"Everybody was happy and jolly. They were all excited to go fishing. The trip began so normal," said Jeff Folknere, the owner of the Garibaldi Marina on Oregons Pacific Coast. Earlier in the morning, he had sat in his office sipping coffee and watched as the thirty-two foot charter boat named Taki Too had motored out of the harbor.

The Taki Too was a ruggedly built, no frills boat. It had a small cabin that accommodate just a few people at a time. Most of the seventeen passengers sat on benches in the open air. Captain Davis had many years experience, so he knew where to find fish as well as any other charter boat captain on the coast.

The boat sailed out of the harbor and into the wide expanse of Tillamook Bay. Two large rivers flow down from the Cascade Mountains and empty into the east side of Tillamook Bay. All this water finds its way to the ocean through the mouth of Tillamook Bay. As this water heads out to sea, it beats against the incoming waves and currents of the Pacific Ocean, producing treacherous currents and chaotic waves.

Some of the passengers, when they saw the frothy high waves kicked up by the wind and conflicting currents, decided to put on life jackets. Others looked past the turbulent water at the entrance of the harbor and saw the long, regular succession of the ocean's rolling waves on the blue Pacific. These passengers decided they would wait until after they had passed over the sand bar at the entrance of the bay and into calmer water.

As the boat crossed the sand bar, a large wave slammed against the Taki Too, and instantly it flipped over. It happened so fast that no one on board had time to react and jump clear. They were plunged into the frigid water beneath the overturned boat and had to fight a life and death struggle to swim from beneath the boat.

Once they surfaced they had to battle the waves that seemed to batter them from every direction. A few brave people on shore who saw the disaster waded through the pounding surf and swam out to help. When it was all over, only eight of the nineteen people on board made it to safety. The rest perished in the ordeal. Only the passengers with life jackets survived.

Can you look ahead to the time when you too will have to make the dangerous crossing? The crossing I am referring to is the passage from time to eternity known as death. Each one of us will have to make it. Not one can escape it. Just like those passengers on the Taki Too who donned life jackets and made it to safety, only those who have Gods salvation through faith in Christ will make it to the calm and bliss of heaven. All others will be lost without any hope of being saved. Those who are lost will find out how awful a mistake it was to neglect the salvation of their souls.

Why do you need to come to faith in Christ? Because he is the only Savior for sinners this poor world will ever know. About two thousand years ago he died on a cross and made an atonement or covering for sin. His death is the only sacrifice God will ever accept for sin.

He was not only a very special man like the Muslims say but he was also the one and only Son of God. "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son" Son."(Jn3.16) When he claimed to be the Son of God he was in fact claiming equality with God. His claim was substantiated by the miracles he performed, such as walking on water, calming a raging storm with the command "Peace be still" (Mark 4.39), the miraculous feeding of thousands with a few loaves of bread, healing multitudes of sick folk as well as countless other miracles. These miracles substantiate his claim to be the Son of God. Muhammad never cleansed a leper, Buddha never miraculously fed thousands, and Confucius never gave sight to a man who was born blind. The Lord Jesus Christ has done all these things. But most of all his claim to be the Son of God is proved beyond all shadow of doubt by his resurrection from the dead.