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I'll
Cling To You!
After
graduating from
West Point
, Ulysses S. Grant accepted a position in the army.
He first served as a second lieutenant at a base in
St. Louis
,
Missouri
. While
stationed there, Grant went to visit the family of an
old college friend, Fred Dent.
He would make many subsequent trips to the Dent
family farm, known as White Haven, for there he met
and fell in love with Dent’s sister, Julia.
Grant
soon learned that his company was about to be moved to
Louisiana
. Before
leaving for
Louisiana
, he returned to White Haven to see Julia.
He took Julia for a ride in a borrowed
carriage. Coming
to a flooded creek spanned by a flimsy bridge, Grant
assured Julia that it was safe to cross. “Don’t be
frightened,” he said. “I’ll look after you.”
“Well,”
replied Julia, “I
shall cling to you whatever happens.”
True
to her word, she clung tightly to Grant’s arm as
they drove safely across. Grant drove on in thoughtful
silence for a few minutes, then cleared his throat and
said…
“Julia,
you said back there that you would cling to me
whatever happened. Would you like to cling to me for
the rest of our lives?”
She
said “yes”, and they were married in August 1848.
Julia kept “clinging” to her husband until
he died on July 23, 1885.
In
our lives, due to our sins, we are separated from God.
As Isaiah told the people of
Israel
, “Your
iniquities have separated you from your God; And your
sins have hidden His face from you, So that He will
not hear” (Isaiah 59:2).
We find ourselves, as it were, separated from
God by a gulf flooded with our sins, impossible
to CROSS by our own
actions.
But
God loved us so much that He gave His Son Jesus to
come to our rescue (John 3:16).
Jesus died on the CROSS to pay the price of
redemption for our sins (Ephesians 1:7).
Jesus said, “I AM the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except
through Me” (John 14:6).
He invites us to “cling” to Him in trusting
obedience, a-CROSS the
Bridge
of
Reconciliation
(Jesus Himself) to a relationship with God that leads
to eternal life in heaven.
To
“cling” to Jesus, we must: believe
and trust in Him (Acts 16:30-31), put our sins behind
us in repentance
(2 Corinthians 7:9-10), confess
Jesus as the Son of God, the Savior of the World
(Romans 10:9-10), and be baptized
(immersed) in His name for the forgiveness of sins
(Acts 2:38). Then,
if we continue to “cling” to Him in faithful
obedience, He will carry us to heaven one day (1 John
1:7).
Won’t
YOU “cling” to Jesus
in trusting obedience and find safe passage to eternal
life?
David
A. Sargent, Minister
Church
of Christ at Creekwood
1901
Schillinger Rd. S.
Mobile, Alabama 36695
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