By Jenniffer Mann
Story has it, a battle ship was on exercise at sea in bad weather. The captain was on the bridge. It was foggy. Just after dark the lookout spotted a light on the starboard side. The captain asked if it was steady or moving. The lookout replied the light was steady meaning they were on direct collision course with that ship! The captain ordered the lookout to signal to the other ship.
“Change course 20 degrees. We are on collision course!”
The reply came back, “Advisable for you to change your course.”
The captain signalled, ”I am a captain. You change course 20 degrees.”
“I am a seaman second class. You had better change course 20 degrees,” came the reply.
The captain was furious. He sent back, ”I am a battleship. Change course!”
Back came the reply, “I am a lighthouse. It’s your call!”
The captain in all his fury, thought that armed with the information he had, his rank and title, automatically qualified him as the wiser person. What he failed to do was consider that his belief that the light was another ship, was wrong! His stubbornness had him on a collision course with death and had he not surrendered to the warning voice in the lighthouse, the battleship’s fate would have been a foregone conclusion.
Stubbornness or the spirit of rebellion, was first made manifest in heaven. Satan and his angels refused to accept God’s sovereignty. Consequently, they were expelled from heaven causing a division that is the foundation of the ‘Great Controversy’. This same spirit of rebellion exists in many of God’s professed Christians. Just like the Captain of the ship, we ignore the warning call to change path because we are on a direct collision course with death!
The lighthouse (Jesus) is compelling us to adjust course because our pathway in life is headed for imminent danger! “Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.” (John 5:39-40)
Many of us are very good at “playing” Christianity. Giving the outward appearance of Christian living, attending church, partaking in ministry, speaking with authority on scripture. Away from church however, we put on the jewellery and make-up, as soon as we return home, we adopt the language of demons, we gossip, engage in all kinds of sexual deviancy, or are slaves to the addiction of social media and television, trapped in the mentality of material gain, fixated on physical appearance, obsessing on careers, and unable to loose the grip of addiction.
The Love we have for God is like “sounding brass and tinkling cymbals.” (1 Corinthians 13:1) “Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof.” (2 Timothy 3:5)
rather than growing in humility and sacrificing our will, stubbornness and the desire to cling on to sin, prevents you from experiencing abundant life in Jesus.
It is not God’s desire that any of us should be destroyed, 2 Peter 3:9 “He is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”
The way which seems right to men, will lead to eternal separation from God (Proverbs 14:12) because sin and righteousness cannot inhabit the same space.
Have you lost that fervent desire you had when first baptised?
Is your spiritual life, stale and lacklustre, just paying lip service?
We are exhorted to search the word of God like searching for hidden treasure in Matthew 13:44.
“Our Salvation depends on a knowledge of the truth contained in the scriptures. It is God’s will that we should possess this. Search, O search the Bible with hungry hearts. Explore God’s word as the miner explores the earth to find veins of Gold. Never give up the search until you have ascertained your relation to God and His will in regard to you. Christ declared “whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.”
Christ’s Object Lessons, E G White, Chapter 8
Everyday you lay down to sleep steeped in sin, assuming you will see another morn, is the equivalent of playing Russian Roulette with your spiritual life.
The time to repent and turn back to God is now.
For the Lord your God is gracious and merciful, and will not turn away his face from you, if ye return unto him.
2 Chronicles 30:9
