Echoes of Grace: 2009
Table of Contents
Alligator Attack
Bradley was an energetic, fun-loving 10-year-old boy who lived in South Florida. One day Bradley and his parents, along with some other friends, were canoeing down the Loxahatchee River in Jonathan Dickinson State Park. This is a shallow, winding river with a lot of lush, tropical plants lining the banks. People enjoy paddling their canoes and seeing the many birds and animals in their natural surroundings.
People from other states specially enjoyed seeing the alligators, and there were many in the river. The park rangers warned visitors about staying out of the water and not feeding them. Alligators have a natural fear of man, but they can lose that fear if fed by people. However, it is a common practice for canoeists to get out of their canoes to push off when they are grounded on a sandbank or stuck in tree roots and to go swimming when they get too hot.
Bradley and his parents and friends were wading in the shallow water when his father suddenly missed him. Seeing something white being pulled through the water, the father grabbed at it to find it was Bradley’s T-shirt. Trying to pull his son out of the water, he felt him being tugged back in. To his horror the father discovered that a huge alligator had Bradley in his jaws! He grabbed his son’s leg and held on while others began beating the’ gator with canoe paddles.
The alligator finally let Bradley go, and his father and the others wrapped the T-shirt tightly around him to try to stop the severe bleeding. Paddling feverishly, they reached the nearest place where they could call for help. Soon Bradley was being airlifted by helicopter to the nearest hospital, but he was too badly injured, and it was not long before he died of a fractured skull.
This alligator reminds us of a far worse enemy who is trying to deceive and, in the end, destroy. Some think the devil is just a joke, but the Bible, God’s Word, tells us, “Your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8).
Satan deceived Eve in the Garden of Eden, and he has been trying to deceive mankind ever since. But Jesus defeated the devil at the cross of Calvary where He died for our sins. Someday the devil is going to be cast into the lake of fire forever. But all those who have believed that Jesus died on the cross for their sins and have accepted that wonderful redemption are safe forever in Jesus’ hands.
“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” (John 10:28-29).
If that had been you instead of Bradley, would you be in heaven now? Jesus is coming soon to take all Christians up to be with Himself in heaven. All people need to be sure that they are ready. Are you?
Debatable Land
For three hundred years part of the land in the border region between England and Scotland was claimed by both countries. This area became known as the Debatable Land. Neither country was able to exercise control over the fierce warriors who inhabited the region. These lords and barons would often come out of their castles with their followers and attack towns and estates in the surrounding country. They grew rich and powerful by their looting. Since they owed allegiance to no authority higher than themselves, they could act in a lawless way and not fear punishment.
Their piratical ways came to an end when King James VI of Scotland became also King James 1 of England in 1603. With the united power of both countries, he took steps to pacify the border and end the lawlessness. He sent soldiers to tear down the fortified towers of the raiders and, rounding up their families, sent them to Ireland.
Another part of the world which has been dubbed Debatable Land is the coast of Georgia. The Spanish had a fort in St. Augustine, which they felt gave them a right to the land of South Georgia. The English felt their claim was established by a wilderness outpost at Fort Frederica. The coast for the most part was sparsely populated and a haven for dangerous pirates. The Spanish Governor from Florida led a force of three hundred to attack the English and drive them out of the Debatable Lands. He lost the battle of Bloody Marsh, with the result that South Georgia came firmly into English control. It remained an English colony until the American Revolution.
If you perform a word search on “Debatable Lands” on the computer, both these places would pop up. There is a third place which you should know about, which is hotly contested by two opposing countries. Lawlessness too is a chief characteristic of this place. The other Debatable Lands were from long ago and don’t directly involve you. However, the conflict going on right now for this other Debatable Land will have a tremendous impact on your life. In fact, the battle may be going on right now in your heart and life!
How does this directly affect you and me? We live in a war-torn region. We are in the midst of the immense conflict between good and evil-between God and Satan. At some future moment the Lord Jesus will return, judge His enemies, and set up His kingdom on earth. Then will begin His glorious reign. Until that time the world will be in a state of turmoil.
You can’t stand on neutral ground in this conflict; there is no neutral ground. You are either on one side or the other; to steer a neutral course and have nothing to do with either side is an utter impossibility.
Oh, be wise and repent and put your faith in Christ, He is the Victor over death and the grave, and in His name alone is there salvation for sinful man. “There is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).
