said, “God has given me a second chance; I’m going to use it!”

God may have given you many chances to receive salvation and eternal life. This is one more opportunity—use it! There might not be another.

The Forgotten Son

Little three-year-old Ethan looked out at the large audience, then down at the black microphone. It was time to say the Bible verse he had memorized.

“God is love.” He breathed a sigh of relief. Whew! A big job and well done!

It was the Sunday school awards night and the children said verses or sang for the many parents. Serenity, age five, looked down as she avoided the stares of waiting children. Somewhere out there in that sea of faces Mom was watching.

She started: “For God so loved the world...” She paused. Was that the right verse? Another verse popped into her mind. “Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life.” Then she went back to the John 3:16 verse. “That He gave His only forgotten Son.”

Forgotten Son? Is that what the verse says? The next child wasn’t sure, but he picked up the phrase as he recited John 3:16. “That He gave His only forgotten Son, that whosoever believes...will have everlasting life.”

Josiah was older, and he recited several verses, but he conformed to the previous phrasing. It was again, “His only forgotten Son.”

The Apostle John wrote, “He gave His only begotten Son,” which means He gave His loved and unique Son. Sometimes I think he should have written “forgotten Son,” for that is really the truth of the matter, is it not?

In the hurry and pressures of life, the Lord Jesus is often forgotten. Time for sports, time for pleasure, and we fall further behind as we hurry up-but no time for God’s “forgotten” Son.

Thankfully, God never forgets us. He sent into our world the unique One who was the treasure of His heart, which is what the single Greek word “only-begotten” means. The prophet Isaiah writes, Can a mother forget her ‘nursing baby’? Though she may forget, I [the Lord] will not forget you.

But the Lord is often the “forgotten One” while life pushes us around, so we’re always coming and going and never arriving! Here’s a reminder: Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come.

Do yourself a favor. Stop now, get out your Bible, and start reading in the Gospel of John. Remember that the Lord knows all about you and loves you. In order that you might be saved, He gave as a gift the Son whom you have forgotten.

The Good Samaritan

Luke 10:30-35

“A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead.”

This is the history of the human race from Adam to the present day, going down in the ways of sin and sinful pleasures-thieves and robbers of what he once possessed. It takes in you and me, all of us who have departed from the ways of innocence into the ways of sin.

“By chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.”

The priest, appointed by Moses’ law, should have had compassion on the ignorant and on those who are out of the way. Had the priest forgotten this? He seems cold and indifferent. Ah, but this is a case beyond his ability to help. The man needs life and healing. It is a desperate case, and the priest passes by on the other side.

“Likewise a Levite—appointed, as Levites were—to teach the law to the people-when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side.”

It was not teaching that the dying man needed, but life and healing, which the Levite and the priest were utterly incompetent to give. So neither performs the neighborly act. In fact, they were both on the same road as the man lying there stripped and wounded by the thieves.

“But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, and went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.”

Here is the blessed gospel of God for every confessed sinner. We joyfully recognize this good Samaritan—Jesus, who came from heaven “to seek and to save that which was lost.” He had compassion. He did not pass by the needy-the dying but came where he was. He bound up his wounds; He comforted and strengthened him with oil and wine. Dear Samaritan! Never did His enemies speak a truer word than when they mockingly said, “This Man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them.”

The wounded man, having received “first aid,” was not left alone to shift as best he could. No, the Samaritan “brought him to an inn, and took care of him.” Even so does Jesus today care for those who turn to Him in their helplessness, for “He is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him.”

Thousands have fled to His spear-pierced side;

Welcome they all have been-none are denied;

Weary and laden, they all have been blest;

Joyfully now in the Savior they rest.

Oh, what a Savior is Jesus the Lord!

The Hero of Hurricane Pass

It was just a shelling expedition, gathering shells in the shallow water off Honeymoon Island. Not dangerous at all! The grandmother who had brought the four boys, aged eight to seventeen, watched as they waded near the water’s edge and scooped shells from the sparkling water and filled their net bags.

Suddenly 10-year-old Sean disappeared below the surface, caught in a strong tidal current running about forty yards out.

At once another brother went to the rescue-and another-and another. Soon all four brothers were swept away by the strong current flowing through Hurricane Pass.

Watchers on the shore could see a fishing boat nearby and two jet skis. They shouted to them, begging them to help the boys, but they did not seem to understand the boys’ danger and did nothing to help. Domenic Giunta, a retired school teacher, plunged into the fast-moving water and pulled one boy to safety. Then he dived underwater to lift another boy and hold him up above the rolling waves till another rescuer could reach him.

That boy, too, was saved, though he had swallowed so much water that he had to be hospitalized. Domenic Giunta held the boy’s head above water until someone else reached him and pulled him to shore and to the paramedics. But Domenic? He had held Nicholas above water, but at what a cost to himself! With lungs filling with seawater, he slipped below the waves and disappeared. All four boys were saved, but when Domenic was finally pulled to shore it was too late. All efforts at resuscitation failed. He was dead.

The thankful grandmother said, “He gave his life for my grandsons, and he didn’t know them from anything! Out of the goodness of his heart my grandsons lived and will have a future, and they’ll never forget! My family will never forget!”

But it is only natural to forget! Our minds are simply bombarded with new thoughts-experiences feelings. How can we remember them all? We are only finite, limited, after all-only human.

A friend who knew Domenic well said, “Even if he knew the outcome, Domenic still would have made that decision.” Christ Jesus knew the outcome of His coming into the dark waters of this world. He knew the terrible sacrifice He would have to make. “God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8). Christ died for sinners.

Christ died for us.

CHRIST DIED FOR YOU!

Have you forgotten?

The Kitten in the Water

A kitten in the water? How strange! Kittens don’t like water. A little kitten, no matter how young, would never willingly be immersed in water. But there he was, a tiny marmalade-colored kitten, miles out on Homosassa Bay.

And he did not like it! His tiny paws were paddling as hard as they possibly could, and he was “screaming at the top of his lungs” (and a very young kitten can be surprisingly loud).

The season had just opened for scallops, and there were probably forty boats out on the bay that day. It is likely that kitty fell—or was dropped—from one of them. Three miles out, there would have been no chance that he could get to shore on his own.

But his frantic struggles were seen—and heard! A kindhearted woman on one of the boats scooped him up, dried him off, and kept him warm and cuddled up until the end of the day’s fishing. Then she took him to the vet, who pronounced him a healthy ten-week-old and sent him off to a new home and safety.

There was no way he could have saved himself, no matter how hard he struggled. But his desperate cry for help was heard and answered even as so many of us have found.

(Remember Peter on the Sea of Galilee? His frightened cry, “Lord, save me,” brought an immediate answer: “Immediately Jesus stretched forth His hand, and caught him.”)

