God, Please Don’t Let Me Drown!
Unknown Author
Table of Contents
”God, Please Don’t Let Me Down!
Heavy summer storms had filled to overflowing the drainage canals in a southern city. So much water was a mercy to the farmers in the parched area, and a delight to all who enjoyed water sports. Yet, unprotected by lifeguards as these streams were, they were a real danger to the careless and a worry for many anxious parents.
Among those playing in her neighborhood canal was a teenage girl. She was not a very strong nor expert swimmer, but she seemed unaware of danger. Even when the swift center current caught and swept her downstream, she believed she could fight her way back to the bank.
How like the soul drifting away from God this is! To enjoy "the pleasures of sin for a season" he drifts in the current of the world, trusting to his own ability to return to the safety of early counsel or Christian teaching. Just so have many made shipwreck of otherwise promising lives.
At last, realizing her inability to overcome the force of the current and seeing the ever-widening expanse of the swift waters, the frightened girl screamed for help. A young fisherman on the bank saw the struggling girl and plunged in, hoping to reach her. He was not a very strong swimmer, but he fought the current in his effort to help until he himself was exhausted and had to be rescued. He said: "I had to try! There was nothing else to do."
Another observer on the bank threw an empty five-gallon container to the girl. She grabbed it as it bobbed past her, and encircled it with both arms. Yet the relentless flood swept her on.
About two hundred yards further downstream and still in the swift center current, the poor girl seemed to realize fully her helpless situation. Within sight was the great culvert filled to overflowing with the flood-stream from the canal. Once within that watery trap no human help could reach her.
Did the thought of her only possible Helper now come to her? Did He, the soul's only sure Refuge, present Himself to her?
The few watchers on the bank were startled into action by a desperate scream: "O God, PLEASE don't let me drown!"
On the banks of the canal stood two men watching the struggle in the water. Neither was a good swimmer, and both were painfully aware of physical disabilities. Yet at the hopeless cry one of the men muttered, "I may die first, but I can't just let her drown."
Throwing off his coat and shoes, he plunged into the yellow flood and started swimming. Letting himself be carried by the current as much as possible, he reached the frantic girl. He feared that, in her panic, she might drag both of them beneath the water, but both her arms were still desperately hugging the empty container. Grasping her as best he could, he fought against the rushing water while keeping his grip on the now half-conscious girl. Halfway to the bank, exhausted by his efforts, he was met by his friend and another man. Together they were able to pull both rescuer and rescued to safety.
The course of this world is flowing ever more swiftly towards destruction. Caught in its relentless tide, rushing helplessly onward, why not cry as that girl did, "O God, PLEASE don't let me drown"? In Christ Jesus alone is eternal life; why not cry to Him now to be your Savior and your sure Refuge from life's storms?
He has promised that "him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out" (John 6:37).
“ The Son of Man
is come to seek and to save
that which was lost.”
Luke 19:10
First of All
God has given us His Word, and in its inspired pages we read: "For I delivered unto you first of all that which also I received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures" (1 Cor. 15:3).
Notice the phrase, "I delivered unto you first of all." This is very important, because it shows us just what Paul the Apostle preached first; it gives us his starting point, his first lesson. From Athens he had gone down to Corinth, where the Lord told him He had "much people," and there he preached and taught for a year and a half. Some years after this he wrote to these Corinthian people reminding them of what he had FIRST taught them. What was it? "Christ died for our sins." You see it was a message that met their need, for were they not sinners before God?
"All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3:23). If you turn to Luke 18 you will read there of one who took his true place before God. His very brief prayer is given in verse 13: "God be merciful to me a sinner." He owns himself a sinner, deserving nothing but judgment and immediately the Lord has something encouraging to say of him: "This man went down to his house justified."
I ask again, Have you realized your lost condition and cried to God as did this man? If you have, then listen: "The wages of sin is death," but "Christ died for our sins," and "He hath made Him to be sin for us" (2 Cor. 5:21).
"Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree." Troubled heart, what a message of gladness to those Corinthian people in that day, and the same word is for you. The question of sin and guilt is forever settled for the believer at the cross. God in His great love meets man's need at once. He proclaims peace by the blood shed at Calvary. He is in haste with His own remedy for man's ruin.
Will you accept God's salvation? Will you believe that the death of Christ is the basis, the only basis, of approach to God? Will you believe that, "first of all," Christ died for our sins, and that without His death and His resurrection we would still be in our sins? Then you will know that "the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Rom. 6:23).
"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
Nothing Left to Trust In
He lived in and was a native of Southern India. He had been taught from his infancy to worship and pray to the gods of fire and water. In that time and part of India the British Government had a college for teaching English to native young men, so that they might qualify for holding government situations. The head of this college was one who respected and believed God's written Word. So, in teaching these young men to read English, a portion of the Bible was read regularly each day.
At first, full of prejudice and unbelief, the young man strongly disliked having to do this and would show his contempt and dislike for the Bible by kicking it around when he had opportunity, even spitting upon it to show his fellow students how little he cared for or believed it.
But one day the reading lesson was in the sixth chapter of John's Gospel, and somehow one verse fastened itself on his mind in a way that he could not shake off or forget, specially these words: "Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out" (John 6:37).
He tried to forget them, but they were constantly returning to him and coming up again and again in his mind.
Not very long after this, a fire broke out in the military barracks close by, and he found himself running with others with water to put out the fire. All at once the thought struck him that, as a worshipper of fire and water, here he was running with a bucket of water to put out fire. In other words, trying to quench one god with another god. The absurdity of it so took hold of him that he gave up his old ideas entirely and became an atheist.
