Rescued
As I thought about Jesus being our ultimate lifeline a picture came to my mind. I saw a man, who represented all of humanity, going beyond the safety of the golden shore of God’s presence and out into this cold black ocean. We reveled in our new found freedom and boldness until before we knew it, we drifted into deep rough waters. As we panicked, fighting to stay above the waters, we looked back to the safety of the shore and realized we could no longer see it. We had drifted so far and were completely cut off from the presence of God. We had no hope. We could only drown alone in the darkness cut off from everyone and everything. Then a strong white cord shoots out and wraps itself around us. This cord, our lifeline, pulls us through the deep waters taking us back to the shore. We are overjoyed to once again see the beach we foolishly left behind and return to where we belong.
Jesus is our ultimate lifeline. As humans we have a tendency to choose to go our own way and find our own truth, but in doing so sever our relationship with God. Jesus is our lifeline back into a right relationship with God, and he gave his own life to bring this about. He’s our lifeline that ensures our eternal salvation. His resurrection from the dead gives us hope of our own resurrection someday. I don’t know about you but I stand in awe of the one who rescued me from those deep waters I found myself in. When I was alone and adrift, he came for me and rescued me. I have never been the same since.
Jesus said to his disciples in John 15:5 that he is the true vine and God is the vinedresser. “Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” I don’t think I’m far from the mark when I say most of you who read this are already Christians who have accepted Jesus as their savior. The challenge for each and every one of us is to, as Jesus said, abide in him. What does that mean? I think it means to nurture a daily relationship with him through prayer and reading the Word. So often if we aren’t careful other things in our life can take precedence over Him and we lose sight of what’s really important.
Saved for Who?
Not long ago I had a dream that is relevant to this subject. I had a dream that my wife and I were at a service at my old church, Reading DOVE. There was a song that was sung that I haven’t heard in years. It goes like this, “You are amazing. More than amazing. Forever our God your more than enough.” Please don’t be offended when I say I remember being glad to be back at DOVE which was my church home. It was at a youth group at DOVE that I was first saved and learned to walk as a Christian man. The pastor there, Craig Nanna, was a spiritual father to me. But as I was standing there missing my old church and pastor, I heard God say very clearly in my mind, “Did I save you for Craig or did I save you for me?”
Keep Your Focus
This dream was a wake-up call for me and I wanted to share it because I think it applies to every one of us. So often as Christians we let other things take our focus from God/Jesus. We make it about that pastor, that church, that ministry when the truth is it’s all about Jesus. But if we aren’t careful to maintain our daily relationship with him then it’s easy to drift from the safety of the shore of His presence back out into those deep waters. I suspect we’ve all been there where we’ve let something else become our focus. So we have to be careful and vigilant to make sure nothing takes Jesus’s place in our hearts. Let us all daily renew our focus on Jesus our lifeline and live fully devoted to him.