There is no way we can reach heaven by our greatest efforts. We cannot earn it, win it or attain to it. It is not by anything we can do ourselves; it is “not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us” (Titus 3:5). When we cry out to that incredible mercy, when we admit that we are just helpless sinners, but we do believe in Him and His power to save, His all-powerful hand is stretched out to save us.

The shore may be miles away, but the rescued soul can “trust, and not be afraid.” Whatever the waves and storms may be ahead of him, he knows that he will never perish, “but have everlasting life.” The Lord Jesus said so!

“God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

The Lord Jesus or Confucius

And He said, “Young man, I say unto thee, Arise”! And he that was dead sat up, and began to speak. And He delivered him to his mother. And there came a great fear on all; and they glorified God.

For nearly twenty-four hundred years China followed the teachings of her dead sage, but both Confucius and his teaching have proved helpless and hopeless. What a contrast to Confucius was the Lord Jesus Christ! For 2000 years—and more—He has been giving life, eternal life, to millions. It is available to all-it is offered to all. Have you received that wonderful life yet? Why not?

The Loyal Ground Squirrel

Driving down a lonely stretch of highway in Utah, I noticed several ground squirrel mounds and quite a few of the little creatures near the road. Some had burrows quite near the road and would scurry down their holes to safety as noisy vehicles passed by.

Others were brave and just stood sentry at their mounds and watched the goings on of the traffic and each other.

Then I noticed one right in the middle of the next lane over from where I was traveling. As I got closer, I noticed it was standing right next to another ground squirrel that was dead: squashed flat! It must have been recently run over, and here was its mate wondering what happened to it that it was not responding. It looked like the live squirrel was standing guard over the dead, not wanting to leave its side. It was standing on its hind legs as though keeping it company and daring anyone to bother it.

That reminds me of the Lord and us sinners. We are “dead in trespasses and sins,” and we had no hope, like the dead squirrel. But we do have Someone wanting to save us from our sins, stand beside us in life, and take us to heaven to be with Him. “You hath He quickened [made alive], who were dead in trespasses and sins” (Eph. 2:1).

The loyal ground squirrel didn’t want to leave the side of its mate or friend, and likely it was going to suffer the same fate and be run over. Did you know that the Lord notices when even a ground squirrel or small bird dies? “Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father....Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows” (Matt. 10:29,31).

There was no hope for the dead squirrel, but there is hope for you. Come to the Lord Jesus and accept Him as your Savior. He is waiting beside you and will save you from your sin and live in your heart. He’ll be a loyal companion and help you all through the rest of your life if you’ll let Him. Then you will be ready to meet Him someday in heaven too! “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved” (Rom. 10:9).

The Man Who Had Nothing

William Hone was an atheist lecturer who traveled around the country speaking against the teachings of God’s holy Word. One day he was taking a walk in the country and lost his way. He came upon a poor, tumble-down cottage, in front of which a little girl was reading a book.

After getting directions to his road, he picked up the book the child was reading. To his surprise he found it was a copy of the New Testament. Throwing it on the ground, he said to the girl, “You foolish little thing! Why do you read stupid books like this?”

The child looked at him in shocked surprise and cried, “Oh, please don’t talk that way about my Book. My mother is sick in bed, and this Book is such a comfort.”

The simple words spoken by the child set William Hone thinking: “Those poor, simple people,” he said to himself, “are in trouble. The mother is sick, the child young, and yet they have found something real in that Book; they have found something on which to live and die. What could I give them that would be a comfort now or a support in death? All I do is take away people’s hopes. No God, no Christ, no heaven, no hell. And what have I for myself? Nothing! I need something real-something something lasting.”

William Hone began to study that same wonderful Book. He learned that “Christ died for our sins....He was buried, and that He rose again” (1 Cor. 15:3-4). He was saved with an everlasting salvation. It became his greatest joy to tell others what great things God had done for him. On the flyleaf of his Bible he wrote this: “The proudest heart that ever beat has been subdued in me!”

Have you ever carefully read and thought about God’s Word, the Bible? Do you take time when alone to see in it what God’s thoughts of sin and salvation are? He loves you, and He wants to save you and to satisfy your heart forever.

The Mark

Rows of large mud bricks destined for a building belonging to a mighty eastern monarch were baking in the scorching sun. There could be no mistake as to the owner of the bricks; each one was marked with the king’s seal.

One day while the brick makers were eating their noon meal, a dog silently slipped into the brickyard and put one of his paws right over the king’s seal on an unbaked brick.

When the men returned and examined the bricks, then dry and hard, they found one brick which bore, instead of the clear imprint of the king’s seal, the unmistakable mark of this dog. Now the dogs of the East were usually dirty and diseased, and a brick bearing such a mark could never be used for the king.

When God created man, He made him in His own image. He placed him in a garden where everything grew that was good for food and pleasant to the eye. Like the filthy dog in our story, into the garden crept the serpent (Satan) and left his mark upon man. Sinful and unclean, he was now unfit for the presence of a holy God.

In that garden was one tree that God had withheld from Adam, saying, “In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” (Gen. 2:17).

But Satan in the form of the serpent said, “Ye shall not surely die.”

Man believed Satan, disobeyed God, and brought sin and death, not only upon himself, but upon the whole race of man.

What became of the spoiled brick? It lay useless for many years beneath the walls of Babylon. Hundreds of years later it was unearthed. It may now be seen in the British Museum. But it still has the same despised brand upon it, the mark of a dog.

And what of guilty man? Though God knew that man under sin and death could never make himself fit for His presence, yet for many years He in His wisdom tested man in various ways—in innocence, without law, under law, under judges, under kings and under prophets. The mark of the serpent still remained. Mankind was proved to be lost, ruined and under sin.

Then God said, “I will send My beloved Son” (Luke 20:13). That holy One came down and was made in the likeness of men. He became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Even as by Adam’s disobedience sin and death came upon man, so by Christ’s obedience in going into death all who now receive Him may be set free from sin and death, and have eternal life in Christ Jesus.

Whose mark do you bear? The serpent’s with the scars of sins unforgiven, or the sign of the cross of Christ? Can you say with the Apostle Paul, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Gal. 2:20)?

The Mirage

We were traveling on the Cape Railway between De Aar Junction and Beaufort West in Africa. The night had been very cool, but as noon approached and the sun got high in the heavens, it grew really warm. I casually lifted my eyes from a book and, glancing out the window, I saw that we were running towards a large lake. My companion and I watched it together, and in the course of a few minutes everything stood out more clearly. Islands covered with trees and vegetation rose out of the glassy-surfaced waters.

I had seen a map of the district and felt certain no lake was marked there. Moreover, the season had been dry, a regular drought, in fact. It was a real puzzle! We talked about it and were just wondering if it could possibly be a mirage, when our questions were answered.

