The Reason

There is an oft-told story about a Life Saving Organization, which was started along the shore of the sea to rescue sailors in peril. When the first group of rescuers gathered, they were intense about their mission, serving in terrible weather without complaint, risking their own lives to venture out to souls in distress. With such fervor and excitement, it was inevitable that the LSO would grow, and with increasing numbers of members, the need to build a meeting house became obvious to all. So a functional building near the sea was built where life savers could be trained and rescued sailors warmed and fed when they were dragged from the sea.

The organization offered such a sense of camaraderie and mission that even more people joined up, but fewer and fewer actually made any rescues, preferring to offer their support and encouragement from the meeting house. Within a few years, the small house was deemed inadequate, so a large, commodious clubhouse was built where members could gather and enjoy each other's company with good music and dinner which always ended with a lecture about some aspect of rescuing lost sailors. The clubhouse continued to be improved, becoming quite comfortable, the nicest building in the community. Since rescued sailors were wet, dirty, and smelly - and their presence interrupted the great community events often scheduled in the clubhouse, the LSO membership decided that they would built a small annex apart from the clubhouse where the sailors could be taken and their needs could be met without bothering the LSO membership.

As the years past, the number of people who actually went out on rescues declined to the point that the club decided to terminate all rescue activities and, instead, to hire professional contractors to carry out rescues for them. Gatherings at the clubhouse became boring, though there were great stories about great rescues of the past, and lectures about life-saving, nobody actually did it anymore. The sense of mission that once galvanized the young was long lost. Membership began to decline rapidly and within a few decades, the LSO was nothing more than a big, old building on the edge of sea that was preserved as a 'historic' site.

Just in case you've not made the connection - the story is about the Church! We must not forget our core mission, which is to rescue people from the stormy seas of sinfulness, bringing them into the safety of the Kingdom of God. This mission is no less critical today than at any other time in history. Men and women are still lost - apart from the God who loves them - headed for an eternity of darkness and despair. Hell's fury still sows death and destruction in our world, often right at our doorsteps. We don't have to got to a far-off land, to a war zone, or into some hellish neighborhood to find evidence of the need for ongoing soul rescue.

An illustration of the need that exists all around us came to me as I watched 60 Minutes last night. It was a news magazine piece about "Bum Hunting," a phenomenon among teenage boys across America. Inspired by a series of videos called, "Bum Fights," which shows homeless men who are alcoholics and destitute engaged in all kinds of self-destructive behavior, the boys, often from respectable suburban homes, find homeless men (bums) and beat them purely for 'the fun of it.' The reporter said, "Across the country, packs of teenage boys are stalking homeless people and attacking them, shooting them with paintball guns, beating them with baseball bats, even dousing them with gasoline and setting them on fire. Over the last five years, at least one homeless person has been murdered each month, for no apparent reason." Who is in need of rescue here? The obvious answer are those helpless, homeless bums. But equally desperate, in a different way, are those young boys who think that beating, and some cases, killing a helpless, pitiful individual is 'fun.' (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/09/28/60minutes/main2049967.shtml)

I believe a whole generation of young Americans are in serious peril, adrift on a sea of sensuality and materialism, living without God, seeking meaning, purpose, and hope in things that can never provide them. So we must spend ourselves, give our resources, risk our comfort - to pull them from that stormy sea. And, that is just one place to carry out the soul-saving mission. Hundreds of other opportunities exist for those who will open their hearts to the Holy Spirit so He can inspire a new vision! Believer, we must not forget that Christ called us and saved us from sin so that we could become active members of His soul saving crew. He did not give us grace simply to make us rich, comfortable, and secure on our trip to Heaven.

Ponder the commission of Jesus. "Go out and train everyone you meet, far and near, in this way of life, marking them by baptism in the threefold name: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Then instruct them in the practice of all I have commanded you. I’ll be with you as you do this, day after day after day, right up to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19-20, The Message)

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Rescue the perishing,
care for the dying,
Snatch them in pity
from sin and the grave;
Weep o’er the erring one,
lift up the fallen,
Tell them of Jesus,
the mighty to save.

Rescue the perishing,
care for the dying,
Jesus is merciful,
Jesus will save.

Rescue the perishing,
duty demands it;
Strength for thy labor
the Lord will provide;
Back to the narrow way
patiently win them;
Tell the poor wanderer
a Savior has died.

- Crosby, public domain