The adversary satan subtly comes as a thief to steal, to kill and to destroy but Jesus comes to save and offers us eternal life with Him, writes Bishop Tutai Pere of the Apostolic Church.

“The thief cometh not, but to steal, to kill and to destroy: but I Am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” – John 10: 10.

A Facebook comment somehow and somewhat caught my attention. The comments included a dad reminiscing on how once upon a time he and his son sailed a cruise ship named ‘MS World Discoverer’ from Atiu to Palmerston to Samoa where they both got off. On that same trip, this German cruise ship journeyed on and struck a large uncharted rock or reef in the Sandfly Passage, in the Solomon Islands on 30 April 2000 and has remained in Roderick Bay ever since.

The ship was originally built and designed in Germany in 1974. The vessel had a double hull construction, allowing for periodic voyages to the Antarctic polar regions to allow its passengers to observe ice floe movements and providing protection for minor impacts but sadly and unfortunately met its doom 26 years later. What an awesome historic life-story, interesting and memorable added to their Memory Lane so to speak, two Maukean/Manihikian dad Emile and son Halley Kairua. It reminded me how in the earlier month of January 2000, I took my wife and five children for an 18 days round trip of the northern group islands of Suwarrow, Manihiki-Rakahanga, Pukapuka-Nassau and Penrhyn aboard the MV Maungaroa, which later ran aground on a reef few metres away from the entry into Avatiu Harbour on 4 June 2008. Interestingly also, while on Nassau we saw one ‘MV Manuvai’ which was eventually wrecked in a storm in 1988, deposited on land some 100-200 yards from the reef.

The moral of this whole story is a constant reminder that material and earthly possessions can be replaced and often better, look at what modern technology of today has brought us to? But human life and souls cannot, once lost, its dead, gone and only the memory remains. The words of Jesus alone give us hope that, “Unless a man/woman be born again, he/she cannot see the kingdom of God; and unless a man/woman be born of the water and of the Holy Spirit he/she cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” – (John 3:3 & 5). The Apostle Peter on Pentecost Sunday, the very Birthday of Christianity, under the anointing and unction of the Holy Spirit of God reiterates, “Repent, and be baptised everyone of you in the Name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.” (Acts 2:38 & 39). That assures us eternity only in Christ Jesus forever. As we look back to many of our shipwrecks in life yet survived, had it not been for our beloved Saviour Jesus Christ, who chose to be shipwrecked upon his own Cross of Crucifixion on Calvary Hill, to die as a ransom for all of humanity’s sins 2022 years ago, where would we be – if we had not chosen to be on ‘Jesus’s Salvation Cruise’.

Many die at infancy, a teenager, midlife, old age, aborted, instant, natural, accidental, suicidal, deliberate, ignorant, disobedient, rebellious, unruly, hard-headed, stiff-necked, prideful, Christless and Godless. Like the RMS Titanic, which sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on 15 April 1912, taking with her 1500 of the 2240 passengers and crews on board and all other air, sea, land, underwater, in fire, physical, mental, emotional, psychological, financial, political, religious, cultural, customary, superstitious, mere humanistic and egotistical unrepentant and un-Jesus-like shipwrecks all doomed in death, decay and unsalvageable forever. A sigh of relief, a breath of fresh air, total and absolute hope beyond hopelessness, death and the grave is found and assured only in the One who alone is the Resurrection and the Life, the Lord Jesus Christ (John 11: 25 and 26), without whose pure and innocent blood shed on Calvary’s Cross, no sin is remitted, as he alone is Righteous, the pure Lamb of God, Holy and untouched by sin – the image of the Invisible God. Warning: As the opening text above states: The adversary satan subtly comes as a thief, to steal, to kill and to destroy but Jesus comes to save and offers us eternal life with Him.

What a story these two Kukis have shared of their journey not to shipwreck on that boat but escaped for a better cruise only by the saving Grace and Mercy of Jesus Christ. Finally, Hebrews 3: 7 and 8 instructs, “Wherefore, as the Holy Ghost saith, today (not tomorrow nor later but now), if you hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness”. Let us all rise up from all our life’s on-course to a major shipwreck or disaster in sin, take on a new Salvation Cruise in Jesus to glory. Let us throw many more lifelines, rescue and reclaim some more wayward and hell-bent lives to safety in Jesus. Have a safe, blessed and blood-covered weekend in Jesus, Amen!