The waters of the lake began to quiver. Their motion increased. Then the islands began to move in an extraordinary way. They became very elongated, parts of them broke off and disappeared. The lovely lake became a chaotic muddle.

Like a dream, the vision passed and ugly realities were in its place. Of course! It was as plain as possible now. Those “islands” were only the tops of the flat-topped hills which were dotted about the plain. The “water” was the heat waves which shimmered over the surface of the earth.

Not in Africa only, but in all parts of the world another kind of mirage appears before our eyes, especially when we are young. One sees a prosperous life filled with all the good things of material possessions. Another looks to sports and physical fitness-but neither can last forever. It is only the mirage again.

Even that young couple working so hard to provide an education for their children and comfort and security for their own old age—they too will have to die, so it is only the mirage after all.

And when the mirage has faded, only ugly facts remain. Let me name three.

The fact of SIN.

People may deny it, but a fact it still remains. The Bible says, “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23).

The fact of DEATH.

This nobody can deny. It stares us too plainly in the face. It is the direct result of sin.

“The wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23).

The fact of JUDGMENT.

Unpleasant, but inevitable. So surely as two and two make four, sin and death mean judgment to come.

“It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Heb. 9:27).

Do not shut your eyes to these things, nor allow them to be obscured by the mirage-like haze of this life. Look at them honestly.

Christ has been once offered to bear the sins of many. He took up the death sentence which is sin’s just wage and bore the judgment which sin deserved. Have you confessed you are a sinner and believed in Him? Then you may truthfully sing:

Death and judgment are behind me;

Grace and glory are before;

All the billows rolled o’er Jesus:

There they spent their utmost power.

And instead of being deceived by a mirage which death will break up, you will have a prospect of glory which will never fade away.

“All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: but the word of the Lord endureth forever” (1 Peter 1:24-25).

The Rogue Wave

Mermaids? Sea monsters? What tall tales sailors can tell! Rogue waves? Waves one hundred feet high, rising out of the ocean without warning? More sailors’ stories! Scientists used to lump all together as imagination and exaggeration.

No longer! Too many incidents—proven incidents—have changed this fable to fact. One such event occurred in April of last year. The cruise ship Norwegian Dawn was sailing off the coast of Georgia, from the Bahamas to New York, when a giant wave “appeared out of nowhere.” It struck the bow of the ship with the tremendous force of tons of water, smashing windows and sending furniture flying. Reaching as high as the tenth deck, it flooded 62 cabins and seriously injured four passengers. There was panic, screaming and hysterical crying among the shocked passengers.

The ship was forced to put in to the harbor at Charleston, South Carolina, for repairs and a Coast Guard inspection before continuing to New York, but some three hundred elected to leave the ship at Charleston. Some announced that they would never venture on the ocean again.

It was not a tsunami; it was that legendary “rogue wave” that sailors talked about to unbelieving listeners. That was the proof; that was reality. Scientists now searching old records and combining known facts are estimating that these monster waves can reach a possible height of 150 feet, higher than the Statue of Liberty. Even today, in spite of all our technological advances, night, storm and sea can be a dangerous combination.

Reading of the “panicked passengers” on the Norwegian Dawn we are reminded of an incident over 2000 years ago. This was not a huge cruise ship on the ocean; this was only a few people in a small boat on a very small sea. But a storm arose—suddenly and violently—and they were just as panicked when their little boat filled with water. One on that little ship was peacefully asleep, and to Him the sailors rushed, crying, “Save us!” and even saying such as, We’re dying! Don’t You care?

Of course He cared! But He was the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and He knew there was no possibility that any ship He was in could sink. He only said, “Peace, be still,” and the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.

Have you ever met a “rogue wave” of disaster in your life? A disaster that seemed to “come out of nowhere” and just shattered your life? Have you ever cried, “Does God care?”

He cares! He cares for you so much that He gave His only Son to save you from perishing-from going down in the storms of life to a lost eternity from perishing in darkness forever. He wants to bring you into light, into life, into love. He would gladly be your Guide, your Pilot through the darkest, most desperate circumstances.

Science and technology combined have not mastered rogue waves. They have not produced a reliable warning system, nor a way to strengthen ships. John Becker, the instructor who teaches captains and pilots how to operate large ships, says, “Rogue waves come upon you so fast; there is really nothing you can do.”

So much for monster waves in the ocean. But waves of disaster in an individual life? That story is so different! The Lord Jesus has still the power to say, “Peace, be still,” to the wild winds and waves. He has still the power to bring individual ships safe to land. He will safely bring you to shore if you turn to Him, saying, “Lord, I believe. I can no longer see my way through these storms; I am sinking. Save me, in mercy and grace, for Thy name’s sake!”

Quickly, while it is still the day of God’s grace, accept the one true Pilot and turn the wheel over to Him. Then He can say, “My peace I give unto you.... Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid” (John 14:27).

“And there was a great calm” (Mark 4:39).

The Sergeant's Mistake

Sergeant Kelly looked critically at the dirty rifle and then at the private who carried it. “Smith, has all my talking been wasted?” he roared. “Clean that gun and be quick about it, or it’s detention in the guardhouse for you.”

In a few minutes Private Smith returned from his quarters with a shiny rifle for the sergeant to inspect.

“Do you mean to tell me that you have that filthy rifle clean already,” challenged Sergeant Kelly. “Impossible!”

“No, sir,” meekly replied Private Smith. “You see, sir, I picked up the wrong rifle by mistake. This one is mine.”

“And who owns the other one?” pressed the sergeant.

“You, sir” was the reply.

This incident from an army camp illustrates a spiritual truth that is often forgotten. Some people overlook their sins and shortcomings, but they are quick to condemn other people for their sins. Often they condemn others for the very same sins they are guilty of themselves. For instance, the pride in a person’s heart is quick to detect pride in someone else. And a man who is dishonest himself is ready to condemn others for stealing.

There is an illustration of this in the Bible. King David had sinned grievously, and Nathan the prophet came and told him about a certain rich man who had wronged a poor man. David quickly condemned the rich man and pronounced judgment on him, but Nathan said to David, “Thou art the man.” David had a sense of justice, but he overlooked the fact that he himself was the guilty party. So Nathan had to say to him, “Thou art the man.”

We all agree that some people we know are sinners who need to be saved, but most of us are slow to believe that we ourselves are guilty and need a Savior. However, we need to be less concerned about other people’s sins, and more convinced of our own.

Before a man can enter heaven, he must face the fact that he himself is a sinner, lost and on the broad, crowded road that leads down to destruction. The Word of God makes it clear that this is the true condition of every unsaved person, but when you believe God’s Word and confess that you are a sinner, you are then at the very spot where God can save you. Jesus Himself said, “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Mark 2:17).

