Hopeless? Not So Fast

By Steve Higginbotham

     Harrison Okene unexpectedly found himself in a hopeless situation earlier this year.  He found himself on the bottom of the ocean, in a small air-pocket in his overturned tugboat, sunk by a rogue wave.  Harrison was in total darkness, disoriented, all alone, and dressed only in boxer shorts in freezing temperatures.  For 60 hours, he fumbled in total darkness, trembled due to the cold, listened while fish were consuming the bodies of his fellow crewmen, and waited for his oxygen supply to run out.
     Then when his oxygen supply was just about gone, an amazing thing happened.  A rescue diver appeared.  Harrison was given oxygen, led to a decompression chamber, and gradually raised to the surface.  Snatched from the jaws of death.  What seemed like a hopeless situation only proved to be the setting for his salvation.  Now Harrison lives to tell others of how he was saved.
     Have you ever felt spiritually hopeless?  Have you ever felt that you were beyond the reach of God's saving grace?  Then let me remind you of this.  If a drunken, incestuous father (Lot); a lying harlot (Rahab); a murderous adulterer (David); and a persecutor of the church (Saul/Paul) can be forgiven and held up as examples of great men and women of faith, then there's hope for you too!
     Try an image the joy and relief Harrison Okene must have experienced when he reached out and touched his rescuers hand!  Hope from hopelessness!  Likewise, imagine the joy and relief that is experienced by the sinner who reaches out and takes hold of the Savior's hand!  Hope from hopelessness!
     To those of you who have been saved by God, and now have life; tell others about it!  Tell how God rescued you from a hopeless situation and gave you hope!  "Let the redeemed of the Lord say so!" (Psalm 107:2).
   
- Steve Higginbotham preaches for the Karns Church of Christ in Knoxville, TN. He may be contacted through the congregation's website at
ttp://www.karnschurch.org

The Green Jacket

     Two personal friends came very close to winning one of golf’s premier tournaments, the 2009 Masters championship.  Instead, Kenny Perry and Chad Campbell reached a three-man playoff that was won by Angel Cabrera.  Instead of Perry becoming the oldest winner in history, Cabrera became the first golfer from Argentina to wear the coveted green jacket, given to the winner of the tournament.
     Perry’s attitude in defeat put things in proper perspective: “If this is the worst thing that happens to me, I can live with it.”  The Associated Press reported, “He was as gracious as ever.”  Perry said, “I may never get this opportunity again, but I had a lot of fun being in there.  I had the tournament to win.  I lost the tournament.  But Angel hung in there; I was proud of him.”
     Of infinitely more importance than this special GREEN JACKET is a WHITE ROBE pictured in the final book of the Bible.  This imagery reflects wonderful spiritual and eternal blessings.   In Revelation 7:13-14, John wrote: "These in white robes--who are they, and where did they come from? … These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”
     John, guided by the Holy Spirit, also recorded Jesus’ description of some faithful Christians in Sardis: “You have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy.  He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels” (Revelation 3:4-5).
     In these beautiful, symbolic passages, John describes a splendid reality: because God so loved the world He gave His only begotten Son to die for our sins so that we might wear “white robes,” representing the cleansing power of the blood of Jesus (John 3:16).
     Very few of us will ever wear the “GREEN JACKET,”  but EACH of us has a far greater opportunity!  By accepting God’s offer of grace on His terms, we can wear a “WHITE ROBE” of glory! 
     We are clothed with that “WHITE ROBE” when we: believe in Jesus (Acts 16:30-31), turn from our sins in repentance (Acts 17:30-31), confess Jesus before men (Romans 10:9-10), and are baptized (immersed) in His name for the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38).
     Have YOU, in trusting, obedient faith, chosen to receive the Gift offered by Divine grace? 
     Do so while opportunity is yours and continue, in faithfulness, to overcome and to serve God.
     Won’t YOU?

-- Allen Dixon is the uncle of David A. Sargent and member of the Germantown (TN) church of Christ; David A. Sargent, minister for the Church of Christ at Creekwood in Mobile, Alabama, is also the editor of an electronic devotional entitled Living Water."  To learn more about this excellent resource contact David via their website: http://www.creekwoodcc.org

The Ice Palace

By David A. Sargent

    How do you bolster a sagging economy?  This was the question facing the citizens of Leadville , Colorado , in 1895.  The town was in the doldrums; the repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act in 1893 had ended its glory days as a silver-mining center.

