WILL YOU THROW OUT
THE LIFELINE?
As I was sitting out on the shore of the Atlantic Ocean in August, watching the people under their umbrellas and in their lawn chairs, I was suddenly aware that many, many of them are lost without God. They go on with their lives day after day, feeling that emptiness inside, and try to find “things” and “careers” to fill the void in their lives. Some have known the Lord in the past and have drifted away from the things of God. They are drifting, drifting farther and farther away from the shoreline of safety, as the waves of sin and despair crash around them.
Here I am on this Sunday morning, missing my own
fellowship with my church family, and realize that many, many of these people
out on the beach have not been in church, and some only see the church doors
during holiday seasons, weddings, funerals, etc. Some are bitter and angry at life, and some
scoff at the very God who made them, and the very God who sent His Son to save
them from sin and eternal damnation. Jesus
was the Savior that loved them so much and reaches out with loving arms to a
lost world. See them there out on the
waves, struggling not to be sucked under by the riptides of life?
Have you ever sat on the beach and watched the Lifeguard
at work? Out there on the sand, as he
sits high up in his chair, he watches the waves and the people in them. He has a whistle that he blows when someone
steps out too far into the surf. I heard
that whistle often that day. And on the
side of his chair is a life raft that he can use as a lifeline who someone in
distress. There were hundreds of people
that day out in the waves, and I could only see their heads at times as the
waves rolled on and on. My children,
husband and grandchildren were out there in the waves. And I pictured a lost
and drying world out there on the waves of the sea of life, lost without Jesus! And then the Lord brought to my mind an old
hymn:
Edward S. Ufford was a young pastor of the First Baptist
Church in Westwood, a hamlet not far from the city of Boston, Mass., During low
waters he could see the remains of an old wreck embedded in the sand. His mind was often stirred to imagine what
had happened that fateful night when the storm tossed vessel was smashed to
pieces on the shore.
Thinking of this one day during the fall or autumn of
1886 he decided to conduct an open air gospel meeting in the village square the
following Sunday to warn passers-by- of their spiritual danger. Returning home afterwards it took him only
fifteen minutes to write the first four verses of his famous hymn: “Throw Out the Lifeline.”
“Throw out the lifeline across the dark wave; there is a
brother whom someone should save; somebody’s brother! Oh, who then will dare to
throw out the lifeline, his peril to share?
Throw out the lifeline with hand quick and strong: Why do
you tarry, why linger so long? See! He
is sinking; oh, hasten today. And out of
the life board! Away, then, away!
Throw out the lifeline to danger-fraught men, sinking in
anguish where you’ve never been; winds of temptation and billows of woe will
soon hurl them out where the dark waters flow, and throw out the lifeline and
save them today.
Soon will the season of rescue be o’er, soon will they
drift to eternity’s shore; haste, then, my brother, no time for delay, but
throw out the lifeline and save them today.”
“Thus it is
written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from
the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be
preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem” Luke
24:46-47.
What then is the “lifeline” that we are called to throw
out to a lost a dying world? The Gospel
of Jesus Christ is God’s ‘lifeline’ to salvation for those perishing souls out there tossed and thrown on the
waves, sinking in despair. A lifeline is
the line or rope or life preserver, that I saw on the Lifeguard’s chair. Or it is a rope that hangs around the edge of
a lifeboat for those in the water to hold, or a rope connected to a lifebuoy
that will save someone from peril in the water, or lines around a boat to
prevent anyone from going overboard.
People are sinking all around us, lost without
Christ. I look at people’s faces and
sometimes see the sadness and despair of life.
Who will go tell them about Jesus?
We, as believers, are all called to throw out the lifeline, sharing the
Gospel, telling those around us that Jesus
Saves!
If you are reading this today, and you are sinking out
there on the dark waves of sin, grasp the lifeline of the Gospel of Jesus
Christ today, right now: ‘Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved’ Acts 16:31.
“Father, in the
Name of Jesus, I realize that many, many out there are lost on the waves of
sin, sinking without hope, but I pray, right now, that many will grasp the
lifeline that Jesus is offering, salvation through the blood of Jesus, and a
new life beginning in Christ, and saved for all eternity to be forever with the
Lord, and to begin that new life as a witness to the power of salvation, and
then go and throw out the lifeline to others around them also. And I pray this in the name of Jesus! Amen……
Pastor Sharon
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