The Shattered Dream

Two brothers, Raul and Sergio Gonzalez, each worked hard and saved every spare bit of cash. They hoped to get ahead by investing in real estate. They took their first step in this direction when they combined their savings and delivered a sealed bid on a building with six apartments which was being auctioned off. The building needed work—lots of it—but the two were capable and willing.

The dreams of the two seemed to be coming true when they received notice that their bid had won. The transaction was completed, and they became the happy owners of the property.

A week later, a city worker tacked a demolition notice on the front of the building. The brothers had unwittingly bought a building which was condemned to be torn down because of asbestos contamination.

Raul and Sergio sought to recover their money from the auction company. They claimed that they were not informed the building was condemned to demolition when they bought it. The sales representative responded by drawing the attention of the brothers to a line in the sales brochure which read, “Rooms: 000.”

He pointed out that by this statement they should have understood that they were not buying the building at all, but only the land. The brothers replied that they had read that line, but since they could see the building, which definitely had rooms in it, standing on the property, they had believed the statement was a typographical error.

The situation was past straightening out. The sale was final. The brothers had spent their savings and placed their hopes and dreams on that which was condemned.

Raul and Sergio Gonzalez received a harsh awakening when they discovered that they had bought a condemned building. Many people are headed for the same type of bitter discovery, only on a far greater scale. Are you living as though the only real estate you will ever know is on this earth? Are you seeking to lay up for yourself the pleasures, possessions and properties in this life with no thought of the life to come-with no regard for God? Then, when you die you will be ushered into a Christless eternity.

Why? Because a sentence of condemnation is written over you: “This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” You ignored the one remedy which was able to save you: “God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved. He that believeth on Him is not condemned.”

What is required of you? Only to see your sinful condition and come—come believing—to the Savior of sinners. If you die without Christ, you will have sealed to yourself an irreversible doom. Come to Christ today, so that you stand no chance of learning what it means to pass into eternity in a state of condemnation.

The Silent Smoke Alarm

The firefighters were horrified when they entered the house. There in the bedroom were the lifeless bodies of a young mother and her two small sons. All three had died from a lack of oxygen as the fire blazed fiercely in their home. Fire department spokesman John Hansen held in his hands the charred remains of a smoke detector that had failed to sound the alarm.

“The battery wasn’t in it,” he said.

What a tragedy! Three lives were lost which might have been saved if only the smoke detector had a battery in it.

No one likes the sound of a smoke alarm. Its strident shriek sets the nerves on edge and fills the hearer with alarm. But the noise, however unpleasant, is necessary if lives are to be saved.

Perhaps the warnings of the gospel message, “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God,” and, “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment,” grate on your ears (Rom. 3:23; Heb. 9:27).

Perhaps you try to shut out the sound by saying, “That’s for the alcoholic and the drug dealer; I’m OK.”

Maybe you feel that there is plenty of time yet for you and you can postpone consideration of serious things for a few years yet.

The warnings, however, are necessary. If they are ignored, or if their loud call of alarm is dulled or obliterated, the result is tragedy. Because of a smoke alarm which contained no battery, and so sounded out no warning, three people died. If you close your ears to the warnings of judgment to come, the result will be terrible—an eternity in hell without Christ.

Won’t you accept His gift right now and receive the Lord Jesus as your own personal Savior?

“NOW is the accepted time...NOW is the day of salvation” (2 Cor. 6:2).

The Tay Bridge

One December night in 1878 a passenger train traveling from Edinburgh to Dundee, Scotland, sped down the tracks during a severe windstorm. At 7:14 it passed the railroad station near the great Tay Bridge. This bridge crossed a large inlet of the ocean called the Firth of Tay. The stationmaster watched as the train passed. He saw the red sparks shoot out of the smokestack only to be swiftly blown away by the wind. He saw the lurid red glow of light from the back of the locomotive as the stoker shoveled coal into the firebox of the engine. He watched each of the six passenger cars pass in quick succession. The interiors of the passenger cars were dimly lighted by oil lamps, but in the blur of the rushing train he could see the silhouettes of the many passengers. He could make out the men in their bowler hats and also several women in their wider-brimmed hats tied down by scarves.

The Tay Bridge was the longest bridge in the world during its day. It was nearly two miles long and had a total of 85 cast iron spans that sat on as many columns made of concrete and masonry. Some of the spans were almost 250 feet long, and sections of the bridge were nearly 80 feet above the water to allow large ships to pass under it. As the train rushed on to the Tay Bridge, little did any of the passengers suspect that they would all pass into eternity before the bridge was crossed over. Have you ever stopped to think of how swiftly life is rushing past? “What is your life? It is even a vapor, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away” (James 4:14). Eternity is at the exit terminal of this life and is not far away for any of us. God has given each one of us only the span of a single lifetime to cross before we are there. No one knows if that span of life will be long or short. Before anyone comes to the end of that span, they must bow their heart to Christ and make Him their Savior if they are ever going to enter into heaven. Those who decide never to come to Christ will be swallowed up in a horrible eternity of darkness.

The stationmaster was still watching as the train pulled onto the bridge. He watched as it traveled across the many spans of the bridge, and soon in the distant darkness he could no longer see the form of the train or the outline of the bridge. All he could see was the faint glow of the lights of the train as it moved along. When the train was on the middle of the bridge, all of its lights suddenly went out and the whole scene was swallowed up in darkness. Alarmed by the sudden disappearance of the lights, the stationmaster frantically tried to telegraph the station at the other end of the bridge. However, the telegraph line was broken, and the message wouldn’t go through. Realizing that something must be terribly wrong, the stationmaster put on his foul-weather gear and took a lantern and went out into the night to investigate. The wind was so fierce that at times he had to crawl on the bridge to avoid being blown off. He went a long distance on the bridge before he made a shocking discovery. The entire mid section of the Tay Bridge had disappeared! In shock, he crawled to the edge of the last standing section with its torn rails and held his lantern over it. The light from the lantern barely illuminated the dark, storm tossed waves eighty feet below. Somewhere beneath those unforgiving waves the train and all the people on board had vanished. The gale force winds and the weight of the rushing train caused more strain than the bridge could handle-and it fell! Seventy-five people perished on that fateful night. A powerful steam engine pulled the train to the disaster.

What is the driving force that is keeping so many people from hearing the gospel and believing on the Lord Jesus? The answer isn’t particular views of science, or false religions, or faulty philosophies; those are more like cars that are being pulled along than the driving force. I can tell you what this driving force is: Deep down in the heart of man, in the heart which is the well-spring of all his actions, a dreadful disease called “sin” has entered his heart. This is what is driving men away from God into the darkness of eternal night. In the Bible the word “sin” sometimes refers to acts of disobedience to God’s will. At other times the word “sin” refers to the nature of enmity in the heart of man that produces those acts of disobedience. The source is more terrible by far than any acts it produces. Each one of us has committed acts of sin and is guilty before God. “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23).

