To This I Cling

"And the rain descended, and the floods came.”

Clara Gantt was on her way from her daughter’s home in Blythewood, South Carolina, to her own home in Irmo on Sunday morning, October 4.  She had plans to attend church services at her home church there, when she was abruptly stopped by floodwaters.  She was north of Columbia where Crane Creek meets Lake Elizabeth when the floodwaters lifted her car off of the pavement and swept it into a field.

In desperation, she called 911, but her call didn’t go through.  So, she called her son-in-law, who in turn called Gantt’s grandson, Travis Catchings, to go to her rescue.  Catchings found his grandmother stranded in her car with torrents of water rushing over it.  Her car was trapped in a ditch in front of a small church building.  After a great struggle, Catchings was able to pry open the car door and get his grandmother out.  A huge red cross that had been standing in front of the little church building had become uprooted and was lodging against the car.  Grandmother and grandson clung to the cross in the hopes that someone would be able to rescue them.

“I was literally, after I got out of the car, holding onto the cross. I was clinging to the cross," Gantt said.

They clung to the cross for five hours until help arrived.  They were saved from the rushing waters.

Augustus Toplady identified the means of our salvation in the words of a song entitled, “Rock of Ages”:

“Nothing in my hand I bring,
Simply to Thy cross I cling.”

When we were “drowning” in sin, God sent Jesus to rescue us.  The only way Jesus could save us was to die for us, for He – the sinless Son of God – was the only One who could pay the price for our sins and satisfy the justice of God.  So Jesus died on the cross for our sins (1 Corinthians 15:3).  His death on the cross is the means of our salvation.

God will save those who place their faith and trust in Jesus (Acts 16:30-31), turn from their sins in repentance (Acts 17:30-31), confess Jesus before men (Romans 10:9-10), and are baptized into Christ for the forgiveness of their sins (Acts 2:38).  The blood that Jesus shed on the cross will continue to cleanse from sin those who continue to walk in the light of His word (1 John 1:7).

When interviewed by WIS-TV about her ordeal and her rescue, Gantt proclaimed, "Jesus is my Savior...  This story is not about me; this is about what He did to save me."

For those who are saved and receive the gift of eternal life, the story will be the same: "Jesus is my Savior...  This story is not about me; this is about what He did to save me."

Cling to His cross through your trusting obedience, for it is the means of your salvation.

Won’t YOU?

-- David A. Sargent

* Information gleaned from www.insider.foxnews.com and www.weather.com

David A. Sargent, Minister