ON SOULWINNING..... May 24, 2012

Dad, our mobile Home, VW, and the Church

When I was six or seven years old living in Friendship, Maine I recall a difficult time when my dad received that dreaded phone call that Brother George Beals was lost at sea.  George was one of the strong, faithful men in the church in Friendship.  They found his lobster boat but never found his body.  As a young boy, I recall the deep sadness that gripped our church family and especially the deep sorrow of my dad.  George had three boys that were very close in age to me and were dear friends of mine.  I remember feeling so sad for Timmy, Craig, and Nathan that they had lost their dad.  My dad (Pastor R. J. Roach) would tell how he would awake in the night in the middle of a terrible dream for many nights afterward hearing George’s voice calling out, “Save me! Save me! Please, someone save me!” In the night my dad would get dressed and drive down to the wharf in hopes that he was really hearing George’s voice and that he could rescue him from the icy, cold Atlantic waters.  Even as I sit here weeping as I write, there is a profound longing in my heart as I hear the voices of the unsaved crying out, “Save me! Save me! Please, someone save me!”.........  From that time on, the song, “Throw out the lifeline” took on a whole different meaning for me. It goes like this;  

Throw out the life line across the dark wave; There is a brother whom someone should save; Somebody’s brother! O who then will dare To throw out the life line, his peril to share?

Chorus
Throw out the life line! Throw out the life line! Someone is drifting away;
Throw out the life line! Throw out the life line! Someone is sinking today.

Throw out the life line with hand quick and strong: Why do you tarry, why linger so long? See! he is sinking; oh, hasten today And out with the life boat! away, then away!

Throw out the life line to danger fraught men, Sinking in anguish where you’ve never been; Winds of temptation and billows of woe Will soon hurl them out where the dark waters flow.

Soon will the season of rescue be o’er, Soon will they drift to eternity’s shore; Haste, then, my brother, no time for delay, But throw out the life line and save them today.

This is the life line, oh, tempest tossed men; Baffled by waves of temptation and sin; Wild winds of passion, your strength cannot brave, But Jesus is mighty, and Jesus can save.

Jesus is able! To you who are driven, Farther and farther from God and from Heaven; Helpless and hopeless, o’erwhelmed by the wave; We throw out the life line, ’tis “Jesus can save.”

This is the life line, oh, grasp it today! See, you are recklessly drifting away;
Voices in warning, shout over the wave, O grasp the strong life line, for Jesus can save.

Whose voice do you hear calling today for someone to rescue them from icy, cold waters of sin......?  Is there a friend, or loved one that burdens your heart......?  Go ahead...Throw out the lifeline today!

Proverbs 11:30 says, “The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he that winneth souls is wise.”  Let’s throw out the lifeline!  SRR