And each one of us also has a sinful nature: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” The train steamed on to the Tay Bridge and perished in the darkness that night. Don’t let yourself continue to live apart from the Lord Jesus Christ until you too must perish in everlasting darkness, but come to Him who said, “I am the light of the world: he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life” (John 8:12). Come while there is still time!

The Trams That Stalled

Few things are as common, routine, everyday just-plain-boring as the daily commute to and from work. The five-minute ride over the East River, from Manhattan to Roosevelt Island, via cable car certainly qualified as routine (though one might except that spine-tingling moment when one looked down to the busy river hundreds of feet below).

For thirty years the two cars (trams) have carried thousands of New Yorkers and visitors every day. Just routine until a “glitch” in the power system stopped both little cars high in the air. It was 5:30 p.m., rush hour, when the cars stopped. Nothing to worry about; the backup system would guarantee a restart, and all would be home in time for dinner. But power failed there too, and the riders faced a long wait for rescue.

The police worked hard to get all the passengers down, sending up supplies and snacks and even baby formula to one car that held two babies. They began a mid-air rescue system, using a diesel powered “rescue bucket” that moved slowly along the cable line. One by one the sixty-nine passengers were helped into the bucket from the tram. “Step carefully, ma’am, and don’t look down!” It was 4:07 a.m. when the very last of the passengers was landed safely.

It was a scary break in what had seemed to be a normal day, and perhaps caused some of them to carry an extra water bottle and power bar along “just in case.” But, what if the worst happened, and the little cars had fallen into the river far below? It is unlikely there would have been any survivors, and how many were prepared for that? That sudden, shocking end to the life they had known might have found some with no thought for the life beyond.

New Yorkers, above all others, know what can happen to a routine day at work.

Remember the Twin Towers? Are the rest of us exempt? Any place, any time, is there a guarantee of safety even in the dullest of routine days? No? Then shouldn’t we take our own personal safety very, very seriously?

This does not mean personal responsibility as typified by a water bottle, snack and a cell phone. This is all-important, life-or-death, now-or-never important decision-making, and only you can do it for yourself. No one else can receive the Lord Jesus for you; no one else can confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, no one else can believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead-no one else can be saved in your place (Rom. 10:9).

The decision is yours. The destination is yours. God offers you a choice: the “blackness of darkness” forever, or light-and life-and love forever. Therefore, choose life!

There Is a Time

There is a time, we know not when,

A point, we know not where,

Which marks the destiny of men

To glory or despair.

There is a line by us unseen,

That crosses every path;

The hidden boundary between

God’s mercy and His wrath.

A point of time, a moment’s space,

The choice you make will tell,

Will land you in that heavenly place,

Or shut you up in hell!

August

Tight Corners

Captain Patrick Dove, of S.S. Africa Shell, was captured by the German cruiser, Graf Spee, on November 15, 1939. He was a prisoner with other captured British seamen on the German cruiser when she was attacked by three British ships. She was driven, battered and disabled, into the harbor of Montevideo, only to be finally scuttled by her captain.

We can only faintly imagine the feelings of Captain Dove and the rest. They were imprisoned in a narrow space, unable to see what was happening, hearing the mighty guns fire their deafening salvoes, feeling the ship tremble under their feet as shell after shell hit the cruiser. Naturally, these British men wished for a British victory, but that would almost certainly mean their death like rats caught in a trap. If ever men were in a tight corner, these men were. What did they do?

Captain Dove wrote, “I think that every man there prayed. I know I did. Most of us sailors were pretty firm believers in Christ, and we certainly needed all the comfort we could get at that moment.”

God answered their prayers; the British won the battle, yet the lives of the prisoners in the ship were saved and they were set free.

A similar story was told us by a soldier who had been in the Dunkirk evacuation. He said it was a moving sight to see scores of young soldiers on their knees on the sandy beaches with tears running down their cheeks, crying to God for deliverance. And the ships came.

But why should we act as though true, vital belief in Jesus the Savior must be reserved for extra-tight corners? It should govern our whole lives. At some time every sinner-and we are all sinners will find himself or herself in a tight corner. Why wait for that emergency? Why neglect God, Christ and the Bible in fair weather? Will you seek the help of a neglected and flouted God only when trouble comes?

Wake up! In the time of health and strength turn to the Lord, receive Him as your Savior, and seek grace to please Him in your everyday life. Then when a tight corner comes, He will be with you He “will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.”

“If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved” (Romans 10:9). Have you confessed the Lord? Have you believed on Him? Don’t wait! Even now, as you read this, decide this all-important matter, and receive the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior.

Tottering on the Brink in the Olympic Mountains

A young couple drove their sport-utility vehicle (SUV) up the winding road to Hurricane Ridge in the Olympic National Park for a day of snow skiing. The night before several inches of snow had fallen in the mountains, but a road crew had worked hard in the early morning hours to clear the route to the ski run.

At an elevation of a few thousand feet they drove through a long, dimly lit tunnel that had been drilled through the solid rock of the mountain. After exiting the tunnel, the road had a dip and a bend in it. They were driving along when the unthinkable took place. The SUV hit a patch of ice and began sliding toward the edge of the steep mountain. The driver stepped on the anti-lock brakes and turned the steering wheel hard to one side, but nothing he tried was able to stop the vehicle’s slide on the ice. They watched wide-eyed with horror as the distance, foot by foot, disappeared between them and the edge of the road. The car hit the low bank of snow on the narrow shoulder of the road. With a frightening lurch the front wheels slid into the space over the edge of the mountain, and the chassis landed with a thud and then scraped to a rest on the shoulder of the road. The vehicle came to a halt, part on the road and part suspended in space over the mountainside.

Thoughts flashed through the minds of the two people in the car of unfastening their seatbelts and leaping clear, but when the car slipped forward a little, such thoughts were quickly forgotten. They were too scared to move. The slightest movement might upset the delicate balance and send them careening down the mountain. With death staring them in the face, the pair was in a desperate situation.

You, too, if you have not been saved from your sins, are in a situation every bit as desperate as theirs. Death, “the king of terrors,” is certainly lurking somewhere in your future. Life, at best, is very brief, while eternity after death is forever. If you don’t know the Lord Jesus as your Savior, no matter how comfortable your situation in life is, you are tottering on the brink of disaster!

God, whose unalterable nature is holy, just and good, must hold every person accountable for the sins they have committed. “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Heb. 9:27). He will not trivialize it. He will not excuse it as “normal” or “natural.” He utterly abhors sin.

