A Seat In The Lifeboat
Categories: Church of Christ Bulletin ArticlesA severe potato famine in the nineteenth century motivated many Irish to come to the New World to find new opportunities. One little boy who did not have money for fare to board a ship to the New World, secretly boarded as a stow-away. The ship eventually hit an iceberg and began to sink.
Passengers filled lifeboats to escape to safety. At first, the boy who had been hiding in the hull of the ship, was not aware of what was going on. When he realized what was happening, he rushed up to the deck and saw the captain taking the last seat in the lifeboat. In the highest tradition of the sea, the captain got out of the lifeboat and gave the boy his seat. As the lifeboat pulled away, the captain said to the boy, “Never forget what’s been done for you.”
The boy became successful in the New World and was asked the secret of his motivation. He said, “Whenever I begin to doubt myself or let up from what I ought to be doing, I always remember a captain standing on a deck and saying, “Never forget what’s been done for you.”
Dear reader, you and I are much like that little boy. All of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and the “ship” onto which we have boarded is sinking, headed for destruction (Romans 3:23; Romans 6:23). Noticing our plight, the “Captain” of the Universe — Jesus Christ, the Son of God — willingly and lovingly gave His life that we might be saved (1 Thessalonians 5:9-10).
Because of His death on the cross, we can be saved from our sins when we place our trust in Him (Hebrews 11:6), repent of our sins (2 Corinthians 7:9-10), confess Jesus before men (Romans 10:9-10), and are baptized (immersed) into Christ for the forgiveness of our sins (Acts 2:38; Mark 16:15-16; Acts 22:16; Romans 6:3-4; Gal. 3:27; 1 Peter 3:21).
The call from the cross of Calvary upon which Jesus died is, “Never forget what’s been done for you.”
May each of us gratefully respond to that wonderful gift by submitting our lives to the One who died for us.
—David Sargent, via the Montana Street bulletin