The Perfect Storm
After
a few of the usual Sunday evening hymns, the church’s pastor slowly stood up,
walked over to the pulpit and, before he gave his sermon for the evening,
briefly introduced a guest minister who was in the service that evening. In the
introduction, the pastor told the congregation that the guest minister was one
of his dearest childhood friends and that he wanted him to have a few
moments to greet the church and share whatever he felt would be
appropriate for the service.
With that, an elderly man stepped up to the pulpit and began to speak. "A
father, his son, and a friend of his son were sailing off the Pacific coast,"
he began, "when a fast approaching storm blocked any attempt to get back
to the shore. The waves were so high, that even though the father was an
experienced sailor, he could not keep the boat upright and the three were swept
into the ocean as the boat capsized."
The
old man hesitated for a moment, making eye contact with two teenagers who were,
for the first time since the service began, looking somewhat interested in
his story. The aged minister continued with his story, “grabbing a rescue
line, the father had to make the most excruciating decision of his
life: to which boy would he throw the other end of the life line. He only had
seconds to make the decision.
The father knew that his son was a Christian and he also knew that his
son’s friend was not. The agony of his decision could not be matched by the
torrent of waves. As the father yelled out, ‘I love you, son!’ he threw
out the life line to his son’s friend. By the time the father had pulled
the
friend back to the capsized boat, his son had disappeared beneath the
raging swells into the black of night. His body was never recovered.
By this time, the two teenagers were sitting up straight in the pew, anxiously
waiting for the next words to come out of the old minister’s mouth. "The
father," he continued, "knew his son would step into eternity with
Jesus and yet he could not bear the thought of his son’s friend stepping into
an eternity without Jesus. Therefore, he sacrificed his son to save the
son’s friend. How great is the love of God that He should do the same for us.
Our Heavenly
Father sacrificed his only Begotten Son that we could be saved. I urge you to
accept His offer to rescue you and take a hold of the life line He is throwing
out to you in this service." With that, the old man turned and sat back
down in his chair as silence filled the room.
The pastor again walked slowly to the pulpit and delivered a brief sermon with an
invitation at the end. However, no one responded to the appeal. Within minutes
after the service ended, the two teenagers were at the old man’s side. “That
was a nice story," politely stated one of them, "but I don’t think it
was very realistic for a father to give up his only son’s life in hopes
that the other boy would become a Christian."
"Well, you’ve got a point there," the old man replied glancing down
at his worn bible. A big smile broadened his narr ow face he once again
looked up at the boys and said, "It sure isn’t very realistic, is it?
But I’m standing here today to tell you that story gives me a glimpse of what
it must have been like for God to give up his son for me. You see… I was that
father and your pastor is my son’s friend."
Take 60 seconds & give this a shot! Let’s see if Satan can stop this one!
All you do is simply:
1)
Say this small prayer for the person who sent you this:
Father,
God bless this E-mail sender in whatever it is that you know he or she may be
needing this day! Amen
Then
sit back and watch the power of God work in your life for doing the thing that
you know he loves.
Sometimes
what God had done might not be "so realistic" in our human’s perspective;
but however, He truly did it by sacrifice His own son to die for us on the
cross; so that we will not perish but have eternal life….
