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Viewpoint from Colin Wooden 23/10/2020

Colin Wooden
Elder, Bethel Gospel Hall
and
volunteer at the Great Yarmouth Seafarers Centre

Marooned

Tuesday afternoon 22nd September saw a dramatic rescue take place on Breydon Water near Great Yarmouth after a hire cruiser was stranded high and dry on the mud flats. A family of six plus two dogs were airlifted to safety by the coastguard rescue helicopter amid fears that the boat would capsize in a fast flowing tide. The high tide that covers the mudflats can be deceptive to the unwary and inexperienced holiday maker, giving the impression of a vast inviting expanse of water like the broads. Deviating from the well marked deep water channels can spell disaster
         
The whole of humanity has lost its way, and ending up on the mudflats of sin has no ability to help itself. To use a Bible metaphor, we are told "All we, like sheep, have gone astray".  The word of God also describes us as "having no hope, and without God in the world"
 
In such a condition we need a saviour; we need a rescuer. There is of course, a well marked way laid out for us in the Bible, and it is called "the gospel of the grace of God". Just as the rescue on Breydon came from above, with all other attempts failing, so the Son of God came from heaven …to be the Saviour of the world"
 
When Paul wrote to his friend Timothy, he put it this way; "Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance; Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners". We understand from the scriptures that the coming of God's Son and the plan of salvation was determined in heaven before the creation of the world, and it meant that the Lord Jesus would die on the cross on account of our sin
 
Paul, in another of his letters states "For He [God] made Him [the Lord Jesus] who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him". This is what we learn then, about God's salvation, that it is "by grace you have been saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God"
         
Can you imagine those stranded on Breydon telling the helicopter winchman they didn't need him and would manage on their own.  It is sad that so many treat God's salvation that way
         
also published in the Great Yarmouth Mercury
            

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