January 19, 2012
Shipwrecked
The accounts we are hearing from the recent shipwreck near Giglio off the coast of Tuscany really causes
me to pause. It’s hard to understand why the crew did not sound a warning, but
rather encouraged passengers to stay calm and stay on board. Paul sounds the
alarm for us to fight the good fight, holding on to faith and a good
conscience, “…Some have rejected these
and so have shipwrecked their faith.” (1Tim 1:19b NIV) I’m now picturing
our luxury cruise ship Faith being run aground on the rocks. She is lying on
her side and taking on water. The wreckage doesn’t look repairable and salvage
will be a long process. And to think the shipwreck of Faith could have been
avoided.
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1 comment:
Gail;
-----Of course one’s mind would run to the perseverance of the saints, one of the five points of Calvinism. “Faith, destroyed! Why faith can not be destroyed unless one never had faith to begin with! In that case there really was no faith. So it wasn’t faith that was destroyed, only an illusion of faith.” I think it is interesting that this ship wrecked near Giglio by striking a rock underwater that “...shouldn’t have been there.” Isn’t that how faith gets destroyed in the lives of some, by striking thoughts and attitudes that shouldn’t be there?
-----I chuckled when I first heard the Captain complain that the rock should not have been there. It sounded so arrogant, but I understood what he meant. No doubt that rock was indicated on the charts right where it actually was. Certainly it was there where it was and therefore should have been there. It was just that the poor Captain’s ship was not exactly where he thought it was, which of course is where he thought the rock was not. So the rock should not have been there.
-----I guarantee for you all that thoughts and attitudes are right there where they are, too, thoughts and attitudes with jagged hull ripping corners. Because of that alone they are where they are - where they should be. God has not changed the mental horizon of humankind just because we must often sail our ships of faith near the shoreline. He gave us His Word as a chart mapping out the kinds of thoughts and attitudes which tear apart the hulls of faith, and those which gird them up. We can no more think thoughts or do things contrary to the guidance of the Word and then complain that those thoughts or attitudes should not have been there when the bilge-room of our faith starts taking on water than did this Captain ram a rock then complain that it shouldn‘t have been there.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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