Called to Save!

‘Some poor fainting, struggling seaman you may rescue, you may save!’

“The Lord calls for volunteers who will take their stand firmly on His side, and will pledge themselves to unite with Jesus of Nazareth in doing the very work that needs to be done now, just now.”

As the years pass, …2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 – and now 2017!! All the more the reality that this world is NOT OUR HOME we are just a passing through should be realised as we draw nearer to our heavenly home. I wanna go home friends AMEN?! There’s a work to be done, there are souls to be won… let us now put forth undivided efforts to seek and save the lost sheep!

“Let the Lower lights be burning, Send a gleam across the wave, some poor fainting struggling seamen you may rescue you may save!!”

The words of this song are very fitting to the work we are called to do. Here is an illustration of importance and need for earnest work.

In June 2016, an experienced sailor by the name of Steve accompanied a skipper and her husband, as part of the crew, on a race from New Zealand to Fiji. Steve was an experienced seaman and well acquainted with the dangers, as well as joys of sailing. The expedition seemed to be going just fine – the crew had sailed about half way from NZ to Fiji, and had been successfully sharing the shifts. Steve had just finished his shift one morning, and had gone down into the galley to have breakfast, so he removed his gear. Just at that moment as he was preparing to eat he heard an ear-piercing scream! Steve in a moment was up on deck assessing the situation in a spilt second, realising what had just happened he screamed to the skipper, “DUCK!” she immediately obeyed as the boom which had come loose swung over her, having already knocked and killed another crew just minutes before. Just moments later after saving the skipper’s life, Steve was washed overboard. Without his gear, he couldn’t last terribly long in the open sea, so he raised his hand as he struggled in the waters – “some poor fainting struggling seaman” – desperately seeking for help as there were still 4 crew members on the yatch; the skipper, her husband and two others. Yet NOTHING was thrown out to Steve, no efforts were made to save Him! – “you may rescue, you may save” – he waited, watched, waving his hand and then without a rescuer the fainting struggling seaman – was buried beneath the ocean waves – and drowned.

Later an investigation was taken into this incident – and they discovered that despite the hull on the yatch not working, the yatch circled around Steve 3 times! The boat was going around and around, and no one, NO ONE saved him!

This story puts a different perspective on the words the old hymn – “Some poor fainting, struggling seaman, YOU may rescue, YOU may save!”

This is my life’s mission – to rescue and save some poor fainting struggling seaman!  There is a great work to be done. “Are you doing all you can to help? God has given us a commission, which angels might envy.” {MM 131.2} 

“There is nothing that the world needs so much as the manifestation through humanity of the Saviour's love. . .” {AG 128.3} 

NOTHING! This should be our mission – to manifest to the world the Saviour’s LOVE, and save some poor fainting, struggling seaman.

God bless and Go bless!

Ash

We All Like Sheep…

Isaiah 53:6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Recently while working with sheep; I was contemplating this verse. If you’ve ever worked with sheep you will know how patience building it can be when they keep going ‘astray’. Yet God says we are all like that.

One question I asked when thinking about this topic is where does going astray start. Everything starts in our thought rights? I found some relevant verses on this in Isaiah chapter fifty five verses six through nine, “Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near:  7 Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.  8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.  9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

Verse eight especially stood out to me, could this be the reason for going astray, the fact that our thoughts are infinitely lower than God’s thoughts? What can be done about this problem? I discovered a verse in proverbs chapter sixteen and verse three, “Commit thy works unto the LORD, and thy thoughts shall be established.” When we commit what we do unto the Lord he changes our thoughts to be aligned with what he wants us to do.

The parable of the lost sheep also fits along these lines, in Matthew eighteen and verse twelve we read, “How think ye? if a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone astray?”

And then we read in verse fourteen, “Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.”

Even though we’ve all gone astray God is not willing that any should perish, this reminds me of John three sixteen, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

We read that David had this experience in Psalms chapter one hundred and nineteen and verse one hundred and seventy six, “I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek thy servant; for I do not forget thy commandments.”

David recognized that he needed God to seek him for him to be found.

One thing I find interesting when working with sheep is that the mostly likely sheep to go astray are hoggets, which are 2 year olds or sheep teenagers. In our youth the devil seems to work very hard to lead us astray, Solomon realized this when he wrote Ecclesiastes twelve one, “Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them;” Paul also gives some encouragement in first Timothy chapter four and verse twelve, “Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.”

Let us remember our creator in our youth and commit our ways unto him.

Stay strong in our saviour,

Luke