Get on the boat

A ramshackle cargo ship in the midst of the ocean springs a leak. The ship's engineer informs the captain the ship will sink in a day. They are four days from land, and no rescue is coming for the broken down cargo ship and it's crew of 20 doomed sailors.

Except one.

A luxury cruise liner is 18 hours away, and the captain of the liner orders it to head to the aid of the sinking cargo ship. The captain promises all the men of the dying ship the finest berths on his liner, and all the comforts he can offer.

In due time the liner comes alongside the cargo ship, and it is indeed dying. The cargo ship's stern is already below the water line, and it's bow is up out of the water, looking like a tilted see-saw.

The crew needs merely to get off their dying ship and step onto the deck of the waiting luxury boat used to shuttle wealthy passengers between the liner and exotic ports of call. Little time remains. To make matters worse, a fierce storm is churning the ocean into a cauldron of misery, and the skies are blowing stinging torrents of rain.

Some on the dying cargo ship immediately leap to the deck of the resuce craft. Others, however, dispute the captain's claims.

"How do we know his is the only ship coming?"

"If getting on the ship is for you, brother, that's nice. I'll take my chances."

"What kind of loving captain would require us to choose to to enter his ship? If he really cares about us, he won't let us die."

"I don't need a ship's captain telling me how to live my life."

"Those rich people on that luxury liner are a bunch of phonies anyway."

Even as the cargo ship starts it's final slide into the briny deep, the remaining crew members refuse to leap off and make a swim for the rescue craft. Faces twisted in scowls, they glare at the captain of the luxury craft, hating him in their hearts with everything they've got. Only now do they discover that by refusing to be rescued, they have chosen instead to die.

And so it is today. Jesus calls. Jesus has been calling. John 14:6 says "... I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." John 3:16 says "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. " Romans 10:9-10 says "... that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation."

So that's how you start a new journey on a ship that will never sink. You state out loud that you want Jesus to be the captain of your life, and truly believe that God raised Him from the dead. Truly believe. Let Jesus be the captain of the ship, and go along for the ride.