October 2, 2024
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It may turn out to be one of the deadliest, most damaging storms we've ever had - Hurricane Helene. You've seen it all over the news, and it really has been hitting me in the heart because I have a lot of friends along that 500-mile path of destruction. Especially in western North Carolina. I've just watched the heartbreaking news on two different levels actually. First, obviously the layers of just physical tragedy. But my heart also sees a picture that vividly clarifies the most important spiritual issues of our times.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have a word with you today about "Helene, Heroes and Heaven."
Well let me tell you what my heart has seen...
First, their world is suddenly very broken.
Bridges are gone, roads are gone, towns are gone, rivers have been totally rerouted, they have no power, many cases they can't communicate. They can't even find out how they're doing, they can't ask for help. You know that's also a picture of our lives and our world today. I mean look at the news - a world on fire today, brutally divided politics, it's dividing relationships, churches in some cases, and families. there's an epidemic of mental health issues. It just seems like so much is broken - and hope is hard to find. And our roads are even broken, we can't get to an answer.
Second, for many people, their only hope is a rescue from above. There's choppers today flying all over western North Carolina because there are people who can be only can be accessed, only rescued, only helped, with help from above.
Well, the Bible would say that's a picture of our spiritual condition. we're lost, we're spiritually endangered. We got a life without lasting love or meaning, and we're facing an unthinkable eternity. Because we're away from our God. Because we've run our lives instead of Him running them. But hope has a name - His name is Jesus and He's a rescuer.
Here's our Word for today from the Word of God from Galatians 1:4 - "The Lord Jesus Christ gave Himself for our sins to rescue us." Rescue us. You say, what about my religion? Religion is like the roads that are broken - they can't get us out of our spiritual predicament. Only the Rescuer from above can. And if He's come for you, man, grab Him while you can.
Thirdly, people are dropping everything because other peoples' lives are at stake. I mean you see it all over western North Carolina and other areas that have been hit. People know that when lives are at stake, you just drop everything else you've been working on, it's not that important right now.
Proverbs 24 commands us to "Rescue those are who being led away to death." That's every person we know who doesn't know our Jesus. It's all hands on deck. Nothing else really matters when people are dying. Only rescue matters. In our broken world, surrounded by broken lives, more than all our other agendas, more than all our distractions, it's rescue that matters!
Finally, people who've never thought of themselves as rescuers are saving lives.
I just heard today through a friend of a friend that a builder and his crew. Went down to western North Carolina to try to help people. In the process they cam across a house that had been totally buried in mud. It totally collapsed. They, with their bare hands dug through the mud and saved six lives. Pulled six people out who probably would have died otherwise. This guy's a builder, he didn't go there to rescue, but where there are dying people you know what you gotta do. You can't wait for the pros to get there. Every believer knows some lost person who needs rescuing. If you're there, you're responsible.
My friend, it's time to move past our fear, and past our excuses, past our distractions. And waiting for somebody else to do it. There's a spiritual disaster happening right in front of us. And the rescue mission is for all of us.