Our Lighthouse:
Like a boat on the ocean, your life has a course. Stop for a moment and reflect upon the course of your life…
Consider the circumstances of your birth, your parents, your infancy, your childhood, the friends you’ve had, the neighborhood you grew up in, your struggles and adversity, your battles – some ending in great loss and others in triumph, seasons of great sorrow, and the seasons of great joy. The path of your life is truly a course.
Looking back upon that course do you feel like you’ve always been in control? Has everything always turned out exactly the way you wanted? Do you, like Morgan Freeman’s character in the movie “Invictus,” truly believe “I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul?”
Looking back upon that course do you feel like you’ve always been in control? Has everything always turned out exactly the way you wanted? Do you, like Morgan Freeman’s character in the movie “Invictus,” truly believe “I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul?”
Psalm 31:15 states, “The course of my life is in Your power,” and Proverbs 16:9 reads, “In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps.”
So the question remains: Are we the masters of our own fates and the captains of our own souls?
God certainly created us with the ability to choose. Adam & Eve stood before the Tree of Life and the Tree of The Knowledge of Good & Evil and made a choice. That ill-fated choice resulted in a universal death sentence for humanity (i.e. separation from God) and the consequences of lingering curses; enmity, conflict, pain, tension, stress, and worry.
East of Eden we are left with seemingly infinite number of choices – all of which we are “free” to make as the masters and captains of our own fates & souls, and all – yes ALL – of OUR choices lead us to the inevitable shipwreck of eternal destruction because as Scripture tells us, “… everything that does not come from faith is sin.”
East of Eden we are left with seemingly infinite number of choices – all of which we are “free” to make as the masters and captains of our own fates & souls, and all – yes ALL – of OUR choices lead us to the inevitable shipwreck of eternal destruction because as Scripture tells us, “… everything that does not come from faith is sin.”
There is only one choice to the contrary.
The Psalmist did NOT write, “The course of my life is in MY power,” but in stark contrast wrote, “The course of my life is in Your power.” Ephesians 2:8-9 tells us, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.”
Salvation comes as a gift from God – not as a result of our decision making skills, otherwise those who choose God would have something to “boast” about. As Romans 3:11 tells us “there is no one who seeks God.” This all-inclusive statement lets us know that choosing God isn’t our decision because we never even considered looking for Him on our own! Psalm 53 reads, “Everyone has turned away, all have become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one.”
We are all too busy being the masters of our fates and the captains of our souls to be interested in God. We have a greater chance of reaching the moon in an inner-tube than we do of choosing Christ apart from the gift of faith that comes FROM God.
Salvation comes as a gift from God – not as a result of our decision making skills, otherwise those who choose God would have something to “boast” about. As Romans 3:11 tells us “there is no one who seeks God.” This all-inclusive statement lets us know that choosing God isn’t our decision because we never even considered looking for Him on our own! Psalm 53 reads, “Everyone has turned away, all have become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one.”
We are all too busy being the masters of our fates and the captains of our souls to be interested in God. We have a greater chance of reaching the moon in an inner-tube than we do of choosing Christ apart from the gift of faith that comes FROM God.
“The course of my life is in Your power.”
You see amidst this perpetual sea of sin, populated with countless captains - masters of their own fates & souls, there is a nearly imperceptible Lighthouse in the distance. The Light only becomes evident in the darkest of nights or in the worst of storms… only at those times when – through the God-ordained circumstances of our lives – we feel hopelessly lost and realize we are adrift in an endless sea of futility and despair.
Through those God-ordained circumstances we can either recognize we have no means of reaching the Lighthouse and our situation is utter hopelessness or we can embrace the pride of independence and weather the storm of our own tenacity and fortitude.
Through those God-ordained circumstances we can either recognize we have no means of reaching the Lighthouse and our situation is utter hopelessness or we can embrace the pride of independence and weather the storm of our own tenacity and fortitude.
We cannot choose God on our own, but we can recognize, as we stand before the two trees – one of life and one of death - and admit we have chosen wrongly. We can admit that as the “captain of my soul” I have doomed myself and need the eternal and true Master and Captain of my fate and soul, i.e. God, to take over.
Our eternal God Almighty included in Scripture, “The Lamb who was slain from the foundation of the cosmos” (Rev 13:8). God’s lovingkindness and grace proceed from His holy and perfect character, and they certainly precede any recognition or decision on our part.
Our recognition precedes repentance, and repentance precedes God’s gift of faith - Just as John preceded Christ.
Recognition and repentance are not works that earn/merit God’s favor, but rather prerequisites, which allow the gift of God to be fully received. Christ created us, He chose us, He is the power behind the course of our lives, and He is our Lighthouse so that we can recognize, repent, and receive the free gifts of faith and eternal life in Him.
Jesus is the Lighthouse to our souls.
Recognition and repentance are not works that earn/merit God’s favor, but rather prerequisites, which allow the gift of God to be fully received. Christ created us, He chose us, He is the power behind the course of our lives, and He is our Lighthouse so that we can recognize, repent, and receive the free gifts of faith and eternal life in Him.
Jesus is the Lighthouse to our souls.
Blessings,
-Kevin M. Kelley
aMostUnlikelyDisciple.com
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