Suddenly, from somewhere out of the vast expanse of ocean, a school of dolphins came darting around it. They began thrashing about the shark. They darted in the beast's face. They swam over it and under it and around it and behind it. The shark became so distracted by the dolphins that it forgot about Adam. Adam found his broken board, pulled himself up on what was left of it, and paddled to safety while the dolphins kept the shark occupied. He required extensive surgery for the bite in his side, but he lived to tell the tale.

On a beautiful day, while doing something he loved, Adam McGuire came within a hair's breadth of losing his life. If it had not been for the timely help of his unusual rescuers, he would have been torn to pieces by the shark.

Life may be beautiful to you, and you may be doing exactly what you like doing and enjoying it very much. However, if you are living your life without a personal relationship with Christ as Lord and Saviour, no matter how beautiful and lovely your situation appears, beneath the surface there is trouble - even terror - ahead. You may not see it, and you may not recognize it, and you may not expect it; nonetheless it is there and it is coming your way.

You and I, and all other people with us, have sinned against God who is perfectly just and holy.  God will not overlook our sins.  Too often we like to choose our own way and never choose God's way; this makes us a rebel in the eyes of our Creator. And because we are rebels, there is certain trouble ahead.

You may never have thought of yourself as a rebel before God, but it is true. Read what God says about us all: "There is none righteous, no, not one: there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable . . . . 

Destruction and misery are in their ways: and the way of peace have they not known: there is no fear of God before their eyes."

This is God's estimate of the entire human race, His estimate of the rich - the poor - the educated -the ignorant - ALL. You may have prosperity, health, everything you desire, and because of your comfortable circumstances find it hard to believe that God could possibly be displeased with you. But these verses are as true of you as of the derelict in the gutter. "There is no difference: for all have sinned."

Because of sin, death, that event dreaded above all others, has entered the world. Death in all its unpredictable and varied forms, whether it be by shark attack or heart attack, is in the world because of sin. And after death comes the judgment. "It is appointed unto men once to die, and after this the judgment."

God in grace has made a way that man can be delivered from death and judgment: "The Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world." "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." The gospel tells us what God has done in a day of grace so that we might not have to meet Him in the judgment.

You may never have even considered looking to Christ to save your soul, but it is the only way to be delivered from the power and consequences of sin. If you would escape from death and the judgment to come, you must come to Christ. "There is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." —By B.P.

End