A Father's Love
His tie loosened around his neck and sport coat thrown casually over his shoulder, the young father walked his four-year-old daughter down an inner-city sidewalk. The little girl wore pigtails tied in ribbons, and a jumpsuit. With her little hand held snugly in his bigger hand, he was taking his child to McDonald’s for a bite to eat. They walked past dilapidated buildings and empty lots strewn with broken bottles.
Suddenly, a car careened around the corner. The car swerved wildly from side to side. Making a loud bang, it sideswiped a parked vehicle. Instead of slowing to a stop, the car sped up. The father saw the unthinkable happen. The car turned towards him and his daughter. He had only a split second to react. He grabbed his little girl and turned his back to the onrushing car. It was the last thing he ever did. The car’s tires hit the curb, flew across the sidewalk, and struck the father. He died instantly, but his little girl, shielded by his body, escaped serious injury.
Tragically, the little girl will grow up without a father, but by his action to save her she can never doubt his love. A father’s love is priceless and irreplaceable. Do you know that God, the Father, loves you with an incredible love? Before the universe was ever made He knew men and women would leave the paths of righteousness and rush headlong into sin and darkness. He made the decision to send His Son that they might have a way to be saved. “The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world” (1 John 4:14).
When the Father gave His Son, He could give no more. “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye Him” (Matt. 17:5). The Son was beloved because He was ever perfectly obedient to the Father’s will. His perfect obedience led Him to the cross where He offered His life as a sacrifice for sin.
Every soul who believes on Christ will be shielded from the certain judgment that must overtake all those who remain in their sins. On the cross, in His own body, the Lord Jesus bore the punishment for the sins of all those who would come to Him in faith. There is no other way to be shielded from the consequence of our sins but by believing on the heaven-sent Savior. “Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed” (1 Peter 2:24).
Because the Father was willing to send the Son to Calvary’s cross, no one need ever doubt His love. “He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” (Rom. 8:32).
His love is a living love. He raised the Lord Jesus from the dead to live in the power of an endless life. From heaven He is seeking people who are dead in sins to make them His living children forever. Those who die in faith will have their bodies raised to a new life, never again subject to pain, death or harm. It is the Father’s pleasure to give to all who believe on His Son the gift of eternal life. “This is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent” (John 17:3).
His love is a love which will never cease, a love which death can never dim, a love that can bring the hope of heaven to those who otherwise would never think of it. His love is a love which no soul should ever do without. Will you not come to Jesus Christ, God’s Son, that you might know a father’s love?
In a Moment
The little car was waiting for a traffic signal to change. Suddenly there was a jolt, a jar, and the sickening sound of crumpling metal. From the car behind a protesting voice rose: “But officer, I only looked away for one moment!” And then a man’s voice: “That’s all it takes, ma’am! All it takes. Now, how do you spell your name?”
Too bad. One car damaged, one car “totaled” and all it took was one moment.
Another road, another car, and a sudden crash, a scream, a burst of flame, and a young life ended and a heartbroken mother crying: “One moment you have everything-everything!-and the next it is all taken away and you have nothing. In only one moment!”
Or think, if you had that “one moment,” or even several moments, a time to react in the face of disaster—could you use it successfully? There was a recent train wreck. Two trains hurtling toward each other and for only three or four seconds “they could possibly see each other.” Did it help? No, twenty-five people were killed in that crash, and more than 135 others injured. How quickly, how suddenly, everything changed for so many.
But there is another moment which is still to come. “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye [and how quick is that?], the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised...and we shall be changed” (1 Cor. 15:52).
Changed? Life will change, but not to grief or sorrow nor even to regret, but to all the joy of the Father’s house forever.
BUT if we have never owned God as Father, never accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior, there will not be time to change. All those who have not prepared for that great change, those who have chosen this world or have simply neglected “so great salvation,” there will not be time to change.
“I never gave it a thought” will be a very poor plea in that day. Think now! You “know not what a day may bring forth” and everything may be changed “in a moment”!
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 just appeal
In simple faith to JESUS.
He died, He lives, He reigns, He pleads;
There’s love in all His words and deeds;
There’s all a guilty sinner needs
Forevermore in JESUS.
