Most everybody knows that a red traffic light means you have to stop, and once the light changes to green, that means you can go. Those same colors elsewhere usually mean the very same thing, that you stop on red and you can go on green. If you are in a boat on a lake or river, color markers in the water give you directions. A red marker means, “Stop; don’t come this way,” and a green marker means, “Okay to go this way.” It’s always good to obey traffic lights and water markers. You will be safe if you obey them.
One time we were boating on a lake in a provincial park in Canada. The lake divided into two arms of water, and we were boating down the one arm. We were watching for the red and green markers. A red marker was a warning of shoals, which is shallow water with sandbars and/or rocks in the water that you can’t see. We had to keep to the left of the red markers and stay on the right of the green markers. It reminded us of what we came to while boating another time.
We saw a boat stuck on one of the shoals. The driver had made a big mistake by going on the wrong side of the red marker, and that mistake had destroyed the boat’s propeller. It had hit some rocks. The green marker was two hundred meters (about 650 feet) away, but we guess he just didn’t see it. It was getting dark at the time.
Now the driver didn’t expect to smash his boat into the rocks. It makes an awful racket when the boat or engine screeches across the unseen rocks in the water. They were in trouble because they had taken the wrong way around the red marker. Perhaps the driver had his own idea of what was right, but he had taken the wrong way. He learned that too late.
There is a right way marked out for us in the Bible. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me” (John 14:66Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. (John 14:6)). That’s the green marker way. Of course, many people think they know another way which is better, but it ends up being the red marker way, and this is what happens: “There is a way which [seems] right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death” (Proverbs 14:1212There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. (Proverbs 14:12))! The driver of the boat learned too late that he was on the wrong side of the red marker. Children and grown-ups need to follow the green marker in the Bible. It will take them safely to heaven to live with Jesus in His home.
We decided to help the people stuck on the rocks. Our boat moved very, very carefully towards their boat. We had a sonar screen on our boat which we used to guide us around the rocks. When we got close enough, we tossed them a rope so we could pull them off the rock they were stuck on. There were two older couples in the boat, and they were glad for the rescue and the tow back to the dock.
We can be sure that the driver of that boat with the broken propeller realized too late that he had not followed the green marker. It would have shown him the right way around the underwater rocks. He’ll never make that mistake again.
But when it comes to taking the right and only way to reach heaven, there are no second chances if you follow your own idea. It’s a red marker that ends in disaster in the lake of fire forever! Jesus is the only way; He is the green marker. Do you know Him as your Saviour and your Guide?
ML-05/29/2016