So my wife and I went on a cruise.
I don’t mean we hung out in a car park with boy racers doing donuts, I mean we went on a big ship and sailed up and down some Norwegian fjords!
The ship was huge with 5000 passengers and 1800 crew. There were numerous restaurants and shops selling everything from ice cream to earphones to jewellery. There were theatres and shows and a wide variety of music. Far below deck there were bars where people could drink alcohol and a casino where they could gamble.
One of my favourite places onboard was up on deck 16.
Here there is a modern gym that opens at 6am. But there’s also a door leading outside on deck where I found these unusual lines. Lo and behold it’s a wee track! One lap is 0.2 of a mile.
And the lovely thing is you don’t even have to run, you can walk or even do it in a wheelchair! And if you’re up here on Deck 16 early in the morning you might get to see the freshly risen sun. And here’s the thing. If you stay up here in the light after a while you might begin to see the destination, where we’re headed, which in this case was a town called Kristiansand!
Now you can keep it all to yourself or you can go below and wake your wife to come and share the experience. (That might be easier said than done!) Together with people of every imaginable size, shape and nationality you can celebrate the new day with some tasty food from the buffet!
Now in case you haven’t realised I’m talking about being a Christian. Deck 16 is just an illustration.
A Christian is someone who by God’s grace has been raised to live on a new level. We’ve been given a glimpse of Jesus, the risen Son of God and we’ve put our trust in Him as our Saviour. Now we’re running the race God has marked out for us. It doesn’t matter if we walk or run as long as we stay on the track of Christ’s teaching in the Bible and keep going!
As we look to Jesus by praying, reading the Bible and attending worship we get a clearer picture of the heavenly, eternal life that is our destiny.
We don’t want to keep this all to ourselves. Just as Jesus came down from heaven to earth to save us and bring us home as His bride He sends us to invite others to join the party! He’ll provide the necessary outfit of righteousness to anyone who wants to come.
So now we’ve got the picture let me ask, whereabouts are you on the ship?
Are you wasting your life in the casino or enjoying the glory of Deck 16?
I suspect that many people are neither, they’re just sleeping in their cabins!
If that describes where you are spiritually today could I respectfully say to you, Wake Up! You don’t want to miss this! Come up and join us! Bask in the Light, run the race the Lord has set for you, feast on the Bread of Life!
And to God be the glory!
I don’t mean we hung out in a car park with boy racers doing donuts, I mean we went on a big ship and sailed up and down some Norwegian fjords!
The ship was huge with 5000 passengers and 1800 crew. There were numerous restaurants and shops selling everything from ice cream to earphones to jewellery. There were theatres and shows and a wide variety of music. Far below deck there were bars where people could drink alcohol and a casino where they could gamble.
One of my favourite places onboard was up on deck 16.
Here there is a modern gym that opens at 6am. But there’s also a door leading outside on deck where I found these unusual lines. Lo and behold it’s a wee track! One lap is 0.2 of a mile.
And the lovely thing is you don’t even have to run, you can walk or even do it in a wheelchair! And if you’re up here on Deck 16 early in the morning you might get to see the freshly risen sun. And here’s the thing. If you stay up here in the light after a while you might begin to see the destination, where we’re headed, which in this case was a town called Kristiansand!
Now you can keep it all to yourself or you can go below and wake your wife to come and share the experience. (That might be easier said than done!) Together with people of every imaginable size, shape and nationality you can celebrate the new day with some tasty food from the buffet!
Now in case you haven’t realised I’m talking about being a Christian. Deck 16 is just an illustration.
A Christian is someone who by God’s grace has been raised to live on a new level. We’ve been given a glimpse of Jesus, the risen Son of God and we’ve put our trust in Him as our Saviour. Now we’re running the race God has marked out for us. It doesn’t matter if we walk or run as long as we stay on the track of Christ’s teaching in the Bible and keep going!
As we look to Jesus by praying, reading the Bible and attending worship we get a clearer picture of the heavenly, eternal life that is our destiny.
We don’t want to keep this all to ourselves. Just as Jesus came down from heaven to earth to save us and bring us home as His bride He sends us to invite others to join the party! He’ll provide the necessary outfit of righteousness to anyone who wants to come.
So now we’ve got the picture let me ask, whereabouts are you on the ship?
Are you wasting your life in the casino or enjoying the glory of Deck 16?
I suspect that many people are neither, they’re just sleeping in their cabins!
If that describes where you are spiritually today could I respectfully say to you, Wake Up! You don’t want to miss this! Come up and join us! Bask in the Light, run the race the Lord has set for you, feast on the Bread of Life!
And to God be the glory!
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