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Made
Fast
Ferocious
winds were tearing through rigging and masts in
deafening roar. Seawater
and wind became one as tops of crests were torn from
the sea. “The
water in the hold flowed into the cockpit
notwithstanding the great efforts of the chain
pumps,” wrote Lieutenant Dale.
“The seas were mountains high,” Midshipman
Fanning recorded in his journal.
The
Ariel herself was moaning and groaning
with strain of timbers grinding against one another,
not able to right herself properly under grave threat
of broaching. The
mainmast tore from the seat below deck and became a
battering ram until the deck plate gave and both main
and mizzen masts were ripped into the sea.
No
less a concern were the perilous Penmarchs, a jagged
submerged reef a few miles astern, and notorious
graveyard for sailing ships.
Even the saltiest of sailors were afraid, and
the travelling landsmen, mostly French soldiers aboard
for passage, were utterly terrified and began
exchanging farewells.
Men began abandoning posts in abject
desperation.
But
amid the frantic chaos stood a man whom Samuel Wharton
would later describe
to Benjamin Franklin as one holding “matchless
skill, cool, and unshaken intrepidity”.
He was at the helm, appointed so by Continental
Congress with orders signed by John Hancock on October
10, 1770. His
name: Captain John Paul Jones.
Captain
Jones realized that even amidst the utter chaos lay
hope for the Ariel
and her crew. For
below his ship was rock, so strong and immovable, that
even the dreadful gnashing seas were powerless against
it. He
gave orders to proceed with lowering the lone anchor,
an action which in itself was perilous and took great
effort. But
the anchor caught solidly and the connecting rode held
together against the violence.
With nothing else in the world to grasp, the Ariel and her men were saved from certain destruction by making fast
to the Rock.
Storms
will also blow into OUR lives simply because we live
in a fallen world.
Yet we do not have to despair because there is
a Rock to which we can anchor our lives securely:
Jesus Christ, God’s Son.
Listen to Him:
“Therefore
whoever HEARS
these sayings of Mine, and DOES them, I will liken him
to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the
rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew
and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it
was founded on the rock” (Matthew 7:24-25).
When
we “anchor” our lives in Christ by hearing and
obeying His Word, He has promised to save us.
He will save those who place their faith
and trust in Him (Acts 16:30-31), turn from their sins
in repentance
(Acts 17:30-31), confess
Him before men (Romans 10:9-10), and are baptized
(immersed) in His name for the forgiveness of sins
(Acts 2:38). He
has also promised to keep safe those who continue to
abide in His Word (John 8:31; 1 John 1:7).
Won’t
YOU anchor your life to
“The Rock" so that you may be saved eternally?
--
Terry
Livingston & David
A. Sargent
Church
of Christ at Creekwood
1901
Schillinger Rd. S.
Mobile, Alabama 36695
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