His wrath hangs over every person who refuses to turn away from their sin and to believe on the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. If they die without that all-important change of heart and mind toward the Lord Jesus, they will suffer God’s wrath forever. “These shall go away into everlasting punishment” (Matt. 25:46) is a plain statement the Lord Jesus made in reference to those who leave this world without ever coming to repentance toward God. Repentance is a wholehearted change; it is a turning away from the sin we once loved, and a turning to God whose love and grace we had once spurned.

God’s desire is for all souls to come to Him and to receive the salvation He freely offers. He is “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” The good news of the gospel presents what Christ has done so that men may not have to face Him in the judgment. It tells of a wonderful Savior who passed through the unfathomable suffering of Calvary’s cross so that sinners might be saved.

For six long hours the Lord Jesus was nailed to the cross. In the first three hours He suffered cruelly at the hands of men. During the second half of that time, the sun refused to give its light. God’s wrath in an overpowering flood fell on His beloved Son.

You, who are in danger of passing out of this world and into a lost eternity, will you not stop and consider what Christ has done to save your soul? Does His suffering on the cross mean nothing to you? Will God’s warnings about the awfulness of sin and eternal punishment fall on deaf ears in your case? Tottering on the brink, must you fall into the depths of hell because of your own stubbornness and hardheartedness?

Some people think that God couldn’t make souls suffer for all eternity in a place called hell. In a certain sense they are right. God isn’t making people go to hell; people are making themselves go to that awful place by their rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ and His offer of salvation. Souls who reject Christ will suffer for all eternity, and they will have only themselves to blame.

There is no hope for sinners who do not accept the Savior. There is no way to escape hell and enter into heaven without the Lord Jesus Christ. You may have all kinds of success while on earth. You may have the job of your dreams, a family that your neighbors envy, and achieve wealth and fame, but without Christ you will be lost forever. You are tottering on the brink of a lost eternity. The time to receive Christ is NOW! “Now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Cor. 6:2).

The SUV hung on the cliff for a few seconds. Then it slipped forward over the edge. Falling, it rolled end-over-end, smashing against rocks and trees. The glass windows shattered into thousands of little pieces, flying by their faces. The roof and sides of the vehicle were bashed over and over again; the occupants would have been thrown from the vehicle and crushed if it were not for their seatbelts. The car tumbled nearly 450 feet down the mountain before the roof of the car got wedged between two big trees. The couple remained trapped in the car for nearly two hours on a mountainside too steep to climb without ropes before a passerby noticed the skid marks on the side of the road and stopped to investigate.

At first he could not see the car, so he called out: “Is anyone down there?”

“We need help!” came back the barely audible reply from below.

Quickly this man called the park authorities on his cell phone, and they promptly sent out a search and rescue team. Using ropes, they lowered themselves to the wreck and managed to bring the couple back up to the road. Miraculously, neither of them suffered worse than minor cuts and bruises. A week later the mangled car was hauled off the mountainside by a helicopter normally used in logging operations.

The couple was fortunate indeed to survive the fall down the mountain. But no one—no one—will ever escape the horrors of hell if they die without faith in the Savior. Won’t you receive Him as your Savior so that eternal life might be yours?

Vanishing Time

Reflections, looking back, memory land...what a happy experience it is to visit old friends and reminisce. A businessman in Kirkland Lake was thinking of the July 2006 school reunion week when he said, “I can’t believe how fast time has gone by!” It was thirty years since he graduated from the 77-year-old local school, and the time had come to celebrate together. In a couple of months a new school would receive the students. The old school would be demolished. Its glory days were done.

Of course such changes are common even in your town. Things don’t stay the same. Time passes quickly—look in the mirror and see changes. I am reminded of the words of James: “What is your life? It is even a vapor, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away” (James 4:14).

This July was a time of reflection for my father. His grandson, Steve, a real estate salesman, just sold the steel mill on Welland’s Main Street. Dad started work there when he was sixteen. He could never have dreamed that his future grandson would sell the booming industrial complex, and now the factory is no more. Soon the property on Welland’s Main Street will sprout apartment buildings.

As a boy I often stood there along the fence and watched the men use big tongs to hold the red-hot steel ingots and redirect them through the rollers. Soon the steel looked like 100-foot-long glowing bars of spaghetti as they slid threateningly across the floor through the din and clamor of the mill, but as time flew by I entered the health field instead.

It seems but yesterday I stood there, but forty years have come and gone. The steel workers have come and gone. Problems, along with time itself, have risen like a mist from the kettle and then disappeared. Have you noticed how quickly the years have sped by?

As time passes, we need to stop on one of those busy, dizzy days and reflect on our spiritual maturity. Have you taken time to remember God? To read His Word? It’s called the B-I-B-L-E, that is, Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth.

You might ask, Where should I begin in that big Book? Read John, and reflect on his portrait of Jesus Christ as the changeless Water of Life. Are you thirsty for the knowledge of God? Do you long for the peace that comes with knowing your sins are forgiven? Drink deeply in God’s Book.

The vapor of life is disappearing. Future days may be both few and futile. Today is called the Present. And it is truly a Gift. Use it wisely, and take time to thank the Giver!

Warning Signs for a Lonely Beach

Two young men were walking along a rugged and remote beach near Pt. Renfrew on the southwest edge of Vancouver Island in British Columbia. The waves were rolling onto the beach in regular succession. They would hit outcroppings of rock and send spumes of spray high into the air. Suddenly the regular pattern of the waves was broken when a rogue wave several times bigger and stronger than the other waves crashed into the men and knocked them over. Taken completely by surprise, they were carried by the receding wave out into deep water. One of the men swam with the wave and was able to fight his way back to the beach. The other, helpless in the strong current, was carried rapidly away from shore. Many yards out he was able to grab on to a strong piece of seaweed to stop his dangerous progress.

The man on shore frantically looked around for some way to save his friend. If only he had a rope he might throw him and pull him to safety! He could see nothing of the kind, so he decided his best chance was to run and look for help. It was only a few minutes before he returned with some people to help, but the friend he left clinging to the seaweed had disappeared from sight.

A search was quickly organized, calling in even U.S. Coast Guard helicopters. But the man’s body was never found.

To prevent such a tragedy from ever recurring, the authorities decided to erect three large signs along this section of beach warning hikers of “Dangerous Waves.” Hopefully beach walkers will read the signs and use proper caution.

In the Bible God has given us warnings about sin, death and hell too. God only tells of such things so that we can use proper caution to avoid them. Listen to the warnings contained in these verses: “The wages of sin is death,” “the soul that sinneth, it shall die,” and, “these shall go away into everlasting punishment.” These warnings are given by God in the hope that men will see their danger and realize their need to repent and believe on the Lord Jesus for the forgiveness of sins.

On the cross the Lord Jesus gave His life so that hell-deserving sinners might go free. Because the death of His beloved Son means so much to God, He is willing to forgive, pardon and justify all who believe on Him.

