What a wonderful vacation they were having! Camping in the national forest near Mount St. Helens Volcano was the most beautiful place Mike Moore had ever been. He knew there had been signs that the mountain would erupt soon, but he and his family thought they were a safe distance away. A safe distance? . . . No way! At 8:32 a.m. on Sunday morning, May 18, 1980, the volcano erupted! Landslides! . . . hot gasses! . . . floods! . . . suffocating ash! These and other experiences faced Mike and his family! They had to get out, but how? The roads were destroyed! There was only one thing left to do—walk.
They trudged mile after mile down a trail—seven miles through swirling, choking clouds of ash. There seemed to be no escape! But then when they had just about given up hope, they heard a helicopter. Frantically Mike and his wife waved their arms. They were seen, and the family was rescued!
They were rescued because they signaled for help. By their actions, the helicopter pilot saw them and knew that they needed to be rescued. Thankfully, he was able to save them.
There is a Saviour who is able to save you from your sins, if you will admit your need to be saved and ask Him. The Lord Jesus Christ wants to save you. He is completely able and just waiting for you to tell Him. He wants you to see your great need as a sinner and that it is only His work on the cross that can rescue you from the punishment you deserve for your sins. Won’t you stop trudging mile after mile in your sins? Look at the cross! Look to the Lord Jesus, and accept Him as your Saviour! “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Romans 10:13).
David Johnston was also near Mount St. Helens when it erupted. For him it was a job that put him there. He was a geologist for the United States Geological Survey. He was stationed at a camp six miles away from the mountaintop, and he knew the mountain was a time bomb, ticking away. But his job was to record what goes on just before an eruption so that scientists could learn more about volcanoes. He told his friends, “I’m sitting on a powder keg, but nobody knows how long the fuse is.” He wrote to his parents, “The volcano will give a warning before it erupts, with enough time to evacuate the danger area.” Perhaps that was why there was no panic, only excitement in his call that morning. His last words were, “Vancouver, this is it! This is it!” But there was no time to evacuate the danger area. The super-hot gases traveled at 200 miles an hour. His body was never found.
Reid Blackburn’s job was not so dangerous. He was photographing the mountain from a campsite eight miles away. Surely, that was a safe distance. He took four pictures of the explosion and then ran for his car. But it was too late to escape. Four feet of ash covered the campsite and extended another ten miles beyond it. His body was found later in his car.
But what do the experiences in this story have to do with you and me? David Johnston said that Mount St. Helens was a “time bomb.” We know from the Bible that time is ticking away for this world’s destruction. One Bible verse says, “Flee from the wrath to come” (Matthew 3:7). But where can we flee? How can we escape? There is only one answer—flee to Jesus Christ! Just as the safety of Mike and his family depended on help coming from above, your safety also comes from above—from Jesus who died so that you could be saved. Won’t you accept His salvation now?
“Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else” (Isaiah 45:22).
MEMORY VERSE: “Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.” Isaiah 45:22
ML-08/02/2015