    In an effort to keep their city ALIVE, the citizens staged a winter carnival...

They proposed a mammoth ice castle to draw sightseers, create jobs and rescue the town’s economy.  According to the Legends of America website: “Construction began November 1, 1895 with a crew of 250 men working day and night. Day laborers were paid $2.50 per day and skilled laborers were paid $3.00 per day. The palace was more than 58,000 square feet – 325 x 180 feet, utilizing 180,000 board feet of lumber and 5,000 tons of ice. The palace was supported by a complex framework of trusses, girders and timber, with the ice for appearance only. The ice was trimmed to size and placed in forms, then sprayed with water, which served as mortar to bind the blocks together. The towers reached 90 feet high by 40 feet wide and the palace encompassed 5 acres of ground.” The crystal palace housed a ballroom, a 180-foot skating rink, a curling rink, a restaurant, a dance floor, gaming rooms, a theater, toboggan runs and a carousel house.

    The Ice Palace was opened on January 1, 1896.  For three months, the Palace entertained more than 250,000 visitors until an early thaw in mid-March.  Despite these numerous visitors, the Ice Palace was a financial disaster for the town.

    The town that put its hope in an ice palace saw that hope "MELT AWAY."

    No more Ice Palaces were ever built in Leadville!

    In what are we placing OUR hope? Like the fabulous Ice Palace, we understand from the Scriptures that this WORLD with its powers and values is PASSING AWAY (see 1 John 2:15-17).

    The ONLY hope that is LASTING is that which is placed in Christ.  It is a “living hope” that will NEVER fade, because Jesus is alive!  God loved the world so much that He sent His only begotten Son to die for our sins (John 3:16).  Our hope was made sure when Jesus rose from the dead! “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a “living hope” through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3).

    We have hope in Christ when we respond to Him: in faith (Acts 16:30-31), turning from our sins in repentance (2 Corinthians 7:9-10), confessing Him before men (Romans 10:9-10), and being baptized (immersed) in His name for the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38).  We may CONTINUE to enjoy this hope as we CONTINUE to walk in the light of His Word (1 John 1:7).

The Ice Palace presents a challenge: Are WE expending our time and energy on things that will soon "melt" away?

    “The world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who DOES the will of God abides forever” (1 John 2:17).

    Won’t YOU do the will of God?

Source:

David A. Sargent, minister for the Church of Christ at Creekwood in Mobile, Alabama, is also the editor of an electronic devotional entitled Living Water."  To learn more about this excellent resource contact David via their website: http://www.creekwoodcc.org

Wesley's Cow Sermon

One day John Wesley was walking with a troubled man who expressed his doubt as to the goodness of God. He said, "I do not know what I shall do with all this worry and trouble." At the same moment Wesley saw a cow looking over a stone wall. "Do you know," asked Wesley, "why that cow is looking over the wall?" "No," said the man who was worried. Wesley said, "The cow is looking over the wall because she cannot see through it. That is what you must do with your wall of trouble - look over it and avoid it." Faith enables us to get above circumstances and look to Christ who is over all, blessed forever.

Source:
Pulpit Helps, date unknown.

Promises, Promises

    "What was your most difficult and perplexing case?" a psychiatrist asked his colleague at a convention.
    "I had one patient who believed he had a rich uncle in South America who was going to die and leave him a huge fortune," the other replied after pondering the question for a minute. "All day long he would wait for a letter form an estate attorney. He didn't have any social life, he never went out, he never did anything but sit and wait for this fantasy letter from a fantasy uncle."
    "How did it turn out?" asked the first psychiatrist.
    "I worked with him every single day for eight years," explained the other, "and I nearly had him cured, until that stupid letter arrived!"

Source:
Concord Coffee Break Newsletter, Concord Printing, Cape Girardeau, MO, July 1990.

No Glass Between!

There was a little boy who came from an extremely poor family. He received no gifts at Christmas time, but he often looked into the store windows at the pretty things other little boys could have but he could not. One day he was run over by a car and taken to a hospital. One of the nurses brought him some toys - a troop of soldiers. As he touched them, he said, "There isn't any glass between!" There is a class separating us know from the things that many of our fellow men enjoy in this life, even great honor and respect in the house of God, but the day will come when there will be no glass.

Source:
Pulpit Helps, date unknown.