If by reading God’s warnings about sin you realize your lost condition, you may reach out to Christ and receive the salvation He freely offers. You may receive His salvation as simply as a man who is being swept away to his death by a powerful current might reach out and grab on to a rope that is thrown to him. The Lord Jesus is the only Savior this world will ever know. There is no escaping the consequences of sin but through Him. If you place your faith in Him, you will never be in danger of being lost forever. Oh, believe the warnings God has given and reach out to the Savior today!

“Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this Man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: and by Him all that believe are justified from all things” (Acts 13:38-39).

We Are Not Safe

In just four words the newspaper headlines summed up the findings of the 9/11 commission report. So many experts, so many witnesses, so many months of study—and that was the final conclusion: WE ARE NOT SAFE!

Well! Didn’t we know that?

All over the world there have been disasters: the tsunami, the Pakistan-Kashmir earthquake, hurricanes and floods and blizzards and-you name it! And again, all over the world, from London to Bali there have been terrorist attacks. Disaster, whether natural or man-made, can strike anywhere, anytime, and without warning. No, we are certainly not safe-not now, not ever in the history of earth, nor in the immediate foreseeable future. The strongest armor, the most sensitive security system, can be breached by the next antibiotic-resistant epidemic.

What can one do?

King Solomon knew. Over 3000 years ago he wrote: “The horse is prepared against the day of battle: but safety is of the Lord” (Prov. 21:31). In the twenty-first century substitute “armaments” and “vaccines” in place of the “horse,” and it will still be just as true as ever: “Safety is of the Lord”!

That does not always mean physical safety. Sometimes we escape danger and we look back and say, “Only God could have brought me through that!” Even unbelievers are often delivered in what seems a miraculous way, though they are likely to say, “Wasn’t that lucky!” Remember, God loved the world, not just “good people,” and He “is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil” (Luke 6:35).

But He has a special care for those who are His own, those who have accepted the Lord Jesus as their Savior and believe in and trust His wonderful work of redemption.

Those can confidently say, “I will not fear what man shall do unto me.”

When He was here on earth Jesus spoke of those who believed in Him: “I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand. My Father, which gave them Me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of My Father’s hand.”

“Let not your heart be troubled....In My Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also” (John 14:1-3).

“Fear not; I am the first and the last: I am He that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive forevermore, Amen.” FEAR NOT!

We Will Wait

At ten o’clock at night, October 23, 1918, the Princess Sofia with over three hundred passengers on board steamed out of the Skagway Harbor in Alaska on its way to Seattle. The first part of their journey lay through the seventy-mile-long Lynn Canal. Captain Locke, a long time veteran of shipping in the Pacific Northwest, was at the helm.

Most passengers were in their berths sleeping when at three o’clock in the morning there was a screeching of steel and a tremendous jolt which sent many of the sleepers out of their beds and rolling on the floors. The Princess Sofia, steaming along at cruising speed, had suddenly run aground on submerged rocks which make up part of the Vanderbilt Reef. The double plated steel hull of the ship had become firmly wedged into the space between two rocks. To the credit of the shipbuilders, the ship held together in the impact, and crew members were relieved to discover the ship was not breaking up in the water.

Captain Locke sent out a call for help over the ship’s radio which had been recently installed. The message asked for all ships in the area to come to their aid. Within a few hours, a couple of nearby vessels had reached the stricken passenger ship. Captain Ledbetter, in the dawn’s early light, brought his vessel as close as he safely could in the rough seas. On board his ship he had all the ropes necessary to set up a pulley system between the two ships by which they could transfer the passengers one by one. From the pitching deck of his ship he called out through a megaphone: “Do you want to transfer the passengers from your ship to mine?”

Captain Locke gave the request serious consideration for a minute before shouting his response back: “No, we will wait for the weather to get better.”

The ships which had come to rescue the passengers off the stricken ship backed off and began to cruise slowly in a wide circle. For a day and a night they circled nearby hoping for the weather to change. It did change. The next day the winds grew so fierce that the rescue ships had to seek shelter for themselves behind nearby islands. The weather grew so bad that a rescue operation like Captain Ledbetter had suggested was out of the question.

The rescue ships were nervously waiting behind the islands when they received an urgent cry for help over the radio: “Come and save us! The room is taking on water!” The transmission was abruptly ended. The rescue ships headed out into the stormy night. They went to the spot where the Princess Sofia had been stranded. In the darkness they could find nothing, but by the light of the dawn the next day they discovered the grim truth. The Princess Sofia had sunk in the night with all the crew and passengers aboard. Only the topmost part of the mast was visible above the waves.

“Do you want to transfer your passengers to my ship?” Captain Ledbetter had offered.

“We will wait...” came the fateful reply. And what followed was the worst maritime disaster in the history of the Pacific Northwest.

To a world of sinners trapped in darkness and tottering on the brink of eternal disaster, God is offering a full and free salvation. Through the preaching of the gospel He is calling out to men and women everywhere, telling them that if they repent and believe in Christ, He will deliver them from all the trouble they have gotten into through sin.

God is offering to save you from your sins and give you the gift of eternal life. If you are wise, you will realize the danger you are in and believe on Christ at once. There is no reason at all to wait to receive the gift of eternal life. “We will wait” was the reply from the Princess Sofia, and it was a fatal decision. Waiting was foolish in their case, and it is foolish in the case of anyone who hears the gospel message but puts off receiving Christ until a more favorable time. Don’t let another hour go by without making sure of your eternal safety by accepting the lifeline being held out to you by the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember the sure promise: “Whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

What More Can I Do?

A young Hindu stopped for a few moments on a street in Calcutta to hear a gospel preacher. He heard only the words, “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23).

He walked away at once, but the knowledge of personal sin had entered his conscience and he could not shake it off. At last he sought relief by entering upon a religious life. For several years he wandered over India to pray at many shrines, but he found neither rest nor peace.

He turned to a group of people who were dissatisfied with Hinduism. Their belief was: “Do what is just and right, and all will be well.”

While this sounded good, it still brought him no peace. To use his own words: “The remembrance of past sins kept rushing into my mind. Something seemed to say: Without atonement for past sins you will perish.”

This new society rejected the teaching of atonement, but Hinduism acknowledges the need of some kind of atonement. He turned back to his old religion and again wandered from shrine to shrine seeking peace. At Varanasi (Benares), with its two thousand shrines, he fairly gave way to despair, exclaiming, “What more can I do other than that I have done? Yet there is no peace!”

He returned to Calcutta to visit a sick nephew. His nephew had been converted to Christianity and he had a Bible, portions of which he read to his troubled uncle. He persuaded him to go and hear a Christian speaker. There he heard of God’s way of salvation and received it. With joy he exclaimed, “This is what I have been longing to hear for many years!”

