The Mystery Plane and the Unsinkable Ship

As a "frequent flyer," I've flown a lot of miles over the years all over the world. So let me tell you the eerie disappearance of Malaysia Air 370 hit a little too close to home. I've said the sad goodbyes to my wife and children and boarded those international flights. They prayed - I prayed - that "daddy will get home safe." The 239 passengers on that plane did not.

Beyond the mystery of what happened is the misery of those left behind. I mean, you probably watched as I did the unspeakable grief of the loved ones of those passengers, waiting for word on the person they love and watching hope slip away.

It's always painful to lose someone you love, but the suddenness of this, the devastating possibilities, all the awful unanswered questions that may never be answered.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Mystery Plane and the Unsinkable Ship."

For some reason, watching all this unfold took me back to another disaster that riveted the world over a century ago. An unspeakable tragedy, out of the blue. Information slow in coming. No trace of many passengers. Loved ones desperate for information. It wasn't a plane that disappeared. It was a ship. You know, the Titanic with 2,200 people aboard. The scope of the loss defied anything anyone could conceive.

And there, in Liverpool, families were waiting to learn the fate of someone they loved. As news filtered back from the disaster, White Star Lines notified the next of kin by posting the name of each identified passenger on a board outside their office with two lists: "Those known to be saved" and "Those known to be lost." Two groups. Only two. When they had set sail, they were first class, second class, third class and crew. Now they were saved or lost.

As I've been exposed to God's heart as expressed in the Bible, I've realized that's how He views all of us. Whatever group we're in - ethnically, politically, religiously, socially - He sees each of us being in one of two groups: saved or lost.

Here's how the Bible says it. It's in our word for today from the Word of God in 1 John 5:11-12, "God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son." Now, it's not in Christianity. It's not in any religion. It's in His Son, Jesus. It goes on to say, "And he who has the Son has life. He who does not have the Son of God does not have life."

That's because His Son did what had to be done for a sinner like me to ever go to God's heaven. God's really clear about the penalty for my cosmic defiance of my Creator's rule of my life. It says, "The wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23). That's not the stopping of your heart. That's eternal separation from the source of all life and love, and everything good in the universe; eternal separation from God - lost forever.

Except for the hope in that statement, "God has given us eternal life." In the person of His Son, Jesus, who, again according to God's Book, "carried our sins in His own body on the tree" (1 Peter 2:24). So what was happening on that cross was the payment for your sin and mine; the only One God could ever accept. Why did He do that? Because it says, "He came into the world to save sinners" (1 Timothy 1:15) like me. Like you.

I was once "known to be lost." But the greatest miracle of my life is that I'm now "known to be saved" because God sent a Rescuer, and I grabbed His outstretched hand. Which may very well be reaching to you where you are right now. Would you grab His hand and say, "Jesus, you are my only hope. I am yours"?

If you want to know how to do that, if you want to be sure you belong to Him, would you meet me at our website and let me show you there how to secure your relationship with Christ. Go to ANewStory.com. This is your day to be rescued by the Rescuer who gave His life to save you.