Tuesday, August 16, 2011
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Sometimes if you're a commercial flyer, it's probably best if you don't watch the news. There was that whole string of plane incidents that where suddenly one had a hole in the roof, and then they found cracks in other planes like it after that. Oh yeah, and then there was the plane with the bullet hole in it. Yeah, that was right about that time.
And then there was the flight where the cockpit began to fill with smoke, followed by a shutdown of the plane's electrical systems; systems that power the critical systems of the plane. That's an Uh-oh! On the news they played the cockpit recording of a pilot radioing the emergency to the tower, and he sounded amazingly calm and unafraid. And you know what? He brought everyone in safely. I couldn't help but notice his description of the people he was carrying. He told the flight controller that "we have 106 souls on board." Not passengers—souls.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Smoke In the Cockpit, Souls In the Cabin."
I first heard that perspective when our family was flying across Alaska with a missionary pilot. And as we sat on the runway, waiting to be cleared for takeoff, he said, "Six souls aboard." See, we weren't passengers, we were souls.
You know, after all is said and done, a "soul" is what we are. It's wrapped in this "earth suit" that we need for our relatively brief journey on this planet. You know, remember the astronauts saying they have a "moon suit"? They didn't need it all the time; they needed it for a short time to survive in an environment that required it, but it was temporary. The real person? The real person's inside our "earth suit." Even after you take off that suit, the real you is still there.
We spend so much time buffing, and beautifying, and gratifying our earth suit. And, too often, we neglect the real person inside—our soul. The Bible's Creation account actually says, "The Lord God formed the man...and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living soul" (Genesis 1:7). And Jesus revealed how much one soul is worth when He asked that haunting question in our word for today from the word of God, from Mark 8:36 - "What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his soul?" Yeah, you can cruise for a little while and be lost for all eternity, because you neglect the one part of you that will be around forever and that is your soul.
I'm looking through God's glasses when I look at the people around me and I see souls. Not just neighbors, or coworkers, or teammates, or family members, or customers, or friends. I want to look past the superficial "packaging" and see who they really are. They are ever-living, never-dying souls; people who are future inhabitants of eternity in a place God calls heaven or a place God calls hell.
And we have nothing more important to do with these few earth-years than to prepare for eternity; to make sure our soul is right with God. In fact, it's not. The Bible delivers the bad news that "the soul who sins is the one who will die" (Ezekiel 18:5). That's "die" as in being separated from God forever. And the problem is again as the Bible says, "all have sinned and fallen short of God's glory" (Romans 3:23). Even us religious folks, our soul is headed for an unthinkable future.
But God gave us good news that's "gooder" than the bad news. Speaking of Jesus, He says, "Everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins through His name" (Acts 10:43). Jesus did the dying for my sinning. So at the moment I, or you, put all our trust in Him, our soul is, in God's words, "saved." The alternative? That's what Jesus said, "losing my soul."
Tell Him today, "Jesus, I'm Yours." And go visit our website. You'll find so much helpful information about getting started with Him there. It's YoursForLife.net.
See, when you've turned the controls of your life over to Jesus, you're flying with the Pilot who will always bring you in safely. When Jesus counts the souls on board, oh I hope you'll be with Him.