“Got one!” exclaimed a fisherman on the pier as the taut line bent his fishing rod. The vapor from his breath quickly turned to frost in the cold winter air.
Coho salmon are big fish and fight to the finish, so the fisherman was grateful when a man farther up the pier picked up his long-handled fishing net. The man carefully picked his way down the pier, avoiding the “Thanks,” the fisherman said as he carefully put the fish on his stringer.
“Nice coho ya got there.”
The fisherman’s second rod suddenly twitched and jerked as another fish tugged on that hook.
“Wait a minute... got another one.... Will you get this one for me, too?”
“Sure.”
slippery patches of ice. In the early-morning darkness he strained to see the slippery spots. The sun wouldn’t be up for another hour yet.
The man placed his net in the water underneath the tired fish and scooped it out. The fish frantically flopped around in the net. Its wet body glistened in the light from a street lamp at the end of the pier.
This one was reeled in and netted like the first.
“Be careful on the ice,” the man with the net said before he left to return to his own spot.
“Yeah,” the other man grunted in reply.
The waves were continually crashing against the pier. They would hit with a big splash and roll back into the next incoming wave. The spray was whipped by the wind and covered everything.
The man with the net suddenly heard a yell followed by a splash! He looked back at the fisherman he had just helped. He wasn’t there! The man quickly walked back, watching for the slippery patches. The last couple of feet to the icy edge of the pier he crawled on his belly.
Ten feet below he saw the fisherman struggling in the waves. Fishing line was tangled around his neck and arms. A big wave washed over the fisherman; he disappeared beneath the surface. He reappeared, and the man on the pier quickly lowered a net to him.
“Hang on to this!” he shouted.
The handle of the net was made out of broomstick. Under the pressure of the man’s weight going up and down in the thrashing waves, the handle began to crack. The fisherman couldn’t last long in that black, icy water if that handle broke.
Life without the Lord Jesus is cold and dark too. It’s cold and dark because He alone is the “Sun of Righteousness” who can bring the warmth of His love and light into our souls. If you have looked for love and never found it, you understand that cold, empty feeling inside. An empty heart has a coldness just as cruel as falling into icy water. Our human hearts long for love. God has made our hearts so that only His love can fully satisfy them; nothing else even comes close. If you want to feel and know God’s love you must come to Jesus, His Son. On Calvary’s cross He proved how much He loves us. “Christ also hath loved us, and hath given Himself for us.” Ephesians 5:22And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savor. (Ephesians 5:2). “Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love.” Jeremiah 31:33The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee. (Jeremiah 31:3). “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son.” John 3:1616For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16).
God’s love is a love which can fill your heart completely. Haven’t you been tossed and driven along on life’s sea long enough without it? Christ is the Saviour of sinners! If you want this love which is beyond understanding, bow your knees before Him and receive Him as your Saviour.
The other men on the pier quickly gathered around the man holding the net. “I have a piece of rope in my tacklebox; somebody get it,” the man ordered. “Now tie a loop at the end and hand it to me.”
Lowering the loop to the fisherman in the water, he told him, “Put your arm through the loop.”
A police car with sirens wailing suddenly pulled up to the pier. A fire engine was right behind the police car, and a helicopter was soon above them. The firemen in their long black rubber coats studied the situation. One of them hurried back to the truck and lifted off a long aluminum extension ladder. He carried it down the pier.
“We’ll lift the man out of the water like he is sitting on a seesaw,” one of the firemen explained to the small crowd of fishermen watching.
The firemen extended the ladder and slid it into the water underneath the fisherman. Then three of the firemen threw their weight on their end of the ladder, and the fisherman at the other end was lifted right out of the water. They pulled him to the pier and rushed him to the hospital.
“Yeah,” he said later on, “I thought I was going to slip from the grasp of the fellow holding the net.... I thought I was going to die. That man saved my life.”
The fisherman had a close call. Now here’s a question for you to answer: When do you think that man’s life was saved? When the net was lowered to him? When the fire engine came? When the helicopter flew overhead? No, none of these is right. The man’s life was saved when he was pulled out of the water and all danger of his perishing was past.
1 Timothy 1:1515This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. (1 Timothy 1:15) reads, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” Here’s another question for you to answer: When is a sinner saved? When he hears the gospel message? When someone prays for him? When he realizes he is a sinner? No, none of these is right. They are all important, but not one by itself brings salvation. A sinner is saved the moment he puts his trust in Christ. As soon as a person believes that the Lord Jesus died for his sins, all danger of perishing is forever over. “My sheep hear My voice... and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish.” John 10:27,2827My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: 28And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. (John 10:27‑28). The Lord Jesus will never let a believer slip from His grasp. Once we trust Christ, the salvation of our souls doesn’t depend on our holding onto Him, but on His holding onto us, and thank God He will never let us go!
Can anything ever loosen His hold on us once we believe? Never! Read what the Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 8:3838For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, (Romans 8:38) and 39: “For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Wouldn’t you like to be saved from all your sins and be freed from the danger of perishing, forever? Wouldn’t you like to know the love of God which is so great that it is beyond understanding? This can all be yours if you will come to Christ Jesus and by faith accept Him as your Saviour.
ML-05/21/1989