Though some should sneer, and some should blame,
I’ll go with all my guilt and shame;
I’ll go to Him, because His name
Above all names, is JESUS.
Call His name JESUS: for He shall save His people from their sins” (Matt. 1:21).
The Last Flight
The proof was in the DNA of the two large bones found in October 2008 at the crash site in California. They belonged to the unfortunate Mr. Fossett. In September 2007 he took off in a single-engine plane and just disappeared until a plane-crash site was found. Parts of a plane were found, but that was not conclusive. Not even finding his shoes and driver’s license were absolute proof that Fossett was the man who had died in that shattered plane until the bones were found and tested for DNA. That ended all doubt.
He was a 63-year-old millionaire, an adventurer who notched up 116 records in balloons, airplanes, sailboats, gliders and airships. He climbed more than 400 mountains and swam the English Channel. But one flight was his last, and he never returned. The largest air and ground search in U.S. history, involving dozens of planes and hundreds of people over an area of 17,000 square miles, failed to find him.
His flight into eternity is considered an accident. He couldn’t fly over this mountain peak, and he didn’t plan on the sight of the mountainside rushing into his windshield. He was planning his next world speed record, but his record making is finished.
You and I will never match or exceed his records. For example, in 2005 he was the first person to fly a plane around the world without refueling. But we will compare in one way. You and I will also have a last flight. He suddenly went into eternity-an unplanned flight. So will we.
Jesus Christ spoke of a man who had great plans for his future. In Luke 12 he said he would pull down his barns and build bigger ones to store the plentiful harvest he had just reaped. He would take it easy and retire on Easy Street.
He said, I have “enough...for many years; take [it easy], eat, drink, and be merry” (verse 19).
God said, “Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then who will get it all?”
He was so busy that he forgot about God, about his soul, and about the end of this life. Jesus said the poor rich man was not rich toward God. He abruptly left everything behind and stepped into eternity. No replay possible.
How much wiser it would have been to have followed the advice in the Bible: “Seek ye the Lord while He may be found”! That applies to all ages and conditions, but-the day will come when He can no longer “be found.” We are no more sure of tomorrow than the rich man nor the flier.
"Lie Still!"
The rotating lights of the squad car flashed on and its shrill siren cut through the quiet of the inner-city Chicago neighborhood.
A taxi which had been weaving from one side of the street to the other came to a halt. In plain view of the officers in the squad car, the taxi driver opened his door, poured out the contents of a liquor bottle, and started running.
The policemen raced after him and caught him. There was a scuffle, a grappling of hands and arms. The cabdriver worked one of his arms free in the fray, reached under his jacket and pulled a handgun from a shoulder holster. He leveled it toward one of the officers. Both their weapons were still holstered.
“No! Hold it! Don’t do it,” they shouted.
Before they could react further, the cab driver shot. Officer Matura’s gun hand was hit. The driver fired again, and Officer Duffy crumpled to the pavement, his bulletproof vest pierced by a bullet.
Officer Matura stepped backwards, drew his own revolver, and fired every cartridge at the cabdriver. Shooting with his left hand, his shots went wild and missed. Out of ammunition, he retreated down the street to reload.
The cab driver turned and shot Officer Duffy again as he lay in the street, and then he went in pursuit of Officer Matura, following him down the street for half a block.
Duffy wasn’t dead. He had been shot twice, but he still was conscious. When he saw his assailant leave he struggled to his hands and knees and started crawling. He crawled about twenty feet to behind a parked van and collapsed. He was trying vainly to raise himself to crawl again when he heard a woman whisper to him, “Lie still!”
The woman saw he was dazed and didn’t understand. “Lie still!” she repeated urgently.
The gunman returned to his cab and saw that the police officer’s body was missing. He began looking for him. “Where is that guy? I’m going to kill him,” he shouted.
The young woman, Anne Claxton, quietly slipped into a position between the would-be murderer and the wounded policeman, blocking his view of Duffy lying on the pavement.
The taxi driver made a futile search for him for a few seconds, and then jumped back into his cab and sped away. There was a car chase and another gun battle before police were able to take him into custody.
Anne Claxton, standing bravely between the wounded officer and his foe, reminds us of the Lord Jesus Christ who has stood between us and our foe—Satan. To shield us from the judgment our sins deserve, the Lord Jesus went to the cross and died. He, the just One, suffered for us, the unjust, to bring us to God. Now all who believe on Him shall never come into condemnation but have passed from death to life. Rom. 8:1 says, “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.”