Having obtained a Bengali Bible, he learned from the Word of God itself that “the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 6:23).

Though he well knew that if he became a Christian he would become an outcast among some of his own people, he gladly became a follower of Jesus Christ. With the peace of God in his heart he could now say with the Apostle Paul, “I count all things but loss for the...knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things” (Phil. 3:8).

When God Said No!

From my childhood I thought of myself as a Christian, but it was more a matter of habit and custom than of personal conviction. When the time came for me to start working, I had set my heart on a certain job overseas. A friend had told me what a great opportunity it would be. “Over there,” he said, “money just flows freely—and the living is easy.”

He painted such a bright picture that I felt no effort would be too great to win it, so I worked hard to prepare myself for the job and prayed earnestly for help.

There was to be an examination before I could be accepted. I was increasingly hopeful as the day drew near. I studied hard and prayed hard too the morning of the exam. The questions all seemed easy to me, and I left the room confidently. The job was as good as mine!

But I failed! Another had even higher marks than I did and was accepted in my place.

I was completely baffled. Work and prayer had failed; all I had trusted in had failed me. The effect on me was tragic, and I just banished religion from my life.

For a long time I was under a dark cloud of depression. Then, accepting defeat, I tried for a job. It was not my glamorous overseas job, but I soon grew used to it.

Then war broke out. The foreign land to which I had hoped to go was overrun, the business wiped out, and the man who took the place I had hoped for was never heard from again.

God’s denying me what I had asked in my prayer had saved me. I could only feel it was the hand of God that closed that door, and penitently I turned to Him for forgiveness. In prayer and in quiet thought and in reading my Bible carefully, I found my way to the cross. I saw myself a sinner before God, and I accepted the salvation offered through the suffering and death of our Lord Jesus Christ.

From that day I have enjoyed a wonderful sense of peace. I have proved that a life of obedience to God, lived in prayerful trust, is a life guided by divine wisdom and divine love. It may often be contrary to our wishes and what we think is right for us, but God’s answer will always prove best in the end.

The Apostle Paul heard the Lord’s assurance when his prayer request was not granted: “My grace is sufficient,” and our Lord Himself prayed in Gethsemane, “Not My will, but Thine.” So we too must pray, if we would be guided in the highest and best way. We have an infallible Guide, the Lord Himself.

When the Savior Came My Way

You ask me why I love the Lord;

Well, friend, just let me say

My life was not worth living

’Till the Savior came my way.

You say I lose so much in life;

Yes, friend, PRAISE GOD, I do;

I lose the sin and sorrow

Which was all I ever knew.

I lose the days spent seeking joy,

The long nights full of tears;

I lose the heavy burdens

I had carried through the years.

But, friend, I would not have them back

For all that you could pay;

My life was not worth living

’Till the Savior came my way!

Will’s Escape

During World War II, when the government of France collapsed, the army was ordered to stop fighting and to lay down their weapons. There were many officers who tried to save their men and themselves from surrender. Among these was the colonel of an artillery regiment which was stationed well west of the Maginot Line.

When the colonel heard of the fall of Paris and of the rapid advance of the Germans, he ordered his regiment to retreat at once towards a district where it was thought they would be safe.

The order was issued on June 14, and three days and nights of rapid travel were needed. The retreat began the evening of June 14 and continued June 15 and June 16. Will was a young ambulance driver, and on that third day his motor suddenly stopped. Something was wrong! There was nothing to do but move aside out of the line of retreat and try to find and repair the damage. None dare to stop to help, and soon Will was alone with his passenger, an officer. There was no time to be lost, for the German army was following closely.

Will’s parents were Christian missionaries in China. On that June 16 they had it greatly pressed upon their hearts that their beloved son was in special danger, and they prayed earnestly that the Lord would protect and deliver him.

Will himself knew that same source of guidance and help, and he prayed that he might speedily find the cause of trouble in his engine. The prayers were answered. Will was led to prompt discovery of the trouble and was able to fix it. But the regiment had passed on and there was no guide to show him the way. The officer who was his passenger in the ambulance just “happened” to have with him a road map covering just that very district, and using it they proceeded.

As they advanced, they found bridges destroyed and roads blocked. At times shells fell to the left and right of them, but they were unhurt. Several times they narrowly escaped capture by German troops. Without the road map they would have been almost helpless; using it, they reached the expected place of safety. Their ambulance was the very last to arrive.

There are those who will perhaps think that the statement of God’s answering prayer, causing the ambulance driver to quickly discover the problem in his engine and to have so ordered it that the one passenger had the needed road map, was nothing but religious sentiment.

If that is your thought, it is clear that you know nothing of the love of God for us poor human creatures. Did you never read what our Lord said when on this earth: “Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God?” He adds, “Even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.... Ye are of more value than many sparrows.”

Of our Lord Jesus we are told that He was the brightness of God’s glory, the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power. In love to you and me, He laid aside that glory for a time. He came into this world, became a man and went to the cross of Calvary to die for us. He accomplished the work of redemption for us. “The Son of God...loved me, and gave Himself for me” (Gal. 2:20).

Surely, you will not close your heart against such love as this?

Echoes of Grace: 2006

Table of Contents

A Message From the Sky

A Squirrel in Trouble

Adrift on the Pacific

Attitude Determines Altitude

Bandits Use Pepper

Behold, I Come Quickly

Choose Now

Collision Course

Cyclone

Get Right with God

God Was There the Whole Time

Good News That Wasn't True

How Many Baths?

Hurricane Allen

"I Don't Want to Be Saved"

I Thought I Was Dead

I Will Never Walk Again

Ideal Retirement

"In Jesus"

Justice

Katrina: Who Is to Blame?

Lost in the Fog

Lost on a Dark Mountain

New Orleans

Nicodemus

Not Ready

Now I See

Ocean Currents

Only One Man

Out of This Life

Out of This Life

Payment with a Million-Dollar Bill

Pharos

Profit or Loss?

Queen of the North

Refuge

Satan's Clock

Such an Offer

Surveillance

Testimony About Jesus

The Anchor

The Big One

The Bridge on the Sand

The Cure for Fear

The Doctor's Heart

The Forgotten Son

The Good Samaritan

The Hero of Hurricane Pass

The Kitten in the Water

The Lord Jesus or Confucius

The Loyal Ground Squirrel

The Man Who Had Nothing

The Mark

The Mirage

The Rogue Wave

The Sergeant's Mistake

The Shattered Dream

The Silent Smoke Alarm

The Tay Bridge

The Trams That Stalled

There Is a Time

Tight Corners

Tottering on the Brink in the Olympic Mountains

Vanishing Time

Warning Signs for a Lonely Beach

We Are Not Safe

We Will Wait

What More Can I Do?

When God Said No!

When the Savior Came My Way

Will’s Escape