Day 17

My friend and I are going through a 39 day devotional by David Nasser called A Call To Grace. It's an excellent devotional - for many reasons. I "get something" out of each devotion. However, Day 17 was really good. So here it is (& hopefully I'm not breaking some law or something by doing this):


Parachute

In Ray Comfort's book, Hell's Best Kept Secret, Ray uses an illustration that I want to loosely share with you because it makes a great and very clear point. I believe the story goes something like this...

A man was sitting on an airplane. Unknown to the passengers, a terrorist hijacks the plane and it is about to crash. Halfway into the trip while high up in the sky, the flight attendant walks over to the man with a parachute in her hand. She asks him to put it on immediately. "Why should I put the parachute on?" asks the man.

"Because it will help make your trip more enjoyable," the flight attendant replies. "Plus others are putting it on, and you don't want to be one of the only people that doesn't have one on. Also, you never know what might happen during the flight, and if the plane goes down, it will come in hand."

So there the man sits trying to find a comfortable position in his seat, all the while wearing this parachute strapped tightly to his back. He sees other passengers who are not wearing their parachutes. They seem to be enjoying the flight, easily finding comfortable positions in their seats, even taking naps, while the man feels foolish with his on. In fact, some people sitting around him begin to point and giggle, and the woman sitting directly to his right frowns and firmly pushes his parachute off her side of the seat. Other passengers seem to only trust the parachutes they can construct and the gentleman across the aisle is frantically trying to tape together little drink napkins to create his own.

The man begins to think to himself, "The flight attendant lied to me. Not only am I not enjoying this, but there are plenty of people who are not wearing parachutes and they seem to be having a great time. I am sitting here looking like a fool. What are the chances of the flight going down anyway...?"

Picture another scenario:
The same man is on the same plane. The same flight attendant walks over to his seat and offers him a parachute. This time however, when he asks the attendant why he should put it on, her answer is very different. "Our flight has just been hijacked by a terrorist. We are about to crash!!!" At that moment the parachute becomes a welcomed piece of equipment. Suddenly, not only does the man not care that the parachute is uncomfortable, he cares even less about how foolish he looks wearing it. He wonders why other passengers are continuing to refuse parachutes, and he frantically tries to convince them to strap theirs on. The comfort of the passenger takes a back seat to the life and death situation on the plane.

Now let's connect the dots. In this illustration, Satan is the terrorist who hijacks the plane, while the flight attendant is anyone who offers the Gospel to a lost person. Of course the passenger is you, and the parachute is Christ, who is our only hope for salvation. Notice that in the first scenario, the flight attendant fails to give the complete, truthful reason why the parachute must be put on. In order to keep the flight "enjoyable," she is withholding a crucial piece of information - the plan is going to crash. Notice the man was shoved by the woman to his right and laughed at by the other passengers. This represents the persecution and misunderstandings of our convictions bleeding over into another's personal space. Just as the gentleman across the aisle was taping together the drink napkins, often we try to piece together our good works in a pathetic attempt to build our own salvation which will do nothing but take us to our certain death.

The main purpose of this illustration, birthed out of Ray Comfort's book, is to make us understand truth. Without Christ as our salvation, our life is a fatal crash landing. It's not that we put on Christ so that He can make our lives here on earth (the plane ride) easier or more comfortable. In fact, to live in Christ means to look foolish in the eyes of the world. I Corinthians 1:18 reads, "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but for us who are being saved, it is the power of God."

In the plane ride of life, to understand that mankind is headed for certain destruction is to put great value on the parachute. Tragically, many people today reject the parachute for a comfier ride, distracting themselves with the stale peanuts and B-rated movies of life. It might even be that the flight attendant, with misguided intentions, is keeping the truth of the destruction of the plane a secret in order to allow the passengers to enjoy the rest of the ride. However, for the flight attendant to be honest, despite the reaction of the passengers, is for her to be truthful and loving. I pray that we as Christians are not the kind of "flight attendants" who are trying to win a popularity contest on the plane of life.

In all reality, Ephesians 2:1-10, much like Ray's book, is trying to bring honor and glory to the "parachute." Paul does this beautifully by making sure we understand that without Christ we're going to hell. So then when he tells us that together with Christ we are saved, we are ready to embrace the "parachute."

It would be very appropriate at this moment to ask you a simple question: "Are you together with Christ?" Do you have on the parachute of life? Is Jesus Christ your Lord and your Savior? If, under the conviction of the Holy Spirit, you sense Him calling you from eternal death to eternal life, then I say come and embrace Jesus, the Savior. Acknowledge that you're a sinner and that there's nothing you can do on your own to save yourself. Recognize that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, lived the perfect life on earth, yet willingly died a sinner's death on the cross. It was on that cross that He paid the debt for our sin. Abandon all you've done, not just the bad stuff, but even your self-righteous good acts. Bring all of it completely before Jesus and ask for forgiveness and peace. He will change your nature - not just your behavior, but your identity.

"I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I know live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me" Galatians 2:20