After a few of the usual Sunday evening hymns,
the church's pastor slowly stood up,walked over to the pulpit area and,
before he gave his sermon for the evening
briefly introduced a guest minister who was in the service.
In the introduction, the pastor told the congregation that the guest minister
was one of his dearest friends and
that he wanted him to have a few moments to greet the church
and share whatever he felt would be appropriate for the service.
With that, an elderly man stepped up to the pulpit and began to speak,
"A father, his son, and a friend of his son were sailing
off the Pacific Coast," he began,
"when a fast approaching storm blocked any attempt to get back to shore.
The waves were so high, that
even though the father was an experienced sailor,
he could not keep the boat upright,
and the three were swept into the ocean as the boat capsized."
The old man hesitated for a moment,
making eye contact with two teenagers who were,
for the first time since the service began,
looking somewhat interested in his story.
The aged minister continued with his story,
"Grabbing a rescue line,
the father had to make the most excruciating decision of his life...
to which boy would he throw the other end of the lifeline.
He only had seconds to make the decision.
The father knew that his son was a Christian and
he also knew that his son's friend was not.
The agony of his decision could not be matched by the torrent of waves."
"As the father yelled out, 'I love you son!'
he threw out the lifeline to his son's friend.
By the time the father had pulled the friend back to the capsized boat,
his son had disappeared beneath the raging swells into the black of night.
His body was never recovered."
By this time, the two teenagers were sitting up straight in the pew,
anxiously awaiting for the next words
to come out of the old minister's mouth.
"The father," he continued,
"knew his son would step into eternity with Jesus,
and he could not bear the thought of his son's friend stepping into
an eternity without Jesus.
Therefore he sacrificed his son to save the son's friend."
"How great is the love of God that He should do the same for us.
Our Heavenly Father sacrificed His only begotten Son
that we could be saved.
I urge you to accept His offer to rescue you
and take hold of the lifeline He is throwing out to you in this service."
With that, the old man turned and sat back down in his chair
as silence filled the room.
The pastor again walked slowly to the pulpit and
delivered a brief sermon with an invitation at the end.
However, no one responded to the appeal.
Within minutes after the service ended
the two teenagers were at the old man's side.
"That was a nice story," politely stated one of the boys,
"but I don't think it was very realistic
for a father to give up his only son's life
in hopes that the other boy would become a Christian."
"Well, you've got a point there,"
the old man replied, glancing down at his worn Bible.
A big smile broadened his narrow face,
and he once again looked up at the boys and said,
"It sure isn't very realistic, is it?
But I'm standing here today to tell you
that THAT story gives me a glimpse of what it must have been like for God
to give up His Son for me.
You see ... I was that father and your pastor is my son's friend."
My son, attend unto my wisdom, and bow thy ear to my understanding: that thou mayest regard discretion, and that thy lips may keep knowledge.
For the lips of a strange woman drop as a honeycomb,and her mouth is smoother than oil: but her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.
Her feet go down to death:her steps take hold on hell.
Lest thou shouldst ponder the path of life, her ways are movable, that thou canst not know them.
Hear me now therefore, O ye children,and depart not from the words of my mouth.
Remove thy way far from her,and come not nigh the door of her house: lest thou give thy honour unto others,and thy years unto the cruel: lest strangers be filled with thy wealth,and thy labours be in the house of a stranger, and thou mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed, and say,
"How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof! and have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined my ear to them that instructed me! I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly."
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