A Sad Anniversary

Today, November 14, 2008, marks a very sad 38th anniversary for Marshall Universary in Huntington WV and for this person too.

On November 14, 1970, a chartered Southern Airways DC9 was carrying the Marshall Universary football team and its coaching staff back home from an away game when it crashed on final approach into the side of the bluff on which the Huntington airport was located. All 75 aboard were instantly killed.

It is a day that all those connected with Marshall Univ in those days will never forget, and neither will I.

You see, only about 2.5 months prior yo that fateful day, I was attending a Labor Day Bible conference in Huntington. The Conference co-ordinators were able to secure some of the dorm facilities at Marshall for that week so that we could be housed there.

The conference sessions were held in the mornings and evenings, leaving the afternoons pretty much free for us to do "whatever."

The "whatever" I chose to do was to walk a few blocks away on campus and watch Marshall's football team clad in their white practice jerseys play some scrimmage games on their practice field.

No more than about 2 1/2 months later, all those young, vibrant, promising men and their coaches were dead!

Did any of them know Christ as personal Savior? Maybe some did, and maybe some of them didn't. I don't know, but every last one of them had a soul that was swept into eternity that day.

Jesus told us that the field is "white unto harvest." Young football players clad in white out on that field, all dead in less than 3 months.

If that image doesn't break your heart, then you need some heart surgery.

My point:

If the Holy Spirit burdens your heart to witness to someone, young or old or whatever, witness to that person as soon as you can. Don't say to yourself, "Well, he/she is young. I think I'll just wait another 2 1/2 or 3 months to show them how they can receive Christ as Savior. After all, nothing that important is going to happen to them in just that short period of time!"

 

Sorry it took so long for me to reply, but I've been out of town for some time and wasn't able to read my emails until 11/17

Yes I did recall that someone missed that plane but I'd forgetten the details until an alumnus of TTU (Paul Wrenn [former world champion power lifter and still an evangelist]) reminded me of that fact.

We joke about the line that the first thing I do in the morning is to read to paper's obituraries and if my name isn't listed there, then I'm OK for another day. That actually happened to Ed Carter!

That was God's "Wake Up Call" for him!

The last I heard of him was that he was serving either as a youth pastor or an evangelist somewhere.

I'm sure he's probably asked himself many times whether his running from the Lord contributed to the other 74 peoples' deaths.

I don't know if such was really the case for Ed, but maybe it was.

It's a sobering thought however.

I'm sure most of us has heard the line that our sin and rebellion will impact more people than just ourselves.

I wonder how many people I may have negatively affected for Christ.

Yes, I know that God can and does overrule our lack of obedience and still work on people's hearts and lives, And I certainly hope that would have been the case for those for whom I was a stumbling block rather than a stepping stone.

Many years ago I read about this perspective of I Peter 3:15 ("But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be reasy always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:").

It wasn't until I looked at the previous 14 verses did I understand the REAL context of verse 15. What are these verses talking about?

Well verses 1 - 6 talk about the relationship of the wife to the husband. Verse 7 talks about about the responsibility of the husband to the wife.
But what do you really suppose verses 8-14 are primarily addressed to?

Well, the husband and wife form the basis of a..............that's right THE FAMILY!!!

Do you think it's at all possible that verses 8 - 14 were primarily addressed to THE FAMILY unit?

You see, who's going to be the first people outside the family unit that most of us will rub shoulders with on a day-to-day basis?

Could it be our neighbors or those that we see almost every day (our boss, our fellow workers, etc.)?

When was the last time any of them came up to you and asked you "a reason of the hope that is in you"?

If it's been a while--or if that's never happened at all--do you think it's possible that they've never seen any outward manifestations of "the hope that is in you"?

Sad to say, that's been the case with me for most all of my Christian life!

And whose fault is that? If "greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world," is true, then it's not "He that is in me's" fault.

So who does that leave, then?

O God, forgive me for the ones I've discouraged from coming to Jesus because of my poor testimony! Have mercy on me for being such stumbling block rather than a stepping stone to their only hope of eternal salvation! I don't deserve Your grace. I don't derserve Your goodness, I don't deserve Your faithfulness to me.

All I can do is to claim the promise of I John 1:9, so that's what I'm going to do.