Dear Friends,
One of the most interesting jobs I ever had was with a company that developed the offshore survival suit. If you have watched the TV show, “The Deadliest Catch,” you may have seen the fishermen putting on large red full-body suit that allows them to survive for several hours in frigid arctic waters.
One weekend, Nick Samela, the company president and I became actors, as we shot a video of the suits in use. We donned survival suits and jumped from a Coast Guard rescue boat into the choppy waters off of Astoria, Washington. The tide changes near the mouth of the Columbia River make for some of the most dangerous water in the world so we knew it would be the perfect place to make our video.
Everything was going according to plan until suddenly the tide started to change. Floating on my back in a huge rubber suit, I was unaware of any danger until I heard the low clanging of a bell – ding swish, ding swish.
Nick was within a few yards of me, so I shouted to him to ask him what the bell was. He paddled hard to change his position, then he shouted back to me.
“Don, we are in trouble. That’s a channel buoy – we are being swept onto the rocks.”
I started paddling like crazy and managed to get back into the current. Good news – bad news, I was now being swept out to sea. The Coast Guard rescue boat made a couple of attempts to pick us up, but as the waves became rougher, the decision was made to call for a helicopter rescue. You can’t begin to imagine how relieved I was when we were finally lifted into the hatch of the helicopter in a rescue sling. My guardian angel had rotor blades, not wings!
I share this story because it provides an interesting metaphor for how people approach sin. The Bible tells us that the wages of sin is death. But, just like the waters off Astoria, sin may initially seem like something we can handle. The problem is that the sea of sin is unpredictable. The changing tide pulled me toward the rocks; similarly, sin has its own magnetic pull. A small taste of sin whets the appetite for more. We indulge until our lives are slowly pulled out of control.
Sin pulls us away from relationship with friends, away from relationship with family, and most important, away from our relationship with God.
“But I’m a Christian,” you may say. “I am washed by Jesus blood. All that I have to do is confess my sins and all is forgiven.”
The Apostle Paul addressed this response in Romans 6:1-2:
“What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?”
Repentance involves four distinct actions:
- Admitting or confessing sin.
- Ceasing the sin
- Resolving to not repeat the offense.
- Making restitution or amends where possible.
If all we do is confess our sin, we may have encountered the warning buoy, but we are still headed for the rocks.
There is a huge difference between a confession that comes from a broken spirit and a flippant “My bad! You caught me;”In 2 Corinthians 7:10 we read, “Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.” To confess and then go on sinning is to be caught in a current that may ultimately lead to disaster.
The good news is that just like there was a helicopter standing by to pull me from the threatening waters, there is a savior who wants to pull us to repentance. We can take comfort in Jesus’ words found in Luke 15:7: “there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.”And we all need to repent. The Bible tells that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. We all need to repair broken relationships with the Father.
One thing is certain; being human we will face temptation. On our own we won’t have the power to keep from sinning. We need another source of power. Praise God; that power will come from the Spirit of Christ working within us.|
Verse for the Week: Romans 3:23-24
“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”Blessings,
Your Friends in Christ
Because He Loves Us Press 