If it had not been for the intervention of Anne Claxton, the policeman would have likely been killed; if it were not for the Lord Jesus’ death on the cross, not a single member of the human race could ever have been saved from their sins.
Anne whispered into the ear of the wounded officer, “Lie still! Lie still!” If you have realized your own danger, if you know that you need the Savior, won’t you stop trying to help yourself and simply receive salvation as a free gift from Him who intervened between you and the enemy of your soul and died on your behalf?
“The Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me” (Gal. 2:20).
Not by Feelings
Sometimes people have the idea that before they can be saved they must feel something. They hope to get some special revelation; they expect that something remarkable will take place inwardly and that after they have experienced wonderful feelings and emotions they are then (but not until then) entitled to believe that they are saved.
Well, nobody was ever saved in that way! We are saved by the work of Christ on the cross. That work was done outside of us, so if we are to be saved by it, we must look outside of ourselves.
“Look unto Me,” Christ says. He never says, “Look unto your own heart.”
No one ever got peace by looking there. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked” (Jer. 17:9). How could we expect to get peace by looking there?
Christ made peace by the blood of His cross (Colossians 1:20). He says, “By Him all that believe are justified from all things” (Acts 13:39). That is, by believing on Christ, all your sins are forgiven in a moment, and you stand justified before God.
There is nothing here about feeling an inward transformation. We cannot feel that our sins are pardoned; that’s impossible. We can only know that they are pardoned by believing the Word of God.
When you believe on the Lord Jesus, He tells you that you are pardoned—that you have everlasting life. You didn’t have it before you believed, but you have it when you believe on Him who did it all and paid it all, and you know it simply because He says so.
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?
MARCH
Sinking in Pelican Bay
“It was a dark and stormy night,” as the old stories used to begin. But this was not a story; this was true—and in our modern times—and in “Pelican Bay,” not far away.
It was about 10:30 at night when a towboat crew reported to the Coast Guard that they had found a capsized dinghy floating in the bay. There was clothing and other debris floating, and they knew there was something wrong.
Nearing the site, the Coast Guard found another boat, a sailboat, also sinking. This boat held a survivor, Jean-Francois Duplaa, the owner of both boats, still clinging to the mast. As he struggled to climb the wet and slippery mast, four and five-foot waves continually crashed down on him. Very little more would wash him away.
No time was wasted! The Coast Guard radioed for a helicopter, and with it came a rescue swimmer, Petty Officer First Class Curt Rohrich. The swimmer quickly fastened the harness from the helicopter to the struggling man, wrapped his arms around him, and they were hoisted into the helicopter together. The rescued man was taken into a hospital for evaluation.
A happy ending to an unexpected adventure! The sailor’s life was saved, and even the sailboat may be salvaged.
It could so easily have ended so differently. What if there had been no Coast Guard crew? no rescue swimmer? no helicopter? What if all his struggles to climb had ended with him still alone on the “dark and stormy” water? There would have been no hope for him as the tip of the mast slipped under the waves. No help-no hope-even if he had reached the very top of the sinking mast.
No matter what his efforts to save himself had been, he soon would have vanished beneath the tossing, tumbling water. What a tragedy for him and his loved ones!
If we only look around, we can see the same story being reenacted in many, many ways. So many of life’s sailors are really struggling to “climb the mast” and reach a higher level of “goodness” in an effort to get to heaven. But if the ship is sinking, what will the effort be worth?
Help and rescue must come from above, from One who is “able to save.” There is One—only One—who came all the way from heaven at immense cost and suffering to Himself, to lift us up to heaven and out of the deadly waters.
You know who it was. You have probably heard about Him for years, but you must accept His salvation so freely offered, for “neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).
Struggling Alone
“Greek Seaman Cerasimos Koutcufas was one minute from rescue as the lifeboat came alongside his waterlogged raft. But in those brief seconds he died.” (Daily Express)
In the darkness of night the Greek ship Zafiris was wrecked on the rocks of the Mull of Galloway. The captain, seeing that the ship was fast on the rocks and in little danger of sinking immediately, ordered the crew to stay aboard until it was light.
