Beam Me Up, Jesus!

“How trivial our troubles and trials will seem when we look back upon them! Looking at them here in the prospect, they seem immense; but when we get to heaven we shall view everything from a new perspective. Our trials will then seem light and momentary afflictions.” – C.H. Spurgeon

I well remember watching the original film version of The Poseidon Adventure in 1972. It was the first of a series of “disaster movies” that included Earthquake and The Towering Inferno.

The Poseidon Adventure featured an all-star cast including (in alphabetical order) Jack Albertson, Ernest Borgnine, Red Buttons, Carol Lynley, Pamela Sue Martin, Roddy McDowell, Leslie Neilsen, Stella Stevens, and Shelly Winters. However, top billing went to Gene Hackman, who portrayed an irreverent minister named Frank Scott who is traveling aboard the ship to a new parish in Africa as punishment for his unorthodox views.

When the ship capsizes as a result of a giant tsunami, Hackman’s character leads a small band of survivors to the bottom of the ship, which is now the top. Along the way, a few of them die, but there is one last hurdle to cross and that is a large valve that is emitting scolding steam. In an act of selfless courage, Rev. Scott leaps onto the valve and uses every ounce of his strength to close it before falling to his death. He simply couldn’t hang on any longer.

My friend, I don’t know what trials you may be facing today but I imagine that at some point in your life you felt like you couldn’t hang on for one more minute. Like you, I’ve “been there, done that, and have the t-shirt to show for it.”

But guess what? By God’s grace, we both made it. That means that we are survivors, and God isn’t done with us yet.

And so, the next time that Satan throws yet another fiery dart in your direction, please remember that – with God’s help – you beat him before and you’ll beat him again. Just hang in there a little longer, because the cavalry is coming in the form of the Lord Jesus Christ. Best of all, one day in the not-too-distant future, He will “beam us up” to heaven just like an episode of Star Trek. It could be the Rapture or it could be the day He calls you and me home, but either way we will be in His presence forevermore.

“Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.” I Thessalonians 4:17-18 (ESV)

- Rev. Dale M. Glading, President