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Choose Your Cruise
Have you ever thought of taking a cruise? Suppose an agent offered you the opportunity to take the cruise of a lifetime — with the following choices:
Shipbuilder: We really don’t know the builder’s technical qualifications, skills or experience. But he seems to be a good man.
Crew: We don’t know anything about the crew’s previous sailing experience, successful voyages, or training — but they appear to be a cut above the average.
Captain: We don’t know much about him either. He seems to be a good man, but we don’t know of his having had any previous experience on any voyage.
Destination: Well, it appears that we are not told exactly where this ship will end its voyage, but we are assured that it won’t be at the bottom of the sea.
Shipbuilder: This ship has been built by a famous shipyard known for its successes in producing great ships with great engineering.
Crew: The crew is well-trained and very experienced — the best the famous cruise line has to offer.
Captain: The captain on this ship is very experienced and is held in high regard — both as a competent administrator and as a great seaman.
Destination: The destination is a great port city —one of the greatest and richest in the world.
Now, which ship will you probably choose for your voyage of adventure?
“Oh,” you say, “that looks fairly easy — an obvious choice.” Have you made your choice? If your choice is Ship B, you have a lot of company. Most people, when confronted with these choices, choose Ship B.
Ship B is the H.M.S. Titanic. How well do you like that choice now?
The Titanic was a new ship — supposedly the finest ever made up to the day she sailed. She is famous for sinking on her maiden voyage and for taking over half of her passengers down with her.
Ship A is Noah’s Ark — an even more famous actual historical ship — the much-mocked Ark of Noah.
The Ark’s maiden voyage was successful, despite the ignorance of the builder, captain and crew.
There is one simple reason: God. The Ark and its voyage were all God’s idea. God ordered it, God designed it, God guaranteed it, and God preserved it.
The Titanic seemed to have everything going for it — but God, and God makes all of the difference.
In God’s Word, the Bible, we read the reason why: “Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men” (1 Corinthians 1:25). No doubt people laughed at Noah when he built the Ark. But Noah had his instructions from God, and he believed God and followed God’s instructions. And both God and Noah were vindicated when the flood actually came. Read about it in the Bible, in Genesis 6-8.
Today, people still make choices, trusting their own wisdom, ignoring God’s warnings of judgment, forgetting the lesson of Noah’s Ark, and unaware that God says: “Seek ye the Lord while He may be found; call ye upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him, and to our God for He will abundantly pardon. For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are My ways your ways, saith the Lord. … My ways [are] higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:6-9).
“There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death” (Proverbs 14:12).
“All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6).
“The preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. … For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. … Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men” (1 Corinthians 1:18-25).
“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31).