Koutcufas disobeyed. Seizing a life jacket and a raft, he slipped over the side in the darkness, intent on saving himself. For five hours he fought his lone battle against the icy sea. Then the Portpatrick lifeboat closed in. The 28-year-old seaman, in one last, exhausted effort, grabbed for the ropes looping the dark blue hull. He missed!
Lifeboatmen caught hold of his life jacket. It was empty! The jacket was not tied on properly, and Koutcufas slipped through it and into the sea. He was not seen again.
Poor, poor man! He lost his life while trying to save himself. Had he only obeyed his captain and stayed with the ship, he would have been saved, for the other twenty-four on board were all rescued.
How many people today are like that poor seaman? How many are trying to save themselves—not their lives, but their everlasting souls—with a raft of good works and a life jacket of hoping for the best? It will not do. “None can keep alive his own soul” (Psa. 22:29).
There is only one way. Our own efforts will not gain salvation; it is “not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us” (Titus 3:5).
“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).
Why struggle on alone?
The Unchanging Word
Feelings come and feelings go,
And feelings are deceiving;
My warrant is the Word of God-
Naught else is worth believing.
Though all my heart should feel condemned
For want of some sweet token,
There is one greater than my heart
Whose Word cannot be broken.
I’ll trust in God’s unchanging Word
Till soul and body sever;
For, though all things shall pass away,
HIS WORD SHALL STAND FOREVER!
APRIL
An Urgent Situation
A visitor came to my door last week, and after talking about other matters I asked permission to ask the young man a question.
“John, if you died today, do you know where you would be?”
“It would be nice to go to heaven,” he replied after some hesitation. I suspected he didn’t think about serious matters often.
“But how about your sins? Would the Lord Jesus take you into heaven with them?”
“Well,” he stammered, “I’d have to change them or something.” He tried to explain as he ran out of ideas.
He seemed to want to go just then and we parted company.
Can you stop for a moment and consider why the Lord Jesus died?
“Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Tim. 1:15).
“Christ died for the ungodly” (Rom. 5:6).
Doesn’t that make it very plain what to do about sins? Are you a sinner? Do you qualify for salvation? Have you ever confessed your utter sinfulness to God and asked for the forgiveness that comes from Christ alone? Open your Bible today—now—and seek the Lord while you can. Your situation is more urgent than you realize.
Who Can You Trust?
Farmers in the state of Washington were blaming bad weather for their poor wheat crops, their stunted corn and their sick cattle. Some thought that their own farming skills were at fault.
Then they found that the fertilizer they had bought in good faith and spread on their land to feed it might very well be the cause of their troubles. A nearby steel mill pours a dark powder into the top of a silo. It is classified as “hazardous waste.” From the bottom of that silo the same material, unaltered, comes out as raw material for fertilizer.
Who can you trust?
The art world has been stunned to find that many of Van Gogh’s paintings—paintings worth millions of dollars—may be very clever fakes. One of his famous “Sunflower” series was sold to a Japanese firm for $39.5 million by Christie’s auctioneers, of London. Is it possible that something so expensive could be a fake?
Then, who can you trust?
A young man approached an elderly widow. “Ma’am, your driveway is in bad shape, but my company can resurface it for you.” It will cost more than she can afford, and the new surface will wash off with the first hard rain. “But he seemed such a nice young man,” she moans. “Who can you trust?”
From rich or poor, individuals or whole communities, the question rises: “Who can you trust?”
Look at the coins (U.S.) in your pocket and the fresh bills from the bank. One and all they proclaim: “In God we trust.” It may seem that our trust is in the money, not the message, but to trust the money and not the message would be disastrous!
There is everlasting trustworthiness in the One who set the planets in their orbits, who controls the courses of the most distant stars, who can turn from the vastness of the universe and promise that the seasons, “seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease” (Gen. 8:22), while the earth remains. What a promise! Believe it? Of course!
You have seen the sun, the stars, the changing seasons—you believe. What about the promises you cannot see fulfilled yet? Do you believe that “whosoever believeth in Him [Jesus Christ] should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16)? Really believe it? And have you received that everlasting life for yourself?
This promise is like a coin. There are two sides to it. “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life” is absolutely true. BUT, “he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him” (John 3:36). One side is just as certain, just as sure, as the other. Believe it! In God we can trust—and in no other.
“Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed” (John 20:29).