One day he went with a friend to swim in the sea not very far from the college. It was usual for them to watch the tide, and when it was lowest to swim a long way out to a sand bar on which they would rest and catch their breath and then turn back and swim ashore again. On this day he had somehow failed to watch the tide. Stripping off his clothes on the shore, he dived into the water and swam as usual to about the distance from shore where he expected to find the sand bar and rest before returning. To his dismay he found the water already over the sand bar, and, when he tried to touch bottom with his feet, found no bottom at all. It dawned upon him that he had mistaken the time, and that the tide was far above the sand bank.
Too exhausted to swim back to shore, he was helpless and hopeless. Nothing but death by drowning was before him. His friend had not followed him and was now too far off to help him. He tried to float but began to sink and, with death staring him in the face, began to look eternity in the face also. All his past life came up before him and here he was, his gods gone, and nothing left to trust in. The dreadful thought of going into eternity unprepared pressed on his terror-stricken soul.
At this point he remembered those words, which had so impressed him in John 6: "Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out." He had tried to reject and forget them then, but now, half doubting and half believing, he cried out: "Lord Jesus, if there is such a person, I come to Thee!"
The Savior met him just as he was and just where he was, revealing Himself as a living, loving Savior, as faithful to His own words as He always is, "Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out."
Meanwhile, a boat had set out and they reached the spot just in time to save his life.
Saved—not only from drowning, but from eternal misery too. Saved—from a watery grave and saved from an eternity without God and without Christ. At once he confessed Christ to the one who had come down to swim with him.
He soon confessed Christ as his Lord openly and boldly to his own relations, who utterly disowned him for becoming a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. He went to England and became a teacher of oriental languages and also an earnest preacher of the gospel. There he told how the Lord Jesus met and saved his soul.
"When we were yet without strength,
in due time Christ died
for the ungodly."
Rom. 5:6
Morning and Also Night
The night of the Christian is lighted by the love of Jesus, and it is ended by a morning that has no evening, "for there shall be no night there." Think of heaven, that happy scene where "the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof...for there shall be no night there" (Rev. 21:23, 25). A place of eternal and unfading glory!
"The morning cometh, and also the NIGHT." Oh, what a night without Christ! Go into eternity without Christ, and what will it be? All night! All night! There will be no morning to that awful night, nothing but "the blackness of darkness forever" (Jude 13).
The night has not yet come, but who can say how near it is? While it is still day—the day of His grace—Jesus calls in tender love, "Come unto Me."
A Sleeping City―A Weeping Savior
It was night. The sun had long since set behind Mt. Carmel in the west, and from mid-heaven the moon shone down upon the great guilty city. The song of the drunkard was ended, and he slept heavily. Weary workers had sought rest from the labor of the day and in sleep would find strength for the day to come. The quiet of night erased the lines of care from the faces of tired mothers, while their little ones slept peacefully near them. Business problems were forgotten; all seemed at rest.
But toward the east, on Mt. Olivet, stood a Stranger, solitary and alone. Travel-weary, wet with the dew. He stood and looked upon the city, and through His eyes, compassion shone. As He looked, He wept.
It was Jesus the Nazarene from the plains of Galilee. Still the city slept; the Weeper and His tears were all unheeded by those for whom He wept. But wakeful heaven looked on in wonder, and multitudes of angels bowed and worshipped at the sight.
Jesus is the Lord of heaven, the eternal Son of God; yet there He stood without a home upon the earth His hands had made. Why? The reason is not far to seek. Men's hearts were full of sin, and His was full of love. He came to bring them blessing, to flood their land with joy from heaven. He came to shield them from evil, as the mother bird shelters her young beneath her wing when the hawk approaches.
But they would not. They slept indifferently. His words, His works, His tears did not awaken any love for Him. The city slept. How dark was that slumber!
He stood and wept, then passed onward to the cross. He died; His blood was shed. His love passed the test. He died for sinners, for those who hated Him, and being raised from the grave He sent His followers with the word of life into the city over which He wept.
Nearly two thousand years have passed away since then, and still the Savior-Jesus sends the message of salvation to all. But still there are thousands who sleep indifferently in a dark and dreadful slumber—the sleep of sin. They do not want Christ, nor God, nor heaven. How terrible the awakening will be!
"It is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand" (Rom. 13:11-12).
"Awake thou that steepest... and Christ shall give thee light" (Eph. 5:14).
Taking or Giving?
After a gospel meeting, a woman went to the preacher and said, "You are always saying, 'Take, take!' Is there any place in the Bible where it says, 'Take,' or is it only a word you use? I have been looking in the Bible but cannot find it."
"Why," said the preacher, "the Bible is sealed with it; it is almost the last word in the Bible."
Then he quoted Rev. 22:17: "Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely."
"Well," she said, "I never saw that before. Is that all I have to do?"
"Yes, the Bible says so."
And she took it right away!
All of us at some time in our life have imagined that we had to give God something, but God cannot accept anything we have done or may do in the future as a means of salvation. God is the GIVER; we must be the receivers, and until we TAKE from Him, all the good deeds which we have done are of no account in His holy eyes.
"The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Rom. 6:23).
Oh, take with rejoicing from Jesus at once
The life everlasting He gives!
And know with assurance you never can die
Since Jesus, your righteousness, lives.
Christ for Me
We speak of the mercy of God,
So boundless, so rich, and so free!
But what will it profit, my soul,
Unless 'tis relied on by thee?
We speak of salvation and love,
By the Father, in Jesus, made known;
But if I would live unto God,
By faith I must make it my own.
We speak of the Savior's dear name,
By which God can sinners receive;
Yet still I am lost and undone,
Unless in that name I believe.
We speak of the blood of the Lamb,
Which frees from pollution and sin;
But its virtues by me must be proved,
Or I shall be ever unclean.
We speak of the glory to come,
Of the heavens so bright and so fair,
But unless I in Jesus believe,
I shall not. I cannot be there!
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