All Who Sailed With Him Were Saved.
My father was very ill, bed ridden, in pain and dying. Family and
relatives were around that day helping and doing chores when my father
started crying out for our salvation. With a hint of desperation and a
weak voice he was trying to tell us about Jesus and the route he offered
to salvation.
Let me step back a minute and describe something about my father. My
father who was proud of his U.S. Navy service was a Christian, the
priority in his life. He always put others above any conflict or
difficulty. He attended church every Sunday, volunteered, and always
prayed for members when he knew. He also dragged us kids to Sunday school
every week and stayed with us through our rebellious years.
So when my father was lamenting in his pain about our salvation I sat
down in the chair next to him and read the chapter I had read from the
Bible that morning, Acts 27. It didn't occur to me when I read it then,
but when I read it to my father a new meaning struck.
As you may remember in Acts 27, Paul, is shipwrecked. The 276 sailor
with him are so terrified that they won't eat. To reassure them Paul
tells them about how an Angel of the Lord had appeared to him saying [Acts
27:24] "Don't be afraid, Paul . . . God in his goodness to you has spared
the lives of all those who are sailing with you."
Suddenly as I read this at my fathers bed side, I had to fight back
tears. The revelation hit me; my father's stress, in his dieing hours,
that he needed to do more to more to tell us about Jesus, his experience
in the Navy and this was the passage I was randomely reading to him that
day. My father seemed to calm down also as we heard it. "All those who
have sailed with you have been saved, Dad," I said paraphrasing the
verse. I read it again: "God in his goodness to you has spared the lives
of all those who are sailing with you." I paraphrased again: "All those
who have sailed with you are saved Dad. Thank you."
All the family members within hearing distance seemed to sense the
change in my father, as he seemed to relax. He knew, I think, at that
moment, that he had done all that was asked of him. We were blessed as
the Holy Spirit gave us this moment and reassured my father in his dying
days.
